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CONTENTS Page 4 5-8
Editorial Youth
Set largely in a Swiss spa, and focusing on the friendship between Fred (Michael Caine) and Mick (Harvey Keitel). Fred resisting attempts to revive his greatest work as a composer and Mick trying to make a comeback movie.
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LFF Red Carpet
The stars gathering for the media prior to the screening of their movies at the Festival: ROOM and YOUTH.
11-14 Suffragette An intense drama that traces the story of the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement as they fought for the right to vote, led by Maud (Carey Mulligan) despite the objections from her husband.
15-18 Trumbo Bryan Cranston as the black-listed screenwriter Dalton Trumbo who fought for his political beliefs and won an ally in Kirk Douglas that insisted on him being credited for writing Spartacus.
19-22 THE ASSASSIN Winner for Best Director at Cannes, The Assassin is a ravishing martial arts movie with a spectacular performance by Shu Qi.
23-26 HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT A documentary based on the effect that a book by Francois Truffaut on Alfred Hitchcock: a series of interviews which Truffaut had with Hitch, which inspired, and still does, filmmakers today
27-30 LISTEN TO ME MARLON Marlon Brando reveals himself posthumously as he never did from an extraordinary archive of audio recordings, film footage and rare photos. A wonderful insight to one of the greatest film actors of all-time.
31-37 ROOM MbM’s FAVOUITE FILM OF THE FESTIVAL. Based on the best-selling book about a mother and her young son held captive in an 11 square-foot room.
39-42 BLACK MASS The true story of Whitey Bulger, the most infamous and violent criminal, who became an FBI informant.
43-46 THE LOBSTER In a near future, singledom is outlawed. Anyone not successfully paired up must report to The Hotel, where they have 45 days to find a mate or be transformed into an animal and released into The Woods.
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47-50 MY GOLDEN DAYS A highly personal offering from one of France’s most individual film directors.
51-54 CAROL An honest love story about two women who courageously defy the suffering conformities of mid-century America.
55-58 TRUTH Cate Blanchett as Mary Mapes, producer of Dan Rather’s 60 Minutes, which came under fire on its claims that George W Bush’s avoidance of being drafted to Vietnam.
59-62 STEVE JOBS Danny Boyle’s outstanding recreation of the three product launches by Steve Jobs – the revolutionary founder of Mac. Michael Fassbender gives an extraordinary performance as JOBS.
PHOTO CREDITS: Studio Canal 1,7,8,21,22,33,34,37,53,54,61,62 Pathe 13,14 Entertainment One 17,18 Cohen Media 25, 26 Paramount 26 Fathom Events 26 Warner Bros.41,42,57,58 Universal/Picturehouse 29,30 Picturehouse Entertainment 45,46 New Wave Films 49,50 Stuart C Wilson 9 J & C Photos 9.10
Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following for their invaluable help. Matty Riordan, Annie McMonagle-Wilmot, Paul Ockelford, Patrick Reed, Megan Jones, Tom Westgate all at Premier Comms.com Jessica Askham at DDAPR. Rob Deacon at Warner Bros. Theodora Fashesin at Way To Blue Eugene O’Connor at Entertainment One Group Suzanne Noble at Studio Canal and finally UPI Media
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EDITORIAL Here we have it – the Special London Film Festival 2015 Edition of Movies by Mills. If you were unable to attend, here is your chance to vicariously piggy-back a ride to the selected screenings, press conferences and red carpet events. You will see what MbM considered to be the Best of the Fest and what you can expect to see when these films will be released at arthouse cinemas in the following weeks and months. The programme was wide and varied: over 200 films screened in 12 days, so it wasn’t easy to select a dozen outstanding films amongst the bulging schedule. What we discovered was one of best films of all-time and also one of the worst, the latter will not be included in our reviews. And the festival glittered with the stars who graced the red carpet premieres: Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, AnneMarie Duff, Meryl Streep, Bryan Cranston, Helen Mirren, John Goodman, Geena Davis, Tom Hiddleston, Sienna Miller, Ben Foster, Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brie Larson, Saoirse Ronan, Maggie Smith, Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Paul Dano, Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg, Katherine Waterston. Of course directors too: Sarah Gavron, Stephen Frears, Atom Egoyan, Scott Cooper, John Crowley, Nicolas Hytner, Todd Haynes, Paolo Sorrentino. Danny Boyle. Films were screened at the Odeon Leicester Square, Vue West End. Picturehouse Central, National Film Theatre, Curzon Mayfair, Curzon Soho, Ritzy, Hackney Picturehouse, Cine Lumiere, Haymarket. The film festival ran from 7 - 18 October. The BFI London Film Festival is now recognized as one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. So settle back and let MbM report on this year’s spectacular event. Enjoy the read.
Brian Mills Magazine Editor
Paul Ridler Magazine Designer
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YOUTH Directed by Paolo Sorrentino. Starring: Michael Caine. Harvey Keitel. Rachel Weisz. Paul Dano. Jane Fonda. You say emotions are overrated, emotions are all we’ve got.
- Mick
In two hours and three minutes Paolo Sorrentino presents his follow-up feature to The Great Beauty which won the prize for Best Foreign Language Film for Italy in 2013. Consequently his latest film comes with much anticipation that Youth will enchant and captivate its audiences as much as that did. The film’s reception has been both underrated and overrated, always a danger when a filmmaker is following a masterwork. Sorrentino moves back to making the film in the English language. It opens impressively with a roaring rendition of You Got the Love performed by a lounge singer as the night show for guests at a luxurious Swiss Spa. Among the guests are Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine), a retired conductor and composer, and Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel), an aging film director drafting what he hopes to be his next great picture. The guests lounge around the opulent settings with fellow guests which include Hollywood stars such as Jimmy Tree (Paul Dano) and the newly crowned Miss Universe (Madalina Ghenea). Youth lets the old-timers pass on the wisdom of their experience to the younger generation while receiving some much-needed contemporary guidance from the comparative youths. Fred does not wallow in his past success, his golden years, rather it is behind him. He refuses a request to perform his famous “Simple Song” for the Queen of England, but nevertheless insists that conducting is a gift one never forgets. On a peaceful hillside he rehearses his skills in full force. He attentively guides his hands and leads the cows to the rhythm, he keeps the pace and invites more instruments to join the imaginary ensemble as cows ding their bells and moo in unison. The score of David Lang employs the cowbells and the ambient sounds of the 6
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mountainside, underscoring the moment in the euphoria-inducing openness and peacefulness of the secluded hideaway. There is an overriding influence of Fellini in the beautiful visuals and the narrative and the insecurities of characters, particularly Fred and Mick. Fred has sacrificed everything for music and his family has suffered; a wife who always stood by him and never stopped loving him. He is reminded of this and verbally chastised by Lena (Rachel Weisz) his daughter: You didn’t know the first thing about my mother. You didn’t bother to take care of her. She loved you, so she forgave you. No matter what happened she still wanted to be with you. But who were you? Who? That’s what I always ask myself. The aforementioned tirade is sparked by Lena’s own crumpled marriage. MbM asked Rachel Weisz what attracted her to the script to want to do the film. RW: I thought it was just a really interesting meditation on what it was like to be alive, to be young, to be middle-aged, to be a daughter, to be a father. I am a mother and a daughter. It was told in a beautifully delicious way that only Paolo would know how to do. There are magical moments that emphasise the Spa as a character itself and this is captured by cinematographer Luca Bigazzi in almost absurd beauty: the hypnotic sequence with enormous bubbles that shimmer in a spotlight. Bugazzi’s camera embraces faces even better than it frames swelling mountains, and the creases and wrinkles of the veteran actors are sobering portraits the wear the weather of experience. Moments such as these identify it as a Sorrentino movie, and at such times it dreamily embodies a cinematic symphony. Michael Caine spent over six weeks learning how to conduct an orchestra. It results with the final performance of the “Simple Song.” There is also an idiosyncratic habit that Fred uses to show his emotions; crinkling sweet wrapper compositions. There is much to this film and invites a second viewing, but ultimately it fails to match the brilliance of The Great Beauty.
