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CONTENTS Page 4 5-8
Editorial Eddie the Eagle The story of Eddie Edwards, the notoriously tenacious British underdog ski jumper who charmed the world of 1988 Winter Olympics.
9-12
Welcome to Me When Alice Klieg wins the Mega-Millions Lottery, she quits her psychiatric meds and buys her own Talk Show.
13-16 Victoria
A young Spanish woman who has recently moved to Berlin finds her flirtation with a local guy turn potentially dangerous as their night reveals a dangerous secret.
17-20 Midnight Special
A father and son go on the run after the dad learns his son possesses special powers.
21-24 Alaska
Fausto and Nadine meet for the first time in a hotel in Paris. Alone and obsessed with an unreachable desire of happiness.
25-27 Q & A
Interview with the director of ALASKA – Claudio Cupellini.
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God Willing
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They Call Me Jeeg Robot
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Chlorine
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Alaska Eddie the Eagle
What does an authoritarian and atheist tell his son when he tells him he wants to become a priest? Enzo, a lonely and misanthropic small-time crook, gains superpowers after falling in the Tiber. Jenny is seventeen and dreams of becoming a synchronised swimmer but is shaken by the sudden death of her mother.
PHOTO CREDITS: Lionsgate: 1,5,7,8,32 Vertigo Releasing:9,11,12 Curzon Artificial Eye; 13,15,16 e-One: 2, 17, 19, 20 01: 21, 23, 24, 28, 30.31, Uncork’d Films: 28, 29, 30 Sintieriselvvaggi: 25
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the following for their invaluable help: Clare Leach of Premiercomms.com Victoria Cox of eOne Emma Orlando of Grapevine. Hannah Dowie of Grapevine. Saynaree Oudomvisay of Grapevine.
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EDITORIAL “I don’t like really depressing movies. I don’t think they’re a fair representation of how the majority of people see the universe.” The above quote is by Jeff Nichols director of one of this month’s main feature reviews Midnight Special. It is a sentiment that MbM emphatically endorses, which is why for the first time we have a film Welcome to Me receiving the lowest rating ever given by us. In comparison our cover feature review Eddie the Eagle epitomises the euphoric feeling of joy in the inspiring story of a young man who dreamed the impossible and against all odds and all sceptics proved them wrong. How do you feel at the end of the film? Is it a feel-bad movie or a feel-good movie? Does it inspire you or depress you? Italian films have once again been celebrated in London at the Cine Lumiere in South Kensington with the annual Cinema Made in Italy event and MbM was pleased to review a few of its films: God Willing, Jeeg Robot, Chlorine, and Alaska, which we were invited to interview the film’s director Claudio Cupellini whom shared so much with us about his way of working with actors and his reasons for making this unusual love story. The event once again proved that the Italian film industry remains as healthy and innovative as ever. Besides this, there is also our review of the most extraordinary film of the year: Victoria which was shot in one continuous take and capturing a new way of filming to create a mood that draws you into the story like no other. Finally, we cannot ignore mentioning the concern that some of you may have regarding the proposal of “The Screening Room”, which is a new streaming service which aims to bring you the latest cinema releases to your home on the same day they come out in cinemas. It is the brainchild of Sean Parker who hatched Screening Room with music industry executive Prem Akkaraju and says it is aimed at those who don’t go to the cinema rather than avid movie-goers. The gap between theatrical release date and digital release has been closing and this has been the worry of cinema exhibitors that it could be the end of cinemas but this is not going happen, like the introduction of the video market which some saw as the end of cinemas, the opposite happened – it enhanced them and encouraged a new audience. Enjoy the read.
