CONTENTS Page 3 4-5
Editorial Lynne Ramsay Director of You Were Never Really Here.
A traumatized veteran, unafraid of violence, tracks down missing girls for a living.
6-7
Sofia Coppola Director of Somewhere.
After withdrawing to The Chateau Marmont, a passion-less Hollywood actor re-examines when his eleven-year-old daughter surprises him with a visit.
8-9
Agnes Varda Director of The Beaches of Agnes. Explores her memories with photographs, film Clips, interviews, re-enactments and contemporary scenes.
10-11
Jane Campion Director of Bright Star.
The three-year romance between 19th century Poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne.
12-13
Claire Denis Director of Beau Travail.
The film focuses on an ex-Foreign Officer as he re -calls his once glorious life, leading troops in Africa.
14-15
Nora Ephron Director of Sleepless in Seattle.
A recently widowed man’s son calls a radio Talk-in programme to find his father a partner.
16-17
Kathryn Bigelow Director of The Hurt Locker.
During the Iraq war, a sergeant is assigned to an army bomb disposal squad and his methods are at odds with his mates.
18-19
Greta Gerwig Director of Lady Bird. In 2002, an artistically inclined 17-year-old comes of age in Sacramento, California.
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Cinema-Made-in-Italy Rainbow – A Private Affair Directed by Paolo Taviani. An Italian partisan torn between the Resistance Movement and his obsession with a young woman during World War II
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Love and Bullets Directed by Antonio & Marco Manetti.
To avoid the death of her husband (the criminal boss Don Vicenzo “King of the Fish”), Donna Maria sends her henchmen to kill a lookalike.
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Hannah Directed by Andrea Pallaoro. Intimate portrait of a woman drifting between reality and denial when she’s to grapple with the consequence of her husband’s imprisonment.
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Green-Lit Film Studios being green-lit To be built and extended in the UK and a list of some of the films now in development to be made.
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Extras DVDS/Blu-Rays of the Month:
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Poster – You Were Never Really Here
PHOTO CREDITS:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Film-Italia: 21,23,25 Studio Canal: 1,5,32 Universal Pictures International:7,19 Artificial Eye: 9,13 Warner Bros: 11 Optimum Releasing:17
We would like to thank the following for their help in supplying images for this magazine: Claire Leach: PremierComms.Com Chris Hagen: PremierComms.com Jake Garriock: Artificial Eye.
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EDITORIAL As MbM is aware of the inequality of women as film directors compared to men, it seemed appropriate to spend a major part of this issue on those women who have succeeded in directing their own films. We look at eight directors: Lynne Ramsay, Sofia Coppola, Agnes Varda, Jane Campion, Claire Denis, Nora Ephron, Kathryn Bigelow, and Greta Gerwig. Cinema Made in Italy is a short season of films which will be shown at the Cine Lumiere, South Kensington from March 7 – 11. We review three of its films: Rainbow – A Private Affair, Love and Bullets, and Hannah. Green Lit is a feature on two new film studios that have been given the green light to be built in the UK, plus an application by another studio to increase its size by 100 acres. Further, a listicle of some of the films in development and to be filmed in the UK. For Blu-Ray and DVD collectors, there are 3 DVDs of the Month. Finally, the Academy Awards and what MbM would like to have seen win in the following categories. Best Picture: The Shape of Water. Best Actor: Gary Oldman (The Darkest Hour). Best Actress: Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) Best Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) Best Supporting Actress: Allison Janney (I, Tonya) Best Director: Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) Best Documentary: Faces Places Best Animated Film: Loving Vincent Best Film in a Foreign Language: Loveless.
Enjoy the Read
Brian Mills Magazine Editor
Paul Ridler Magazine Designer
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LYNNE RAMSAY Director, Writer, Producer. Glaswegian, Lynne has directed four feature films: Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and her latest and best: You Were Never Really Here, which magazine ends the front and back covers of this issue of MbM on female directors. Graduated from the UK’S National Film and Television School in 1995, she has said that she has found that film -making’s not just a job, it becomes part of your whole life.
You Were Never Really Here, which is based on a novella, is about traumatised veteran, Joe, unafraid of violence, who tracks down missing girls for a living. When a job gets out of control, his nightmares overtake him when a conspiracy is uncovered leading to what will be a deathtrap or his awakening. The film closed last year’s Cannes Film Festival, receiving a 7-minute standing ovation. Joaquin Phoenix won Best Actor and Lynne Ramsay won Best Screenwriter for the film. Lynne Ramsay has always been interested in the language of cinema and to show violence in a different way. She succeeds with this film. 4
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Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) in You Were Never Really Here.
Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) and Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov) in You Were Never Really Here.
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SOFIA COPPOLA Actress, Director, Writer. New Yorker, Sofia Coppola, began as an actress in an uncredited role in “The Godfather” and “The Godfather Part II”, both directed by her father Frances Ford Coppola. Sofia made her directional debut in 1999 with “The Virgin Suicides”.
“Lost in Translation” was her second feature and scored high with audiences and critics alike. It starred Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. The film won Best Picture at Venice. She picked up Best Picture again at the prestigious festival two features later with “Somewhere”. It was a witty and emotional story about the special bond between a father and his daughter. Of all Sofia’s films, this is the one that captures her creative genius as a writer director more than any other. In 2004 she became the first American woman ever nominated for a best director Oscar. About “Somewhere”, Sophia said that she thought that it was cool that you can watch someone being alone and its real time and you’re not bored.
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Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) and Cleo (Elle Fanning) in Somewhere.
Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) and Cleo (Elle Fanning) in Somewhere.
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AGNES VARDA Writer, Director, Editor. A filmmaker who remains today as a cherished Grande matriarch of Nouvelle Vague and has always kept to her innovative and inspirational way of making films whether they be fictional or factual, often they have been a mixture of both: “La Pointe-Courte”, her first feature film was a documentary with fictional characters and this narrative became the hallmark of her subsequent work.
“Cleo From 5 To 7” focuses on a French singer awaiting results of a vital medical examination. Cleo’s anguish is shown in real time, which generates the powerful emotion of the character expressed in the breakdown of her face. There is also a film-within-the-film of a short silent movie. “Vagabond”, “Jacquot de Nantes”, “The World of Jacques Demy”, which was a homage to Agnes’s husband who was a renowned filmmaker and famous for making “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” and “The Young Girls of Rochefort”. Agnes Varda’s brilliant documentary “The Beaches of Agnes” was a cinematic gem, as too was “Faces Places”, which she co-directed with J.R. She stated that it ‘might be’ her last film. This amazing woman will be ninety in May. 8
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Agnes Varda in The Beaches of Agnes.
Agnes Varda (centre of the picture) in The Beaches of Agnes.
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JANE CAMPION Writer, Producer, Director. New Zealand born Jane Campion, directed her first feature film, “Sweetie” in 1989, and gained worldwide recognition with her next a year later: “An Angel at My Table”. Two years later she directed “ The Piano”, starring Harvey Keitel and Holly Hunter, the latter a Scottish widow who hasn’t spoken since childhood, presumably out of choice and whose main form of self-expression is her piano playing.
But the one film that stands out above all others from Campion’s filmography is the ravishing visual splendour of the deeply romantic “Bright Star” in 2009. Set in London in the 19th century, it tells of a secret love affair between a struggling poet, John Keats, and the respectable girl next door, Fanny Brawne. By the time Fanny’s mother discovers their relationship, it is too late – the young lovers are swept away by powerful new emotions, riding a wave of romantic obsession that can only end in heartbreak. The film perfectly captures the joy of first love.
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Fanny Brawne (Abie Cornish) in Bright Star.
Fanny Brawne (Abie Cornish) and John Keats (Ben Wishaw) in Bright Star.
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CLAIRE DENIS Director, Writer, Assistant Director. For an insight into Claire Denis one need only to listen to her describing her work, her motivations: “For me, film-making is a journey into the impossible. I suppose I am interested in the variety of human life. I am most interested in individuals and how they respond to challenges or difficulties, or just to each other”. Raised in colonial French Africa, she worked as assistant director to Wim Wenders on “Paris, Texas” and “Der Himmel uber Berlin” and on Jim Jarmusch’s “Down by Law”.
The other way to understand her is to immerse yourself in one of the greatest films of all-time: Denis’s “Beau Travail”. Denis Lavant stars as Galoup, a sergeant-major whose position and power are threatened when the bravery and heroism of recruit Sentain (Gregoire Colin) attracts the attention of the platoon’s commandant. Enraged, Galoup plots Sentain’s downfall, a doomed course of action that leads to his own undoing. 12
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Galoup (Denis Lavant) in Beau Travail.
Sentain (Gregoire Colin) and Galoup (Denis Lavant) in Beau Travail.