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Michael Cane and Harvey Keitel in Youth
Rachel Weisz in Youth 8
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Paul Dano and Madalina Ghenea in Youth
Rachel Weisz in Youth
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Brie Larson
Brie Larson and Lenny Abrahamson 10
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Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Michael Cane and Paolo Sorentino
Michael Cane, Rachel Weisz and Harvey Keitel
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SUFFRAGETTE Directed by Sarah Gavron Starring: Carey Mulligan. Helena Bonham Carter. Brendan Geeson. Anne-Marie Duff. Ben Wishaw. Meryl Streep. We’ll stop you. What yer gonna do, lock us all up? We’ve in every ‘ome. We’re ‘arf the human race. You’ can’t stop us all.
Maud (Carey Mulligan) is a young woman from the East End of London who has worked since she was seven in a damp, dangerous laundry where injury and disease are rife. Though constantly under threat of abuse from her boss Taylor, she’s found some security by marrying a fellow laundry worker Sonny (Ben Wishaw). Life is harsh but they just about manage, and Maud dotes on her young son George. When Maud is sent out to deliver a parcel, she finds herself in the middle of a riot in Central London. The Suffragettes are smashing the windows of the department stores in their first militant protest at having their decades old request for the vote ignored by successive governments. Both shaken and quietly inspired by the protest, Maud is stunned to see fellow laundry worker Violet (Anne-Marie Duff) in the crowd of militants. Sensing her interest, Violet, an outspoken campaigner, tries to convince an initially reluctant Maud that she should join the fight and become one of the foot soldiers of the Suffragette movement. Though frightened by the risk it entails, Maud gradually begins to recognize that without the vote there’s little hope of a better future. She’s further drawn into the struggle when she is introduced to the inspirational Edith (Helena Bonham Carter), a chemist who together with her husband operates a covert base for the Suffragettes in the back room of their shop. But it’s when upper class campaigner Alice (Romona Garai) invites women from the laundry to Parliament to give testimony about their working conditions that Maud begins to embrace the cause. Violet has been scheduled to speak but, having been brutally beaten by her husband, she cannot. Maud has to speak in her stead, giving David Lloyd George an honest and poignant account of her working life. Lloyd George is visibly touched and promises to take her testimony 12
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into consideration at the upcoming Parliamentary debate on whether to give women the vote. For Maud, it’s a thrilling moment and for the first time in her life, she feels that she’s been heard. She is therefore stunned some months after when it is announced to a throng of optimistic Suffragettes waiting outside the House of Commons that a change in the law to grant women the vote has not been passed. As a clamour of protest rises from the crowd, police movie in, violently beating and arresting the women, including Maud, in shocking and unprovoked attacks. Imprisoned for a week, Maud is traumatized by the experience. The Suffragettes she meets there, including Emily Wilding Davison (Natalie Press) show a commitment to the cause that frightens her. But when she emerges from prison, Maud finds Sonny unmoved by her ordeal. He’s furious that he’s been left on his own to care for their son, and publicly shamed by Maud’s arrest. He makes it clear that he will leave her if it ever happens again. Shaken, Maud tries to distance herself from the movement, but she finds that now she has a voice it is too hard to accept the status quo. She joins Violet and Edith in attending a clandestine speech given to a gathering of women by the inspirational leader OF THE Suffragette movement, Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep), who has been forced into hiding by the police. Mrs Pankhurst tells the crowd that women have been ignored too long, that it is time for militant action. Maud is inspired by Mrs Pankhurst’s words. But the police break up the gathering and whilst Mrs Pankhurst escapes, Maud is again picked up by the police. Furious at Maud’s continuing activism, Sonny throws her out of the house and bans her as is his legal right from ever seeing her son. A dejected Maud is forced to take refuge in a cheap boarding house, supported by donations from her fellow Suffragettes. This was the film that was chosen to open this year’s London Film Festival and obviously encapsulates the theme of the festival declaring 2015 the year of the strong woman. We have Carey Mulligan fighting for the right to vote. So how does it fair? The film produces good performances but tries as it does it does not succeed in convincing us and holding our interest for its 106 minutes running time. The street scenes look like studio sets and totally unconvincing and Carey Mulligan’s accent fluctuates from Cockney too much and seems totally missed by her dialect coach. Good film yes, but definitely not strong enough to open the LFF.
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Carey Mulligan, Adam Michael Dodd and Ben Whishaw in Suffragette
Carey Mulligan in Suffragette 14
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Meryl Streep in Suffragette
Anne-Marie Duff and Carey Mulligan in Suffragette
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TRUMBO Directed by Jay Roach Starring: Bryan Cranston. Diane Lane. Helen Mirren. Louis C K. Elle Fanning. John Goodman. I will write your movie. And you don’t want your name on it. No, you don’t want my name on it.