Brian Mills Magazine Editor
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Paul Ridler Magazine Designer
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EDDIE THE EAGLE Directed by Dexter Fletcher. Starring: Taron Egerton. Hugh Jackman. Christopher Walken. Keith Allen. Jim Broadbent. Tom McInnerny. Jo Hartley. I was kicked off of every team I was ever on before I had the chance to prove myself. - Eddie Against all odds, Michael “Eddie” Edwards became an Olympian ski jumper in the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. Eddie (Taron Egerton) never stopped believing in himself in reaching his dream and never gave up. As a child he was crippled with his legs in irons, and he was never athletically gifted. Britain had never had a ski jumping representative at a Winter Olympics and he had never attempted a ski jump before. He was heavier than most ski jumpers, all of whom started at a very early age, he had no funding, very little training and his terrible eyesight meant that he had to attempt jumps while wearing glasses that would dangerously mist up mid-jump. Though his beloved mother (Jo Hartley) believed and encouraged Eddie, his father (Keith Allen) thought his son was stupid and would kill himself. Yet his indefatigable spirit prevailed. He begged and borrowed equipment and had the help of a rebellious and charismatic coach Peary Bronson (Hugh Jackman), a damaged, cynical soul, who was kicked out of the U.S. Winter Olympics team at the peak of his powers by his coach Warren Sharp (Christopher Walken). Peary is a hard drinking, chain-smoking American and former ski jumper who takes on Eddie, reluctantly at first, under his wing. He likes Eddie but thinks he is crazy, but relates to him. They’re both outsiders, they’re both been shunned by the world, and it’s a redemption tale for both of them. Through that growing friendship, Bronson starts to believe in himself again. In Calgary, although he was placed last in both events – the 70 metre jump and 90 metre jump – he became a media darling, he was quickly dubbed “Eddie the Eagle” by the tabloid press. He was famous for his unorthodox style, appearance and will to compete.
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Matthew Vaughan, one of the producers of the film, remembers seeing Cool Runnings, a comedy about a Jamaican bobsled team that defied all the odds to compete in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. I started thinking, why does nobody make movies like this anymore? I wanted to make a movie that you could watch and just come out feeling inspired. And I wanted to do a film I could show my kids! - Matthew Vaughan It now seems almost impossible to replicate Eddie’s achievements. As detailed in the film, the standards required to qualify for the ski jump were almost immediately increased by the International Olympic Committee. Eddie never qualified for the event again, although he was selected as a torchbearer for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Hugh Jackman, in one of his finest performances, loved working with the legendary actor Christopher Walken. Honestly, no acting is required! For one scene, the script says, “the godfather of the sport walks into the room and everyone goes still.” That’s pretty much what happened. It’s Christopher Walken! And he’s the coolest, most relaxed guy from take one until the end of the shoot. It’s all gold. - Hugh Jackman Taron Egerton is perfectly cast as the eponymous hero. He transformed himself for the role with the addition of a subtle wig, the trademark glasses, a little extra weight, a Cheltenham accent and towards the movie’s end, Eddie’s iconic moustache. He had to learn to ski for the role, in order to replicate the positions required for ski jumping, from the Inrun position (the first position a ski jumper adopts as they come down the slope) to the take-off move and the “Telemark,” which allows the jumper to land with one foot in front of the other. I was quite nervous doing it. It’s hard-core. You realize how dangerous it is when you’re doing it.
I won’t be doing the 90 metre jump, you have to do it every day from the age of four just for it to be safe. It’s why Eddie kept hurting himself. - Hugh Jackman And Jackman recalls: I had to do a scene where I sat on top of the jump, and I had a wire on to stop me from killing myself if I fell, and even then I was pretty freaked out! When you think that Eddie did that in the Olympics after hardly any jumps in his life, he had some serious courage. - Hugh Jackman Eddie the Eagle is an inspiring, emotionally feel-good film that will have your spirit souring.
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Hugh Jackman and Taron Egerton in Eddie the Eagle.
Hugh Jackman and Taron Egerton in Eddie the Eagle.
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Hugh Jackman and Taron Egerton in Eddie the Eagle.
Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman in Eddie the Eagle. 8
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WELCOME TO ME Directed by Shira Piven Starring: Kristen Wiig. James Marsden. Linda Cardellini. Joan Cusack. Loretta Devine. Jennifer Jason Leigh. You’re off your meds, you’re living in a reservation casino and you’re hosting your own Talk Show. - Dr Daryl Moffet It’s a new era. 86 million dollar Alice. - Alice Krieg Alice suffers from borderline personality discorder, but she has what she needs in life. She has an apartment, she has a best friend, and she has tapes of every Oprah Winfrey show. And now, after winning the lottery, she also has 86 million dollars. What she doesn’t have is an outlet for the whole to know who she really is. The TV station cut her off when she tried turning her lottery announcement into a frank discussion of her sexual experiences, but with her money in hand, she’s off to LA to convince two struggling TV producers’ brothers to produce her own TV show. Whatever it costs, she’s going to do it. From swan entrances to dog neutering, she is going to introduce the world to Alice. But is the world ready for Alice? More importantly…are we?
