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music l ďŹ lms l theatre l family days out l listings
Cambridge Film Festival special For all the latest news from the festival, visit cambridge-news. co.uk/whatson
20 | August 28, 2014 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News
Cambridge Film Festival Pick of the films We’ve all been worried about the Arts Picturehouse, what with the Competition Commission’s final decision on its future still unclear. And never more so than when it’s home to the always exciting, always ground-breaking Cambridge Film Festival – now in its 34th year. And no-one does better popcorn. In this special issue of What’s On, ELLA WALKER presents the ultimate guide to the News-backed festival, from the quirkier, off-the wall strands and the big Hollywood hitters, to the fun packed family specials, pithy shorts, searching documentaries and director Q&As. Go make the most of it. To start, these are the top 10 events you can’t afford to miss:
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l Stolen away OPENING Night Gala time… duh, duh, duhhhh! Director Guillaume Nicloux (read our interview with him on page 26) will present his new, wildly funny film The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq. Partly based on the strange true story of reclusive French novelist Michel Houellebecq who bizarrely disappeared during a book tour in 2011, it’s said to playfully blur the lines between fiction and documentary. Currently being touted as “daring”, “impish” and “meta”, Houellebecq himself explains what really happened, and it includes an abduction by a trio of bodybuilders, but the eccentricities do not end there… Thursday, August 28, 7pm
The 34th Cambridge Film Festival runs from today until Sunday, September 7.
Before I Go To Sleep
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All events in this guide take place at the Arts Picturehouse, 38-39 St Andrew’ s Street, Cambridge, CB2 3AR, unless otherwise stated. Tickets for all the venues are available from the Arts Picturehouse Box Office on 0871 902 5720 or via cambridgefilmfestival.org.uk. There aren’t any trailers before screenings so arrive on time! Keep reading the Cambridge News – and visit cambridge-news. co.uk/whatson for reviews, competitions and Film Festival updates! Also check out Cambridge film magazine Take One for even more reviews.
The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq
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l SURPRISE! IT’S festival tradition to have a surprise film or two that only festival director Tony knows about. This year, doubling the tension and the excitement, the surprise film will also be the closing film! Obviously we can only speculate on what it might be (yep, we don’t know either, sigh), but in previous years Burn After Reading, Looper, Sunshine on Leith and Pirates of the Caribbean have all been the surprise movies. Whatever it is, it’ll be great, guaranteed. Sunday, September 7, 8pm.
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Writer: Ella Walker Email: ella.walker@cambridge-news.co.uk
Magic in the Moonlight
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l Short and sweet IF your attention span leaves much to be desired, there are a whole lot of short films to digest instead. From contemporary German shorts, to whiplash quick movies from the American underground and a whole Short Fusion strand featuring a raft of clever, witty, touching, magical stories that do not in any way drag on, go exploring. You’ll also be able to see the winning entry of the ShortReel Cambridge Student Film Awards 2014. Saturday, August 30, 7.30pm
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l Remember a legend IN February Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his New York City home after overdosing on a cocktail of drugs. The Academy Award winner (for Capote, 2005), who had struggled with addiction in the past, plays German spy Gunther Bachmann in one of his final films, Anton Corbjin’s A Most Wanted Man. Based on John le Carre’s novel of the same name and also starring Rachel McAdams, it follows a Chechen-Russian immigrant on the run from Hamburg, caught up in an international game of terrorist cat and mouse. Friday, August 29, 8pm
l Be a cri tic
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TO honour so show, each me of the best films on ye Festival runs ar the Cambridge Film Before each the Audience Awards . “in competit screening, ion” yo voting card u’ll be handed a on the experien which you can rate ce. You’re go exactly like ing to feel th directors no e Oscars’ board of doubt. The award goes Golden Punt to Punt crowns best feature, the Silv er the Crystal best documentary an d Punt goes to short film. th e greatest En your favour ter the fray and pick ites.