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NORA EPHRON Writer, Producer, Director. The late and beloved Nora Ephron, directed seven films before she died in 2012 of pneumonia brought on by acute myeloid leukaemia. Among the seven films in her filmography is “Sleepless in Seattle” which starred Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan and was co-written and directed by Nora. It was a romantic comedy inspired by “An Affair to Remember”.
After his wife Maggie passes away, Sam Baldwin and his 8-year-old son Jonah relocate from Chicago to Seattle to escape the grief associated with Maggie’s death. Eighteen months later Sam is still grieving and can’t sleep. Although Jonah misses his mother, he wants his father to get a new wife despite Sam having not even contemplated dating again. On Christmas Eve, Sam ends up pouring his heart out on a national radio show about his magical and perfect marriage to Maggie, and how much he still misses her. Among the many women who hear Sam’s story and fall in love with him solely because of it is Annie Reed, a Baltimorebased newspaper writer.
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Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) in Sleepless in Seattle.
Annie Reed (Meg Ryan), Jonah Baldwin (Ross Malinger) and Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) in Sleepless in Seattle.
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KATHRYN BIGELOW Director, Producer, Writer First feature film was the “Loveless” in 1981. It was six years later that she made her breakthrough film “Near Dark”, a vampire Western which soon became a cult favourite, pairing a vulnerable protagonist with a streetwise heroine. In 2008 Kathryn Bigelow made “The Hurt Locker” the one film that established her as a true visionary filmmaker. It told the intense story of elite soldiers who have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world of disarming bombs in the heat of battle.
She says that she always wanted to make films and thought it was a great opportunity to comment on the world in which we live. On the “The Hurt Locker”: War’s dirty little secret is that some men love it. I’m trying to unpack why, to look at what it means to be a hero in the context of 21st-century combat. Kathryn Bigelow was first woman to win a BAFTA Award for Best Director and in 2010, became the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director. On the lack of female filmmakers in Hollywood? It’s a travesty. 16
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Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) in The Hurt Locker.
Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie in The Hurt Locker.
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GRETA GERWIG Actor, Writer, Producer. Director Sacramento-born Greta made her first feature as an actress in Joe Swanberg’s “LOL” in 2006. Two years later she co-directed her first film with Joe Swanberg: “Nights and Weekends” and starred in it with him. Gerwig has been in three films directed by her partner Noah Baumbach: “Greenberg”, “Frances Ha”, “Mistress America” and is currently film in an Untitled Noah Baumbach Project”.
Success and international recognition did not come until “Frances Ha” and followed again with “Mistress America” both films directed by Baumbach. She wrote and directed the highly acclaimed semiautobiographical teen movie “Lady Bird” starring Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf and Timothie Chalamet. Saoirse Ronan and Leslie Metcalf have been nominated for Oscars for their performances in the film.
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Sam Levy and Greta Gerwig – Lady Bird.
Danny (Lucas Hedges) and Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) in Lady Bird.
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RAINBOW – A PRIVATE AFFAIR Directed by Paolo Taviani Starring: Lorenzo Richelmy, Valentia Belle, Luca Marinelli. Giorgio1 Giorgio! Giorgio! - Milton Set in the Langhe hills outside of Turin during the Italian Civil War, the story follows a 20-year-old partisan who goes by the battle name of Milton (Luca Marinelli), like the 17th century English poet. Thanks to his best friend Giorgio (Lorenzo Richelmy), he will be introduced to Fulvia (Valentia Belle), a playfully flirtatious girl who enjoys listening to Judy Garland’s Over the Rainbow and reading Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Milton will immediately fall in love with her, and it seems as though the affection might be mutual. The three of them spend an idyllic summertime at a villa just before the outbreak of the war. One year later, as Milton joins the Resistance, he will face his worst fears: Fulvia might also have had a fling with Giorgio. As jealousy takes him over, he will look to his former pal, also a partisan, only to discover that he’s been captured by the Fascists. Now he is searching for him both to save him and, mainly to find out the truth about his relationship with Fulvia. Milton is a tragic hero who feels that the war happening inside his head is even worse than any other he could ever fight. He cannot strike a balance with his emotions and expends his energy on his own private battlefield, spurred on by an urge to find the truth or, even worse, proof. As a result, he overcomes any rational fear, as jealousy, which is wrongly considered love’s flipside, becomes even stronger than the Fascists and overwhelms him. The almost spiritual state of mind is heightened by the scenic, foggy landscape captured beautifully by Simone Zampagni and the haunting, jazzy score by Giuliano Taviani and Carmelo Travia. This is much more than a war film, but an inner war that is fought alone from which no one can escape unscathed. It is the duality of Milton’s purpose that grips you and delivers a memorable story of sacrifice and love.
