Berlin International Film Festival

IFC Midnight Takes US and UK Rights to 'As Luck Would Have It'

Maggie Lange — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:31:33 GMT

IFC Midnight acquired all US and UK rights to director Alex De La Iglesia’s "As Luck Would Have it." The film world premiered at a special screening at this year's Berlin Film Festival. It will premiere in North America in the Spotlight Section at this year's Tribeca Film Festival.

"As Luck Would Have It" stars Jose Mota, Salma Hayek, Blanco Portillo, and Fernando Tejero. It follows Roberto (Jose Mota), an unemployed and broke advertising executive, turned down by every agency he applies to. In an inescapable rut, it takes a terrible and dramatic accident to change his life and mindset. Salma Hayek plays his loving wife, Luisa, in "the film's best performance."

Juliette Binoche Talks 'Elles,' Masturbation & her Upcoming Portrayal of Camille Claudel

Matt Mueller — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:04:00 GMT

If there’s one theme running through Juliette Binoche’s impressive and varied resume, it’s her desire to confound preconceived notions about the predominantly challenging women she portrays. That’s true of her latest film, "Elles" (April 27) in which she plays an investigative journalist and mother juggling domestic routines while toiling on an expose about student prostitutes. As a pair of interviewees open up about experiences that range from pathetic to perverse to dangerous, she ends up questioning her own comfortable Parisian life and marriage. I caught up with the French actress at the Berlin Film Festival:

Matt Mueller: Do you think ‘Elles’ glamourises prostitution in any way?

Juliette Binoche: No, not at all. In the beginning, the girls talk about it in a liberated way. They’re okay with it, it’s their choice, they get pleasure out of it. And then you understand that it’s not as simple as that. It’s the challenge of the film – it doesn’t give you solutions. Magoshka [Szumowska], the director, wanted the spectator to feel some desire, and yet be cut up about the situation. It’s what Haneke does in his films: he puts you in a corner where you feel aggressive and asks you to think about why.

MM: Are there similarities between the two directors?

JB: In a way there’s some connection. But Magoshka has a strength and wildness like Cassavetes. She likes the confrontations of the characters. Haneke has more distance.

MM: You have a lot more filmmaking experience than her. Did you feel like you had to step in and be more involved?
No, my experience has nothing to do with creation, I don’t think, even though maturity is helpful. In a creation process, there’s an intuition that takes you and if it’s nourished with awareness and experience, it’s great. But a director could be 20 years old and an actor 60, or vice versa; it doesn’t matter. It’s about connecting sensibility and energy together, and having a vision that goes together and anchors the film as you go along.

MM: Your character takes a cerebral approach to the subject in the beginning and then becomes deeply involved emotionally…

JB: It was interesting for me to play that because Magoshka and the DP wanted to film me in a different way than I’ve been filmed in the past. Seeing me as a wreck, like I’d been working the whole night and am tired and fed up with myself. It’s challenging as an actor to let go but I had some pleasure out of it too. To not have the effort of having to present myself is quite liberating.

MM: Can we talk about your masturbation scene? It was reminiscent of a scene in Ingmar Bergman’s "The Silence"…

JB: I didn’t know there was a masturbation scene in a Bergman film! I love Bergman, he’s my hero. There are jump cuts in our scene, which makes people think that I did it for real! When it came to the day of shooting it, Magoshka wanted to go somewhere else and watch on the monitor and let me do whatever I wanted to do. I said, “No way, you stay with me and you tell me all the stages you want. You wrote it so you face it, as I have to face it myself.” I had it in my mind that it should be like a painting, with expressions of birth and agony.

MM: You’re about to play Camille Claudel for Bruno Dumont, focusing on her years in a mental hospital. Are you emotionally prepared?

JB: We’re going to use only her letters so it will be all her words. It’s so extreme as a situation and she’s a real creator so how come she stopped creating? It’s a very painful situation to explore so I feel like it’s the most difficult part I will have to play. All the layers are so deep. I don’t know if it’s frightening but the responsibility is big.

MM: What happens when you butt heads with a director? Does it happen very often?

JB: I’m very patient and always willing to try things but I have some resistance as well because I have my own vision. I have resistance sometimes because I see a director who’s freaking out and wants to have control and they sometimes anticipate about what I’m going to be doing or not. I hate that because, for me, real, truthful moments come from a place that I don’t know. If somebody was telling me, “You’re going to lift your face like this, you’re going to do this…” No! I don’t want to know. Just let me live it.

MM: Does that mean David Fincher would be your nightmare collaborator?

J.B.: You say that but Haneke is very precise and I’ve made two films with him. And the first time, I didn’t feel that at all. I was fascinated to see how much he knew about acting. The second time with Hidden, I felt he didn’t know anything! He was controlling and I didn’t like it at all. But he’s very precise and I love that about him because he has intelligence. He loves actors. He knows it’s hard, he has some compassion.

MM: Do you think roles of this complexity are only found now in European films, at least when it comes to older actresses?

JB: I think Meryl Streep is surviving quite well… For me, it’s just where I am. I chose to stay in Europe and work with a lot of foreign directors. It was my choice. I could have moved to America but I didn’t because this is my path. I like independence, I like creating my own world, not being in a system. There are more possibilities, I think.

MM: So when you do work in America, for instance on Dan In Real Life, what draws you over?

JB: It’s like a wink. It’s like, “Hi! Remember me?”

MM: Do you think other actors envy all these fruitful encounters you’re able to have with filmmakers from around the world?

JB: Edgar Ramirez said to me he’d like to have this kind of freedom. Even Clooney said something like that to me. George Clooney is trying his own way but he’s struggling too because he has to deal with America. Yet, if he has a foot in Europe, it’s not for nothing.

MM: Do you have plans in motion to work with any of your prior directors, for instance Haneke?

JB: Not really. Haneke is finishing his film now, and I only do two films a year… ‘Elles’, I did a year and a half ago. ‘La Vie D’Une Autre’, I did last year with Sylvie Testud. I did ‘Cosmopolis’ with Cronenberg last year although I only worked three days on that. I did a play at the Avignon Festival, and then I did ‘A Monkey On My Shoulder’ with Marion Laine and Edgar Ramirez in October and November.

Hemel at New Directors/New Films Festival

SydneyLevine — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 05:23:00 GMT

Media Luna's FIPRESCI awarded HEMEL, whose world premiere was at this year's Berlin Film Festival, just had the North American premiere at the New Directors/New Films Festival!

HEMEL was directed by Sacha Polak ♀, written by Helena van der Meulen ♀ and produced by Stienette Bosklopper.

Hemel is fighting a guerrilla war with every man in town. Her father is the only man that really counts. When he falls in love with young Sophie, Hemel has to find the difference between sex and love herself. (read more!)

hemel by azmovies

"Beautifully lensed look at the moment just before a daughter has to let go of her father should travel extensively and turn Polak into a name to watch." (click here to read more!) --Variety.

For more information on Media Luna’s titles, please visit their website www.medialuna.biz, or just contact them:

media luna new films
Ida Martins (mobile: +49 170 9667900)
Aachener Strasse 24 | D-50674 Cologne - Germany
Tel.: +49 221 51091891 | Fax: +49 221 51091899
idamartins@medialuna.biz | Skype: idamartins

Happy St. Patrick's Day: Irish Director Kirsten Sheridan On 'Dollhouse,' The Word "Random" And Using Ryan Gosling's Music

Jessica Kiang — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 20:19:50 GMT

Continuing its festival run this week at SXSW, following its Berlin premiere, is a remarkable Irish film, "Dollhouse," directed by Kirsten Sheridan. The trippy, pulsing story of a home invasion scenario that is by turns scary, funny and surreal (you can read our review here), the film gained a special mention in Berlin, which is also where we caught up with its director.

Sheridan was previously nominated for an original screenplay Oscar (for co-writing "In America" with her father, Jim Sheridan) and gained a lot of positive notice for her debut feature, the Cillian Murphy breakout "Disco Pigs." Following that was a perhaps ill-advised foray into Hollywood for the schmaltzy "August Rush" (about which she speaks candidly below). With "Dollhouse" only her third feature, and a startling departure from both of her previous outings, we sincerely hope we won't have to wait long for the Dublin-based filmmaker's next film. As our small nod to St Patrick's Day (prior to getting blitzed on bad export Guinness, of course), here's our interview in full.

"Dollhouse" lives or dies on its largely unknown cast. So what was the casting process like?
It took months. We did it very non-traditionally I suppose. The casting director....was scouring everywhere. The idea was to just look at everyone from every angle. Shane [Curry] had already been in a film called "Kisses" ... and Kate Brennan I had seen on stage and I knew her socially. Jack [Reynor] came in for an audition and was reading for one of the other roles which was good because his character needed to have this kind of quiet edge that was only revealed later. So he was cast literally from the first audition and I think I almost told him as much. And then Seana [Kerslake] and Johnny [Ward] were both from the same place and Ciaran [McCabe] was just completely cast off the street, had never been in a film or on a film set before. So I think he thinks this is the normal way to make films!

But yeah, rather than doing auditions it was more about meeting them and spending a couple of hours together. And asking crazy, intimate, personal questions that I would videotape. Loads of questions about their lives that they could answer in either their character or as themselves. So it was really just about putting together a group [in which] everyone had to be quite distinctive visually as well as in personality.

You're saying that they could answer in their characters? So had you provided them with back stories?
No, not at all. It was more that knew what I wanted and my job was like clearing a way for them to come through. [For example] Johnny... had this character in his head and wanted to explore the different sides to him and had this backstory, and so he answered fully in character for the whole interview. But I think most everyone else was more answering as themselves. But then of course as the film goes on you start to slowly morph into another character. You're not playing yourself at all. But there were personal moments, glimpses of moments in the film that are based on a real life reaction. Like [someone] would have told me something and I put it in.

So you mined these interviews for content?
Yeah it's a very moral balance, you have to be careful because you can go too far. In some cases something would be too close to the bone and [so I didn't give it] to that character, I gave it to another.

The dialogue feels so natural and you've really caught the cadences of how that particular generation speaks in Dublin. How much was pre-scripted?
There were probably twenty lines in the whole thing that were scripted and they were "this is your house?" and some really important stuff like "you've been gone for a year." Some of my favourite things came out of when I sent them all away for a week together (except for Jack because he didn't get to meet any of them until the day we filmed.) I said "what kind of party games do you do?" and they said "we finish each others' stories"...and so that developed into [a scene in the film]: "Once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to rob her own safe." So it all came out of games and improvs and meetings with them.

Also, I wanted to give them everything that their characters would know at any moment [and only that] and so when Jack was outside the door just about to walk in, he was walking into this group of people who had been with each other for a week and they’re all completely connected and bonded and he's a complete outsider and he's like "What the fuck?" I said "this is exactly how your character feels" so that's perfect.

Here, actor Jack Reynor joins us for a bit.

So Jack, you're basically the alien that bursts out of John Hurt's stomach?
Jack Reynor: Pretty much!

One of the themes of the film is the class divide. That area is tricky, could very easily come across as condescending. How did you avoid those pitfalls?
KS: I'm from [a particular] area in Dublin so I know a lot of people from that area. So I know things that are a little bit more detailed or human, that kind of help against stereotyping. Jack's character was the more challenging in a way because I don't know that world. I knew that I didn't want to be disrespectful and go "oh, that world is so privileged." That's why I cast Jack because I knew there was something very interesting there. Multi-layered as opposed to like "oh, the rich kid."

I think it was more because they spoke in their own voices and they all got to know each other as a group, quite intimately. So I would find words and lines that they said to each other in improvs or interviews and feed them back to them on set when the cameras were rolling, so that they'd go "oh yeah, I did say that" and it would spark a [authentic] memory.

Read from the social critique angle, the film can be seen as quite pessimistic as the cross-class friendships are ultimately temporary. Is that something that you feel?
KS: Yeah it is actually. I don’t know if Jeanie's privileged because of the money situation -- certainly more then the others are -- but I did want it to feel like they had this mad night and then they have to go back out into the cold. And into that world. And that is the reality of it. So I didn't want to sugar coat it and say "and then they all lived happily ever after," you know?

As well as class there are potential pitfalls portraying a younger generation. Not that you're old, but I’m wondering about how you got over the "embarrassing Dad" syndrome.
KS: There probably would have been [a lot of] that if I had written it [from scratch instead] of listening to the language everybody would speak. I was obsessed with this word "random." It's amazing and looking at Facebook and just the way lives are lived now it's all "I met a random guy in a random bar" and I just thought "I want to make a movie about 'random.' "

And I learned so much in the casting... I'm sitting there and I get to see it all, you know? And so it just starts to totally get under your skin. [We] would ask them "you tell me the last time you had an amazing night, a mad, amazing night." If you asked me that I'd go "hm, nineteen ninety-something" ...do you know what I mean? They'd all go "last Thursday" and then they'd have this really dramatic story because, fuck, it is very dramatic when you're that age. You forget. "When was the last time you had a really bad fight?" "Yesterday." It was so immediate. And then when the group went away together I was like "My God, they all party with the lights full on!" There’s none of the thirty-year-old, candles and nice music -- it's blaring. Those little details were what I witnessed through the improv process.

The scenes of drug taking and of altered states, were they informed by personal experience?
KS: I wish! I made them because I'd never had those nights and I regret never having them.

Music plays a huge role here. Were any of the soundtrack cuts chosen in advance of filming?
KS: They all came afterwards I think. We played [different music] on set.
JR: When we had really intense scenes we used to play a lot of Prodigy and we'd blare it up. The place would have speakers all the way through it so we'd blare Prodigy for a couple of minutes and everybody would get really pumped up.
KS: And I had the mad idea that I was going to meld Prodigy with Irish Traditional. Bizarre. Actually we did one track in prep and it was kind of fun, it kind of worked on a weird level but the visual sequences needed more. I was googling music with kids' choirs and found Ryan Gosling’s band, Dead Man's Bones...and loved it. So there's two or three tracks from him in there. He uses a kids' choir in LA. The one that's "You're Going to Lose Yourselves" [became] a nice kind of flagship song.

That's weird that it's Ryan Gosling because one of the films this reminded me of was "Blue Valentine" for some reason.
KS: That is weird because we had the "Blue Valentine" soundtrack as our guide in some places.

"Dollhouse" is only your third feature in over a decade. So seriously, you've been slacking off.
KS: I know, three kids, I tell you.

Apart from the kids, are there other projects in the meantime that have maybe not seen the light of day?
KS: Oh yes. I made "Dollhouse" because I spent three years trying to find finance for films between one and three million [euros] and it was just so draining. You spend a year doing meetings about meetings about what you might do if someone ever gave you a camera, you know what I mean? So, actually, I was at the Berlin Festival last year and just said "fuck this, I'm going to make something in a house with just six people and one night and take it all down tiny." Then I saw a movie called "Buried," in which the whole movie takes place in a coffin, and I thought if he can do that and I'm on the edge of my seat the whole movie then I have a lot to play with in one house with six people.