l Quintessentially British BILL Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Paddy Considine and up and comers George McKay (beautiful man) and Joe Gilgun (beautiful, tattooed man) – that’s what you call a cast list. Belter of a film Pride is set in the summer of 1984; Thatcher’s trying closing the mines, the miners are on strike, and London’s Gay Pride Marchers are raising money for them. But the e Unions are embarrassed by it, so the he marchers jump on a minibus and go find some miners themselves to hand the donation over to. Powerful, ul, witty, intelligent stuff, your heart will be warmed and your brain will be worked. Friday, September 5, 7.15pm
anted Man A Most W an Story Burning M SPARK: A
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l For all the family
Pride
SPARK: A Burning Man Story
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l Fire it up
l Benn there, done that
SHAKE off work, load up on dreams and watch SPARK: A Burning Man Story. This documentary – full of light and drama and madness – focusses on Nevada’s week-long arts festival that sees a city of fun, games, music, spirituality and self-expression just spring up out of the desert. Provocative, extravagant and independently made by director Steve Brown, it goes behind the scenes, noting the challenges and joys faced by the organisers and by the 60,000 festival goers that make it happen. It’s also completely beautiful. Friday, September 5, 10pm
DIRECTOR Skip Kite is expected to present his documentary, Tony Benn: Will and Testament. A powerful exploration of the Labour MP’s epic life and career, it patchworks intimate interview material with photos and filmed footage from Benn’s personal archive and tracks his work across Britain. It promises to be a “fitting testament to a forceful orator whose tongue was as sharp as his mind.” Saturday, September 6, 7.30pm
THE Family Festival returns, thank goodness, after taking a break in 2013. Expect cartoons galore (Penelope Pitstop, Scooby Do and Bugs Bunny will all be on hand), comedy filmmaking workshops, The Gruffalo stomping around, sing-alongs and superheroes to boot. All ages will be chuckling along. Read all about it on page 30.
22 | August 28, 2014 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News
Cambridge Film Festival Festival choice l Maps To The Stars From Canadian auteur David Cronenberg (Cosmopolis) comes another riveting and intellectually rigorous look at the human psyche and damaged, tortured souls. Led by the loathsome yet funny and touching child-star Benjie, we witness the convoluted world of shallow, selfish celebrities and their minions, all of whom are about to be manipulated and destroyed by the young woman who represents the fruit of their twisted machinations, Agatha (a formidable Mia Wasikowska), Benjie’s tormented, apparently psychotic sister. A blackly comic look into the world of celebrity, Maps to the Stars is a modern Hollywood Gothic at once about the ravenous 21st century need for fame and validation and the yearning, loss and fragility that lurk underneath. As the shallow and capricious faded star who seems to take Agatha under her wing, Julianne Moore (What Maisie Knew) gives a career defining performance that earned her the Cannes Best Actress Prize. Cronenberg is at the top of his game here and he’s aided by his regular collaborators, composer Howard Shore and cinematographer Peter Susachitzky. Saturday, September 6, 10.15pm / Sunday, September 7, 11am
l Night Moves This is a tense and beguiling thriller following the drastic actions of a group of environmentalists. Night Moves follows Josh (Jesse Eisenberg), Dena (Dakota Fanning) and Harmon (Stellan Sarsgaard) through the build-up, execution and aftermath of an attack on a local dam. Eisenberg and Fanning are quietly determined, while Sarsgaard is dependably creepy. Although the film centres on green issues, it avoids preaching or heavy-handed ideology, focusing instead on the characters. Thursday, August 28, 6.30pm / Friday, August 29, 12.30pm
l Amour Fou Director Jessica Hausner is undoubtedly one of the most captivating voices in contemporary European cinema. Lovely Rita and Hotel achieved festival success, Lourdes garnered her wider critical and public attention. A beautifully mounted period piece with a bone dry wit, the Cannes selected Amour Fou is a brilliant advance on Hausner’s meticulous sense of time, place and character. Berlin, the Romantic Era. Young poet Heinrich (Christian Friedel, The White Ribbon) wishes to conquer the inevitability of death through love, yet is unable to convince his sceptical cousin Marie to join him in a suicide pact. It is while coming to terms with this refusal, ineffably distressed by his cousin’s insensitivity to the depth of his feelings, that Heinrich meets Henriette, the wife of a business acquaintance. Heinrich’s subsequent offer to the beguiling young woman at first holds scant appeal, that is until Henriette discovers she is suffering from a terminal illness. Loosely based on the suicide of poet Henrich von Kleist in 1811, this is a richly rewarding and resonant work that approaches serious issues and levity and humour. Saturday, September 6, 5pm / Sunday, September 7, 1.30pm
l The Case Against 8 The Case Against 8 takes audiences behind the scenes of one of the most important civil rights cases in recent years, the overturning of California’s ban on same-sex marriage. The unexpected partnership of political foes Ted Olson and David Boies provides both legal insight and a good deal of humour. This, combined with the emotional yet eloquent stories of the plaintiffs, creates a rousing film more than worthy of its multiple festival wins. Saturday, August 30, 8.30pm
Niche strands
Variations on a theme l Retro 3-D
RETURN to the 1950s, when the screams were visceral and the 3-D didn’t require red and green glasses (seriously, and yes, 3-D really was around all the way back then). For a snapshot in time interlocked projectors screened some of the greatest 3-D ever seen, and now you can view some digitally remastered versions. Feel true terror as the Gillman – a webbed and scaly abomination from the minds at Universal – reaches out in proper old school monster movie, The Creature From The Black Lagoon. Insanity flies right at you in the painstakingly restored House of Wax; noir thriller Inferno will have you wowed by Technicolor and The Mad Magician blends total horror with deep focus filming.