There is no question that Kirsten Wiig excels in the art as an actress and the film has its comedic moments but mental illness is a hard call for a subject matter and the ultimate experience is a feel-bad movie. It falls into the trap that so many movies get caught in: it is hard to relate and like someone who like the character – Alice Krieg, when she defies her doctor’s orders and comes off the drugs he has prescribed. Mental illness is a difficult subject to make a comedy about unless one is in the league of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which Welcome to Me doesn’t come close to. The script is the main fault and leaves so many loose ends. The biggest one being that it is very unlikely that a person with Alice’s disorder would have the confidence to star in her own TV show. However, the jugular opening of ego is obvious when Alice buys two hours of tele-time to parade her likes and dislikes in front of
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millions of viewers who suck this stuff up, hoping at any one moment that she will make a hilltop of mistakes and – Alice, at everybody’s aghast - does not disappoint And yes, this opens up the greediness of Rich Ruskin (James Marsden) when Alice asks him how much her TV show will cost her and he replies 15 million dollars and she immediately writes a check. She also insists that she wants to make her entrance on a swan-boat. The producers monitoring her show cannot believe what she is doing and a lot of it has to be cut. Editing the actual film would have benefited it too. Though I am sure that the many fans of Kristen Wiig will like it. KRISTEN WIIG: Box Office-wise Kristin Wiig found her niche in comedies and Bridesmaids, which she also wrote, announced her loud and clear, becoming a huge hit. It was only her seventh movie. But her biggest acting breakthrough came in The Diary of a Single Girl. She played the mother of her daughter who is having an affair with her lover. The film justifiably received rave reviews. She has just completed work on yes, yet another scatterbrain comedy, so it doesn’t look as if Wiig will get away from the genre just yet and is no doubt hoping for another big windfall like Bridesmaids. LINDA CARDELLINI: Alice Krieg’s best friend is played by the luminous Linda Cardellini whose rising star keeps rising. Though she is treated badly by Krieg, as most people are, she makes it up to her at the end. Cardellini takes all the attention away from Wiig when she is on the screen because she has a totally charismatic presence. Most of her career has been appearing in TV series but that could change as she has just finished Firm opposite Michael Keaton as Ray Croc the founder of MacDonalds. JAMES MARSDEN: (Rich Rusdin) Plays Teddy Flood in the TV series “Westworld”. Has a few peaks in his filmography: 27 Dresses, Robot & Frank, Bachelorette, Lee Daniels’ Butler, but to find anything that really impresses we must go back over nine years to a magical musical fairy tale from Disney called Enchanted. He played Prince Edward and his costars were Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey. The film was a joyful success and totally memorable. It allowed James to show his versatility in a musical. As for Welcome to Me, wipe your feet on leaving.
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Kristen Wiig in Welcome to Me.
Tim Robbins in Welcome to Me.
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Kristen Wiig in Welcome to Me.