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Fulvia (Valentina Belle) and Milton (Luca Marinelli) in Rainbow – A Private Affair.
Milton (Luca Marinelli) in Rainbow – A Private Affair.
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LOVE AND BULLETS Directed by Antonio Manetti and Marco Manetti Starring: Claudia Gerini, Carlo Buccirosso, Serena Rossi, Giampaolo Morelli I saw him and he saw me!
- Fatima We’ll take care of it. - Ciro Love and Bullets is a serendipitous experience, a film that crosses genres: thriller, crime, comedy, musical, drama, romance, to entertain you with every sequence. It is well-acted and directed and the film wraps up neatly and optimistically. Expect the unexpected – and then expect that you will want to see it again.
The film opens on a group of foreign tourists visiting the Le Vele in Scampia, the notorious neighbourhood made famous by Gomorrah, the book, film and TV series. It the funeral of Don Vincenzo (Carlo Buccirosso), the undisputed boss of the underworld, at St Maria del Rione Sanita church. Don Vicenzo has faked his own death after hit men attempt his assignation, sent by his rival, Salemitano. Don Vicenzio is singing in his coffin criticising the mourners for being people who he doesn’t like and should not be at his funeral. It was Salamitano’s wife’s idea, film lover Maria (Claudia Gerini) who boasts an incredible Neapolitan vernacular despite being Roman, who gets the idea from the James Bond film, You Only Live Twice.
Thwarting the assignation were a couple of hitmen known as The Tigers. Fatima (Serena Rossi) learns that Don Vincenzo is in fact perfectly healthy and leaving them no option but to kill her. The situation is made even more complicated when we discover that Fatima is Ciro’s (Giampaolo Morelli) childhood sweetheart, causing an internal war as the warm-hearted killer tries to protect her.
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Ciro (Giampaolo Morelli) in Love and Bullets.
Fatima (Serena Rossi) and Ciro (Giampaolo Morelli) in Love and Bullets.
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HANNAH Directed by Andrea Pallaoro Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Andre Wilms, Stephanie Van Vyne, Simon Bisshop. Michel? I don’t know if you are getting my messages. I call every week. You never know with these phones. I wanted to visit you…to see how you are. It’s been ages. I imagine you’re having a party and I thought I could make Charlie’s favourite cake, the one I used to make for you. I’ll be glad to see you. I’m still your mother and we’re still a family. I love you. - Hannah
Charlotte Rampling’s performance as Hannah won her Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and one can see why; she gives a career best in the film as a woman trying to come to terms with loneliness when her husband is imprisoned for an act of paedophilia.
We see Hannah having dinner with her husband before she says goodbye to him as he goes to prison. Once she is left alone she faces a life of loneliness and we watch her doing her daily chores. The pain is embedded in every wrinkle of her face and every sigh of her breath. She becomes an observer of mundane happenings. She decides to make a cake for her grandson and when baked she takes great care in packaging it and then we follow her on the train to her destination. But when she arrives at her son’s home, though greeted by her grandson, she is told by his father that she is not welcome and to go home. Even the prospect of joy has been quickly dampened and she leaves for home.
The dialogue in the film is sparse and the silence is deafening. Though she attends acting classes which give her a little respite from her humdrum life by sharing a few hours with actors in an acting class allowing her to release some of the emotions bottled up inside her. Whatever she or her husband did we can only guess, as there is little backstory to the sombre narrative.
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Hannah (Charlotte Rampling) in Hannah.
Hannah (Charlotte Rampling) in Hannah.
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GREEN LIT Studio Space in the UK is at a premium with major inward investment projects as well as domestic sales booking up space well in advance. There are several plans underway around the UK for both new studio spaces and expansions of existing facilities that should ease the pressure.
SHEPPERTON 100 acres of land adjacent to Shepperton has been purchased and that a planning application would be submitted later this year.