l Dylan n Thomas s 100 IN honour of Dylan Thomas’ centenary, the Festival is going Set Fire all out to celebrate To the the hair-raising, bow Stars tie wearing, rabble rouser, poet, author and playwright. Director or Andrew Sinclair will introduce the cultish Under nder Milk Wood, his 1971 adaptation aptation of Thomas’s play which legendarily stars Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O’Toole. He’ll also be chatting about Dylan on Dylan, his analytical take on the Welshman’s up and down life and career. This series will culminate with the brand new Set Fire To The Stars (Sunday, September 7, 5.30pm). Shot in black and white, Elijah Woods plays John Malcolm Brinnin (the film is based on his memoir) on a visit to New York City with pal Thomas in 1950. Suited, booted and with a mop of curly hair, Thomas tours the best universities while living much too fast, partying much too hard and dragging Brinnin along for the ride. Dubbed a “poetic tour de force” you will be left awed.
l Contemporary German Cinema WANT to get up to speed on your new German cinema? Here’s your y chance. We O f recommend: end: Girls and Horses Beloved ed Sisters – two aristocratic tic sisters fall ll in love with the same writerly rogue and d decide upon an unusual scenario for their time: a love triangle, triangle one that has damning consequences. (Saturday, August 30, 4pm / Thursday, September 4, 5pm) Of Girls and Horses – a troubled 16-year-old and a bored 30-something breakdown barriers as they look after
Cambridge Film Festival isn’t all about Hollywood smash hits and box office golden eggs. It’s also about showcasing the lesser known, but no less exciting, filmmakers, artists, writers and acting talent out there. Enter this year’s more niche strands, which cover everything from shorts and the earliest examples of 3-D, to the best in German and Catalonian cinema being made today. ELLA WALKER picks the highlights
horse on a remote farm. horses Things do of course get out Thi of control. (Friday, August 29, 29 6.30pm / Saturday, August 30, 4pm) A Finsterworld – this blackly humorous film b shows a world in which sh everyone is beautiful, ev polite, successful or pol happy, until they’re not and happ dark side is unleashed. their d (Thursday, September 4, 4pm / (Thursda September 6, 11am) Saturday, Sep L Love Steaks S k – a masseur finds himself the centre of a lot of female attention, and Lara, who works in the kitchen, decides to take matters into her own lustful hands. (Friday, August 29, 8.45pm / Saturday, August 30, 6.15pm)
Driving him forever onwards were his two main motivators: “curiosity and human interest”. The result is a body of work that inspires through realism, where suffering and society’s darker sides are all examined – silently but not quietly, if you get our drift. This retrospective takes four of his greatest works – Under The Lantern, People To Each Other, In The Slums of Berlin and Children Of No Importance – and puts them back on the big screen. For a bit of background on the time and a touch of scene setting, you can also see Walter Ruttman’s classic, Berlin, Symphony of a Great City, and People On Sunday which merges documentary and fiction with live piano and percussion.