His word was stronger than the sword. Trumbo was one of the “Hollywood Ten” blacklisted for refusing to testify to the House Committee on Un-American activities in 1947. He was forced to write under assumed names to get work but one of his allies was Kirk Douglas who insisted on Trumbo being credited as the writer on Spartacus; an action that helped to break the blacklist. Dalton Trumbo had many foes in the business after announcing his political alliance to the communist party: John Wayne, Gregory Peck, and gossip journalist Hedda Hopper, played in the film by Helen Mirren, but had supporters – Edward G Robinson and director Otto Preminger. Most of the story is accurate and well written by John McNamara. There are a few instances of political license used, particularly involving director Otto Preminger who never worked on Spartacus; Stanley Kubrick was its director and he was called in after Anthony Mann was fired. Hedda Hopper is shown as being on the cover of Time Magazine but in reality she was never given that accolade. Dalton Trumbo wrote over sixty screenplays, though his name on many went uncredited. Among his most successful films were: A Guy Named Joe, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, Roman Holiday, The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell, The Brave One, Spartacus, Exodus, Lonely Are the Brave (his personal favourite), Johnny Got his Gun ( wrote the novel as well) Papillon, and Always. At the film’s Press Conference the stars gathered to give their views on their characters in the film and answered questions from the enthusiastic and well versed audience.
BRYAN CRANSTON 16
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On Trumbo, the man, the film, the black listing? What happens when a government overreaches its powers to oppress the civil rights of its citizenry, that’s cause for alarm and that happened in the United States, it breached the 3rd Amendment. A man went to prison for committing no crime. As a cautionary tale I hope it will resonate internationally. Favourite Trumbo quote: (the moment when Trumbo addresses John Wayne on their political differences): “We have a different opinion and that’s the point: We both have the right to be wrong.”
Dalton Trumbo enjoyed using a word that the audience may not know what it meant. His writing: It is all about the story and how that story is supported by the text. Is there still black listing in Hollywood today? There is a self-imposed black listing by actors like what happened to Mel Gibson. The black listing ended when Kirk Douglas bravely risked his career by putting Trumbo’s name on the credits of Sparticus.
Otto Preminger followed by doing the same by crediting the writer on Exodus.
HELEN MIRREN On Hedda Hopper: A story about the fearful power of the Press and the way in the sense it can be misused or at least when the Press - when it encases immediately with the Zeitgeist of the time instead of challenging the Zeitgeist. My character plays to the fears and paranoia of her public. It shows how dangerous that power can be. Jay Roach brings his inbuilt sense of the humour of the absurdity of human behaviour. A film which will find its way to a film collector’s DVD shelf, I am quite sure.
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Bryan Cranston in Trumbo
Elle Fanning in Trumbo 18
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Bryan Cranston and Diane Lane in Trumbo
Helen Mirren and Bryan Cranston in Trumbo
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THE ASSASSIN Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien Starring: Shu Qi. Chang Chen. Zhou Tun. Your skills are matchless. But your mind is hostage to human sentiments. Ravishingly beautiful, Hou’s first venture into wuxia (martial arts), winning him Best Director prize at Cannes, levitates comfortably above similar films in the same genre: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and House of the Flying Daggers. What qualifies it to reach such heights of cinematic excellence is Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Hou is first and foremost a visionary and his films are constructed and composed with the eye of a poet. The scenes are slow and dialogue is minimal but when action comes, it comes quickly. The Assassin is set in the ninth century when the Tang dynasty was in decline. Yinniang, a lethal assassin, has failed an important assignment and is sent back to kill a cousin, a noble and military leader to whom she was once promised. She has been living in the countryside with the nun who abducted her in childhood and trained her as an unrivalled practitioner of the martial arts. Her new orders are designed to both punish her and eliminate the last vestiges of feeling in her. However, Yinniang’s emotions lead her to defy her Mistress ad discover a new source of strength. Her journey is mirrored by the film’s transition from crisp, high-contrast black-andwhite Academy ratio in the prelude, to glorious, expressive colour and 1.85:1 ratio when she arrives in Weibo. 20
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In a quietly audacious move for a genre that often uses brisk editing to match the action. Hou’s regular cinematographer Mark Lee Ping Bing holds exquisitely framed wide shots, with kinetic flashes used sparingly in the brilliant action sequences. Hou’s films are often concerned with growing up in rural Taiwan in the 1950s and 1960s. The 50s marked a time in which refugee families from the mainland were struggling painfully for survival, while the 60s saw the beginning of the most significant social change in modern Taiwan. The economic boom of that period meant the beginning of Western-style industrialization and urbanization. The normal frustrations of growing up were aggravated by these complicated changes, and Hou’s films are intimate expressions of these experiences. The impact of the historical upon the human in Hou’s cinema has never been better illuminated than in Three Times (2005), a trio of love stories. In the film, the settings encapsulate the approximate historical moments and material landscapes upon which the majority of his films are based. A Time to Love is reminiscent of the locations in Tong nien wang shi (1985). A Time for Freedom evokes the subtle machinations of two of his most critically acclaimed films: The Puppetmaster (1993) and Flowers of Shanghai (1998), the latter considered one of the finest films ever made. Finally, A Time of Youth recall Millennium Mambo (2001). Six of Hou’s films have been nominated for the Palme d’Or. The star of The Assassin is Shu Qui, an actress that also starred in Hou’s Three Times, 10 x 10 (La Belle Epoque – segment) and Millennium Mambo. Shu Qui has a powerfully charismatic presence which makes you totally empathetic to her plight as The Assassin. Her adroitness is totally believable and you never once feel that she is in danger. Anyone foolish enough to challenge her in combat is ultimately doomed. Beyond that the film is like watching a work of art, at any one time you could pause on an image and it would invariably qualify to be framed and displayed in a gallery. Once again we see a director who works closely with his cinematographer, Mark Lee Ping Bing, to bring us unforgettable imagery. Running time: 104 minutes.