DAGENHAM A new Hollywood-scale film studio has been planned for Dagenham East, an ideal site and a rare chance to build the first new TV and film studio in the capital in 25 years. Darren Rodwell, leader of Barking and Dagenham council in east London, has stated that “London is a global capital for film – from Bond to Bridget Jones, and Star Wars to Paddington – and I know these new studios will have us hot on the heels of Hollywood for blockbuster movies, showing the world that London is open to creativity, business and talent.”
BRENTWATERS PARK Plans for a new £4 million film studio on the site of a former military base have been approved. Eyke Parish Council had objected over concerns about the extra amount of traffic it would lead to. But councillors said the development would be a boost tom the local economy. The development had the backing of Screen Suffolk, a firm tasked by the county council with bringing more television, advert and film productions to the county. It said Suffolk was perfectly placed for this type of development as it was close enough to London to attract capital-based productions.
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The following films have been greenlit for production in the UK and are now in development.
Battle of Britain. Directed by Ridley Scott. Story set during the famous battle between the British Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe.
Bond 25. Starring Daniel Craig.
Kingsman 3. Directed by Matthew Vaughn.
Escape from Pretoria. Directed by Francis Annan Starring Daniel Radcliffe and Sam Neill. Two white South Africans, imprisoned for working
on behalf of the ANC, determining to escape from the notorious white man’s Robben Island Pretoria Prison.
Unreasonable Behaviour. Directed by Doug Liman. Starring: Tom Hardy. The story of British War photographer Don McCullin from his humble beginnings in London to working for The Sunday Times through the late 1960’s to the early ‘80’s.
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Rogue Male. Directed by Geoffrey Household. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch. A hunter attempts to assassinate a Dictator but fails and is captured and tortured. He escapes back to England, but enemy agents and police hunt for him.
Timeless. A Sci-Fi thriller set in London in a bleak and dystopian future. “Timeless” tells the story of Warren. He’s a hitman who has been taken under the wing of the questionable business man, Sloane. Warren’s world changes forever one day, when Sloane forces him to break one of his rules which he always abides by. He then finds himself plunged into a world where all is not it seems. He suddenly has the power to travel back in time to wrong the rights of the past but as events unfold, Warren must soon face a terrible conundrum. Is he truly travelling in time, or is he simply losing his mind?
Eternal Beauty. Directed by Craig Roberts. Starring: Sally Hawkins. A funny and touching story in equal measure that promises to speak to audiences around the world with its lifeaffirming take on a universal theme.
How to Stop Time. Directed by Matthew Vaughn. Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch. A man is bestowed with the ability to live for centuries without ever aging a day.
The Wedding Guest. Directed by Michael Winterbottom. Starring: Dev Patel. No plot given.
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EXTRAS DVDS OF THE MONTH LOVING VINCENT Directed by Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman. Featuring: Douglas Booth, Robert Gulaczyk, Saoirse Ronan.
A young man has a letter to deliver to Theo van Gogh – one of the final letters Vincent wrote before taking his life. Curious about its contents, he embarks on a journey to meet the people Vincent knew in the months prior to that fateful moment. With an absorbing story and strong performances, what is most remarkable about Loving Vincent is its striking animation. The first fully painted feature film, it brings van Gogh’s work to life through 65,000 hand-painted frames, completed by a small army of artists. As a testament to its incredible achievement, it deservedly won the Audience Award at the Annecy Festival.
SPECIAL FEATURES *Bringing Loving Vincent To Life *Douglas Booth Interview www.moviesbymills.com
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BLADE RUNNER 2049 Directed by Denis Villaneuve Starring: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana De Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis.
Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
SPECIAL FEATURES *Blade Runner 101 Prologues 2036: Nexus Dawn 2048: Nowhere to Run 2022: Blackout
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LUCKY Directed by John Carroll Lynch Starring: Harry Dean Stanton, David Lynch, Ron Livingston, Ed Begley Jnr.
Having out lived and out smoked all his contempories, the fiercely independent Lucky finds himself at the precipice of life, thrust into a journey of self-exploration, leading towards that which is so often unattainable: enlightenment. Acclaimed character actor John Carroll Lynch’s directional debut, Lucky, is at once a love letter to the life and career of Harry Dean Stanton as well as a meditation on mortality, loneliness, spirituality, and human connection.
SPECIAL FEATURES * A Few Words from Harry Dean Stanton *Behind the Scenes: Harry Dean Stanton’s Final Film Take *Interview with Director John Carroll Lynch *Interview with Writers/Producers Logan Sparks And Drago Sumonja *Theatrical Trailer www.moviesbymills.com
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