l Gerhard Lamprecht
l Lionel Rogosin + Underground American Cinema
DELVE into the world of IN need of even more German Underground American Cinema, as g cinema? by director Lionel Rogosin. kick-started b Filmmakerr The New American Cinema Th Under Th Gerhard Lamprecht e Lantern luminary unleashed the lu was absolutely ground breaking genre with gr prolific. Flooding the e his films Come Back Africa, hi silent movie scene On The Bowery and Good throughout the Times, Wonderful Times in the Tim 1920s and making 50s and 60s. Here, those films more than 60 films, will show alongside the work of he managed to several Rogosin continue t ue ccreating eat g contemporaries. throughout roughout the war You’ll also and d into the 1950s. be able to hear from Rogosin’s son,
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Cambridge News | cambridge-news.co.uk | August 28, 2014 | 23
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Festival choice l The Dance of Reality
A Poem in Exile
Returning to the screen with The Dance of Reality after an absence of 23 years, legendary cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky takes us back to his birth place of Tocopilla, a coastal town on the edge of the Chilean desert. It was here that Jodorowsky underwent an unhappy and alienated childhood as part of an uprooted family. Blending his personal history with metaphor, mythology and poetry, The Dance of Reality reflects Alejandro Jodorowsky’s philosophy that reality is not objective but rather a “dance” created by our own imaginations. Variety calls it “by turns playful, tragic and surprisingly light on its feet”. Sunday, September 7, 2.30pm
l Four Corners South Africa’s Foreign language Oscar entry Four Corners is the first film to delve into the street war of South Africa’s Numbers Gangs, the 26 and the 28. A multi-thread, coming of age crime drama it focuses on four characters trying to survive in Cape Flats, the violent suburbs of Cape Town. At times raw and violent, at other times touching and true, the four lives of Farakhan, Leila, Tito and Gasant converge around chess prodigy Ricardo, who has a promising future ahead of him, but seems unlikely to fulfill his promise, or even make adulthood, as he is drawn into running with a vicious gang. Monday, September 1, 4pm / Friday, September 5, 11am
l In Order Of Disappearance
Fiction
September 6, 2.30pm). Up and coming director Mar Coll will discuss We All Want What’s Best For F Her, a dark look at who we are, a and how that compares to how others want us to be (Thursday, o September 4, 6.15pm / Friday, S September 5, 1pm). S
l Short Fusion
Michael, a filmmaker who has documented his father’s legacy.
l Camera Catalonia NOW in its third year of showcasing the filmmaking talents of Catalonia, Cambridge Film Festival is still shouting about the region’s movie skills, and has nabbed numerous experts for Q&As to help further the cause. On certain days
Finsterworld
you’ll even be able to tuck into some Catalonian delicacies at the bar. Here are three not to miss: A Poem in Exile, the journey of a poem written by Catalan poet Joan Alavedra, exposes the hardships of those forced to flee their homes due to the Spanish Civil War (Saturday, September 6, 6.15pm / Sunday, September 7, 4pm). The understated Fiction explores the emotions and thoughts that arise when a scriptwriter ditches his family for a mountain retreat (Saturday,
THE briefer, but not necessarily lighter, side of Cambridge Film Festival, the Short Fusion strand offers snippets and mini, perfectly fformed stories that don’t make your bum go numb. b There are several strands to pick T from: Beloved (seven films featuring loss, turtles, picnics and blind dates), Connection (desire, carpooling and estranged sisters turning up on the doorstep), and Life Lessons (the roaring ’20s, getting fired and action adventure). There’s also the Twins strand (parts 1 and 2) in which each menu contains three films that complement three films from the other. Less complicated than it sounds, go pick and mix. n Visit cambridgefilmfestival.org.uk for full details.
Introverted snowplow driver Nils (Stellan Skarsgård, Nymphomaniac) has just been named citizen of the year in his small rural backwater when he receives tragic news that his son has died of a heroin overdose. Disbelieving the official report, Nils soon uncovers evidence of the young man’s murder – a victim in a turf war between the preening local crime boss, known as “The Count”, and his Serbian rivals. Armed with heavy machinery and beginner’s luck, Nils embarks upon a quest for revenge that soon escalates into a full-blown underworld gang war. A blackly comic revenge tale that doesn’t stint on the violence, director Hans Petter Moland (A Somewhat Gentle Man) has managed to craft something genuinely original and striking from what could have been clichéd material. Beautifully played, including a droll turn from Bruno Ganz (Downfall) as a Serbian crime lord, the film features striking scenery and amidst the mayhem and carnage a surprisingly poignant comment on fatherhood. Saturday, August 31, 10pm / Monday, September 1, 4pm
l Monica Z (Waltz For Monica) In 1950s rural Sweden, Monica Zetterlund works as a switchboard operator but dreams of stardom as a jazz singer. Invited to New York to play with the Tommy Flanagan Trio, she leaves her daughter with her disapproving father over Christmas. A classic biopic charts the rise of Monica who eventually became a celebrity in her own country but with a turbulent personal life in the heady days of the 1960s. Waltz For Monica was the most-seen film in Sweden in 2013. It’s a tour-de-force for stunning first-time actor and musician Edda Magnason, who performs Monica’s songs herself. Great music and enjoyable, glossy presentation. Friday, August 29, 11am / Tuesday, September 2, 6pm