UK Distributor: Studio Canal UK Release Date: 22nd January 2016
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Chen Chang in The Assassin
Shu Qi in The Assassin 22
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Shu Qi in The Assassin
Shu Qi in The Assassin
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HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT Directed by Kent Jones Featuring: Francois Truffaut. David Fincher. Martin Scorcese. Wes Andersen. I am interested in the audience. Obviously they are going to sit there and say ‘Show me. I know what’s coming next’. And I have to say. Do you? - Alfred Hitchcock A film buff’s dream is to be inspired and this documentary based on Francois Truffaut’s classic book which was published in 1966 about a series of in depth conversations which Truffaut had with Alfred Hitchcock about the director’s entire body of work is masterly inspiring. Truffaut, half Hitchcock’s age, was already an internationally renowned filmmaker and he wanted to free Hitch from his reputation as a light entertainer. The documentary features comments by filmmakers on the influence the book has had on them and their appreciation and influence that Alfred Hitchcock has had and his place as one of the greatest film directors of all-time. It conclusively changed peoples’ opinions about Hitchcock. - Peter Bogdanovich It was a director talking about his own work in a way that was utterly unpretentious. - James Gray They’re talking about the craft. - Paul Schrader
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Hitchcock describes the way he worked on Psycho. Seven days, seventy set-ups and I shot some of it in slow motion. Where it sort of lays out the cutting pattern, and contextualizing what the work of a director truly is. - David Fincher I had a paperback, it’s not even a book anymore. It’s just a stack of papers. - Wes Anderson The Truffaut/Hitchcock book was really revolutionary. It became radicalised as moviemakers. It was almost as if someone had taken a weight off our shoulders and said we can embrace this, we can go. - Martin Scorsese I have a favourite little saying to myself: logic is dull. - Alfred Hitchcock This is somebody whose mind is racing with ideas which is why we refer to him all the time. - Wes Anderson He is making floors out of glass so he can show the apartment above; things which make cinema magic. - David Fincher I am never satisfied with the ordinary. I try to play the audience like an organ. - Alfred Hitchcock There are certain rules and he destroyed all those rules. - David Fincher Kent Jones, the film’s director, is not new to paying homage to a great filmmaker as he co-directed with Martin Scorsese A Letter to Elia, a documentary on Elia Kazan. He is also the Director of Programming of the New York Film Festival. Hitchcock had the revered ability to tell a story visually and to control time, both by expansion and contraction. You could watch many of Hitchcock films with the sound off without losing any sense of what the film was about. Most of all Hitchcock/Truffaut is interspersed with clips from To Catch a Thief, Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho and more. It will invariably have you seeking out any gaps in your DVD collection of his films and most of all purchasing a coveted edition of the most important book to have ever been published on Alfred Hitchcock.
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Franรงois Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock in Hitchcock/Truffaut
Franรงois Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock in Hitchcock/Truffaut 26
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Franรงois Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock in Hitchcock/Truffaut
James Stewart and Grace Kelly in Rear Window
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LISTEN TO ME MARLON Directed by Stevan Riley Featuring: Marlon Brando. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am. Let’s face it. - Terry Malloy – On the Waterfront
This quite extraordinary documentary about the actor Marlon Brando comprises of unseen clips that he had saved and stored about his private reflections and philosophies – the inner Brando from the outer beyond that can be seen after his death. Here in this very personal film of the great actor, Marlon explains that what he brought to the screen as an actor was to act like no one had acted before – to be different. We saw how different he was when we saw him in Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront in 1954 as a failed boxer turned longshoreman and errand boy for a corrupt union boss. Elia said in his 1988 autobiography “A Life” in his writings about the film, which won eight Oscars, including best picture, actor, actress and director: I was tasting vengeance that night and enjoying it. On the Waterfront is my story; every day I worked on that film, I was telling the world where I stood and my critics to go and ---- themselves. If there is a better performance by a man in the history of film in America, I don’t know what it is. In those early films, Brando cut through decades of screen mannerisms and provided a fresh, alert, quirky acting style that was not realism so much as a kind of heightened awareness on reality. He became famous for his choices of physical gestures during crucial scenes and even as late as The Godfather he was still finding them: the cat in his lap, the spray gun in the tomato patch. 28
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He made these little bits of business his own like in On the Waterfront when he is walking with Edie (Eva Marie Saint) in the park and she drops a glove. Instead of handing it back, he pulls it over his own worker’s hands. A moment that provides texture. In Listen to Me Marlon, we are privy to a voice from beyond the grave. The title refers to Marlon’s self-hypnosis tapes, you hear him speak with remarkable and often brutal candour about his life and loves, beliefs and doubts, faults and contradictions. The documentary is brimming with audio recordings rare photos and film footage (including behind-the-scenes, promotional and TV clips as well as home movies) news reports and tabloid headlines as well as exerts from his films. The family headlines spelled out the trouble and heartache that sold papers at the expense of Marlon’s sadness and shock: his eldest son Christian who was arrested for murdering is half-sister’s boyfriend. His daughter Cheyenne, who committed suicide in 1995, aged 25. In later years Marlon gave few interviews and prior to that they had always been an act for him. But for posterity he had this collection of his memories plus the ones that filmmaker Stevan Riley tracked down.
The project was initiated by Brando’s estate and all was authentic except for the shots of the interior of Brando’s home on Mulholland Drive home, which was torn down some years ago; duplicate versions of some rooms were re-created on a soundstage. His formative period was marked by his mother’s alcoholism and early exit and his father’s abusiveness and variable measures of disdain, which continued through his son’s massive success. He admits he felt “dumb” and had “a great sense of inadequacy due to my lack of education” but also a tremendous “curiosity about other people” that fed directly into his acting. The crucial mentor for him was his acting teacher Stella Adler, whose strong personality comes through vividly in some terrific clips, as does New York City itself in wonderfully unfamiliar late ‘40s vignettes. If he hadn’t become an actor – he says it was the first thing he ever did that he was good at – Brando speculates that I could have been a con man. Marlon, let your mind drift back to a time when you were you were young. It is like a wonderful soft dream. If I don’t do anything else well, I might as well put all my energies in being as good an actor as I can. You bring part of yourself to every character, but some parts are closer to us than others. - Marlon
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Mary Murphy and Marlon Brando in The Wild One
Christian and Marlon Brando 30
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Child and Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
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ROOM A film that will take up residence in your heart Directed by Lenny Abrahamson. Starring: Brie Larson. Jacob Tremblay. Joan Allen. William H Macy. * Spoiler Alert * For 5 years you made life in that small room, that prison, as nurturing, as normal as you could. Jack (Jacob Tremblay) is a 5 year old boy who is looked after by his loving and devoted mother. Ma (Brie Larson) dedicates herself to keeping Jack happy and safe, nurturing him with warmth and love and doing typical things like playing games and telling stories. Their life, however, is anything but typical – they are trapped – confined to a windowless, 10 by 10 foot space, which Ma has euphemistically named “Room.” And she will stop at nothing to ensure that, even in this treacherous environment, Jack is able to live a complete and fulfilling life. But as Jack’s curiosity about their situation grows, and Ma’s resilience reaches its breaking point, they enact a risky plan to escape, ultimately bringing them face to face with what may turn out to be the scariest thing yet: the real world. Room is a taut narrative of captivity and freedom, an imaginative trip into the wonders of childhood, and a profound portrait of a family’s bonds and fortitude. It is based on the award winning global bestseller by Emma Donoghue. Director Lenny Abrahamson remains faithful to the novel while bringing Jack, Ma and their entirely singular world to heart pounding and intensely cinematic life. It embraces the audience with a truly emotional picture and won the Audience Choice Award at this year’ Toronto International Film Festival. It is easy to see why it received this accolade. The relationship between a mother and child and their bonding is universally recognized. For it to work on the screen you must have total belief that they are mother and son and not for one moment in this film do you have any doubts. Lenny Abrahamson wrote a 10 page letter to Emma Donoghue telling why he wanted to make Room. The letter, she said, was eloquent and confident and she knew that Lenny was the one to direct the film.
