By Paul Risker. If a film is a journey that starts with a germ of an idea and grows into a fully formed creative and narrative entity, then Argentinian filmmaker Javier Diment’s The Rotten Link (2015) encapsulates this journey that every filmmaker is required to steer and guide their film […]
Spotlight on the “Final Girl”: Akasha Villalobos and Danielle Evon Ploeger on Last Girl Standing
By Paul Risker. Billy Wilder, during his conversations with Charlotte Chandler (Billy Wilder: Nobody’s Perfect: A Personal Biography (2004)) was undecided whether The Apartment’s (1960) romantic leads Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine would remain together. The contemplation alone, however, is enough to infer that a film continues to exist beyond […]
Strength and Tenacity: Why Giving Up Isn’t an Option for Angela Dixon in Never Let Go
By Cleaver Patterson. The sensitive subject of child abduction is brought to life in the new thriller Never Let Go. On the eve of its first European screening at this year’s FILM4 FrightFest, the film’s star Angela Dixon spoke to Cleaver Patterson about the challenges she, and its director/writer Howard […]
Frontiers of Nordic Noir: on the Series Jordskott
By Paul Risker. The storytelling process in film and television is made up of perspectives. There are the perspectives from in front of and behind the camera as well as the voyeuristic perspective of the audience. While often an interview will engage with a single one of these perspectives, our […]
Grim History: Robert Gliński on The Battle for Warsaw
By Paul Risker. Robert Gliński’s The Battle for Warsaw (2014), which was originally titled Stones for the Rampart before it was given a title with a more dramatic resonance, brings the director’s career full circle. His early work focused upon the Soviet occupation of Poland, while Stones for the Rampart […]
Going Solo: Jem Cohen on Counting
By David A. Ellis. Filmmaker Jem Cohen was born in Afghanistan in August 1962. His father was working there for the United States Agency for International development, and Jem remained in Kabul for around two years before returning to the states. He went to public school before attending Wesleyan University […]
Resonance in the Present: Saul Dibb on Suite Française
By Paul Risker. There is a touch of irony to British writer and director Saul Dibb’s career, whose most recent recent feature Suite Française (2015) is an adaptation of Auschwitz victim Irène Némirovsky’s two unfinished novellas. The most poignant moment in the whole film is a daughter’s (Denise Epstein-Dauplé) words […]
“There is No ‘Independent’ Cinema in Iran”: A Conversation with Producer Mostafa Azizi
By Hooman Razavi. Since February 2015, producer Mostafa Azizi has been detained in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison (when visiting an ailing parent) on a bogus charge of endangering national security and insulting the supreme leader. Azizi is sentenced to 8 years and is now waiting for an appeal, supposedly to […]
All About Asking Questions: Andrew Bujalski on Results
By Paul Risker. A film’s journey is comprised of multiple steps. The next step or chapter for writer-director Andrew Bujalski’s fifth feature Results (2015), following its warm reception at SXSW and Sundance, is one of continuation, as the transfer of ownership from filmmaker to audience continues. Known for his comedies: […]
Every Project is Unique: Enzo Cilenti on the Series Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
By Paul Risker. “Every project is unique,” explained Enzo Cilenti who recently delved into the past to explore a tale of magic in the Industrial Age in the BBC’s adaptation of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (2015). Cilenti is no stranger to the small screen having appeared in Game […]