Can you tell us what were the projects?
KS: Yeah there were a few. I still might go back to them at some point. There was an Irish project called "Back to Jack" which had Peter Mullan and David O'Hara [attached] and you go "how come I can't get the money?" So I might go back to those things but I kind of fell in love with this way of shooting, where everything is a surprise everyday. It just made shooting much more interesting but it makes editing really painful -- there's always a trade-off somewhere.

You edited this film as well so that was its own challenge.
KS: Yeah that was like giving birth, it was a year-long process.

Tell us about your experiences on "August Rush," how did that color your view of Hollywood?
KS: I mean, it wasn't a bad experience. Well, it was and it wasn't. It wasn't my baby because it was literally inspired by the birth of the producer's son so he came to me going "will you make this?" So I was, to some degree, walking a line between trying to put my own stamp on it and being true to his story. I probably would have been a bit more edgy or art-house or indie, I suppose. And Robin Williams was already cast before I was on board, so there were certain things that already existed. But [after] I kind of wondered what did we spend 30 million on? You don't have the freedom to just go "the shot's actually better over there," because we've parked forty trucks here. So it's a big monster and you have to think on your feet and drag this monster with you. But we were completely left alone for the shoot and the whole edit until we had an audience preview and it went quite well. Then the light went on for the film and it got a bit tougher in the editing because different personalities [got involved] and all of that. But I was able to have a direct line of communication with the head of the studio. So as a first-time director over there I was really lucky and he was really respectful, actually. So it was a good experience, but just in terms of arriving everyday to execute a script, a shot list and a storyboard and that's what you do and then you go home...

So do you have any particular desire to go back and to do more Hollywood stuff?
KS: Only if there was a story that blew me away. Unless it's like "Alien." You go "oh the main character's a woman, that's a new twist." But it totally depends on the movie. This movie needed to be shot this way. And other movies will need to be, you know, composed Chinese still lifes, you know?

And how close do you feel that your features in general have ended up being to the films that you envisaged before you actually shot them?
KS: Probably this is the only one where it was more then I thought it would be. I didn't want to put any expectation or weight on the film, so it was a tiny story set over one night. The other ones you think about them for a year and you have so much weight and expectation on them, it's impossible to live up to it, honestly.

There seems to be a certain kind of thematic similarity between your films, a sense of the miraculous. Is that something that you're particularly drawn to?
KS: I think so, yeah. Probably in "Disco Pigs" and more so in this one.

And "August Rush" as well.
KS: There's a lot of magic in that, yeah. I think in "August Rush" it's in the sweetest way. It's a family film and it's probably the most nicely packaged and the easiest. I think the older I'm getting I'm trying to find [the miraculous] in the everyday.

In "Dollhouse" specifically, how did you walk the line between the real and surreal elements?
KS: I think the most surreal moment actually was a reshoot -- the scene where Jeanie freaks out. ...This is the great thing about having a tiny crew and a tiny budget. You just go back with two people and shoot a whole sequence, so all the more dreamlike shots that jump into her head during that ten-minute sequence were all reshoots. We did some special effects where we projected the film we already shot into a bowl of water...so those were actually considered a little bit more afterwards. I'd seen "Hunger" and I was so impressed by the physicality of it, and also, you know, these dissolves into the sequences where he's a kid and the deer is dead -- just kind of amazing. So I was inspired by that and I wanted to try and do something in that realm.

So what's next?
KS: I have no idea. I just said to someone I want to do a film about working with prisoners and he said "have you seen 'Cesar Must Die' [the film that went on to take the top prize in Berlin] it's about..." and I was like, "that's my movie!" So I'm not doing that now. I don't know actually. [There's a project set] in a classroom which could be fun. But anyway, something more extreme, whatever that is.

Napa Valley Film Festival Carries On

Peter Belsito — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:10:07 GMT

A few weeks back I had the distinct pleasure of attending and serving on the jury of the premiere edition of Napa Valley Film Festival. I want to promote / publicize their 2^nd outing later this year but first I want to use this forum to say why I think they at Napa – and events like them worldwide – are so important now.

The Problem with the Movies Today

Distribution is broke. Worldwide, not just here in the US. This is not an attack on our many dear friends who work in that field but a statement of fact. Or, to put it another way, people cannot see the films they want and need to see. Likewise films cannot find their audiences. The ‘demographic’ that wants to see them – and pay for the pleasure to support the work and the filmmakers – are frustrated by the current chaos and disruption of the system.

There are two (relatively) small but vigorous and important areas in the US and elsewhere where this ‘existential’ problem is being addressed, acted upon and various solutions being tried. This as the environment is shifting daily.To me the proliferation these days of festivals worldwide reflects basically a demand and hunger of the public to see what’s new, different and good in cinema.

Theaters I refer you to the good work of our friends at Art House Convergence. We attended the recent pre-Sundance Utah meeting and got to meet many friends from around the US who are passionate about their local theaters and audiences and finding and showing those special films.

Festivals Years back in my boyhood there were maybe 3 Festivals- Cannes, Venice, New York. When I was in college at Madison in the ‘60’s we had the Film Society. Folding chairs, 16mm scratchy prints but we saw a lot that was different and new.There are 2 kinds of festivals. The ‘big four’ (Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Sundance) and maybe 5 if you count in Venice, which I normally do not (important, busy but small and limited in mandate). These fests generally go after a certain type of film (Berlin is huge but it really made its name – and still maintains much of its prominence – for showcasing world GLBT cinema) and have power and reach in selection. They also have very active ‘market’ segments (business activity) both de jura (Berlin, Cannes) but also de facto (Sundance, Toronto). The press goes, the trade goes but despite their great influence and reach these fests can be pretty small events, relatively speaking. Cannes – 100 films or so. Sundance – 130 or so. Toronto and Berlin are larger but these are all ‘only’ 10 day events. The other kind, are the thousands of events worldwide, film festivals that have various mandates, mainly to serve regional or local audiences or tastes

So we come to the smashingly successful (after its first year) event in Napa. Their motto?? Film. Food. Wine. Catalysts for Conversation...They really delivered on all counts.

I was impressed by their films this past year but the parties were something special. Anyone who knows me knows we go to a lot of parties for work during the year. Daytime – meetings, films. Nighttime – 2^nd shift, parties, more work, eat out of your hands.

I have to say that Napa was very civilized in this regard. The food was exceptional, the wine even better and it was all so comfortable. The locals attending (there were lots!!) were interesting people with much to say. It gave me pause. Napa Valley has been an area I have come to over many years and periods in my life and I thought I knew the place but this was new and special – and impressive.

I next quote freely from their press release announcing NVFF 2012 :

'The Napa Valley Film Festival (NVFF) is now accepting film submissions for the second annual event. Showcasing the best of new independent cinema while embracing the epicurean pleasures of Napa Valley. NVFF unspools November 7 - 11, 2012 with a five-day series of events spread over four of the Napa Valley’s towns. The film festival welcomes submissions of any genre and will be selecting approximately 75 new films, including narrative features, documentaries, world cinema, short films, animation, and student works. Organizers are looking for films that will best entertain, inspire, educate and intrigue audiences.’

NVFF categories eligible for Jury and/or Audience Awards include:

-U.S. Narrative Feature
-U.S. Documentary Feature
-U.S. Narrative Short
-U.S. Documentary Short Subject

Directors of films in competition for Best Narrative Feature participate in NVFF’s Artists-in-Residence program in partnership for the five nights of the festival and are treated to special events and workshops with their competition group and industry mentors.

Mentors who participated in the inaugural NVFF this past November included:

John Sloss of Cinetic Media (who also served as President of the Jury)
Michael De Luca producer, (BUTTER starring Jennifer Garner also screened at the festival)
J. Todd Harris, indie producer (BLACK IRISH)
James Cromwell, actor (THE ARTIST, and NVFF Narrative Competition Selection, A YEAR IN MOORING).

At 2011’s Closing Night Awards Ceremony, jury members Peter Belsito (Film Finders, indieWIRE) and film critic Kirk Honeycutt presented the $10,000 cash prize for Best Narrative Feature to MAMITAS, filmmaker Nicolas Ozeki’s first feature. Meadowood Napa Valley will once again award the Best Narrative Feature Director with $10,000; as well, the Mt Veeder Appellation will present a $1,000 Peak Performance Award to the Best Actor in a Narrative Feature.

Filmmakers can submit films at Withoutabox.com beginning February 1. For early submission with discounted entry fees, deadline is February 29; regular submission deadline is April 16; late submission deadline is May 31; and the final extended submission deadline (for withoutabox members only) is June 28.

Visit www.napavalleyfilmfest.org for full details.

The festival's co-creators (and Cinema Napa Valley Founders) are Brenda and Marc Lhormer, producers and distributors of the feature film BOTTLE SHOCK, about the historic upset victory by Napa Valley wines over the French at the infamous 1976 wine-tasting competition in Paris. BOTTLE SHOCK premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival before going on to international theatrical distribution. The husband-and-wife team also ran the successful Sonoma Valley Film Festival from 2001 through 2008. In addition to producing the annual Napa Valley Film Festival, Cinema Napa Valley presents special film programs throughout the year and provides support to student filmmaking programs in Napa Valley schools.

Women to Watch: Russia to Open Beverly Hills Russian Film Commission Office

Sydney Levine, Peter Belsito — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 04:43:08 GMT

Russia’s Roskino / SEF – formerly known as Sovexportfilm – will set up business, and open a full time office, in the USA. Recently, while attending the Berlinale European Film Market, the company announced, via Roskino / SEF CEO Catherine Mtsitouridze and US based Commissioner (and longtime film biz Senior Executive) Eleonora Granata, that the new Russian Film Commission will be looking to build relationships with US distributors for Russian films and to promote Russia as a filming location and a strong partner for US international co- productions. Prominent LA based Russian journalist (and Board Member of ‘The Golden Globes’ Award Ceremony for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association) Sergei Rakhlin will be Director of the Russian Film Commission Office.

I recently spoke with Catherine Mtsitouridze in Berlin. ‘We are creating a clean new organization to fit the new generation of young crossover filmmakers. Our LA based model is really like COLCOA’.

(Fyi – COLCOA is the French government LA based organization run very successfully by executive Francois Truffard. It aggressively sponsors screenings of important new French films in LA for the benefit of the film trade here for possible deals, distribution and especially for the close attention of Academy members.)

The new office will initiate screening programs, panel discussions, cultural exchanges, eventually a Russian Film Week, to present artistic and commercial achievements of Russian cinema.

Catherine Mtsitouridze goes on. ‘We are partly government financed to help in the export of Russian films worldwide. We also expect private money to help our films and filmmakers get out into the world. We’ll do this in LA by having weekly screenings, getting Russian films into film festivals in the US and elsewhere, get co production and co financing deals there and abroad for Russian productions.

She will also be the Editor of the newly announced Russian edition of Variety to begin this March.

She hails from Tblisi in Georgia and became interested early on in Russian films and US films of the ‘70’s. She studied art history and became a film critic. In 1994 she married and moved to Moscow. There she worked for the Head of Moscow Film Fest as Assistant and also worked for TV on Channel 1 as an editor cinema. She travels frequently to film festivals and in 2008 served on the Cannes Film Fest Jury for Certain Regard section. She has also worked professionally with Fox studios’ Jim Gianopoulos.

Catherine Mtsitouridze adds this about her new position. ‘In its efforts to assist Russian filmmakers with their commercial film releases abroad, and support their integration into the international film community, Roskino / SEF will also promote Russian cinema at key international festivals, markets and on the awards circuit’.

Originally set up as Sovkino in 1924, Sovexportfilm was recently modernized and rebranded to become LA based Roskino / SEF this year.

LA based Roskino / SEF Commissioner Eleonora Granata is, in our opinion, a particularly good choice. She hails from a prominent Milan Italy family and has lived in LA many years. She has worked for Turner and other big Hollywood companies as a senior acquisitions executive and also as production executive for a number of distinguished companies locally and internationally

Cinando has Changed Its Look and Its Tools

Sydney Levine — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:14:00 GMT

For a low price of $115 a year, you can have the industry's only database dealing in rights licensing as it takes place throughout the year at the major film markets. Cannes Marche inaugurated Cinando in partnership with FilmFinders (the company I founded in 1988 and left in the hands of IMDbPro in 2009) in 1999 and was named Cannesmarket.com. At that time the database listed companies, executives and movies, market locations and screening times. FilmFinders kept comprehensive rights availabilities for its subscribers.

It has grown since then from listing all the titles being sold by all international sales agents on a market by market platform and cross linking titles with their producers, to including streaming and downloading films for screening, trailers, pix, and mobile apps currently being developed and already including iPhone. iPad will be next as will a mobile offline screening room.

Cinando has grown to work with European Film Market, AFM, Ventana Sur, Hong Kong's Filmart, Karlovy Vary, San Sebastian, Toronto, and Pusan International Film Festivals. Subscriptions to the service are included in registration to these events.

Cinando is the extension of the markets in that it lists current market line-ups by all sales agents. Going one step further, when provided by the distributors themselves, it shows which films are licensed to which distributors. In my opinion this is an important and key advantage, though in the Screen international review of current database website February 10 it is not emphasized. At this point it is up to the distributors to enter the market information. If Filmtrack decides to go public with what they call "The Holy Grail" -- what is available to be licensed to whom and when-- as FilmFiinders did so long ago then they will offer Cinando some stiff competition on that front. Principals Jason Kassin and his brother Stephen Kassin allude to launching this very concept via RightsTrade in Cannes this May.

Another great feature is in the ISAs' lineup where films' origins by country are showed along with where the film premiered and when the record on it was created. Very helpful. The films available for screening are also shown on the ISA's landing page.

Jerome Paillard, Executive Director of the Cannes Marche, is quoted as seeing a possible emergence of direct distribution (via streaming or downloading) as a potential growth area for Cinando. I like that too. I wonder if the sales agents would be generous enough to offer affiliate marketing possibilities if such online distribution does develop.

Variety recently covered the year round B2B VOD movie download services which allows authorized movie executives to burn DVDs (at $1.58 a pop) as well as watch via streaming (free) that Cinando is also now providing.

Cinando offers 2,500 films online and 20,000 titles. It currently has 35,000 registered members and 5,000 frequent users.

Its new interface was launched for Berlin. It's cleaner and yet more comprehensive with a top menu for personal items and a second set of tabs closer into the main page which are related to the database itself, four spaces to put your own company more actively "in the mix", more visible news and more visible films available for screening online and uniquely to Cinando an attendance list for festivals.

Director Simon Aboud Talks 'Comes A Bright Day' Cast & Status Of Brit-Listed 'This Beautiful Fantastic'

Jessica Kiang — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:00:00 GMT

At the Berlin Film Festival last week, we had the pleasure of catching up with "Comes a Bright Day" writer/director Simon Aboud, who told us about getting the film made, as well as the status of his Brit-listed script "This Beautiful Fantastic," and what he hopes to roll on next.