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There was a challenge of shooting in a confined space, but the constriction of the space comes and goes as you are watching it. You are so involved with the faces; we are shooting with long lenses. If you are compelled with what’s really happening - nothing else really matters. Another challenge was of course of finding Jack. Was there a boy out there who could play this role at this level? Brie added: The first time we met was at a pizza parlour. There was quite a large group of us. There was an easy way for us to first meet. I would go over to him (Jacob) about 45 minutes before he went to bed and he would ask what’s your favourite colour? He wasn’t nervous at all. He is so himself. When we rolled him up in the carpet, his first thought was fun. He was 7 when we started making it. He understands the world outside. Narration was used to cut away from the sentiment; it adds something to it. It must be Jack’s story. The scene when he was standing at the top of the stairs watching Ma being taken away, he cried, he really cried, but once the scene was over, he was really excited and said “I did it!” So how did Brie Larson get involved in the project? I had been given the script, I was familiar with the book about a year prior. The script was beautiful and it contained all the things I loved about the book but it gave a more in-depth approach to Ma. So it was a beautiful opportunity to the story I loved to create a complete character in all its complexities. I always wanted for Jake to feel that he was really a created force in this. He was someone who understood what was going on and that he wanted to make conscious choices and that he wanted to make and be supported every step of the way. Initially I had a coffee meeting with Lenny. It was going to be a short 30 minute meeting and it turned into a log 4 hour epic conversation about everything, jumping from philosophy, to family life, showing pictures of our dogs and everything in the middle. From there it seemed like the beginning of a conversation that we wanted to keep happening and then anyone who was interested in playing Ma to come in for an audition and I was excited about the opportunity to do that because it is a very complicated role and I loved the story and I loved Lenny at this point and I loved the book so much that I wanted to do this role if I was capable of doing it. I never wanted to be cast and worry whether I could do it. So I had the opportunity of working and auditioning with him (Jacob Tremblay). This was a theory being tested and later proven. We spent I guess about six or seven months just talking about it Most of it was a metaphor in philosophical terms and how relating it to our lives and instead of taking it to a place when it was a true crime, the voyeuristic look at these spectacles we’ve seen on the news, it could feel that everything is coming from a place where everything is relatable to us, our day-to-day life, so it was about learning as much as we can about the real facts and the real stories from this but then bringing in our experiences from being a child, being a parent, or being a teenager, being a woman, and combining the things we are experts in because we have lived them in our own lives. And combining these together, we had to break it down in tiny pieces, so that it would be easier to understand and digest. And find experts on the matter to better understand her (Ma) and where she would be at during the circumstances. So I spoke with a trauma specialist about the effects of sexual abuse and how a brain would work itself on being in a space for 7 years. And I had to stay out of the sun due to the lack of vitamin D due to no window in Room. They had very little food resources so I worked with a nutritionists about what effect it would have on the skin, the hair, the nails, and the teeth, or it would have not having a toothbrush, not having shampoo, not having any real nutrition. www.moviesbymills.com 33
Jacob Tremblay and Brie Larson in Room
Joan Allen, William H Macy and Brie Larson in Room 34
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Jacob Tremblay and Brie Larson in Room
Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay in Room
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AWARDS ASPEN FILMFEST 2015 Won Audience Award
Audience Favourite Feature Lenny Abrahamson
HEARTLAND FILM 2015 Won Truly Moving Picture Award.
Lenny Abrahamson
LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 2015 Nominated Best Film
Official Competition Lenny Abrahamson
TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015 Won People’s Choice Award
Masters Lenny Abrahamson
VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015 Won Most Popular Canadian Film
Lenny Abrahamson
BRIE LARSON Born: October 1, 1989 in Sacramento, California, First Feature Film: Special Delivery (1999) Major Films: Greenberg (2010) Rampart (2011) The Spectacular Now (2013) Don Juan (2013)
Short Term 12 (2013) Room (2015) Future Films: Wiener-Dog (2016) Free Fire (2016) Basmati Blues (2016) MbM asked Brie at the London Film Festival: Q: Did you realize the effect that “Room” would have on the public while you were making it because after the press screening no one could speak, everyone was completely silent, choked with emotion, men as well as women?
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BL: Really? It is very hard to tell when you are making it. You don’t want to know really. You never want to know that the work is done. So every day has to be a search for answers and you end up with more questions.
LENNY ABRAHAMSON Born: November 30, 1966 in Dublin First Feature Film Directed: Adam & Paul (2004) as Leonard Abrahamson Garage (2007) Dublin 26.06.08: A Movie in 4 Days as Leonard Abrahamson What Richard Did (2012) as Leonard Abrahamson Frank (2014) as Leonard Abrahamson Room (2015)
MbM asked Lenny at the London Film Festival MbM: What was your method of directing because the film is so good, it looks like it was improvised like it was almost a documentary? LA: It was scripted, I work in a very open way I tried not to be very strict keeping to their marks. I tried to keep the camera fluid. I rehearsed quite a bit, just working with the little boy. Just a lot of detailed work to reach that naturalism so one would want to watch it
MbM: Did you find it hard to adapt the book to the screen? LA: It is always hard because there are things in a book that can’t
translate to the screen? But once you accept that, and I was very lucky to work with the author on it, she was very open to it. So we said, OK, how can we translate these things from one medium to another. It was a pleasurable experience.