24 | August 28, 2014 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News
Non-festival films
Director interviews
SIN CITY 2: A DAME TO KILL FOR (18, 102 mins) Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis. Directors: Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller. CRIME pays handsomely in this visually arresting sequel to the 2005 neo-noir anthology based on Frank Miller’s comic series. Blessed with the same black-andwhite aesthetic, Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For is as twisted and depraved as its predecessor, festooning every frame with corrupt cops, gun-toting hoodlums and scantily clad molls. Lurid splashes of colour, like a murderous vamp’s emerald eyes or a working girl’s tumbling copper curls, temporarily draw the eye away from the misery, degradation and mutilation including an eyeball being wrenched from its socket. Directors Robert Rodriguez and Miller linger on the darker side of human nature, relishing the crisp snap of one character’s fingers as they are broken with pliers, or the exaggerated splatter of an arrow scything through a henchman’s noggin. The film wears its 18 certificate as a badge of honour. Once again, three stories entwine on the godforsaken streets of Sin City. The ghost of police detective John Hartigan haunts exotic dancer Nancy Callahan. She descends into booze-fuelled hell, desperate to put a bullet between the eyes of scheming Senator Roark. Nancy manipulates her protector Marv into taking down the politician and his goons, regardless of the consequences. Meanwhile, cocksure gambler Johnny and his lucky charm Marcie prepare to take on Roark at the poker table. Johnny humiliates his powerful host and suffers horrific consequences. “I
can’t protect you,” the chief of police informs Johnny. “Then why you a cop?” retorts the gambler. Nearby, Dwight McCarthy struggles to rein in his violent impulses following an encounter with old flame Ava Lord. She begs Dwight to help her escape the clutches of her sadistic husband Damien and his hulking bodyguard Manute. Love really hurts. The plan goes awry and Dwight turns to old flame Gail and avenging angel Miho to help him evade the cops. Arriving almost a decade after the first chapter, Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For plunges us headfirst into a grimy universe where a bullet to the head settles most arguments. Style pummels emotion into submission and snappy dialogue from the comics – “I was born at night, but it wasn’t last night”– enhances the feeling that characters talk not to each other. Rodriguez and Miller direct set pieces including a car chase and sword fight at a breathless lick, melding heavily stylised live action and animation for each orgy of violence. Green sheds her inhibitions to play an archetypal femme fatale with lipsmacking gusto, enforcing what we already knew from the first film: the female of the species is far deadlier than the male.
Down m ELLA WALKER goes behind the scenes and gets the inside scoop on four star movies showing at Cambridge Film Festival. Here, and on the following two pages, are the results…
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Before I Go To Sleep Rowan Joffe & author SJ
MILLION DOLLAR ARM (PG, 124 mins) Drama/Romance. Jon Hamm, Lake Bell, Aasif Mandvi, Madhur Mittal, Suraj Sharma, Alan Arkin, Bill Paxton, Pitobash, Tzi Ma. Director: Craig Gillespie. BASED on an incredible true story, Craig Gillespie’s unapologetically feel-good sports drama follows a down-on-hisluck agent, who attempts to introduce baseball to India via an outlandish ragsto-riches competition. Screenwriter Tom McCarthy fashions an armful of well-worn cliches into an irresistibly sweet and charming tale of triumph against adversity that scores a home run when it matters. Key to the film’s appeal is handsome leading man Jon Hamm, who swaps the tailored suits of Mad Men for more casual attire as he travels around south Asia, searching for diamonds in the rough. Hamm lights up the screen and enjoys comic interludes with Alan Arkin playing a grouchy baseball scout, who steps into the stifling heat of foreign climes and growls: “Get me to a hotel and don’t wake me up again until someone’s throwing a baseball.” Sports agent JB Bernstein and business partner Ash Vasudevan are on the brink of financial ruin. They need to find fresh talent who can show them the money. Unfortunately, home-grown sports stars are thin on the ground and overseas audiences are nuts about cricket, a sport which JB abhors: “It’s like an insane asylum opened up and all the inmates were allowed to play a game.” Late one night, JB has a brainwave: a competition to bring two bowlers from
What’s On Cambridge Film
India to the US to challenge for a Major League Baseball contract. Wealthy businessman Chang finances the scheme but demands results within 12 months. Flanked by translator Amit and scout Ray Poitevint, JB travels around India and unearths two raw talents: Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh. They head for JB’s plush apartment in the States where fish-out-of-water Dinesh and Rinku train under pitching coach Tom House. JB neglects his charges until Brenda, the pretty ER nurse who rents his guesthouse, pricks his conscience. “They need to see you care,” she warns him. Million Dollar Arm is a polished amalgamation of countless other sports movies that compel us to root for the underdog. Familiarity breeds delight in Gillespie’s film, relying on a strong ensemble cast to milk laughter and tears when it seems the script will strike out. Cinematographer Gyula Pados contrasts the rich colours of India with cold, clinical greys of corporate profitdriven USA. The romantic subplot involving Hamm and Bell follows the same trajectory as the rest of the film, but we’re powerless to resist each predictable beat of the characters’ hearts.