"Comes a Bright Day" is your first feature, can you tell us a little bit about getting it made?
Well here's the odd thing, getting this made was really easy. But I've done the pain thing before. It's by no means the first script I've written. I had a script, "This Beautiful Fantastic," which was on the Brit list and had Carey Mulligan attached...and somehow, I don't know, it never got financed. Then I was working on another film called "Sunny's Tale" -- a really a lovely script, If I say so myself! -- which had Freddie Highmore attached. And then that didn't happen, and then I had this idea for this film. And I actually, the first person I met liked the script, and that was in October 2010, we shot it in May 2011. So we developed it, cast it, financed it. I mean it was pretty intense, "easy" is probably completely the wrong word, it was just successfully put together pretty quickly.

About casting, you've assembled a great cast, can you tell us about that process?
Yeah, Imogen [Poots] was always kind of top of the list...we did a Skype call and that was it, she was pretty much there and that was brilliant. And then we had Shaheen Baig casting it, who's fantastic. She put me in touch with Craig [Roberts] and she put me in touch with Josef Altin ["Game of Thrones"] who played Clegg brilliantly. He's an amazing find. And then I was just really super lucky. Tim [Spall] is in a crowd of actors who get a lot of scripts and don't need to do stuff. So that's bad news for little films like mine. Really bad news because they have their stripes and they don’t need to do this stuff. And I got this brilliant phone call, Tim was on his boat, he travels around the country with his wife on this boat, making this documentary. And I had this lovely phone call where he rang up and said, "Yeah, yeah, I really like this, let's do it." Kevin [McKidd] kind of needed convincing but liked the script and we talked about it a lot. He slummed it, he came over and lived in a little flat in London and did it. So I was really lucky.

Kevin's is one of the trickier roles, I'd imagine, to cast and also to write?
Well you've definitely hit upon a truth there, which is that he was the character that I developed the most, with Kevin. He's the threat. So it was interesting to build a character who is just ostensibly a black character. There's no real light shining from this guy, he killed people, he's happy killing people, whatever. But as this thing develops ...something’s got inside of him, some of the light got through this chink in the armor and so does the girl.

Had you seen "Submarine" before casting Craig Roberts?
No, I saw it very soon afterwards, but Craig's such an interesting character I don't think it would have made a huge difference if I had. It's a subjective thing, and everyone else was great, we had some great people reading, but he had it by the end of the first sentence. It was like "Ah, it's him." It was funny because I then read an interview that Richard [Ayoade] had said exactly the same thing, that he just walked into the room and he knew it was him. Craig has this incredible thing that he's not classically trained, all of the others are, all of the others are quite intimidating actors, because Imogen and Kevin and Tim are all pretty talented, but he not only holds his own but he kind of lights up the screen by himself. What he's got is amazing: a physical thing just being on the screen, he doesn't need to talk. I have no idea what it is.

What's your next project?
Weirdly enough I finished the first draft yesterday. It's a father-son story set in L.A., the story of a guy who's like a kind of...if I say modern-day Gatsby, not quite, but someone who has an enormous allure and charisma and success and yet... privately he's a crippled addict. It's about how he falls from grace in the most spectacular fashion and is forced to go back and live with his Dad on Manhattan Beach. His dad designs swimming pools and he ends up having to build swimming pools with his dad. It's called "The Shallow End." It's about how he and his Dad kind of reconnect and there's a love story built into it. It's kind of quirky.

So you're hopeful that that will be your next directorial project?
I hope so, yeah.

Is there any prospect of "This Beautiful Fantastic" coming back to life?
Yeah I think it will get made. I do think it will get made. We couldn't find an agreement on it this year and we want to make sure that we give it a really good run and get the right cast. The great thing is it's there and it's done, you know? And there's always been a great reception to that script so there's nothing really I'd change about it, it's done. So I suspect, hopefully, a sort of 2013, 2014 time frame. I really want to do a film in the U.S.

Could "This Beautiful Fantastic" end up being U.S.-based?
Well you know the interesting thing is, someone asked me the same question the other day and I couldn't find a good enough reason to say no.

"Comes A Bright Day" will open in the U.K. later this year; there is no U.S. distribution lined up just yet.

'Electrick Children' Stars Rory Culkin & Liam Aiken On Their Roles In The Film & Growing Up Onscreen

Jessica Kiang — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:55:04 GMT

A small, indie, debut film from writer/director Rebecca Thomas, "Electrick Children" features a trio of young central performances and it really caught our eye at the Berlin Film Festival last week (review here). Having spoken to the film's lead and potential break-out, Julia Garner (check out that interview here), we then got to sit down with her two co-stars, both of them child stars-turned-promising young actors, Rory Culkin and Liam Aiken.

Rory Culkin
Graduating swiftly from playing younger versions of his brothers Macauley ("Richie Rich") and Kieran ("Igby Goes Down"), Rory Culkin seems to have a made a career already out of playing damaged or vulnerable characters, from the asthmatic son in "Signs" to the bullying victim in "Mean Creek" to the centre of the crumbling, dysfunctional family in "Lymelife." In "Electrick Children" that trend continues, as he plays Clyde, a dropout and possible runaway who hangs out in Vegas with his rock band buddies until he meets and falls for mormon Rachel (Julia Garner) who believes she has immaculately conceived.

How did you feel about the reception that the film got last night?
It was not what I expected but it was a good reaction. There's that scene where we get married, they were laughing, but I get it. The whole situation is just bizarre. But yeah I could tell with Julia [Garner] she's so precious [she was worried] that they were laughing, but [I think they] were also swooning like "awww!" you know?

So what attracted you to the role first of all?
Honestly it was that scene -- the marriage scene on the floor. I was reading the script and Clyde is introduced and he's kind of a dick and I didn't like him. I was reading it and I was like I don't really trust this dude, where is this going? And then when he's alone with her and he says he'll protect her it really hit me: "I have to do this." It was beautiful. Just the way it was written and you know it's two lost kids on a dirty hotel floor getting married. It's kind of like pathetic but beautiful, so that was the scene that really did it for me.

I think there's a very lovely moment immediately after that, in your reaction.
There's so many thoughts running through Clyde's head at that time and I'm sure part of him is like "Shit, what did I just get myself into?" And there were different ways to approach that scene... My thought process, my motivation was, and I'm sure they would have laughed at the Q&A if I said this, it is like a higher power, an overwhelming power that she has. When she kisses him he feels that and he doesn't want to let go of that. You know he doesn't believe her, but she's so convincing. And maybe something's going on, this girl's special and maybe it's not God in a biblical sense but it's something. You know whether it's aliens or...it's too much for his small comprehension. But something's going on and he just wants to be close to her. He's just a broken kid, you know?

I hear you improvised that first scene in the van.
Yeah, we were just driving in the van for a long, long time, so we messed around a lot and I touched William's face and said "just wanted to see if you were real"...it's really cool when your words you created get a response from 1,000 people. I can't imagine what [director] Rebecca's feeling; all of the words are hers.

How was it working with Rebecca as opposed to other directors who were possibly more established?
She's the youngest director I've ever worked with, and she's the first female director I've ever worked with. You just want to make her happy, you don’t want to let her down because she wrote something so amazing and you just don't want to blow it. So after a take I'd just look over to her and she'd nod, "I'm into it" and that's all I want, all I want is to hear her say she's into it.

Obviously you've come from being a child actor. I'm just wondering in your head what was the role where you stopped being a child?
I did this movie called "Lymelife" when I was 18, and you know it was the first time I was working as an adult, a legal adult, and that was a huge growing experience for me. But in the final product I'm playing 15 and I've got weird '70s hair and wearing light blue so I don't know....for me internally there was a lot of growing in that but I don't know if it really shows. But this one for sure is something new for me, I got to do something totally different. I'm used to playing these sensitive parts, a kid who gets beat up all the time, I guess Clyde is sort of like that. [But] he's also an asshole, and he's also numb and on all of these pills, and when you play a part like Clyde you have the license to do whatever you want because that kid is crazy.

So having done big movies and small, where does you heart lie? Wanna be an action star?
No, I mean that would be cool. I don't know, I don't usually let the budget get in the way but it does affect things. Something like "Scream 4" there's so many eyes on you all the time, and there's all of these investors, they want answers and results and stuff. I feel like with something like this there's more of an artistic license because you know people aren't having meetings about your hair length...

Is there anyone in particular that you'd like to work with?
There's a lot of people, especially actors. John Hawkes is amazing, I really want to meet that man, he's so good. Him and Ben Foster and I'm a big fan of Nick Stahl, those are my three guys.

Liam Aiken
Debuting for Hal Hartley in "Henry Fool" (in a role he reprised a few years later in "Fay Grim"), Liam Aiken quickly established himself as an in-demand child actor of the thankfully-not-sickeningly-cute school, with roles in "Road to Perdition" and 'Lemony Snicket.' But somewhat setting childish things aside in 2010, playing patsy Johnny Pappas in Michael Winterbottom's dark, violent "The Killer Inside Me," Aiken seems to be looking for unusual, challenging roles to grow into. In "Electrick Children" Aiken finds another complex character in Mr. Will, the disgraced mormon son banished from his community under suspicion of having impregnated his own sister.

What did you think of the reaction the movie got last night?
It got such a fantastic reaction, there were so many wonderful moments where people were responding beautifully with a little laughter and some shock and awe...One of the most touching moments for me was the little scene between Rory and Julia and you know she says, "We're married." And everyone just burst into laughter and for me that's a really tender spot but it is at the same time kind of hysterical.

Rory mentioned that scene was pretty much the reason he took the role. What was the thing that attracted you to your role?
I loved [Mr. Will's] austerity. I loved how judgmental he was throughout the entire thing. I loved how he's so consistent with it too. It's not like he's only judgmental of the punks that they meet in Las Vegas, he was judgmental of Julia when they were in the colony. He was just an absolute stick in the mud. And that was the fun thing on set...[Also he's] coming from the position of a future prophet. And that's actually something that I think was edited down a little in this final version, but the script certainly talked a lot more about how that was his life's goal.

That was his destiny to take over from his father?
Yeah, right from the get go. There's this scene that we ended up not using, where he says "Look, I'm the son of the prophet and the next in line to be the prophet of the only true and living church on this earth." And it was like wow, you don't realize the intensity that's in there, and that’s where the judgment comes from.

That is somewhat similar to Rachel's belief that she has immaculately conceived.
That's true. And what I find so charming about the movie is that the rockers are more accepting of this possibility then her own father, who is the purveyor of this faith.

So did you form an opinion outside of the movie of what actually happens?
We all talked about it on set a lot and I think you can go back and forth and you can say perhaps it isn't Mr. Will, perhaps it is the father [who gets her pregnant], but the most interesting possibility is the immaculate conception and so for me that's the one that rings the truest. What I really like is that Rebecca [Thomas, the writer/director] says that too: "She has an immaculate conception." It's so bold, it's such a great idea. I like that the best.

On to other projects future and past...Do you mind being eternally asked about Harry Potter?
I actually haven't talked about that in a while.

You were very close to landing that role. Is there a part of you that regrets it?
At the time that was a very...that was an interesting time. I was very close friends with Chris Columbus, that was sort of what my connection to film was, but no...I never really looked back on it regretfully. I think I found a different path, I found something that feels a little more true to me, something that feels right. I'm really enjoying this series of movies I've been working on this past year.

Is there something you've been working on recently that will be coming out soon?
I filmed a movie last spring called "Nor'easter." It's a beautiful movie, it was really February, end of February and may have been some of the most stark, bleak weather you can imagine. It came out so...it's spectacular. I play this kid who had gone missing. Basically this priest comes to this town, it's his first assignment, the big scandal in the town is this family lost their son five years prior, and they come to him ask for a funeral so that they can move on with their lives. The following night the son breaks into the house, tries to take something of his, they find him, they hold onto him for a minute but he again slips away and that's the Nor’easter; the play on the word, that's when the storm begins. It gets pretty stormy.

"Electrick Children" will be showing at SXSW 2012.

Diane Kruger On 'Farewell, My Queen,' The Value Of Beauty In Hollywood & Finding A Leopard In Her Shower

Jessica Kiang — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:56:03 GMT

Having followed what has become a fairly well-trodden path from modelling into acting, Diane Kruger seems determined to ensure that her career is more diverse and challenging than that label might suggest. In this endeavor she is undoubtedly helped by being fluent in German, French and English, meaning she can pursue roles in all three languages, and critically, for her, be part of the French cinema that she loves: "...there's a poetry to it, for me it’s what makes me dream...the kind of movies that I could [watch and then] die and go to heaven."

Attending the Berlin Film Festival to promote her latest French-language film, festival opener "Farewell, My Queen" (review here), we were part of a small group of press who got to talk to Kruger during her quick visit. Kruger plays Marie Antoinette in the film, but here the interpretation of the French Queen is coloured by the suggestion of a passionate same-sex relationship with real-life friend and courtier Mme Gabrielle de Polignac (Virginie Ledoyen). How far does Kruger believe that relationship went?

"I don’t know. I've got to be honest with you. I think it doesn't matter because she was certainly the favorite of the Queen. They met at a masked ball so Gabrielle didn't know she was meeting Marie Antoinette and I think they just connected on a level, whether or not you call it love or lesbian. I don't know if they were ever physical but...if you live in a world where you felt so isolated and alone, and you have a person, whether a woman or a man, who you think loves you for who you are rather then the Queen you are, then that is a very, very powerful relationship," she explained. "You know I think it's only because our notions of two women being that affectionate with each other has, in our world, a sexual connotation but I'm not sure that it was. It doesn't really matter. I think they are very close, I think Mary Antoinette felt very close to her. And that is documented."

A new twist on a familiar story or not, Kruger was well aware of the pitfalls of portraying a historical figure who has has so many previous onscreen iterations. "The perception of Marie Antoinette is already so established. That's the danger of playing a historical figure because people have an opinion about her and have already judged her... [from] movies that have been made about her," she said. "You can clearly see that [Sofia Coppola] was fascinated with Marie Antoinette and that she very much was of the opinion that she was unjustly done by. For this movie it was irrelevant what I thought about it. I wanted to connect to her on a human basis...I wanted her to be more complex than just the symbol of what people think Mary Antoinette is or was."

But if the actress hoped, in some way, to extract Marie Antoinette from her retrospective historical context, that's not to say she was unaware of the story's potential for contemporary resonance. "I think any revolution starts by the same problems, right? It's people in power that abuse that power and lock themselves in ivory towers and forget what the real people are going through and have no sense of reality, right? So the French revolution started like that and, and I think what's happening today started like that, and so it is very resonant."

