Jul 18, 2014
By Austin Trunick
Web Exclusive
It’s been 13 years since Audrey Tautou captured the hearts of cinema fans the world over as Amélie, the adorably meddlesome and pure-hearted waif at the center of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s global hit of the same name. She’s played a sweeping variety of characters in the years since her breakthrough, from historical figures (Coco Before Chanel) to maniacs (He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not). Save for a lone Hollywood venture opposite Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code and Stephen Frears’ British thriller, Dirty Pretty Things, the majority of Tautou’s work has been in her native France.
Tautou’s newest feature is Mood Indigo, directed by the endlessly inventive Michel Gondry. Best known for films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep, most readers here will always associate him with his innovative music video work for artists such as Bjork, The White Stripes, Cibo Matto, and Kylie Minogue.
Audrey Tautou sat down with us in New York to discuss the film. More
Jul 11, 2014
By Shawn Hazelett
Web Exclusive
In documenting the life of Roger Ebert, Life Itself leads with an uncommon fade-in on the legendary film critic. We aren’t presented with images of him shaking hands with Fellini, or receiving his Pulitzer, or sitting alongside longtime pal Gene Siskel. Life Itself begins with its subject in a hospital bed, near the end of a long, trying bout with throat cancer. It’s an ordeal that cost him the entirety of his lower jaw and, with it, his ability to speak, leaving a disfigurement so jarring that he would avoid his own reflection. It would be understandable for him to express reticence in allowing access to such candid moments, but it’s an experience Roger specifically asked director Steve James to document. More
Jul 02, 2014
By Austin Trunick
Web Exclusive
After his 2006 film Once turned into an international sensation, Irish filmmaker John Carney avoided musicials or the next eight years, afraid of being pigeonholded as “that music guy.” Here Carney and actors Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley discuss Begin Again, which is about a stage-shy songwriter who strikes out on a solo career with the help of a down-on-his-luck label executive and Ruffalo discusses how Wayne Coyne inspired his character. More
Jun 27, 2014
By Austin Trunick
John Hurt
Since he made his silver screen debut more than fifty years ago, John Hurt has carved out a long and impressive filmography rivaled by few other actors. From Kane, the chest-burster victim in Ridley Scott’s Alien, to John “I Am Not An Animal” Merrick in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, he’s been part of several of cinema’s most memorable and iconic scenes across his almost 200 roles.
Hurt starred in Midnight Express, A Man For All Seasons, and Nineteen Eighty-Four; in more recent years, he’s been part of the Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and Hellboy franchises as well as the Doctor Who TV series. Chances are even the mildest of film fans will recognize John Hurt from multiple roles he’s played over the decades.
John Hurt sat down to talk with us about his long career in acting and his latest role as the sage mastermind of a rebel uprising in Bong Joon-ho’s science fiction thriller, Snowpiercer. More
Jun 27, 2014
By Austin Trunick
Bong Joon-ho
Snowpiercer, the English-language debut of South Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho (The Host, Mother), opens in U.S. theaters this week. The film takes place 17 years after a government-sanctioned effort to curtail global warming backfires and leaves the surface of the Earth a lifeless, ice-covered wasteland. The only humans who survived were the ones who sought refuge on the Snowpiercer, an immense train endlessly circling the globe at high speeds.
Bong Joon-ho has delivered one of the most strange and visually-arresting dystopias we’ve seen since Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, and easily one of the most imaginative sci-fi action flicks in years. The filmmaker sat down with us to talk about Snowpiercer’s journey to the screen. More