JACOB TREMBLAY First Feature Film: The Smurfs 2 Extraterrestrial (uncredited) Before I Wake
ROOM Burn Your Maps Shut In The Book of Henry (filming)
2013 2014 2015 2015 2016 2016 2016
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Jacob Tremblay and Brie Larson in Room
Jacob Tremblay and Brie Larson in Room 38
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BLACK MASS Directed by Scott Cooper. Starring: Johnny Depp. Joel Edgerton. Benedict Cumberbatch. Rory Cochrane. How come no one has nailed Whitey Bulger? He seems to be involved in every crime in the city and yet the Bureau keep saying he’s clean. – Fred Wyshak What’s Bulger done? – John Connolly What’s he done? Everything. – Fred Wyshak Based on the true story of Whitey Bulger, the brother of William Billy Bulger, a state senator and a Boston public figure. Whitey was the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, who became an FBI informant to take down a Mafia family invading his turf. It is a gritty story of vice, corruption, and ultra-violence. Johnny Depp appears almost unrecognizable as Whitey Bulger: shaven head, ice-blue contact lenses and a sinister smirk invading his mask of a killer. Adapted from Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill’s acclaimed book, charting the rise of a notorious mobster. His goal is to eliminate his common enemy – the Italian mob. FBI Agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) persuades his superiors to let him approach the Irish gangster Jimmy Whitey Bulger to become an informant for the FBI. Connolly reaches Jimmy via his brother, Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch), a political rising star. Connolly draws on a misguided sense of South Boston loyalty. He doesn’t hold any power. He fails to recognize that the alliance he builds is protecting Whitey and allowing him to consolidate his powerbase. Connolly soon recognizes that if he exposes him, he will cast suspicion on his own actions. Joel Edgerton is particularly good as Connolly and the rest of the cast try the best they can in an over-hyped movie. There are far too many distractions that tear you away from the plot and leave you with the sense that it wasn’t worth the effort in making the movie. Was Johnny Depp’s absence www.moviesbymills.com
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from the film to re-negotiate pay due to him doubting how good it would be? Director Scott Cooper has been erroneously lauded as a superb director of actors has to learn that the script is the thing, and no matter how good his actors are, no one cares if you don’t like them. And there lies the biggest question which wasn’t addressed: is Cooper really the right director to make this movie? Was there anything that could have stopped Black Mass from being a Black Mess? Yes. Martin Scorsese. What could the Scorsese was helming it? Johnny Depp direction? It is a thought that kept watching the film. As it is the film buried in the cinema cemetery.
film have been if under the master’s bothering me while is certain to be
Examine the crime genre classics: Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, and The Departed. The latter was a masterpiece made by the maestro of the mob movie. The Departed was adapted from the successful Hong Kong action film Internal Affairs for Western audiences. Most striking is the transplantation of the narrative’s action from the glossy postmodern cityscape of contemporary Hong Kong to the vastly different social and geographical terrain of Boston, the same city used by Cooper in Black Mass. The film could have so easily been yet another simple but effective remake into a serious and culturally specific engagement. The Irish-Americans are every bit as fully realized as the Italian-Americans featured prominently in Scorsese’s 1973, Mean Streets. Really the comparison between Black Mass and The Departed, is that the former is instantly forgettable and the latter is a brilliant film, the top of its genre and to be studied again and again by filmmakers. I would be surprised if Scott Cooper had watched it. It is not all bad and Johnny Depp gives a great and menacing performance, but I feel that he made the film as a favour to its director but unfortunately not a favour to its audience.
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Carey Stoll and Joel Edgerton in Black Mass
Johnny Depp in Black Mass
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Johnny Depp and Joel Edgerton in Black Mass
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THE LOBSTER Send it back to the kitchen Directed by Yorkos Lanthimos Starring: Colin Farrell. Rachel Weisz. Olivia Coleman. John C Reilly. Jessica Bardem. Ben Whishaw. Lea Seydoux.
Spoiler Alert *
Have you ever been on your own before? No, never. – David Your last relationship lasted how many years? Twelve. – David Sexual preference? Women. – David. Any children? No. – David. And this dog? This is my brother. He was here a couple of years ago but he didn’t make it. – David.
A love story set in the near future where single people, according to the rules of the City, are arrested and transferred to The Hotel. There they are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days. If they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choosing and released into The Woods. A desperate Man escapes from The Hotel to The Woods where The Loners live and falls in love, although it is against the rules. Lanthimos explained the beginnings of the story. The idea for this film came from discussion about how people feel like they need to always be in a relationship, how other people see those who can’t make it; how you’re considered a failure if you can’t be with someone; the lengths people go to in order to be with someone; the fear; and all those kind of things that follow us trying to mate. Screenwriter Efthimis Filippou added: Everything has to do with observing friends and strangers. And then thinking about how they live and how they react to different situations. The main need was to write something about love. So we tried to think what love means to humans right now, how it is connected to companionship and solitude. The Lobster describes two different worlds.
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One world where couples live, as opposed to a world where loners live. The main theme of the story is love. It tries to describe how it is to be a partner of someone and how it is to be by yourself in life. Colin Farrell, who plays David, what makes him the leading character; He’s the one character that takes the audience through the three different worlds: he’s the one character we meet in the City, we’re taken to The Hotel, then taken to the forest and then we end up going back to The City.
Rachel Weisz gives her impression of The Loners: They are people who are renegades, and who live in defiance of the rules of this world. They live as completely single people, so you’re allowed to have friendships and conversations but you’re not allowed to flirt or kiss or touch, you have to stay alone. The rule is you have to remain single; it’s a very rule bound universe. The whole film is bound by many, many rules. The premise of the film is excellent and is punctuated by chuckles rather than guffaws. Each character is named by their defining trait: Nosebleed Woman, Bald Man, Biscuit Woman, The Maid, Bandaged Loner, Girl Child, Hotel Receptionist, Trapped Loner, Nosebleed Woman’s Best Friend, Heartless Woman, Lisping Man (who doesn’t lisp at all), Short-Sighted Woman, and Limping Man. These traits start to be copied by some when they find a prospective partner: The Limping Man begins banging his head on a table to cause his nose to bleed to mirror the Nosebleed Woman and it works and the couple wed. There are annoying cymbal crashes inserted throughout the film which are either used to stop you from falling asleep or to punctuate a sequence’s importance; far better to have used the sound of smashing plates instead. When David is asked what he would choose to be if he didn’t find a partner in 45 days, he replies a lobster because they live long lives and he loves the sea. The obvious danger of being caught and boiled alive, never entered his mind. Though the film offers an original idea the narrative gets lost in its own cleverness. Its subject matter is relevant today and you feel totally at one with David who wants to escape from the barmy set-up, but at times you want to escape via the nearest exit of the cinema too.