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The real thrill(er)
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OLIN Firth and Nicole Kidman reunite after last year’s The Railway Man in amnesiac thriller Before I Go To Sleep. Director Rowan Joffe (Brighton Rock) and novelist SJ Watson talk about taking a novel from page to screen. >> Director Rowan Joffe on casting Nicole Kidman, tackling some tough scenes and rolling around on the floor Why did you want to tell this story? I read the book in a single sitting and was gripped and moved. Generically it’s a thriller but at its heart it’s a fully formed drama about trust, marriage and loss. That combination is rare. But [author SJ Watson] not only achieved it, he exploited it to even better thriller effect by creating an unreliable narrator. Is Christine the
victim of a conspiracy (and therefore the protagonist of a thriller)? Or is she just confabulating because she’s got a damaged brain (and is therefore the protagonist of a drama)? Exquisitely wrought and emotionally powerful narrative organisms like that are an endangered species in mainstream cinema. How did you feel when you first finished the book? I felt like I’d found my next movie. It’s a visceral feeling. Being a writer/ director is incredibly satisfying but it’s a fight against huge odds, too. The question then becomes, how do I get to direct this? Who do I have to convince? Who do I have to kill? Why Nicole Kidman? What was it that she brought to the role for you? Nicole’s performances are honest. And she’s worked with some of the greatest directors. I felt: if she believes in this, if she believes in me, maybe I’m on the right track. I hadn’t at that time thought of Nicole as playing particularly vulnerable characters. But that’s what she plays
here. I’ve never seen her quite it. Fragile. Frightened. Child-lik because she relies on the two in her life absolutely. Until she to put two and two together. A questions. And fight back. Colin Firth plays a characte is quite against type. How wa coaxing that performance out him? I don’t think a director, if he she is honest, really coaxes any out of actors. It’s either in them it isn’t. My job was to get anyth out of the way that was going t make it harder for Colin to coa out of himself. That process too place mostly during the ‘rehea period when we were tinkerin the screenplay. Which is the gr advantage of being a writer/dir There’s no third party screenw to get between you and the ac a line isn’t working for the cast massage the wording or alter th structure of a scene, or alter th until it resonates for them. What was the most difficult of the filming process?
Cambridge News | cambridge-news.co.uk | August 28, 2014 | 25
Festival
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There’s a scene at the end I can’t give away that was very challenging indeed for us all, especially the main actors. What got us through the two and half day shoot was (a) having an honest dramatic motivation for every action and (b) the dedication and professionalism of the cast and crew. I also rolled around on the floor a bit to make everyone feel better. I’m not sure if that worked. There are already comparisons being made to Memento – how do you feel about that? Flattered. Though joking aside I barely remember what happens. If you’re into tattoos you might be disappointed by Before I Go To Sleep. Did any other films have a particular impact on the making of this one? Yes. Rosemary’s Baby (vulnerability and paranoia); Spellbound (doctor/ patient relationships) and Dial M for Murder (by chance I use the same Algernon Newton paintings on the walls that Hitchcock did. That doesn’t make this like Hitchcock but it’s a step in the right direction).