The role presented her with some unique challenges, however, not least of which was the language. "Even though I speak French, I never learned French in school and this is 18th century French, which is only comparable to Shakespearean English. It took me sometimes two weeks to learn one scene and then, you know, learn it and then forget about it and actually be able to perform it." But far outweighing the challenges were the parallels between herself and the French Queen, which made her "a good cast for Marie Antoinette":

"She was from Austria, which then was Germany, [and I am German]. She arrived in France very young, just as I did -- not knowing the language...I'm about the same age as Marie Antoinette. The movie takes place July 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th and I'm born July 15th and my mom's name is Marie Therese [also Marie Antoinette's mother's name]. So, I don't believe in fate, but it was kind of weird."

The doomed French queen, Helen of Troy, even the fictional glamourous movie star/spy Bridget von Donnersmarck in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," many of Kruger's higher-profile roles have been as women whose physical appearance is central to their story. But Kruger prickles slightly whenever the subject of beauty crops up.

"I think whoever is born with a pleasant face is lucky because most people respond to that favorably for a minute, but you learn very quickly that it is not enough...at least in my business it's all about emotion and being able to convey emotions." She went on to clarify, in response to a question about whether she felt in danger of being pigeonholed for her beauty, "I don't agree with that, that's what I’m saying. I don't think at the end of the day your physical aspects have anything to do with how well you’re going to do in this industry. Certainly it's Hollywood and if you look a certain way they might be more likely to audition you, but if you're not able to convey emotions or make a character come alive through your performance, you're not going to do well."

The subject is swiftly changed. Kruger recently went on safari in Kenya and while there, she had a close encounter with some wildlife. "I had a leopard in my shower, it was kind of cool but then it wasn't. I was so shocked. The showers are outside so I was completely undressed -- it's not like if you're wearing a T-shirt it's not going to eat you -- but I felt very vulnerable. And literally he was there, sitting in my shower..."

Right now, the actress is shooting "The Host" in Louisiana for director Andrew Niccol. Based on Stephenie "Twilight" Meyer's other mega-bestseller, Kruger plays an alien known as The Seeker, in what is clearly being pitched as a potential new blockbuster franchise. And with the as-yet-unwritten third book rumored to be titled "The Seeker," we can only imagine that if all goes to plan, Kruger will find herself a bigger star than ever in a few years' time. But as to whether this will spell the end of her involvement in smaller, arthouse or foreign films, Kruger is adamant:

"I would get bored if I just did one or the other [big films or small]. Because if you have no money you have to make decisions faster, you have to be prepared, but they're very satisfying creatively because you have to be so in touch with your emotions. The Hollywood thing is fun too because a lot of the characters are larger then life, there's a lot of fiction and [you get to] invent more, in a way -- right now I'm playing an alien. I would never make a movie in Europe about that. I feel like European cinema tends to be more reality-driven and you have to bring more personally, maybe, to a part."

Indeed, her list of directors she'd most like to work with spans the Atlantic, topped by "my favorite director, Jacques Audiard in France and then in America I'd say Darren Aronofsky." When asked if she'd be willing to commit to the level of intensity Aronofsky famously demands from his actresses, she shrugs, "Hey, listen I lived in an asylum for six weeks on my first movie."

For now, though, it's all about Marie Antoinette, and we identified Kruger's performance as one of the film's highlights. She may not be the central character, but her lesser screen time belies the impact of her arc. "I think that the script was beautifully crafted. The first scene you see her as most people would assume she was, you know, very aloof, frivolous, doesn't have a care in the world, worrying about her dresses. But then you also see her very vulnerable and very real and then you see her become the Queen at the end of the day. She's quite extreme. She's a little borderline. I think she was a little crazy at the end, you know?"

Watch: Trailer For SXSW & Berlin Pic 'Electrick Children' & A Quick Chat With Star Julia Garner

Jessica Kiang — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:02:03 GMT

Seeming even younger than her 18 years, Julia Garner, the lead in Rebecca Thomas' debut feature "Electrick Children" (reviewed here) delivers one of those performances that marks a new star in the ascendant. Juggling upcoming roles and sweetly new to the world of press junkets and promotion, we spoke briefly with Garner at the Berlin Film Festival where the film played to a very warm reception on the opening night of the Generation Section.

The movie will continue to earn buzz as it rolls into SXSW next month in Austin. The offbeat story follows a teenage girl who believes she has become pregnant via an immaculate conception, and journeys with her brother to Las Vegas where believes she will find the person responsible for making it happen. Watch the trailer for the film below (via Quiet Earth).

What attracted you to the project?
Well the thing is is that I audition -- I audition a lot. I really liked the script and it was a really interesting story and I was just curious how I would act it. So I did a self-taping on a Monday during the summer and I got the job by Wednesday, and then Sunday I flew out to LA and by Tuesday we'd already started shooting.

So not a long prep time.
No, and I did as much prepping as I could, as much research as I could. I was focusing more on the emotional experience that she was going through rather than, you know, the Mormons and stuff. The movie is not really about that, it's about a girl who has a belief and it's about people trying to find something, searching for something, I think.

One of your other feature appearances was in "Martha, Marcy, May Marlene." Obviously your role here is a lot bigger, but how did your experiences on those two films compare?
I think what's really similar is that everyone that was involved in those two projects is very young, and the director's young, so everyone's just kind of fresh... But this was my first lead. Yeah, and I'm not lying, I loved everyone in this cast, crew, everyone. I would love to work with everyone again.

You have a bunch of completed and in-production movies on your plate. Which of those is freshest in your mind?
You know what's so funny? A lot of times actors don't know what's coming up next. I have a couple of movies that are in post-production and they're editing now. I have a tiny part in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and I'm in a movie called "Unicorns" as well, and this movie called "HairBrained." And "Twylight Zones."

I think that's the one that might come out soonest.
Yeah that's coming out the soonest. I have a really small role in that too. I'm in the dream sequence so it's tiny.

So tell me a little bit more about your role in "HairBrained"?
I play the lead's girlfriend in the movie. He's a boy who's in college and very young. He's like 15, 14, so he's very young and he's in school and he doesn’t really know what's going on. I play younger than I am.

And how about "Unicorns"?
It's about a girl who ends up being in a relationship with this guy and they run away, they take a road trip and I play her best friend who is a closeted lesbian and she's in love with her best friend.

Was it the role in 'Martha Marcy' that people noticed, that got you offers and auditions?
Yeah. That was my first feature. I've been only acting for two years now and I started when I was 16, now I'm 18. When I shot Martha I was 16. So the casting director who cast me in Martha found me at an open casting call for a different thing. So it slowly stepped into me landing the role.

Now that things are heating up for you, is there anyone whose career you particularly admire?
Um, hm. Like any actor that I admire? Yeah, I think Phillip Seymour Hoffman has had a really cool career. And he's a great actor too. Also he has a very long career, he ages nicely. He plays different people. It's not like he's typecast, it's different every time. And he nails it.

So what's next for you, what are you shooting?
I have three projects that are in the running. And then I have another project that I'm doing but I can't say for now. So things are cooking.

With all that activity, things are probably going to change for you soon. Where you would ideally see yourself in a few years time?
I don't think so much about the future or the past, I'm one of those girls that just thinks about now, the moment. But, just doing the same thing, I hope, because It's a very happy time in my life and I love it and hopefully I'll be making movies still.

Watch Now: Congolese Teen Rachel Mwanza Wins Best Actress Award At Berlinale International Film Festival

Cynthia Reid — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:43:44 GMT

The 62nd Berlinale International Film Festival awards ceremony occurred Saturday (Feb. 18th) and one delightful surprise that took place was Congolese native and newcomer Rachel Mwanza's "Best Actress" win for her role in the dramatic film War Witch (aka Rebelle).

The 15 year old plays a young girl who is kidnapped from her village and becomes a child soldier. The Canadian production, directed by Kim Nguyen, was completely filmed in the Congo although the story takes place in an unnamed nation.

Nguyen called Rachel's performance in the film "breathtaking" and praised her ability to use the "method acting" approach where an actor calls on real emotional memories.

He told the Vancouver Sun..."Just before acting, five second before, she would stick her tongue out at the camera and laugh, and I would say, `Action!' and boom, dead on, crying and in the moment. It was really funny, because the actors who came from Canada were all getting prepared, and getting into the moment, and you have this little kid, and just before dramatic scenes, she's putting out her tongue at them and laughing and they're trying to concentrate, and then she nails it right when the camera starts."

Below is the trailer and a clip of Rachel's surprised response to her win.

Melissa Leo Talks 'Francine,' The "Sacred Territory" Of Acting & What She's Looking At Next

Jessica Kiang — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:55:02 GMT

Having experienced something of a mid-career breakout with her Oscar-winning supporting role in "The Fighter," Melissa Leo's name has fast become something of a hallmark of quality. Recently she has lent her talents for startlingly authentic portrayals to the likes of "Treme," "Mildred Pierce" and Kevin Smith's "Red State," but in the Berlin Film Festival favorite "Francine" (our review is here) she lands a rare leading role in a feature, albeit a small, narrowly focused one.

With even those critics who didn't wholly embrace the film unanimously praising her outstanding central performance, we got to sit down with Leo in Berlin to talk about the project, her approach to acting and her upcoming slate.

How easy do you find it to talk about acting?
It's the only thing I know how to talk about. I'm not very bright, I don't read the newspaper so it is my favorite topic of conversation, I'm embarrassed to say.

It seems like what you do is so intuitive that it might be hard to verbalize.
There's times when you ask a certain something about acting and I might realize that I'm in sacred territory. There are things about acting that are better not spoken of except among [other actors] without a doubt. But I do understand what my job is and I really love my job. I especially love my job because I cannot do it alone. It must be realized through a collaboration. My understanding of film as the single collaborative art is just interesting to me.

Speaking of collaboration, you are often part of larger acting ensembles. Here you are front and center. Was that daunting?
It wasn't daunting at all. It's far more daunting to go show up on Rob Zemeckis' set and shoot two days with Denzel Washington, in which you have all of the dialogue, that's a daunting thing to walk into, because they're a machine that's up and running. The joy of playing the lead is that you get to play more. So you can go that much deeper, you have that much more understanding and ways of communicating in the complex and often frantic reality of shooting a movie.

Was there a single thing, a foible or a setting or that gave you the way in and made you realize that you could totally inhabit this character?
I didn't know that much about her [before] I inserted myself into the project. I saw it listed through the Hudson Valley Film Commission -- the runner of which is a friend of mine -- and a month at home in the summertime with a lead, it sounded jolly to me.

But more seriously it was fascinating, this idea, because I was definitely on the road to something with "The Fighter" at that point. It had been made, it was put together, there was all kinds of scuttlebutt going on about it. But this story, with little dialogue, told in pictures... and I know how gloriously amazing the Hudson Valley is, how rich. And so I got in touch with them and asked if they had found a lead yet...Had they been shooting someplace else, no, I probably wouldn't have even heard about the film.

[The directors] weren't even looking to cast an actor, to my understanding. Like the rest of the characters in the film, they were looking for a non-professional actor or a non-actor to play the role of Francine. That was their idea with their budget.

And they got an Oscar winner instead.
Yeah, and you could not have done the film without -- no matter how talented -- an actress that had not had a lot of experience. You could not have made the movie, it would not have been what it was.

So you found the role called on your experience as an actor?
Because of their body of [documentary] experience, which is shooting subjects and not actors, shooting the truth, where we pretend the truth, there was a large gap between our styles. I learned from them...It is the best example to date of the collaboration that filmmaking can be.

The film exists in a particular moment. There's something very beautiful and austere about that, but did you develop a back story for your character?
[Directors] Brian [M. Cassidy] and Melanie [Shatzky] refused to give concrete responses on almost any level which, seeing the film last night, I understand better... There were times where I would say "No, we need to do it like this," and we would. And they would say "we need to do it like this" and we'd do it their way. There was this back and forth constantly of who she was and how she would handle things...

You already mentioned "Flight," which is a Robert Zemeckis movie -- can you tell us about your character and how the experience has been?
Well to get the call that Zemeckis wanted me to do this scene for him was a great triumph. He's such an experienced filmmaker, the kind I really plan to work more often with. Opposite Denzel -- dreamy! Zemeckis meets me and he says, "Now listen, he's a method actor, don't expect him to be warm and fuzzy." I said, "Don't worry that works fine with me."

So it wasn't intimidating?
No, not to me. I work with De Niro or Pacino or opposite Tommy Lee Jones, and my game rises. It's very hard to work with non-actors and I've done a lot of it. [It's] much more pleasurable to work with actors. So I end the movie for him, I wrap it up for him, and that's what he asked me to come and do. It was my honor to go and do it and I hope to God I delivered for him.

What about your rumored involvement with Kevin Smith's hockey comedy?
Kevin Smith's been claiming my name ever since the day I met him, I have no idea, he doesn't call me and I don't read his blogs. Love him to death, but as far as I know I have no commitments with Kevin. Love him to death and he can certainly call my people or me. One is never in control of the Internet. There's all kinds of lies about me on IMDB.

At this point we are joined by "Francine" directors Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatsky.

Can you tell me about how your initial conception of the project evolved once Melissa signed on?
Brian: Simply put, Melissa brought a living, breathing Francine. That to us was an idea on a page, some images in our head, a story, some scene descriptions written out in kind of a literary way, maybe too literary. The translation to cinema is a very different thing. Sometimes you can be very seductive with language that you then need to find the cinematic equivalent. So there was some of that but Melissa as Francine brought the center and the heart and soul of the film.

Melanie: It was only ten pages long, how we wrote it, so we just had scene descriptions, the goal of the scene, this is what's going to happen, but there was no dialogue. So there was a lot of room for creativity on the part of Melissa and whoever's involved to shape what would happen in the scenes and what was happening from moment to moment... Giving Melissa that freedom for her creative acting, and then Brian's beautiful camera working together, there are a lot of moments that are really magical that we never could have scripted. It never would have come to mind at all.

Melissa: This happens all the time. John Goodman down on "Treme" in New Orleans, he'd put these one-liners in after every scene he ever shot -- that was some of the best writing on "Treme" ever and they're damn good writers. He just gets in the character so whatever comes out of his mouth is appropriate then somehow to the character.

Here there was an oddly sparse amount of information yet very, very specific at the same time. It wasn't that it was unclear going into it, it was what drew me in. The notion of not talking. Tilda Swinton said something about being interested in exploring the inability to speak, which is a fascinating thing for an actor. I think in a way that too was what pulled me into "Francine." One of the things in that first blurb was "not very much dialogue, story told in pictures."

Brian: It's a very mysterious thing from our background as photographers that we bring. I think some of it is isolating moments and some of it is at times disconnecting them from the cause and effect of how they got there.

How do you achieve that balance between careful, composed photography and not losing the realism and spontaneity?
Melanie: We wanted it to be beautiful without it being aestheticized. So there's a sense, coming from our documentary background, of capturing the essence of something. We were very intent on everything being hand-held so everything felt natural, so at no point is anything too, too composed. When it's too too composed you aestheticize that thing, it loses its naturalism and that magic is somehow broken.