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Garry Mountaine and Olivia Colman in The Lobster
Jessica Barden and Colin Farrell in The Lobster
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Rachel Weisz and Colin Farrell in The Lobster
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MY GOLDEN DAYS Bronze at the most. Directed by Arnaud Desplechin. Starring: Quentin Dolmaire. Lou Roy-Lecollinet. Mathieu Amalric. * Spoiler Alert * Paul Dedalus is preparing to leave Tajkistan. He remembers… His childhood in Roubaix…his mother’s attacks of madness…the bond that united him and his brother Ivan, a devout and violent child. He remembers… Turning sixteen…his father, the inconsolable widower….His trip to the USSR where a clandestine mission led him to offer his own identity to a young Russian… He remembers himself at nineteen, his sister Delphine, his cousin Bob, parties with Penelope, Mehdi and Kovalki, the friend who was to betray him… He remembers his years as a student in Paris, his meeting with Doctor Behanzin, his growing vocation for anthropology… Above all, Paul remembers Esther. She was the heart of his life. Gently, “a fanatic heart”. Paul (Quentin Dolmaire). He understands the world around him perfectly well but he’s completely ‘inefficient’. He appears to know where he’s going but it doesn’t help him at all. His relationship with girls are chaotic. He thinks love is the most important thing and wants to respect that above all, even if it means being unfaithful. He is very straight with his friends and always strives to live up to his own expectations. He brings Esther understanding, real respect. Before Esther was both fickle and domineering, without really being able to find her place. Paul is the first person to see her clearly for who she is and to take her for all her worth. But she’s also almost the dominant one in their relationship, the one
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who sees things clearly, the one with common sense, whereas he is more inclined to be a do-it-yourself intellectual. He is truly in love with Esther, she’s the only one who can put him in his place, call him to order. And in the end she’s almost his only reference. For Esther, she is straightforward, sometimes even nasty, but that’s part of her charm. She’s hypersensitive, even if she tries to hide it. She comes across as very sure of herself but she’s lonely. The film also shows how Esther becomes a writer, though she’s not a good student and prefers talking on the phone to writing letters. As her love story unfolds she discovers who she really is. Before Paul, seducing boys is a way of filling her time: it’s the only thing she thinks she thinks she’s good at. All she gets back is attention and short-lived relationships. With Paul it’s different, it’s a real exchange. She discovers that Paul loves her, it’s not only her body. At blast someone reveals all she is to her. Paul opens her eyes. And on her side, she brings him something fresh. They move in very different worlds; they appear to have nothing in common. But in their own way each one is badly loved. Esther is the first person Paul can rely on, even though he won’t admit it and wants to be solid. She becomes a landmark in his life. It is a very young cast. The leading actor Quentin Dolmaire (Paul) is 21 and this is his first film Lou Roy-Lecollinet (Esther) is 18 and this is her film debut too. Raphael Cohen (Ivan, Paul’s brother) 18. First film. Lily Taieb (Delphine, Paul’s sister) 15. She is still in high school, but has already acted in Le Quairie Morceau de la Femme Coupee en Quatre, Quantum Love, and Lou! Journal Infime.
Theo Fernandez (Bob, Paul’s cousin) 16. Still in high school, and is soon to start work on La Dream Team opposite Gerard Depardieu. Watching this film makes you realize what a talented cast this is and under the direction of Arnaud Desplechin who also wrote the screenplay. He has a strong cinematic pedigree: It includes The Sentinel (1992) which won a Cesar at Cannes for Emmanuel Salinger for Most Promising Actor.
My Sex Life – Or How I Got Into An Argument. (1996) which won a Cesar for Mathieu Amalric for Best Actor. Kings and Queen (2004) Cesar for Mathieu Amalric Best Actor.
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Quentin Dolmaire in My Golden Days
Quentin Dolmaire and Lou Roy-Lecollinet in My Golden Days
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RaphaĂŤl Cohen, Lily Taieb and Quentin Dolmaire in My Golden Days
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CAROL Directed by Todd Haynes Starring: Cate Blanchett. Rooney Mara. Kyle Chandler. Jake Lacy. Sarah Poulson. * Spoiler Alert * Dearest. There are no accidents and no explanation I offer will satisfy you. You seek resolutions because you’re young, but you will understand this one day.
Two women, Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) and Carol (Cate Blanchett) meet and fall deliriously in love. Therese is an aspiring photographer working in a Manhattan department store where she first encounters Carol, an alluring older woman whose marriage is breaking down. The two women gravitate toward each other despite the threat their connection poses to both Therese’s relationship with her steady beau and Carol’s custody of her beloved young daughter. While Carol breaks free from the confines of marriage, her husband Harge (Kyle Chandler) threatens her competence as a mother when Carol’s involvement with Therese and close relationship with her best friend Abby (Sarah Paulson) comes to light. As Carol leaves the comfort of home to travel with Therese, an internal journey of self-discovery coincides with her new sense of space. Based on Patricia Highsmith’s seminal novel “The Price of Salt,” adapted by Emmy nominated screenwriter Phyllis Nagy, and produced by Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Wooley. At the press conference the subject matter and the question of adapting the book to the screen were aired. Adaptations tend to be of the era in which they were written. So this is a story made from the fifties. But there has to be a particular fascination for now. Cate Blanchet: Even if this film had been made five or ten years ago, I think it would have been received as more political. I think
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the landscape around the conversation, around same sex relationships advanced in a lot of countries, not all countries, but I don’t think it was to stand for everyone. Therefore the universality comes to the fore rather than any political agenda. Todd Haynes: And all love stories need that obstacle, that social obstacle or barrier that keeps the lovers from having full fruition of their feelings for each other, and increasingly that becomes harder to imagine in western life why two people can’t be together. Cate Blanchett: Todd was very clear on whose perspective the camera was catching. So, we were very clear on what information to reveal in each shot. It was incredibly useful to harness that. Hold on tightly. Let go lightly. During the fifties this lesbian romance would have been much more politically incorrect than now. The strength of the film lies in the performances of its stars; Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara and its director Todd Haynes who is perhaps the one male director who is capable of endowing women protagonists with far-reaching complexity. It is a handsomely detailed film that sometimes looks dressed like a Harrod’s shop window display while the whole thing mirrors the paintings of Edward Hopper. After Carol leaves her gloves behind at the store, having chatted flirtatiously with Therese and ordered from her a train-set for her daughter, an item so big that it has to be delivered, which gives Carol an excuse to leave her address with Therese. It is not long that an affair begins. Their blossoming relationship grows more elaborate and the nuances in their characters remain the film’s primary focus. At Christmas, Carol decorates the Christmas tree in the family home from which her husband and child are absent, and now sits with casualness on the floor, wrapping some extremely tasteful and expensive present, while the yet unseduced Therese plays a tune on Carol’s piano. Soon, of course, they are going to go on a trip together, staying in adjoining motel cabins until one day they impulsively take the “presidential suite” and their intimacy advances. Carol is hypnotically erotic and stays with you. Haynes observes his heroines through windows streaked by reflections, dust or raindrops. The ending is a masterstroke conveyed with a just a look. Rooney Mara shared the Best Actress Award at Cannes with Emmanuelle Bercot for Mon Roi.