Monday, September 1, 9pm – Joffe and Watson will introduce the film/ Tuesday, September 2, 1pm
>> Author SJ Watson on seeing his debut novel transformed into a blockbuster I’ve seen it about nine times actually. I can’t really get enough; I think it’s great, I’m very, very happy. It’s a very, very surreal experience that I wasn’t quite ready for actually. [Director] Rowan Joffe kept me very involved all the way through the filmmaking process. He’d share the script with me, talk to me about casting and things like that, but I’d heard so many stories about films that nearly get made and then don’t
quite happen, that I’d kept the whole thing at arm’s length, and mentally said: you make your movie and I’m going to stay out of it. I wasn’t quite ready for just how emotional it was going to be seeing actors of the calibre of Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth and Mark Strong, play those roles. It was almost as if it was the first time I realised those were people I’d invented in a story that I’d come up with. With Nicole Kidman, when her name was first mentioned I watched all of her films and thought she’s
such a versatile actor, it’s amazing what she can do. I went to set and saw her in makeup and I just thought she’s absolutely perfect. In a weird way I can’t really imagine Christine looking any other way now, although obviously that wasn’t always the case. I always pictured Colin Firth’s character as quite attractive and that does seem to be something people say about Colin, so, haha, he definitely captures that person as well. It was quite an interesting role for him to take, given that it’s slightly playing against type, it’s not Mr Darcy, is it? It’s that weird schizophrenic nature of being a novelist in that you spend the majority of your time sitting in a room by yourself with imaginary people, and then for a short, but quite intense, period of time you’re out talking about those people as if they exist. I’m naturally quite a shy person, so it’s quite a weird existence, but I’m not complaining. ■ SJ Watson’s next novel, Second Life, is out in February.
for >> Turn over th interviews wi of s the director of ng The Kidnappi becq, lle Michel Houe on 20,000 Days Earth and Palo Alto
26 | August 28, 2014 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News
Cambridge Film Festival Festival choice l Still the Enemy Within
This is a unique insight into one of recent history’s most dramatic events: the 1984-85 British Miners’ Strike. Thirty years on, this is the raw first-hand experience of those who lived through Britain’s longest strike. The film follows the highs and lows of that life-changing year. Using interviews and a wealth of rare and never-before-seen archive, it draws together personal experiences to take the audience on an emotionally powerful journey through the dramatic events of that year. Still the Enemy Within is ultimately a universal tale of ordinary people standing up for what they believe in. It challenges us to look again at our past so that in the words of one miner, “we can still seek to do something about the future”. Wednesday, September 3, 7.30pm and Thursday, September 4, 6pm
l Torn An excellent study of the ripples that extend from an explosion. When a bomb goes off in the local shopping mall killing many, the first suspect is the young man from a Muslim background and the investigation focuses on his parents. Torn plays with the perceptions of the viewer, from a middle class Muslim family to a working class white mother and the perceptions of the FBI. One of the most sensitive and even-handed investigations into American attitudes post 9/11 told with fascinating economy of the story-telling – a lot goes into 80 minutes – and the eye for detail that portrays so much in a single short shot. Sunday, September 7, 10pm
l War Story An extraordinary story about grief and trauma told with beautiful sensitivity. Lee is a war photographer, just back from a difficult assignment. She spends her days chainsmoking in bed and shuts herself off from any human contact. Only when she meets a young Tunisian refugee, and decides to help her, is there a breakthrough in her own healing process. As War Story unfolds you gradually find out what has happened and understand Lee’s behaviour. A powerful and moving film. Sunday, August 31, 8.45pm
l The Keeper of Lost Causes
Based on award-winning novel Mercy, the first of the bestselling Department Q crime fiction series by Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Keeper of Lost Causes is a powerful and gripping addition to the recent Scandinavian noir cycle. Carl Mørck (Nikolaj Lie Kaas, The Killing) is a brooding detective who takes the fall when his partner is wounded during a seemingly routine operation. Reassigned to the newly created Department Q, a basement-bound job filing cold cases, he is allocated a new assistant, Assad (Fares Fares, Zero Dark Thirty), a smart young Muslim cop. Always one to question hierarchy and direct orders, Mørck throws them headlong into the mystery of a politician’s disappearance five years earlier. Believing the case to be unsolved, they embark on a dangerous journey that will uncover a shocking truth, leading to a thrilling and unforgettable climax. Citing Hitchcock as a primary influence and a desire to tell a film through dark and powerful images, director Mikkel Nørgaard says he has crafted “a story about the dark side of life, what happens if you cannot let go of the past, when it devours you from within. This is a story of how humans deal with the horrific things that happen throughout life, being able to move forward from that or not”. Thursday, August 28, 10.15pm and Friday, August 29, 2pm
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Director interviews