James Marsden and Wes Bentley in Welcome to Me. 12
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VICTORIA Directed by Sebastian Schipper. Starring: Laia Costa. Frederick Lau. Franz Rogowski. Burak Yigit. Max Mauff. Andre Hennicke. * Spoiler Alert * We have to do something. A private bank, Limburg & Co. There’s a small safe and I want that money. You owe me. - Andi I won’t do it. -
Sonne
One continuous tracking shot for one hundred and thirty-eight minutes which begins in a nightclub in Berlin where we see Victoria dancing within the flashing strobe lights of the disco. She is a young Spanish girl new to the city and alone. After her revelry she leaves the club and meets four guys who were refused entry. One of them, Sonne, takes a liking to her. Neither can speak the other’s language so they converse in broken English. Victoria’s intention is to head on home, but for Sonne the night is still young and he convinces her to stay out with him and his pals: Boxer, Blinker and Fub. Against her better judgement, she goes back to their place. As the night wears on things begin to change and the adventure that Victoria is seeking isn’t what she is expecting. It turns out that Boxer has spent time in prison and his protector there Andi now needs him and his friends to repay the favour by doing a “job” right away. An extra person is needed to drive and Victoria is persuaded to come along, and her adventure suddenly becomes a nightmare. The publicity for the film emphasised the one take method of making the film, unusual but not unique. The master of suspense himself Alfred Hitchcock intended to make the film Rope in 1948 in one continuous take, but the cameras
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available could hold no more than 1000 feet of 35mm film. As a result, each take used up to a whole roll of film and lasts up to 10 minutes. He ended some takes with a dolly shot to a featureless surface, such as the back of a character’s jacket, with the following take beginning at the same point by zooming out. The completed film consisted of only 11 shots. The length of a take was originally limited to how much film a camera could hold, but the advent of digital video has considerably lengthened the maximum length of a take. One of the arthouse classics Russian Ark was filmed in one single take. While Mike Figgis’s Timecode was constructed from four continuous 93 minute takes that were filmed simultaneously by four cameramen; the screen divided into quarters and the four shots are shown simultaneously. The film depicts several groups of people in Los Angeles as they interact and conflict while preparing for the shooting of a movie in a production office. The dialogue was largely improvised, and the sound mix of the film is designed so that the most significant of the four sequences on screen dominates the soundtrack at any given moment. In Victoria the one-shot technique is used to perfectly project us into the world of the female protagonist. We feel her anxiety, aware of her deadpan observations – we become her. But there is a further reveal into Victoria’s character as she recalls in her student days she would yearn for her contemporaries to fail, so that her success would be all the more greater. All of this pain, this self-assertion is displaced into the robbery itself. We are never too sure what is going on in her head but by her actions we know that she is resourceful and ruthless. She has unexpected reserves of energy and anger that explains how she has become involved. Contemplating her outcome feels like contemplating how own. Watch the future too of Sebastian Schipper for he is a long -take master with the ingenuity of a Leone.
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Laia Costa, Frederick Lau, Franz Rogowski in Victoria.
Frederick Lau and Laia Costa in Victoria.
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Frederick Lau and Laia Costa in Victoria.
Frederick Lau and Laia Costa in Victoria.
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MIDNIGHT SPECIAL Directed by Jeff Nichols. Starring: Michael Shannon. Kirsten Dunst. Joel Edgerton. Adam Driver. * Spoiler Alert * He believes in something, you don’t. Sarah It doesn’t matter. Dead people die every day believing in things. Roy Another film that promises so much but delivers so little and coming from the director of Take Shelter and Mud, it is a disappointment. Fortunately there are still things to savour but they are few and far between. The storyline borrows too heavily on Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. Alton Meyer(Jaeden Lieberher) an 8 year-old boy, has been kidnapped by his biological father Roy Tomlin(Michael Shannon) from a religious cult leader Calvin Meyer(Sam Sheperd)who raised the boy from childbirth. With the help of his best friend Lucas( Joel Edgerton), who is a Texas sheriff, they plan to take Alton to a specific location perceived to be a potential apocalyptic by the cult, while the FBI has determined the young boy to be a threat to national security since he has been picking up on secret governmental codes. The film opens with an Amber Alert being issued that an 8 year old boy has been kidnapped and the suspect is Roy Tomlin. We meet Alvin wearing blue goggles and reading a Superman comic while draped beneath a sheet. Ray carries his son out of the motel but they have been spotted by the news-watching clerk. Meanwhile Calvin is giving instructions to Doak(Bill Camp) on the tough task of getting the boy back. He preaches to the faithful of The Ranch, a sermon which includes odd strings of numbers. The F.B.I. surround the building and informs the group that they are being bussed off for questioning. It is at his best when tension builds after Lucas and Roy hear that license plate of their Chevy has been reported on their police radio. There is a further nice touch when Lucas apes Alton
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by donning night vision goggles, speeding ahead with headlights off. But there are so many loose ends left hanging as though Nichols became tired of pursuing certain characters. Calvin particularly vanishes from the movie once he has instructed his henchmen to get the boy back. Further there other characters who are hollow and quite meaningless and the narrative would not be any weaker if they were dropped from the script: Kirsten Dunst gives a lukewarm performance as Alton’s mother.