Brian: I think very simply it's about being interested. Being interested in what it is you're seeing and what it is you're telling. If you're disinterested you start thinking about different kinds of [shots]...I think in "Francine" what I'm very proud of is there's a tenderness at the core of it, and a deep interest in what we're seeing that allows it to walk that very fine line between the beautiful and the ugly.

Melissa: What you're asking them is very hard for them to see for themselves, but they are without judgment. I'd like to think I live without judgment, but these two people [really] live without judgment. So it's not "oh, poor Francine" it's just Francine. Just that reality. Is she beautiful? Sometimes more beautiful than I've ever been on camera. Is she raw and ugly? Well that first opening shot...but it starts there. It needs to start there. You need to experience that incarceration with her. And the nakedness.

An Escape-from-Cuba Saga Six Years in the Works: Lucy Mulloy and Her Cast Talk 'Una Noche' in Berlin

Bryce J. Renninger — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:23:02 GMT

Lucy Mulloy's debut feature "Una Noche" is an ambitious tale of three Havana street kids dealing with oppressive conditions in Cuba. Central to the narrative are some interactions with the Cuban police, who work tirelessly to shield the sight of Havana's street life from the city's tourists and have it out for the film's main characters from the beginning.

The film is narrated by the young woman, Lila (Anailin de la Rua de la Torre), the least audacious of the three, and in her storytelling, she focuses on her love for her twin brother, Elio (Javier Nuñez Florian), who is developing a clandestine friendship with a much more rebellious young man, Raul (Dariel Arrechada).

Raul and Elio hatch a plan to head for Miami after Raul gets caught up in the life-threatening injury of a tourist, and soon enough, Lila finds out and invites herself along. The film's third act serves up a tense journey as the trio spends a night attempting the 90-mile journey north.

The film delves into never-before-documented hidden corners of Havana and is a magnificent cinematographic contribution to stories of Cuban exile. "Una Noche" and director Lucy Mulloy have received support from Tribeca Film institute's All Access Fund, the Tribeca Film Festival's Emerging Artist Award, and the Gotham Awards' Women Filmmakers Grant.

The director and the film's young stars, all of whom were cold and impressed with the city's architecture in their first trip off of their native island, spoke with Indiewire about the making of the film.

I know this film took you a long time to finish, and it paid off in the end. How did the film evolve?

Lucy: I grew up in London. I went out to Cuba initially, and I was blown away by the architecture and stories that people told me about leaving. I was very kind of taken with Havana and I had never seen it on film before. I applied to go to NYU, and I started doing shorts. I wrote a short script about these three kids leaving, and my producers told me I had to make it.

I said, "Let's make a short on video over one summer." It took longer and we started casting and doing location scouting and it just kept getting bigger and bigger. We got a sponsorship from Kodak so we could do it on 35mm film, and we got a camera sponsorship. It just turned into something much bigger.

Everyone in like when are we gonna be done, when is the film gonna be finished? From having the idea to today is like six years, so it's been a long time. I got mad at them every time they cut their hair and he's got a tattoo now and stuff, so I was like, "[Shoot!] I can't do anything else!" People stopped believing that we were really making a film.

Who do you all hope sees the film?

Dariel: Everyone was asking for a disc of the film. In Cuba, if you put a film out, everyone will bootleg it immediately. I got over feeling embarrassed about answering people when they were asking "Where's the film?" I just said, "It's not ready!" It was for the best.

Lucy: We want to present the film in the Cuban Film Festival. Everything's cool with Cuba. They've seen the film. We're entering it into the Havana Film Festival. That would be cool to show it to a Cuban audience, who can really understand what's going on in the film.

Javier: I hope the whole world sees the film.

Dariel: My dad, who plays the chef in the film, my brother, all of my friends, so that they can see what I've been working on. I want Cuban people to see it because they'll really like it. I'm happy that people have been accepting the film.

Analin: I want the whole world to see it, and I want my friends to see it in Cuba, so they don't think it was all a lie. I want people in Cuba to see it as well, so it can open doors for them and allow them to act. We all really loved acting. We found something we enjoy doing, and we want to do more of it.

How did you to come to this story?

Lucy: It was talking to people and also a lot of the story developed when I was in Cuba working with these guys. Working with organizations. I had a very defined idea of what the story was. Incorporating different stories from real life and different locations. Really just incorporating stuff to make it richer when I was there.

How did you find your actors? The three leads are great.

Lucy: Initially, I went through normal routes, trying to get people through a casting agency there, acting schools and theater groups, and I found that most of the people were trained for theater, so they were kind of acting quite big, and a little bit exaggerated maybe.

I basically made the decision that we needed to go on the streets and meet with real people. We had a casting event every weekend, and there were always long lines of people, down the hall or down the block. We did improvisations with everyone. We found a lot of people through that process, extras and stuff.

Was there anything that made you all uncomfortable about acting at first?

Javier: While shooting on the sea, it was really cold.

Dariel: Everytime I got into and out of the water, my pants were so heavy. They were really hard. We had to act like we were in the summer, but it was actually the winter, and it was really cold. It felt really good in general, because everyone was working for me, asking me what I wanted and if I wanted a rest. The other two actors helped a lot. We worked really well together. We fed off each other.

Analin: It was uncomfortable for me when we were doign the rehearsals and we had to pretend to swim and jump into the sea. It was like my school, to learn on the floor how to act...and to swim!

Have you all become close after the past two years?

Analin: We didn't know each other, and now we're like best friends.

Dariel: We fight, but they're brother and sister [in the film]-- we're all family!

Berlin's Generation Section Director Talks Screening Suicide and Sex and Redefining the Coming of Age Story

Bryce J. Renninger — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:19:44 GMT

"From time to time, someone like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter refer to us as the kid's ghetto," Maryanne Redpath told Indiewire about the section of the Berlinale she directs, Generation.

The Generation section has been around since the early twenty-first century, when the festival's Kinderfilmfest section became the more mature Generation section. Redpath, a New Zealander who joined the Berlinale staff in 1994, was then the co-director of the section, which has become one of the most exciting collections of youth-themed films to screen at a major festival anywhere. The section now has two sections: Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus, the latter for more mature youth-centered films.

Generation is more than just Disney wannabes and cheery stories of children and their pets. Redpath and her team do not shy away from controversy or the realities of children across the globe. Included in her programming over the past few years has been David Lee Miller's "Archie's Final Project" (named "My Suicide" at the time), 2012 Oscar nominee Phillipe Falerdeau's 2008 dark comedy "C'est pas moi, je le jure," and Andrew Okpeaha Maclean's 2011 "On the Ice" (which just hit American theaters last week).

Indiewire sat down with Redpath to talk to her about the section as it begins to gain a bigger reputation.

You say that the Generation section has been called the "kid's ghetto," a place where no one will notice films. But every time I go to a film, there's a mix of people in the audience, people are nearly always happy, and the theaters are packed. What are you dealing with in the industry, doing what you're doing?

People in the film industry have a lot of preconceptions and misconceptions about the young audience. It's like you make a film for kids and it doesn't have to necessarily be a great film because it's an easy audience. It's a little derogatory even for a filmmaker to even make a film for children. That's the area that we're dealing with a lot. In terms of marketing, calling a film a "children's film" gives people all sorts of ideas: standardization, fairy tales, happy endings, not dealing with any issues that are important to children. It's about pulling the wool over their eyes and telling them "It's okay; life is beautiful! LIfe will be okay! There are no problems in the world!"

That's a problem for the market; how do you sell these films we screen? We go quite far in terms of challenging our target audience. We deal with films about children with dysfunctional families, war situations in different countries, windows into cultural straitjackets, films that look at how people come of age in different contexts. How do you grow up when you start working at the age of 7 or 8 collecting rubbish on a Filipino rubbish mountain? That's an example of what one of our films dealt with.

We make age recommendations in Kplus. If we make a recommendation of twelve years and above, there are many things that you can deal with at twelve years of age that are not this classic idea of what is childish. If a twelve year old boy in a film is contemplating suicide, surely there will be other twelve year olds in the audience who have the same feelings. The young audiences tell us, "Thank you for that film; I know exactly what that character is going through. I feel exactly the same."

Why is it important to you that exists -- and thrives?

It's important to acknowledge children and adolescents in society, to give them that which they deserve in terms of quality and to challenge them. Many of the films we show unfortunately don't get into the cinemas, and so it's a problem of marketing again. Year after year, we've been breaking it down. I think people in the film industry are becoming more and more aware of the young audience. A director for a film will come and say "I didn't make a children's film." And I say, "I know you didn't, but let's see what happens!" And after the screening, I've had directors say "I didn't realize...I just made a film!" That's something I love: the discovery of a young audience for someone who "just makes films."

Do you like to champion any sort of film in particular?

A lot of the films we screen are not that commercial. It would be nice if we had an industry that would take them on. They're great. They've got great production values.

Children love to cry, they love to laugh, and they love to be frightened at films. Sometimes they hate our films, and sometimes they love them. It's just the same as the films in competition at the Berlinale. There are people that are just enraptured by the film they've just seen, and people who think it's just rubbish.

Children are very direct at telling you if they don't like a film. if they do like a film, they tell you as well. There are children who tell me, "Oh, I really love that really slow Japanese film where nothing much happened. It should be slower! There should be less happening!"

Do you encounter a lot of resistance from people saying you're challenging younger audiences too much?

It's usually the parents, teachers, and educators who attack us for our programming. They'll say "You can't show children that! It's not for children!" And I say ask the young people, and they can handle it. They understand it much better than the adults. All of the trauma of the adult world is often projected onto young spectators because they had a bad experience when they were young or they didn't do their own coming-of-age yet.

The attack from such people is quite aggressive sometimes. I sometimes have a mother and a nine-year-old boy in front of me, and the mother is crying, asking "What is that film about? Can you tell me what happens in the end?" And the boy turns to her and says, "Oh, don't worry about it. Let's go home, and I'll tell you about it." So many experiences on that level where the young people have it in their head to tell the adult generation what's going on.

Many of our films are young people in situations which they didn't create, that they can't control, and doing the best they can, and that's worldwide. This is something our audiences really relate to. The adults are often upset sometimes, because they're the ones who have created these often awful situations!

Have there been any moments when you've really been validated, that you're doing the right thing?

There's the film, "My Suicide"...What was interesting about that was after the screenings, young people came up to the director, thanked him for it. They were really in danger of committing suicide around that time themselves. This film helped give the ability to speak about what they were feeling. It's extraordinary.

Another film from the same year, a young child soldier from Sudan, "War Child," is about the life of Emmanuel Jal who finally found his way to the states, but he was a child soldier, he was stolen from his village. He tells his story on film. He's a rapper, and he sings his songs about life as a child soldier. Him telling his story in rap on stage. It was also a turning point because we had young people in Berlin who were also ex-soldiers in an institution where htey seek asylum, and we had contact with this place and we give them tickets to see these screenings. The woman who's looking after these children from troubled and war-torn places in the world. I told her, you've got all these tickets. Should I give them the easy, soft, fluffy stuff? And she said, "No! Give them the hard stuff! Let them see themselves, even if they can't understand the language."

Billy Bob Thornton On 'Jayne Mansfield's Car': The Major Change He Made In The Edit, '60s Muscle Cars And More

Jessica Kiang — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:57:00 GMT

Contrary to his fearsomely eccentric reputation, we are happy to report that in person, writer/director/actor Billy Bob Thornton is a charmer. Attending The Berlin Film Festival for the premiere of his first directorial outing in over a decade, "Jayne Mansfield's Car" (you can read our review here), he won over press left and right with his mixture of soft-spoken Southern gentlemanliness, and frank rebuttals of some of the more outre rumours that have dogged him throughout his career.

And so we learned that the "vial" of Angelina Jolie's blood he was reported to wear was in fact "a locket with a tiny smear. People made it sound like we were carrying around quart jars of the stuff...," that his phobia of antique furniture is actually based in truth "I just don't like it. It creeps me out..." and that his current relationship with Jolie is that of firm, close friends. He said "I'm so glad she turned to directing. I always wanted her to" and reiterated often how impressed he was with the fruits of her labors, and the scope of her ambition in "In the Land of Blood and Honey."

When we got to sit down with him later, we turned the conversation to his current film. "Jayne Mansfield's Car" is a sixties-set tale of family rifts and reconciliations, particularly focussing on the generational divide between fathers and sons as demonstrated by clashing attitudes to war.

How did you approach writing and casting the female characters within the context of a film that explores the evolution of masculinity?
I was raised with a lot of women, and Southern women are very, very different and amazing in so many ways. Sometimes they're larger than life. Some people could see that performance of [Katherine LaNasa's] and think it might be slightly big, but it's really very authentic and she was perfect for the part. As was Shawnee Smith who plays the sister-in-law.

Shawnee, I was the most surprised and delighted by her of anybody. She didn't just do what I told her, she came up with some things. She made a little part seem like it's through the whole movie, you know? It was her idea to start making out with [Robert Patrick, who plays her husband] in the living room...when an actor does that that's when they can help a director. Writing the female characters or directing them, I tend to be more at ease with women than I am with men. So directing them was no sweat, and writing it, I kind of wrote them based on bits and pieces of different women I knew.

The problem sometimes with writers is...and this goes for film and novels, whatever it is...to be a good writer you need to have a different voice for every person and not your own voice because then you don't have any characters. You've got everybody talking the same. In a lot of commercial movies you notice that. Every character, you can tell is written from the same mind.

Mostly just a vessel to move the plot forward.
Exactly. So this is something I really try to avoid. Tom [Epperson, Thornton's writing partner] and I have always talked about this. You've got to come up with very clear-cut characters and it helps sometimes if you base them on people you may have known. It could be people in your family or somebody down the block or whatever. Let's say you have a woman's character, and she's got a fairly straight story in the thing, nothing particularly surprising, she's a regular woman, a housewife or whatever, and then let's say I take a guy that I knew who had these certain quirks and weird attitudes about things. And then I take that ordinary housewife and I write her as that guy with those traits. Then all of a sudden you have a character.

The person who particularly impressed me on this level was Frances O'Conner. Her role, on paper, is small, and mostly consists of having to react to Skip [Thornton's character], but she invests it with an inherent weirdness that makes it her own. As opposed to just a sounding board.
That's very, very observant of you. I'll tell you, there are two things about that. One is Frances has a very coy manner, and this very quirky flirtatious nature about her, and so that was perfect. The other thing is there were two or three scenes cut from the movie with her where she acted kind of crazy. Three scenes. It was one of the major changes I made in the editing. I haven't told anybody this, but since you seem to care...

Originally Frances' character was supposed to be a lunatic who had been in the asylum. And in having to cut the movie down to a reasonable length and having to figure out how to do this and make the movie better, I cut out the crazy scenes and now it's just these two people who aren't really listened to much by anybody, who meet each other. Skip will just talk to any girl that will talk to him, he just wants to be loved or noticed or accepted, you know? And she...is thrown into this thing in America, but actually finds this strange, poor war-torn guy... like the "Phantom of the Opera" in a way...In cutting that down it became this quirky little romance.