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Cate Blanchet in Carol
Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchet in Carol
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Cate Blanchet in Carol
Cate Blanchet in Carol 54
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TRUTH Directed by James Vanderbilt Starring: Robert Redford. Cate Blanchett. Elisabeth Moss. Topher Grace. Dennis Quaid. * Spoiler Alert * What we are talking about is bringing politics into your report. I did nothing of the kind – Mary Mapes When did politics not enter into this? Our story was about whether the President fulfilled his service. Nobody wants to talk about that. They want to talk about font and forgeries and they hope to God that truth gets lost in the scrum. - Mary Mapes Looking for the best scoop for CBS TV news programme 60 Minutes, Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) and her research team: Mike Smith (Topher Grace), Lt. Colonel Roger Charles (Dennis Quaid), and Lucy Scott (Elisabeth Moss) come into possession of some photocopied military memos that suggest George W Bush may have dodged drafting for Vietnam by going AWOL from the Home Guard while training to be a pilot. The subsequent programme hosted by veteran broadcaster Dan Rather (Robert Redford) causes a stir during Bush’s presidential re-election campaign in 2004, sparking a witchhunt against the newsmakers as the authenticity of the memos is called into question. Lauded Mapes and Rather come under fire for simply trying to report the truth. Robert Redford plays Rather, who is nearing retirement, as a fatherly figure to Mary and they have a mutual trust built on the shared desire to uncover facts and present the truth. The story of The Killian Documents controversy is a powerful one and beautifully told by Vanderbilt. The hand-picked cast is faultless but unfortunately the film huddles with a packed programme, many of which, like Truth, rely on dialogue to hammer home their message – and unless the words are leaping off the page and memorable the film runs the risk of ‘telling’ rather than ‘showing’. Exposition slows what could have been a vibrantly visual experience.
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CATE BLANCHETT: Police Rescue ......................................... Parklands ............................................. Paradise Road ......................................... Thank God He Met Lizzie ............................... Oscar and Lucinda ..................................... Elizabeth ............................................. An Ideal Husband ...................................... Pushing Tin ........................................... The Talented Mr Ripley ................................ The Man Who Cried ..................................... The Gift .............................................. Bandits ............................................... The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ..... Charlotte Gray ........................................ The Shipping News ..................................... Heaven ................................................ The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ................. Veronica Guerin ....................................... Coffee and Cigarettes ................................. The Missing ........................................... The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ......... The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou .................... The Aviator ........................................... Little Fish ........................................... Babel ................................................. The Good German ....................................... Notes on a Scandal .................................... Hot Fuzz .............................................. I’m Not There ......................................... Elizabeth: The Golden Age ............................. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Ball ..... Ponyo ................................................. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ................... Robin Hood ............................................ Hanna ................................................. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ..................... Blue Jasmine .......................................... The Turning ........................................... The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug ................... The Monuments Men ..................................... The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies ............. Knight of Cups ........................................ Cinderella ............................................ Carol ................................................. Truth ................................................. Untitled Terence Malick Project ....................... Manifesto ............................................. 56
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Robert Redford, Cate Blanchett and Bruce Greenwood in Truth
Elisabeth Moss, Cate Blanchett, Topher Grace and Dennis Quaid in Truth
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Elizabeth Moss, David Lyons, Topher Grace, Dennis Quaid and Cate Blanchett in Truth
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STEVE JOBS Directed by Danny Boyle. Starring: Michael Fassbender. Kate Winslet. Jeff Daniels. Seth Rogen. Michael Stuhlbarg. Katharine Waterston. It’s a system error. Fix it! Fix it? Yeah! We’re not a pit crew at Daytona. This can’t be fixed in seconds. You didn’t have seconds. You had three weeks. The universe was created in a third of that time. Well, someday, you’ll have to tell us how you did it.
– – – –
Andy Hertzfeld. Steve Jobs. Andy Hertzfeld. Steve Jobs.
– Andy Hertzfeld. - Steve Jobs. - Andy Hertzfeld
Steve Jobs’s passion and ingenuity had been the driving force behind the digital age. However his drive to revolutionize technology was sacrificial. Ultimately it affected his family life and possibly his health. This is a revealing film where the trials and triumphs are deeply explored of the modern day genius, the late CEO of Apple inc.
MbM eavesdroped on the Press Conference. THE PRESS CONFERENCE Danny Boyle, Michael Stuhlbarg, Katharine Waterston, Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels, Aaron Sorkin. Moderator: Hilary Oliver DANNY BOYLE: The film is told in three separate product launches by Steve Jobs. The first shot in 16mm because Steve felt like he was fighting these incredible forces stopping him from getting him to this vision and people seeing it and it felt like a rough homemade kind of version that they had even done in a garage. Then we moved to 35mm which is a beautiful act because it is an illusion act in the Opera House.
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And then we moved to Digital. The third part is set in 1998 and although the Alexa camera, which is what we used, wasn’t generally in use then in cinema, Jobs had actually got there of course because he released Pixar. He released Toy Story in 1996 and I remember going to see it in Leicester Square just thinking the world had changed. You know, I was turning up expecting a sleepy morning: an animated film with my kids and just feeling like you may have been reborn; something had changed out there in the world and things were going to be different, in a minor way obviously, we’re filmmakers, not a big deal, but within our circumspection that was just an earthquake, so he had got there and it was great to pay him that respect. And also it helps the actors if you shoot on an inferior format like 16mm when they are trying to play a bit younger than themselves. KATE WINSLET: It is fabulous. It is absolutely wonderful. I have to say I was thrilled and they completely fucked us over. One questioner asked what the Jobs’s family thought of the film. AARON SORKIN: Lisa Jobs, who was played in the film, did not object.
MICHAEL FASSBENDER: It is a one-off that you get scripts like this in modern day scripts. So I thought there goes my break which I was planning over that period of time. But, just lucky. I thought to myself, this is extraordinary writing and it’s just the best script I’ve read. So I was thrilled and then then as both Jeff and Kate said the work starts, and you are less thrilled about it. But it’s a one-off opportunity for an actor to receive writing like that. What makes this film memorable is an amazing story and cast and direction. Aaron writes crisp and cutting dialogue that will be quoted over and over again. He writes for actors and whether that part is big or small you will be speaking ‘Sorkenese’. He is not writing visually but theatrically which it expounds his love of words. You need the combination of Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin to open the safe and reveal the sparkling diamonds which enrich this wonderful film: the story, the music, the acting, the cinematography, the dress design. The ending sequence may cause you to have a sharp intake of breath – it did me. Undoubtedly one of the highlights of the year’s London Film festival.
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Michael Fassbender and Jeff Daniels in Steve Jobs
Katherine Waterston and Makenzie Moss in Steve Jobs
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Kate Winslet and Michael Fassbender in Steve Jobs
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Movies by Mills is an independent production for the promotion of Art House Movies around the world.
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