The strongest characters are Alton with a convincing portrayal of a kid who realizes his gift and the reason he cannot stay with them - with his parents. There is a thick coating of E.T. on Alton and the element of spirituality runs through his veins as it does the whole movie; a recurring theme of Nichol’s films which is not a criticism. The other character who is a mainstay of the story, though he doesn’t appear until half-way through the movie, is Paul Sevier (Adam Driver). He is a data specialist who is called in to figure out the meaning of those mysterious digits that Alton keeps seeing. He also divines where Roy is heading with the boy, which leads to the thrilling car chasing climax. But we see Paul circling a bunch of coordinates in red, but we are not privy to how those numbers will lead him to the fugitives. We are told that Alton is allergic to sunlight but not how he is miraculously cleared of this potentially dangerous affliction. Ultimately, Nichols leaves the audience to puzzle and ponder what it is all about, which is fine if you care for the characters but you don’t. We are not emotionally involved with anyone including the very gifted Alton Meyer. Next up and already scheduled for release is Loving starring once again Michael Shannon and Joel Edgerton. Set in Virginia, it is about Richard and Mildred Loving who are an interracial couple who are sent to prison in 1958 for getting married. We can only hope that the film will move us and it will be something extra special.
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Jaeden Lieberher in Midnight Special
Michael Shannon and Jaeden Lieberher in Midnight Special.
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Kirsten Dunst, Jaeden Lieberher, Michael Shannon in Midnight Special.
Michael Shannon and Joel Edgerton in Midnight Special. 20
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ALASKA Directed by Claudio Cupellini Starring: Elio Germano. Astrid Berges-Frisbey. Valerio Belasco. Fausto (Elio Germano) works in a luxurious Parisian hotel as a waiter. He has met a girl named Nadine (Astrid Berges-Frisby) and foolishly wishes to impress her by showing her around one of the wealthy hotel guest’s suites. But then he suddenly returns and catches Fausto and immediately picks up the phone to report him which would mean instant dismissal. Nadine tries to stop him from making the call and is roughly pushed away, but Fausto loses his temper and beats the man senseless. He tries to escape with Nadine but is captured and sentenced to imprisonment. So starts a strange love affair between two vulnerable people caught up in their own dreams of happiness.
The film opens with a couple meeting on the terrace of a 5-star hotel. Fausto, a waiter at the hotel, and Nadine, still wearing a swimming costume having just attended a modelling audition. They are attracted to each and everything seems fine until Fausto offers to show her the most expensive suite they have, which is actually occupied. When the occupant suddenly returns Fausto beats him up and ends up in prison. It is the beginning of a long line of unfortunate episodes that the pair end up in. They both have an insatiable hunger for life’s experiences and a greed for money. They meet up again in Milan but the warning signs are there for Nadine, when he tells her that he has invested her money into a nightclub, named Alaska, which he feels cannot fail to be a success. But how can Nadine trust a man who takes possession of all your savings without even asking you? There is an obvious imbalance between the couple, which Nadine simply clarifies: Things are going well for me because they are going badly for you.
Nadine becomes a highly sought-after model whilst Fausto is in prison; he opens a successful club whilst she’s stuck in hospital after being involved in a car accident. They are constantly trading places with other right up to the end. They often feel emotionally uncomfortable, which stops them from climbing the social ladder. They leave each other but always end up back together, one mirroring the other.
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All the characters have an element of the Shakespearean about them because they are unique, full of life and willing to do anything. - Elio Germani The film asks what makes people happy and can that happiness be anything more than momentary? It is a story that is viscerally moving and romantic. It takes place over the space of five years, with perfectly functional story arcs and secondary characters. Among the supporting actors are Valerio Binasco as Fausto’s business partner Sandro and his rich wife-to-be Francesca played by Elena Radonicich. Ultimately the film is a coming of age story which, despite the fact that its ending brings it full circle, leaves its characters as very different people to how they started off.