A less-is-more approach?
Yes. So in other words, [her performance is] what's left over from that. What you're seeing in her that looks slightly off was she really was building to that craziness. And if the crazy scenes had never been there, she may not have been like that.

Another aspect of the film, even the title, is the American relationship to the car. How much did that inform the screenplay? Is that something that you have yourself? A love of cars?
Oh yeah, absolutely. My character's whole life is about driving those hot rods and pretending he's still in the clouds. If you remember the scene where they reveal the cars and I take Frances out there to see them? The middle car, the Chevelle, the Hell Cat, that's my car. That's actually mine. And so I'm into '60s muscle cars, that's one of my passions. But the cars of the '60s, those were the last great cars. Everything since then...there's some into the '70s, but since they've tried more and more to make all cars look the same. These cars have personality and because of the title, because of Jayne Mansfield's car and because of the car wrecks, we did purposefully have bits and pieces of car stuff everywhere. The car stuff was a theme.

You just mentioned the sixties setting. And you said elsewhere that that time felt very alive to you. Does today feel less alive by comparison?
Yes, absolutely. Apathetic in a lot of ways. I think people are more interested in their own back yard than anything else. Not that people haven't always been that way, to a degree, but you know especially in America, it takes the economy being bad for them to take notice of what's happening. Because then it affects them directly.

I guarantee you there are plenty of people who are not paying attention to what's happening in Syria right now, instead they're paying attention to the Republican caucus. Let's see who's going to get in here and get jobs back, which I understand why they want it, but also we have to be careful here because the world could come crashing down around us. So I think there's a lot of apathy.

I think people are so desensitized too. I think too much access has made people less interested in life. No magic or mystery anymore. And I think that's part of the problem. I'm not big on Facebook and Twitter and everybody being a star. Once you let everybody be a star then there's no magic.

The cast all seem to turn in incredibly generous performances, no one-steps on anyone else. How did you marshall that as a director?
It was easy. These actors are not...there are actors who might take issue with certain things. "I want another scene" or "why don't I get to stand out there on the porch?" or whatever it is, but these are not those types of actors. I purposely cast actors, not only who are good actors and right for the part but whose personalities fit our vibe on set because we're pretty loose on set. We don’t get into problems and arguments and stuff.

I only get dictatorial when people get like that. I don’t mind telling somebody, "Here's the deal, you're either with this team or you can go home, I don't care. I don't care what your agent says or the studio or anybody else." That's where...as a director you have to really know that you're a leader, it's very important. Like a ship's captain. You know it's like once there's a mutiny...

It's not a democracy.
Exactly, I don't hire people like that and we don't have problems like that on the set. Plus, I knew a lot of them. I mean [Robert] Duvall and John Hurt and I go way back, I've known them for years and years... Robert Patrick and I are old friends, I've directed Robert before. So, that was all easy. And they're pros. And happy to be in a movie like that, an ensemble of terrific actors doing a real story, they're eager to be there.

We shared some details Thornton gave us on "Bad Santa 2" and his next directorial project "And Then We Drove" last week. In other Thornton project news, long-idling Halle Berry reunion "Tulia" looks to be dormant to the point of extinction: "...the thing just kind of disappeared, they never quite got their stuff together and that was several years ago. I was very excited about that project and they never quite got it off the ground. I'm not sure what happened but very likely a financing deal I would guess. Probably that and maybe a director falling out or Halle not wanting this other director, you never know what it's going to be but one way or another I didn't hear about it again."

That's not to suggest Thornton isn't busy; he was flying directly from Berlin to Vancouver to start shooting a new film for "Saw V" director David Hackl. " 'Red Machine' is what I’m going to do when I leave here, in Canada. It's got an environmental message to it; I play a bear tracker up in Alaska."

"Jayne Mansfield's Car," is currently without a U.S. release, but we can only hope that it finds homegrown distribution easier to obtain than financing. Ironically, Thornton's slice of Americana is backed by Russian producer Alexander Rodnyansky. It's a relationship that must have gelled, as Rodnyansky will be signing checks for "And Then We Drove" as well.

Berlinale 2012 Review: 'Comes A Bright Day' A Warm, Enjoyable, Romance When It Stops Trying To Be A Thriller

Jessica Kiang — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:03:00 GMT

Commercials director Simon Aboud takes to feature writing/directing with this London-set film detailing a young man's meet cute with the girl of his dreams, and the violent armed robbery that subsequently throws them together. If that description sounds a little schizophrenic, it's a quality that proves the film's making and its undoing; as a heightened situation that forces our leads to interact, pressure-cooker style, the robbery is an inspired setting, but when the thriller elements are foregrounded, the tonal contortions often prove too much, and the legs go from under it. However Craig Roberts, in his first lead since his breakout role in Richard Ayoade's "Submarine," heads up a totally huggable cast in Imogen Poots and Timothy Spall, with Kevin McKidd and Josef Altin (a now familiar face for "Game of Thrones" fans) on bad guy duties.

Perhaps it's because of the inherent adorability of Mary (Poots) and Sam (Roberts), but in general "Comes A Bright Day" hews closer to the sweeter end of the spectrum, despite threatening us with the notion that the body count could rise at any moment. This mostly does not disrupt our enjoyment of the story, but it does put us in mind of a sweet, well brought up middle class kid trying to convince us of his badassery by wearing his jeans low and trailing chains from his belt: you kind of want to take the film aside and tell it it doesn't have to try so hard to be edgy, we like it for what it really is. This edginess is mostly down to the always reliable Kevin McKidd to engender, as the true psycho of the criminal duo, Cameron (in a jokey reference to British politics, the armed robbers choose the aliases Cameron and Clegg). And while the Virgin Mary-masked McKidd does some sterling work and creates the film's only moments of genuine menace, evenness of tone is not helped by a conceit which sees him occupy a different physical space from the rest of the cast for a large portion of the film. This means that the psychological journey he goes on is a solo one, and cutting to his troubled character fixating and fantasising feels jarring, the more so for the storytelling, getting-to-know-you vibe in the next room over.

And while the film toys with, but then thankfully avoids, the idea of his redemption, its mission to psychologise him simply feels a little misguided, a subplot that doesn't in any way inform the main thrust of the narrative. Back in the other room, however, the three-way bond that is slowly cemented between Sam, Mary and Charlie (Spall) forms the big, warm heart of the film, and all three leads are so eminently watchable that it's a wrench to leave them. Roberts, playing a character a little less deluded than his Oliver in "Submarine" brings a kind of Martin Freeman-style hangdog everyman feel to the role, while Poots' Mary is nearly too good to be true before she reveals a certain unexpected steeliness to her core. Spall, naturally, schools everyone in sight, running the gamut from pompous buffoon to grieving widower to fairy godfather and making it look effortless. Altin, too gives a detailed, believable performance, but it's the central trio the film has us fall in love with.

If it weren't already obvious, the film's happy ending, in which everything works out really rather brilliantly for our young hero, lets slip its true intentions. With the sole exception of Cameron, everyone turns out to be decent -- lovely, in fact -- even a minor character who is the subject of a rather pointless reveal as to his familial relationship to one of our principals. It's narratively unnecessary, but not only is his goodness revealed to the audience, it is reiterated to Sam: this is a film that can't bear to have one of its beloved characters think badly of another for more than a minute or two. And if this impossibly neat, upbeat ending sells out the screenplay's edgier impulses entirely (spare a thought for the person who dies early on, valiantly sacrificing themselves for screenwriting purposes), it also give us pretty much what we want, by that stage: a lot of people we like taking care of each other. Maybe if the characters were darker, the romance more bittersweet or the thriller elements funnier, the various strands would more consistently meet in the middle and the gear changes wouldn't grind quite so much. As it is "Comes a Bright Day" struggles against, but then gives in to its better nature and emerges a fond, character-driven confection, in which the tartness of the premise is overpowered by the sweetness of its aftertaste. [B-]

Berlinale 2012 Review: 'Electrick Children' An Offbeat Indie With A Trio Of Charming Young Leads

Jessica Kiang — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:01:01 GMT

Opening the Generation section of the 2012 Berlinale, which is designed to promote films for, by and/or about young people, we honestly weren't sure what to expect from "Electrick Children," the debut film from writer/director Rebecca Thomas. Colour us pleasantly surprised then to discover that the film is a genuinely enjoyable coming of age tale that compensates, and then some, for its narrative shortcomings with the winningness of the three central performances, from Rory Culkin, Liam Aiken and a luminous Julia Garner. It's really Garner's movie, and young though she is, she imbues a role that could easily have come across as prissy or doltish with a perfect combination of sweetness, naivete and stubbornness that sells even the less convincing nooks and crannies of the story.

Rachel is the 15-year-old daughter of a Mormon preacher, and a strict adherent to a faith that requires her to dress Amish-style, accept absolutely the rule of her father (Billy Zane) and swear off technology entirely. But when the apple arrives in her Eden-like existence, in the form of a cassette recorder and a single blue tape, Rachel's curiosity trumps her piety for once, and she seeks it out, ending up experiencing a moment of knee-trembling ecstasy simply by listening to an illicit cover version of "Hanging on the Telephone" by Blondie. When she is discovered to be pregnant some short time later, she believes the song caused her to immaculately conceive; her mother, who has a more prosaic secret of her own, lays the blame at the door of Rachel's brother, Mr. Will, who is duly banished, while a hasty marriage is arranged for Rachel. Brother and sister run away to Vegas, Rachel trying to track down the voice on the tape who she is convinced is the father of her child, Mr Will desperate to get a confession from Rachel that will clear his name, allow him to return and restore his preacher-in-waiting status.

So yes, this is a bright, intelligent girl who is yet so naive she believes a song got her pregnant (and there is very little suggestion that she is ever dissembling, that she doesn't absolutely believe this). Somehow Garner's performance manages to straddle this contradiction effortlessly, and the quality of her simple faith, when contrasted with the suspicions of her parents who have presumably been telling her miraculous stories from the bible since the day she was born, is such that we kind of accept it and move on. So what would become the central, burning question in another film (whodunnit?) takes a backseat here to a voyage of self-discovery and personal transformation. Featuring enjoyable fish-out-of-water scenarios that steer just clear of twee, as the siblings end up in Las Vegas dossing in a communal flophouse for a bunch of streetsmart musicians and hangers on, notably Clyde (Rory Culkin), the film then takes another sharp turn away from the expected, as Clyde finds himself drawn to the luminous Rachel despite himself, and Mr Will gets his first taste of skateboards and drugs and sex; the experiments of adolescence that his upbringing has denied him. But if Mr Will ultimately rejects the shiny baubles of modern life, Rachel somehow manages to synthesise her religious upbringing with the outside world, and in so doing is revealed not so much to be changed herself as to be the agent of change for everyone around her.

Her scenes with Clyde make this clear, with Culkin especially subtle and impressive in their shared quiet moments; a broken boy whose better nature recognises his shot at redemption even before he does. The "marriage" scene is a lovely case in point: it's a touching, tender, funny two-hander that brims with a tentative trust no less endearing for being a slice of impetuous pie in the sky. Aiken, with a stiffer role and a less engrossing arc, may not get many of these touching moments to himself, but he plays Mr. Will with a gentle integrity that keeps him from just being the comic foil with feet of clay compared to his transcendent sister. But the twists and happenstance coincidences that the film relies on, as so often with this sort of magic realism, become actually problematic in its third act, with deus ex machina reveals and acts of, possibly, God conspiring to get everyone who matters into a single car, with a single mission in the closing minutes. It's too pat, and feels too written and directed, creating a schism between us and the characters we've invested so much in to that point. And seeing as the film has up till then skilfully tempered its sweet fluffiness with darker elements (this is a story marked by teen pregnancy, incest allegations and religious oppression, after all) it's sad to see that pretty much go out the window of a certain Mustang in the closing, wish-fulfilment stages.

So, good as it is, with a catchy high concept and hip indie sensibility, it could have been so much better. Culkin, Aiken and Garner, however, can count the film as a pretty unmitigated triumph from their points of view. The boys give well-observed but also generous performances, providing great support but graciously ceding centre stage to Garner. And, not to belabour the point, she is really great as the guileless Rachel whom the camera doesn't so much love as fall at the feet of in worship. If she's not the next big thing, she's probably the next, next big thing, and we're happy to have caught this early sampler of her talents. [B]

Here Are 19 Reviews From Berlinale 2012

Indiewire — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:29:01 GMT

This year the Berlin Film Festival had a diverse group of films screening and Indiewire was on site to see as many of them as possible. Click through the links below to read all of Indiewire's 19 reviews from this year's festival:

Melissa Leo is Raw and the Mood is Haunting, but 'Francine' Still Needs a Story
While "Francine" distinguishes itself with atmospheric strangeness, Cassidy and Shatzky never create a satisfying whole.

Even With James Franco, Porn Tale 'Cherry' Bombs
While the character's motives make sense, the movie as a whole struggles to understand them, setting "Cherry" on a downward slope to mediocrity and half-formed storytelling where even the supposedly enervating sex lacks any hint of joy.

Miguel Gomes' 'Tabu' Delivers a Brilliantly Poetic Look at Colonialism, But What's With the Crocodiles?
A head-scratchingly lyrical immersion into colonialist metaphor and historical memory, Portuguese director Miguel Gomes' third feature "Tabu" reaches for the dreamlike experiences of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's oeuvre with a bold structure that defies genre specifics.

Ursula Meier's 'Sister' is a Bittersweet Crowdpleaser
Evoking a lost childhood with bittersweet intent, "Sister" bears the mark of a filmmaker with supreme control over her material.

Billy Bob Thornton's 'Jayne Mansfield's Car' Isn't As Terrible As It Looks
The best thing one can say about "Jayne Mansfield's Car," Billy Bob Thornton's loopy family drama about a group of eccentric American southerners in 1969, is that it's not quite as bad as it looks.

Masterful Black Comedy 'Everybody in Our Family' Demonstrates the Best Qualities of Modern Romanian Cinema
A masterwork of black comedy and suspense, director Radu Jude's "Everybody In Our Family" typifies the best qualities of contemporary Romanian cinema.

'Captive,' Brillante Mendoza's Awful Kidnapping Movie, Makes the Case for a Dumber Version of Itself
At two hours, the best thing that can be said about "Captive" is that it makes you feel the sheer longevity that the hostages had to endure, but that's not enough to salvage this mercilessly redundant thriller.

Italian Prisoners Do Shakespeare in High-Concept Doc 'Caesar Must Die'
The prospects of criminals performing Shakespeare has been explored in conventional terms by the 2005 documentary "Shakespeare Behind Bars;" sibling directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's "Caesar Must Die" takes a far more provocative approach.