ELIO GERMANO (Fausto) This very popular Italian actor came to MbM‘s attention in 2010 in La Nostra Vita. He played Claudio, a construction worker, working on a site in the suburbs of Rome. He is madly in love with his wife who is pregnant with their third child. However, when he finds the remains of an illegal immigrant under the site and doesn’t report it, fearing he’ll be out of a job if construction comes to a halt, it upsets his simple and happy life. In a rage for life, Claudio energetically fights against the injustice that fell upon him. Love and support from his friends and family as well as the laughter of his children will help him t triumph against the odds. The second was The Fifth Wheel. The life of a man from childhood to senior citizen. Growing up in post war Italy and being affected by the politics and mores of his environment. Discovering what he took for granted and thought was important and ultimately realizing the truth.
ASTRID BERGES-FRISBY (Nadine) The outstanding I Origins which opened the 2014 Raindance Film Festival introduced us to this fine actress who played Sofi, a young woman who is discovered by a molecular biologist to have amazing eyes and uncovers evidence that may fundamentally change society as we knew it. The film was MbM’s cover feature review in the October issue of that year’s magazine. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2884206/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
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Elio Germano in Alaska.
Astrid Berges and Elio Germano in Alaska.
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Astrid Berges and Elio Germano in Alaska.
Elio Germano and Astrid Berges in Alaska.
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Q & A
CLAUDIO CUPELLINI DIRECTOR ALASKA Q: Why did you want to make the film? A: Because I felt ready to make a love story but at the same time I wasn’t satisfied just to write a love story. I think there was a good screenwriter called Shakespeare who had already done all that. And I felt or understood that we are living in a violent world first of all. Where the few have nothing and most of the people have everything, and all those people are really angry. They are really ready to do anything to obtain something. Really they want to obtain happiness. They really want to have a good life, a happy life but sometimes they don’t have the right instruments to understand what happiness is. So I chose these three younger guys who were not ready for this world, that in the case of Fausto had big dreams, like becoming a maitre ‘d of a big hotel, like becoming the owner of a restaurant. While Nadine was more fragile, she was there trying to become a model. I wanted to see how they would react. On one side, you had everything the world could give you: richness, popularity, beautiful houses, beautiful life, everything. On the other side, you have just a little thing that doesn’t shine in the same way, but it is love for somebody. And they had to choose, and while growing up they learn what is important in their lives.
I didn’t want to teach anything. I always have the feeling that happiness is impossible. Happiness is like a small flash that sometimes, small moments in our lives when everything seems perfect. I remember when I was nine years old and I was playing with my brother. In that I felt completely with the sun and it lasted two minutes. If I think about myself in this moment I say ‘ok, but there is this problem. We try to achieve something in this moment that is impossible. We want everything. We want everything. They teach us, we are nothing if we don’t have this, don’t have that. We don’t exist. They understand that they exist with something. Q: Can I ask you about the casting because the two leading actors are absolutely brilliant. How do you get Elio? Did he come to you, after you obviously sent him the screenplay? A: I wrote the script thinking of Elio. I knew him before, we live in Rome. He is very talented. I think he is one of the best actors we have of his generation. I felt his nervousness, his skills, his way of acting was perfect for the story that I was trying to write. The only thing was hoping that he liked the script and he loved it. It was more difficult to find Nadine because I wanted an actress that had the same skills that Elio had and I didn’t know a lot of French actresses. I had to do a lot of castings, I had to go to Paris lots of times. It was very stressful because I was very near a few times like she could be the actress but I was not totally sure. Q: What were you looking for, someone who matched Elio? A: She had to be savage, she had to be beautiful and also when I put them together there had to be that light in their eyes, there is something…you have to believe that it is true what they are living. We were trying to do a movie that is difficult. If there wasn’t something really chemical between them then the movie fell apart. Q: And this is the whole thing, they are totally believable. They work so well together. You can totally believe what is happening to Elio and of course they are both dreamers and that again is totally believable that they would be. They are trying to get their lives together and it
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is quite complicated because of what they actually go through. So the casting was so important and you got it with these two.
A: When I was writing this I thought of a movie, much bigger than mine: The Getaway, Sam Peckinpath, in which there is Steve McQueen who works with his wife. The story, they love each other, they kid each other, they don’t understand each other sometimes, but you see something in their eyes that it is true that they were made to do this story together. I tried to do it that way too. Q: Is there an influence as a filmmaker? A: I am influenced by a filmmaker like Sam Peckinpath, the way of telling the violence. We live in a very violent world, where you can be honest good person, but if you are not ready to fight against violence, you lose. So you have to corrupt a little bit of yourself to exist. So when I was a film student I loved all this kind of cinema in the seventies but I was also completely attracted to the French nouvelle vague because Truffaut was like a polar star when I was very young. The first movie that I watched when I was sixteen that I thought “I love cinema” was a Truffaut movie. I called a friend the day after and told them that I had seen this movie that was very strange, it was all about kids Les Mistons, 1977. So, ok, I have to watch everything. Q: In regards to how you direct. Do you direct to allow for improvisation or do you want to keep to the screenplay? A: No, the screenplay is not a Bible, you can change lines. I understand that when I begin working with actors. I ask for their gifts and the gifts they have to bring me are ideas, questions, changing sometimes. I always think that the actor is more important than the character. It is not the actor who has to become completely the character, but the character has to go in the direction of the actor. We never change totally a scene, but I wanted it to be fresh, I wanted things to happen, so when we were in the rehearsals, so this line it is better if we say it like that and change on the script where it says you go there, so try to stay only here and talk maybe. We invented a lot of things on the set only because we worked a lot before. Q: How important is it working with your DP? A: My DP is not my right eye, but my right and left eye because he is very talented. He comes from Hungary. I knew him from my previous movie. We are like married now. Of course he has to go with other directors, but I always tell him you have to come back home every time I call you because I want to work with him because we totally understand each other on the mood of the movie, on the scene. He helps me a lot, he is not somebody who just put a light; somebody who talks to me about the story, about the mood, what we need. Q: I have found that the directors I have interviewed and the directors that I admire, that the relationship with their DP is so strong; there is a bond that’s there. There has to be, I think, because of the visuals…. A: Also because he works on the camera too. Q: Ah, so he is the camera operator too? A: He is a great camera operator. The sort I don’t have to talk to the person who is putting the light and going to the camera operator and tell him we’ve decided or what do you suggest that we move there? It is the only one I talk with. Q: And it shows, the film flows. Therefore it is totally watchable. One final thing. You worked before with Toni Servillo. Was it easy to get Toni Servillo for your film? A: No, it was different with Toni. First of all, me, I was a beginner. I did a movie before but I had a way to do it. I was already writing A Quiet Life. I was younger. Producers were scared. It is a movie in Germany. Mostly spoken in German. So I had to prove that I was good. When I met Toni, he read the script, he loved it a lot but he found in 26
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front of him a beginner in a way. So something I have learnt is that you always have to listen and understand. Also in front of me was a very intelligent person and polite with his fears because he is not coming from the centre of yes, I’ll do it. He works a lot before. We did even more rehearsals than we did with Elio. He was always on the script, working, working, working. I remember he called me. I had just seven days holiday before the beginning of the movie. It was the 15th of August, it was a party day in Italy. He called me and told me, I don’t want to do this movie, it is too difficult to play German. Ask Bruno Ganz to do it. Come on, Toni. Bruno Ganz speaks Italian. No, Toni, please. Okay, but what if I have a beard…and it was always like this and the first week work was tough because it was two people who do not know each other. There was a very important scene we did in which he did it in a completely different way in how I imagined. And I saw in the monitor that it was not working very well. The mood was not the right one. I thought I am talking to somebody great. I said: Toni, I don’t think it’s the right way. Now we don’t have to be so sweet because the scene is already like this. Trust me, please. Okay. I’ll come to the monitor and watch it again. And he said: now, I trust you. From then on everything went perfectly. To know someone you must earn their respect, trust. I was young and I understood that. I did not want it to be like ‘you do what I do. I am working with a big actor. Q: It works both ways, doesn’t it? A: Respect, yes.
A further confrontation for Fausto in Alaska.