At 2.5 Hours, Does Kevin MacDonald's Doc 'Marley' Add Really Anything New to the Rastafarian's Tale?
Despite its breadth, "Marley" delivers little more than a well-crafted overview sure to please diehard fans while leaving others unmoved.

Immaculate Conception and Rock Music Are a Surprisingly Effective Combo in 'Electrick Children'
While maintaining an amusing concept and sustained by the thoroughly sweet nature of its young protagonists, "Electrick Children" pulls of the neat trick of maintaining credibility, never allowing the magic realist hook to devolve into quirky American indie clichés.

Kirsten Sheridan's 'Dollhouse' a Fun and Messy Improv Delight That Places Young Hooligans In an Unlikely Setting
"Dollhouse" contains a deceptively simple premise that benefits greatly from its free-form style.

'Soldier/Citizen' Gets to the Core of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict With Startling Precision
Despite the way it tussles with polemics, "Soldier/Citizen" is essentially an apolitical plea for better methods of social discourse.

Alain Gomis' 'Today' Profoundly Captures a Dying Man's Final Day, Then Struggles Along With Him
Writer-director Gomis front loads "Today" with good ideas and then promptly runs out of them.

Opening Night's 'Farewell My Queen' a Smart, Personal Take on the French Revolution from Benoit Jacquot
Jacquot, who co-wrote the screenplay with Gilles Tauran from Chantal Thomas' novel, hints at a fascinating conceit -- namely, that it's possible to analogize the French Revolution to the greater sexual one nearly 200 years down the road.

'Young Adult' Isn't as Awkward as Jason Reitman Thinks
There are glimmers of dark brilliance in this rough assessment of a woman out of synch with the world around her; indeed, the movie falls short only by not following its disgruntled heroine far enough off the deep end.

'Haywire'
Featuring some of the best onscreen hand-to-hand combat since "The Bourne Ultimatum," Soderbergh's relentless technique foregrounds Carano's skill over the perfunctory narrative, which contains plenty of shadowy conspiracies rendered irrelevant by a payoff that mainly involves well-timed punches and kicks set to David Holmes' brassy Bond-like score.

'Extremely Loud and Incrediby Close' is Not the 9/11 Movie You've Been Waiting For
First things first: "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" is not the 9/11 movie you've been waiting for. It's not a reflection of some neatly demarcated passage of time that would allow a movie like it to exist. Such a movie doesn't exist in any precise, objective way--but if it did, it would surely take the form of something different from the mopey and sloven drama of "Extremely Loud," an adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's 2005 novel buried in overweening pathos.

'Keep the Lights On' Taps Into a Personal Drama With Ease
Sachs' quiet, observational style conveys the rich texture of the characters' ever-changing behavior. It's deeply affecting, even when nothing much happens.

'In the Land of Blood and Honey' is a Surprsingly Effective Debut for Angelina Jolie
"In the Land of Blood and Honey" breaks no fresh ground in the tradition of staid, grim war dramas from which it hails, but Jolie successfully capitalizes on a juicy premise that finds Bosnia woman Ajla (Zana Marjanovic) falling into an affair with Danijel (Goran Kostic), the Serbian head of a prison camp where she's held captive.

DISPATCH FROM BERLIN: Why 'Caesar Must Die' Won the Golden Bear

Eric Kohn — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:23:10 GMT

The odds were not in Shakespeare's favor. "Caesar Must Die," octogenarian Italian sibling directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's docudrama about a production of "Julius Caesar" enacted by prisoners, screened early in the Berlin International Film Festival to a solid but not overwhelmingly positive reception.

The following days saw plenty of insta-duds ("Captive," "Meteor"), emboldening the tendency of Berlin regulars to cry foul about the standards for Berlin's competition. But there were also enough widely acclaimed choices (including Christian Petzold's "Barbara," which premiered the same day as "Caesar Must Die" and won the Silver Bear for Best Direction) to make the memory of the Tavianis' curious work fade to the background.

Film critic Neil Young, who specializes in generating precise statistics for festival winners on his website Jigsaw Lounge, listed the odds of its win at 11/1, far below Swiss director Ursula Meier's "Sister," which eventually won a special jury prize -- possibly a consolation prize handed out by some portion of this year's jury less thrilled about the Golden Bear's eventual destination.

Then again, that jury -- headed by legendary U.K. director Mike Leigh -- did find room for some of the more obvious selections. In a conversation with Indiewire on Friday, film critic Shane Danielsen chose Kim Nguyen's African war drama "War Witch" as the competition film deserving of the top prize, while his colleague Andrew Grant singled out "Barbara." At the end of the day, "War Witch" landed an acting prize while Petzold nabbed the Silver Bear.

Though some Berlin attendees think Leigh and his jury missed the mark, in retrospect the selection of "Caesar Must Die" for the Golden Bear makes a lot more sense than the headlines suggest. With its expressive mixture of black-and-white and color photography to illuminate the metaphorical escape of theater for its incarcerated performers, the film was an enthralling gimmick incredibly well-realized in sheer cinematic skill. Perhaps more importantly, "Caesar Must Die" was among the least divisive of the competition films. A few people loved it and a lot of people liked it, but hardly anyone hated it.

Additionally, the fact that these directors still create provocative work when other filmmakers half their age have already considered retirement invites immediate admiration. In that sense, the Golden Bear amounts to a lifetime achievement award for the Tavianias (expect retrospectives to accompany the theatrical release of "Caesar Must Die").

It's hard to speak to a jury's decisions without knowing their process. But if we can assume that Leigh chose a film that he truly enjoyed more than the rest, one can see how "Caesar Must Die" appealed to him. With its emphasis on the nature of performance, as the prisoners slip in and out of Shakespeare's text and discover aspects of their true identities in the material, the rehearsal process begs comparison to the improvised nature of Leigh's own production methods.

Whatever the reasons for the Taviani triumph, the element of surprise associated with its win speaks to Berlin's unwieldy identity on the world stage. Longtime Berlin attendees routinely denigrate the festival and its director, Dieter Kosslick, for putting mediocre films in prominent places. There's no question it could use a cleaner approach.

However, this first-timer at Berlin managed to see a number of terrific movies, including a few near-masterpieces in expected places ("Tabu" and "Sister" in competition) as well as some stunning work that basically came out of nowhere ("Everybody In Our Family," "Solider/Citizen," "The Delay"), while largely avoiding the obvious duds. As a result, I found the program dense enough to offer enormous possibilities. No matter how many qualms the selection invites, Berlin is a complex, necessary mark on the festival calendar, and it remains -- as this year proved beyond a doubt -- entirely unpredictable.

'Submarine' Star Craig Roberts Talks Berlin Pic 'Comes A Bright Day' & New Projects With Derick Martini & Cillian Murphy

Jessica Kiang — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:56:01 GMT

One of the more impressive screen debuts of last year came from 21-year-old Welsh actor Craig Roberts. A British children's TV veteran (he was the star of "The Story Of Tracy Beaker" and "Young Dracula" among others), Roberts broke out as the pretentious, deluded hero of Richard Ayoade's charming "Submarine," coming across as equal parts Dustin Hoffman, Bud Cort and John Gordon Sinclair (from "Gregory's Girl"), and it seemed to mark the birth of a star.

Indeed, Roberts has found himself in demand since the film debuted at Toronto back in 2010, with new films on the way including Sundance entries "Red Lights" with Robert De Niro, Cillian Murphy and Elizabeth Olsen, and teen rom-com "The First Time," and he went back to his home turf to make the heist comedy "Comes A Bright Day," from first-time director Simon Aboud, where Roberts plays a man taken hostage during a bank robbery, who falls for a fellow captive (Imogen Poots). The film also stars Timothy Spall and Kevin McKidd, and premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last week, where we caught up with Roberts to talk about projects past, present and future.

What did you think of the reception the film got last night?
Really good. It did get a really good response. I mean the first time I saw the movie was at a cast and crew screening which I will never do again. It's a pretty weird experience. But seeing it last night with a live audience was pretty cool. I'm really happy with it and I think Simon [Aboud, the director] should be proud, it's a really good movie and they seemed to really like it. We didn't die a death on stage in the Q&A so that's good.

So how comfortable are you watching yourself on screen?
I hate watching myself. I hate most people and most actors, I hate myself even more.

You're an equal opportunity hater?
I do like some actors, but I don't like watching myself at all, I didn’t watch the whole movie last night. I just came for the last ten minutes, there was enough laughs in that last ten minutes to boost my ego so that was fine. But yeah, I don't think you should like watching yourself.

So your two most recent leads have been with first time directors. I'm wondering is there something that you respond to in their lack of experience? Are you like the old hand on set?
What's really great is if you do their first movie, they'll stick with you. Especially with "Submarine," because that was my first movie, I didn't really know what to do. I really just took Richard's advice a lot of the time. And coming into "Comes A Bright Day," I felt comfortable on set.

Do you notice a marked difference in the atmosphere on set? Do you feel that they allow you more freedom?
I suppose. But it all comes down to how much time you have. I did a film called "Red Lights" which was directed by Rodrigo Cortes ["Buried"], who wasn't a first time director, and that was the first time I worked with...no, actually, "Jane Eyre" as well, with Cary Fukunaga. But especially with Rodrigo, he was a little bit more intense. but I quite like that. Compared to Richard [Ayoade] who was very laid back. You'd probably never hear Richard raise his voice, ever.

So has your life changed in particular since "Submarine?"
Yeah, yeah. pretty much I mean I don't play as much X-Box which is the most depressing thing for me.

So this acting career thing is totally getting in the way of your gaming?
Big time. I'm from a kids TV background, and not a lot of people make that jump, so I'm very grateful for "Submarine" and for that to be my first movie and to play such a cool character, such a cool guy.

While also being a complete dork.
Yeah, exactly. But yeah, my life has changed. Like I get free clothes and stuff. Like Giorgio Armani gave me clothes to come to the festival.

Do you get to keep those?
I don’t know. I think if I stain them, probably so. It's just mad, and I now get to look at scripts, and I now have the chance to choose what I do

Have you got something lined up?
Yeah I have quite a lot lined up this year, which is probably going to be a busy year for me. There's a few things in America and a few things in the UK. I'm also writing a TV show.

Are you? That's exciting.
Yeah it's about the fall of an actor's career. I'm just planning my own career basically.

The U.S./U.K. thing was something I wanted to ask you about. How different do you find it acting in U.S. productions. Is it just a factor of money?
It is a factor of money and like food. They have a lot of food, Americans, on set. That craft table thing, that's pretty incredible. We just have tea and coffee. That's pretty cool. I didn't know how the Americans would sort of react to me when I went over there. I'm very self deprecating , and I'm not "I’m great, you should employ me," so it was a bit weird, but I think they sort of got it and I want to work over there. I've got some work over there.

"Red Lights" was your first U.S. gig?
I think it was "Red Lights" and then "The First Time."

Are you playing an American?
In "Red Lights" I am, in "The First Time," no I'm not. I really liked "The First Time," I saw it when I was in America recently and I'm pretty happy with it, it's pretty funny. [Director] Jon Kasdan, he's great, he's really great. He needs to sleep though, he doesn't sleep much.

So on "Red Lights" specifically, that's a pretty stellar cast you were working with, was that intimidating at all?
Oh no, no. De Niro? Please. No, yes, it was, actually and the most surprising one for me was Elizabeth Olsen, she's really good, she's incredible.

Have you seen "Martha Marcy May Marlene"?
Yeah I did, she's really good in that. I think she's going to have a big career. But I made really good friends with Cillian [Murphy] on it, I think we're going to do another movie together, a World War II movie. I mean I can never take anything seriously so it will probably be like "Tropic Thunder."

That in itself would be fantastic. So a war film with Cillian Murphy?
Yeah I think that may go this year which will be pretty cool. It was supposed to go last year, in summertime, but it went through with funding, you know how independent movies are, so it's going this year.

Has the film got a title?
"Wayfaring Strangers." And I've got some stuff coming out with, you know Funny or Die? The TV show I'm writing, they liked the stuff, so that should come out pretty soon.

And you're doing something with Derick Martini?
Yeah, the director of "Lymelife." It's called "I Am My Family's Secret." It's an American thing, and I think it's at Paramount right now which is pretty cool. I don't know what's happening with it but I think it may go this year. That’s with Emma Roberts.

Can you tell us about your character?
Yeah it's about two brothers. The guy's about to leave for university and his parents tell him something interesting and basically it changes his life. It's about two brothers who are pretty much on opposite scales.

Now that you've acted in things with Elizabeth Olsen for example, do you feel that you're a part of the vanguard of this new generation?
I suppose, there's a new wave of a sort. Like I am good friends with John Boyega ["Attack the Block"], for example. But then again, these lists of like 20 faces to watch, what do they mean? I'm a face to watch until I've done something bad, and then you no longer want to watch my face.

Pretty much, we're all waiting for you to slip up. So tell me what was the challenge for you in this role?
Mainly the studio, being in such a tight space, that was quite intense. Especially because I had to sit on my arse for a long time with my hands tied up. I know it's weird to say but I genuinely enjoyed it. There wasn't a point where I was like "Fuck, this is really hard." I really enjoyed it. Simon was a great director, Imogen [Poots] and Timothy [Spall] and Anthony Welsh plays my best friend in it and is fantastic, Kevin McKidd, the cast is a great cast.

I think I was looking for similarities between the character that you played here, and Oliver Tate from "Submarine". I think what I came to was that you seem to be drawn to characters who...
Mumble a lot?

Ha, yes. They seem to have this need to represent themselves as something other then they are. And I'm wondering if that's a desire...as an actor who does that for a living, is that something that you sympathize with?
I'm just playing myself mainly. I just mumble a lot anyway. And misrepresent myself. In a way yes, I just thought that this character was a lot cooler in a way, on the outside, but he's still very much insecure, not up for taking chances. But they're different, I mean, no one's in Oliver's world, I mean he's in a world of his own.

A world of Richard Ayoade's own? Yes, exactly. Richard is Oliver.

"Comes A Bright Day," "Red Lights" and "The First Time" will all be released later in 2012.

'The Descendants' & 'Midnight In Paris' Win Top Prizes At WGA Awards, 'Caesar Must Die' Takes Golden Bear At Berlin

Oliver Lyttelton — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:02:21 GMT

A week from now, the Oscars will be done and dusted for another year, and the movie conversation will drift away from prestige pictures to the "John Carter" and "Wrath of the Titans" of the world. And as of this weekend, the last of the major precursor awards have wrapped up. Did we see, as has been the overwhelming trend of the season, more success for the juggernaut that is "The Artist?"

Not so much, actually. While it's not to say that the silent hit won't win big at the Oscars next year, this weekend was all about Alexander Payne's "The Descendants." The George Clooney-topping comedy-drama might still be a best-picture longshot, but last night it managed to beat the competition, which included "Moneyball" and "Hugo," to win Best Adapted Screenplay at the Writer's Guild of America Awards, with Payne and co-writers Jim Rash and Nat Faxon honored. It marked the end of a good few days, with the screenplay also winning the USC Scripter Awards, which focuses on adaptations, as well as an ACE Eddie Award (presented by the editors' guild) for Best Drama.

The other big prize at the WGA, for Best Original Screenplay, was won by Woody Allen for "Midnight In Paris." While Allen is the presumptive front-runner in the category in the Oscars, it's complicated by the fact that Michel Hazanavicius' script was WGA-ineligible, so it could end up differently next Sunday night. Other writing prizes were won by Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega for documentary "Better This World," with Eric Roth taking the lifetime achievement-ish Laurel Award, and "The Help" director Tate Taylor taking the conscience-y Paul Selvin Award. "Modern Family," "Breaking Bad," "Homeland" "Too Big To Fail" and "Cinema Verite" all won TV awards. [Indiewire]

The Eddies meanwhile, split into three categories, with "The Artist" taking the comedy/musical prize, while the non-Oscar nominated "Rango" won for animation. The category is still wide-open, and we wouldn't expect "The Descendants" to convert at the Oscars, but between that and the two screenplay prizes, it does suggest a wide-ranging love for the film that could see it cause a few upsets next Sunday night. [In Contention]

Away from the Hollywood award season, meanwhile, the Berlin Film Festival wrapped up over the weekend, with the awards being given out on Saturday night, and as ever, the love was spread around. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's "Caesar Must Die," a docu-drama about criminals performing a production of "Julius Caesar" in prison, was a surprise winner of the Golden Bear from Mike Leigh's jury, with Bence Fliegauf's "Just The Wind" taking the Jury Grand Prize. Christian Petzold won Best Director for critical favorite "Barbara," while Mikkel Boe Folsgaard and 15-year-old newcomer Rachel Mwanza were Best Actor and Actress respectively, for "A Royal Affair" and "War Witch" -- the former film also won Best Screenplay for co-writers Arcel & Rasmus Heisterberg.

Two other critical favorites, Miguel Gomes' "Tabu" and Ursula Meier's "Sister," had to settle for lesser awards; the first won the Alfred Bauer Prize, for innovation, while Meier's film got a Special Mention from the Jury. It doesn't seem at first glance that any will share the worldwide success of last year's Golden Bear victor "A Separation," but we have to applaud Berlin to continuing to march to the beat of their own drum. You can find a full list of winners over at Indiewire.

Berlin Fest Review & Prize Round-up: 'A Royal Affair,' 'Tabu,' Thornton's 'Jayne Mansfield's Car'

Matt Mueller — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:08:35 GMT

Saturday the Berlin Film Festival dispensed its prizes, and the general mood pervading the air was that the docu-style feature “Caesar Must Die” by veteran Italian duo Paolo and Vittorio Taviani was a surprise Golden Bear winner in a weaker than usual Competition year. Last year’s festival was the launchpad for “A Separation” but not a single title in 2012’s line-up garnered anywhere near as much enthusiasm or acclaim. During the festival, Berlinale regular Christian Petzold’s East German melodrama “Barbara,” Swiss filmmaker Ursula Meier’s “Sister,” about a boy living with his jobless sister (Lea Seydoux) near a ski resort, and Miguel Gomes’ astonishing “Tabu” had all been tipped for Berlin’s top prize, but each was recognised instead in other categories by Mike Leigh’s international jury: Petzold with the Silver Bear for Best Director, Meier with a Special Award Silver Bear, and “Tabu” with the Alfred Bauer prize for a work of particular innovation.

Elsewhere, Nikolaj Arcel’s well-received Danish period piece “A Royal Affair” landed the Best Actor prize for Mikkel Boe Folsgaard’s brilliant turn as an emotionally unstable King Christian VII and Best Script for Arcel and co-writer Rasmus Heisterberg; Best Actress went to Rachel Mwanza for the Congolese civil-war drama “Rebelle (War Witch)”; Lutz Reitemeier’s cinematography took the Outstanding Artistic Contribution award for Wang Quan’an’s Chinese epic “White Deer Plain”; and the Grand Prix Silver Bear went to Bence Fliegauf’s “Just The Wind.” Of Berlin’s many other juries, the Best First Feature Award (and its 50,000 Euro prize) went to Boudewijn Koole’s “Kauwboy” while the gay-themed Teddy Awards opted for Ira Sachs’ Sundance entry “Keep The Lights On” as Best Feature.

Between Shooting Stars jury duties and numerous interviews, I didn’t see as many titles as I would have liked this year. Of those I did catch, I’d give “A Royal Affair” the best shot at making a post-festival splash. Heralded even before it screened, “A Royal Affair” more than lived up to expectations, a beautifully-crafted costume drama outlining an extraordinary true chapter in European history in which a German doctor (Mads Mikkelsen) rose to a position of immense power in the 18th-century Danish royal court thanks to his friendship with Folsgaard’s aforementioned king, only to be undone by an affair with the queen (captivating Swedish newcomer Alicia Virkander). Arcel doesn’t break any new ground but nor does he put a foot wrong, bringing imagination, intrigue and intelligence to the compelling story, and playing out the Enlightenment-thinking doctor’s rise and fall against the backdrop of religious conservatives fighting to stop the tide of progress sweeping them down history’s drain.

“Tabu” is a Portuguese oddity that was certainly mesmeric in places and had cineastes salivating, but judging from the response of the paying public with whom I watched it, will baffle as many as it pleases. Featuring painterly black-and-white compositions, a Colonial-metaphor narrative and a dialogue-free second half (characters’ mouths move but we only hear their story in narration), it comes steeped in dream-like nostalgia and possesses a wickedly dry sense of humour as epitomised by a prologue showing a melancholic explorer sacrificing himself to a crocodile (a recurring beast from start to finish) and somnambulant but amusing first-half exchanges between three older women in a Lisbon tower block.

Billy Bob Thornton has avoided stepping behind the camera since his bitter experiences with Miramax on “All The Pretty Horses” and I’m sad to say that the rust (and lack of confidence) shows with “Jayne Mansfield’s Car,” a Southern-fried comedy-drama hampered by an unfocused and formulaic culture-clash narrative. That’s not to say there’s no enjoyment to be had. Set in 1969 Alabama, it features a clan of unhappy eccentrics who discover their estranged matriarch has died and her new, English family are bringing the body back to bury as per her wishes.

With a star-packed cast including Robert Duvall, John Hurt, Kevin Bacon, Robert Patrick and Frances O’Connor, pithy exchanges are guaranteed and the script has its share of fun, boisterous sequences. But it also contains a few howlers, not least a public squabble between Hurt and his stiff-upper-lipped son (Ray Stevenson) and an excruciating bit where Thornton’s emotionally stunted middle son masturbates furiously as O’Connor jiggles about in the nude reciting "The Charge Of The Light Brigade." During moments like these, “Sling Blade” feels like a very distant memory. Thornton’s latest arrived in Berlin without a distributor and mostly negative reviews won’t help its cause, but the great cast should help it find a home somewhere.

Adopt Films Completes Berlinale Acquisition Hat Trick With 'Barbara'

Peter Knegt — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:40:16 GMT

Adopt Films continued its aggressive buying spree at the Berlin International Film Festival, picking up all U.S. rights to Christian Petzold's acclaimed "Barbara," which just won the Silver Bear for best director at the festival.

The deal was negotiated by Match Factory’s Brigitte Suárez and Jenny Walendy and Adopt Films co-managing executives Jeff Lipsky and Tim Grady.

It follows Adopt Film's pick ups of Paolo and Vittorio Taviani’s Golden Bear winner "Caesar Must Die" as well as Ursula Meier’s “Sister” (which won a special jury prize). Combined, its a very impressive feat for the new company, which has yet to release a film. The maiden release by Adopt Films -- “The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye" -- an award-winner at last year’s Berlin Film Festival -- opens on March 8th.

Full press release below.

Adopt Films acquired all U.S. rights to Christian Petzold’s “Barbara,” only hours before it was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Director at the just-concluded 2012 Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival). The deal was negotiated by Match Factory’s Brigitte Suárez and Jenny Walendy and Adopt Films co-managing executives Jeff Lipsky and Tim Grady.

Set in East Berlin in 1980 “Barbara” is the riveting and compassionate story of the eponymous pediatric surgeon whose desire to emigrate to the west has banished her to a small country hospital far from freedom, and Andre, a fellow doctor who also finds himself a prisoner of sorts, having recently overseen a procedure which resulted in tragedy for two of his patients. It is a story of two doctors who, by dint of circumstance, discover feelings of trust they thought were no longer possible on their side of the fence. It’s about the attraction that ignites between Barbara and Andre, and the improbable bonds that Barbara forms with her patients, often putting herself in jeopardy in the process.

Nina Hoss plays the lead role in “Barbara,” marking her fifth collaboration with writer-director Petzold. Ronald Zehrfeld, Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Mark Waschke, and Rainer Bock co-star in the film. “Barbara” was produced by Florian Koerner von Gustorf and Michael Weber at Schramm Film.

Lipsky said of the acquisition, “Simply stated “Barbara” is a monumental achievement. It humanizes with penetrating intensity a time and place that were most forbidding. It is the work of a master filmmaker, supported by a cast that could give a master class on their craft in any country in the world. It is the sort of story that unites cultures, while being an intimate drama at once both uncompromising and emotionally satisfying.”

Adopt Films plans to release the film theatrically in December and will mount an Academy Award campaign for Petzold and his lead actors.

The maiden release by Adopt Films, “The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye,” an award-winner at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, opens on March 8th. Adopt’s upcoming slate includes Debbie Goodstein’s “Mighty Fine,” Anne Emond’s Toronto Festival hit “Nuit #1,” and 2012 Berlin Film Festival competition entries Ursula Meier’s “Sister” and Paolo and Vittorio Taviani’s “Caesar Must Die,” which was awarded the Golden Bear as Best Picture.

Berlinale 2012 Review: Kirsten Sheridan's 'Dollhouse' Is A Dynamic, Delirious But Ultimately Downbeat Social Allegory

Jessica Kiang — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:51:07 GMT

As we all are with films set in cities we know well, this writer is particularly critical of films set, partially or wholly, in Dublin. So it's no mean praise when we state that Kirsten Sheridan's third feature, "Dollhouse," by turns riotous and menacing, is as accurate a portrait of the interactions, language and attitudes of a particular segment of Irish youth as we have seen on screen, probably ever. Set in a single location over the course of a single night's bacchanalian partying, the improvisational approach brings real authenticity to the proceedings, even as the film nods to "Lord of the Flies" and "A Clockwork Orange." Twists and surprises abound right up to the (somewhat problematic) ending, but the throughlines are clear: this is a film about youth, the tension between feeling disaffected and disenfranchised and feeling exuberantly, indestructibly alive; and it is a film about class, the warring instincts of admiration, jealousy and scorn that colour a middle class view of those lower on the social scale, and vice versa.

Five young friends, identified en masse as coming from less-than-privileged backgrounds, invade a well-appointed designer seaside home, proceed to take copious amounts of drugs and booze, and in the local parlance "trash the gaff" -- they joyously smash, deface and destroy the place in every manner possible. Amidst the drink and drugs, the games and tests and sexual activity, Jeannie (Seana Kerslake) is the quiet centre of the storm, not partaking in the bedlam with quite as much uncomplicated enthusiasm, but not preventing it either. When the first of her secrets is revealed, and we discover that this is in fact Jeannie's family home, the rest of the gang respond to this perceived betrayal in different ways; with confusion, hurt and occasionally violence, both emotional and physical. The class issues are highlighted further when clean-cut Robbie (Jack Reynor) calls over from next door, initially complaining about the noise, then recognising Jeannie in the chaos and becoming another uneasy member of the group, which continues to fragment and coalesce like a living organism.

The resulting dynamic that doesn't so much shift as veer wildly from threatening and predatory to caring and protective is brilliantly evoked by Sheridan and her fine cast of unknown, and in some cases non-professional actors. As is that very recognisable sense, for anyone who has ever done the partying-all-night thing, of going through phases of chemical highs and emotional lows, and how time takes on a strangely elastic surreal quality. Indeed a scene in which one of the guys takes a shower is remarkable for its presentation of the sort of caesura you rarely see in party scenes: he looks so bone-tired, so fed up, and you know for that moment he is wishing it would all just stop. But a few minutes and a pill or two later and he'll back to drawing on the walls and gleefully throwing furniture off the balcony.

But it's perhaps a factor of the film's slight over-length that these lulls in between the highs, while undoubtedly honest to the situation, do eventually start to wear on the viewer; we see that rhythm play itself out just one too many times. Similarly, in creating a mystery around Jeannie, the film is over-reliant on shots of her reacting blankly or meeting a question with silence, and ultimately we lose some interest in her. But the film's biggest flaw, to our mind, is the divisive ending. In her two other features to date ("Disco Pigs," "August Rush") Sheridan has shown a certain penchant for a kind of miraculous or perhaps hyper-coincidental lyricism, which is not a bad thing in its own right, but when used to resolve what has until then been a hard-edged, real-feeling story, it comes off as a bit at odds. We've no intention of spoiling it, but suffice to say the film closes with a kind of tableaux-like staginess that is a long way away from where it's been. It also results in one of the few clunky lines of dialogue. When one of the characters says "See you again," the truth is written all over everyone's faces but the reply comes, "No. We won't." It feels scripted, stilted and entirely on the nose by contrast with the rest of the film's naturalistic vibe.

However there really is much more here to admire than critique. We'd hazard that often onscreen drug scenes are a bore -- it feels like the point of tripping is to have a completely subjective experience so trying to describe it ends up like trying to describe a dream, and we all know there's nothing less interesting than someone else's dream. Yet Sheridan navigates this perilous route well, only attempting a first-person feel on a single occasion, and the rest of the time observing our characters hallucinating or euphoric or whatever, without attempting to show us what they're seeing from the inside. Paradoxically it brings a much greater sense of proximity: we might not feel like we are any one of them, but we do feel, absolutely, like we're there.

The mastery of tonal control, aforementioned lapses aside, is also impressive. It is not easy to create a framework in which moments of sweetness and understanding can sit believably beside scenes of genuine menace and creeping dread, but here all that is achieved. And huge props have to go to the young cast (Shane Curry, Ciaran McCabe, Kate Stanley Brennan, Johnny Ward, as well as Reynor and Kerslake), who all fling themselves into this experiment with absolute conviction and inhabit their characters completely. "Dollhouse" is at times an uncomfortable watch, and it is not without its problems and its pessimisms. But it also thrums with life and vigour, and is utterly authentic to the cadences of Dublin speech and the pattern of youthful relationships, how easily they are formed and broken, and how, when we kick in the door of life to gain access to something we've been denied, we may not find what we expected. It is, in the end, approaching hangover and all, one hell of a fucking party. [B+]