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GOD WILLING (Se Dio Vuole) * Spoiler Alert *
Directed by *Edoardo Falcone. Starring: Marco Giallini. Alessandro Gassman. Laura Morante. Ilaria Spada. Providing welcome comedy relief at this year’s Cinema Made in Italy at Cine Lumiere was this original film from Edoardo Falcone: Se Dio Vuole (God Willing). How does an authoritarian father and atheist react when his son tells him that he wants to be a priest? The ups and downs of the story produces witty dialogue with varying facets to their characters. At the core of the film is the duelling duet between Tomaso (Marco Giallini) and Don Pietro (Alessandro Gassman). At last the latter is given the opportunity to escape from the rich arrogant stereotypes which he normally plays. The film concentrates, due to the impeccable direction of Falcone, on the comedic events and characters, rather than a voice-over, and even the usual product placements are used discreetly. The temptation for the film to be preachy is also credibly avoided and it instead shows quite simply that everyone can reach for something higher within themselves. It is also very refreshing to find a comedy that steps out from being farcical and this is mainly achieved by the casting of Giallini and Gassman who work so well together. There are times when the film which replayed from my memory bank was their pairing in Tutta colpa di Freud, about a psychiatrist who is dealing with three patients going through various problems in their love lives: Marta is chasing a deaf-mute man who has stolen items from her book shop, Sara is a lesbian who was left by her girlfriend just after she proposed to her, and Emma, eighteen years old, is seeing fifty year old Alessandro, an architect who is already married. Unfortunately for Francesco, the psychiatrist, these three patients are his daughters. *Film directional debut.
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THEY CALL ME JEEG ROBOT Directed by Gabriele Mainetti. Starring: Claudio Santamaria. Luca Marinelli. Ilenia Pastorelli. Stefano Ambrogi. Maurizio Tesei. Franchesco Formichetti. Daniele Trombetti. A strange anti-hero transposition of a very popular animated manga cartoon in the 80s called Steel Jeeg. Here, a young outlaw (Enzo) is somehow affected by radioactive water in the Tiber waters in Rome. He subsequently finds out he has gained super powers and never having managed to enter the criminal world that counts. The inside joke reveals itself when Enzo meets Alessia, who believes the charming hero is the personification of the hero in the cartoon she used to watch. It has taken quite a while for Italy to claim its own superhero, but here he is. His heroic feats are endless once the two-bit criminal discovers his superpowers. He learns to care for humanity thanks to a traumatized woman who believes him to be Steel Jeeg. The cartoon series was created by Go Nagai, has long been popular in Italy, so it is not so strange that the screenwriters Nicola Guaglianone and Menotti chose the character to build their story on. The film fits into a new, distinctive brand of European superhero film, creatively playing with rehashed formulas that still persist in U.S. productions. While in the waters, Enzo steps onto a toxic waste drum and becomes submerged in filth. Once back in his apartment, he vomits vicious liquid. Though he feels bad, he joins neighbour Sergio to collect the goods from a couple of drug mules, but the pickup goes awry and Sergio is killed, and Enzo is blown off a nine-story building, but in true comic-book –style, he walks away only momentarily stunned. When Enzo comes to the rescue of Alessia by crushing crime kingpin Fabio and his posse, the girl is convinced that he is Jeeg Robot and he has come to help humanity.
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CHLORINE Directed by Lamberto Sanfelice. Starring: Sara Seraiocco. Ivan Franek. Giorgio Colangeli. Anatol Sassi. Andrea Vergoni. Piera degli Esposti. Promising first feature from NYU-schooled Italian director Lamberto Sanfelice. Jenny, seventeen years old, must leave her life behind and her beloved synchronised swimming team when she is forced to relocate to a remote mountain village after her mother dies. The abrupt change forces her to misbehave and her obsession with synchronised swimming deepens. She desperately wants to return to what she knows, and will do anything to make this happen. She rehearses at night in the hotel pool where she works as a housekeeper during the off-season. As the family situation worsens: caring for her father who is liable to wander outside or harm himself. She takes care too of her brother whom she enrols in a local school. The film opens with scenes from Jenny’s former life as a happy teenager interspersed with scenes with her current life in the mountains. Chlorine is an engaging and inspiring movie and has a charismatic charm about it due to its star Sara Seraiocco, who we praised in the thriller Salvo in which she played a blind girl who falls in love with a hitman. For Sara Seraiocco the part of Jenny was an immediate attraction as they have a lot in common. The director brought out the actress’s true personality; strong determination, as well as the similarity in their backgrounds: both are from sea areas: Sara from Pescara. Jenny spent most mornings with her friends and she hates mountains, which is true of Sara. The importance of bringing out the same characteristics in a role that is in the actress/actor is so important in making a film authentic and this is one of those films that does that and does it so well.
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