The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq: Guillaume Nicloux The foreign language film (Opening Night Gala Film)
H
E’S definitely a strange one, Michel Houellebecq. Controversially outspoken (he has been sued for inciting racial hatred), the 58-yearold French poet and author is what you’d call a legendary character on home soil. A maverick, a raconteur, and one that perpetually has a cigarette dangling from his mouth at that. It is his most infamous exploit that director Guillaume Nicloux has taken as the topic of his latest docu-narrative, The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq. The film focuses on the rumours surrounding Houellebecq’s three-day vanishing act during a major book tour in 2011, only to reappear quite calmly, without much explanation. Allegedly al Qaeda were involved . . . Nicloux’s dramatisation reimagines the disappearance as a kidnapping involving three sympathetic body builders, a dog called Freddie and an elderly couple only too happy to procure Michel (played by the real Michel), a “lady friend” despite his incarceration. What made this a story one you felt you just had to tell? I had already asked Michel to play a part in one of my previous films, L’affaire
Gorji, in which he played the French intelligence services’ boss. Following that first collaboration, I wanted to further this complicity by exploring the documentary genre with the help of a fictional twist – by setting up a story that would be an intimate exploration of Michel, whose life and world would be the background. You blur the line between truth and imagination. Why are you so fascinated by the distinction between fact and fiction? For me, every documentary is a fiction. From this statement, it seems more interesting to work on ‘the truth’, the intimacy and spontaneity,
if you allow the actors to protect themselves behind this fictional mask I have been talking about. This way, everyone has the possibility at any time to bring very personal things about themselves, knowing that these things will likely be perceived as an invention or a fantasy. What was your first meeting with Michel Houellebecq like? Very casual. Sat at a table, with two glasses and a bottle. Cigarettes and a lighter as well. Did he take much persuading to star in the film? No, on the contrary. After our first experience working together, the idea to do it again was exciting. We had to find ‘the story’ and it quickly
appeared to me that the most interesting character was Michel the man, not Michel the writer. How much of a risk was it, casting the writer as himself? It’s not a risk at all really, as long as he trusts you. Michel is not an actor, and it is meant as a compliment. We never had to do more than one take when shooting. It was never about acting well or badly but simply about being right. Authentic in other words. And that is something that Michel is completely. It is the core purpose of films actually, being able to capture the truth from something fake and give life to fiction. Believing the incredible and
Palo Alto: Gia Coppola The debut indie movie The background: “I had a just finished college and had had enough distance from my awkward teenage years that I could understand them better,” explains Gia Coppola (the dynastic niece of Sophia, and granddaughter of Francis Ford). “I felt I hadn’t experienced much else to life other than being a teenager so it felt like a story I knew well enough to tell.” The 29-year-old has just directed her first feature film, Palo Alto, based on a collection of short stories of the same name written by Jack-of-far-too-manytrades actor James Franco, after the pair met randomly in a deli. Collaboration with Franco on the script was fairly minimal (“He’s there to support whenever needed but also enjoys letting
you have your interpretation”) and the impact of Gia’s family name was also kept at bay once financing for the film had come through – “All that pressure kind of fell off. I felt very safe keeping things small.” Although of course, I was warned off even mentioning her family, and my questions surrounding the issue of
Franco’s prolific arts output being a bit of a vanity project, also went unanswered . . . Our verdict: Palo Alto is fragmentary and bleak but extremely well dressed. Trussed up in inky visions of disillusioned teens wandering aimlessly, smoking endlessly and mooning unrequitedly: it is bored youth distilled. Obligatory shots of sunlight through leafy LA trees (a Sophia Coppola trademark), accompany shy April (Emma Roberts) as she longs for chiselled Teddy (played expertly my Val Kilmer’s son Jack), but ends up a conquest of creepy soccer coach Mr B (Franco). More sullen and meandering than a punchy, touching account of growing up, Gia told me: “I hope that people can connect with the characters and perhaps feel less alone.” I hope so too, otherwise you’re in for a long couple of hours. Sunday, September 7, 6.30pm
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by ELLA WALKER making people feel. How far did you two collaborate on the plot together? There were several encounters during which I kept Michel updated on the progress of the script’s writing. I told him my desires. He would also share his preferences sometimes. While keeping surprises, I outlined the script’s structure and we talked about the themes that would be featured in the film. But every time the intention was the same: giving to the audience a larger and more humanistic vision of Michel, with his contradictions, his lyrical momentums, his naiveté, his frailty; conveying a portrait with multiple sides to give a counterpoint and a more complex approach to the Manichean and often caricatural vision dictated by some media. Did you ever argue on set? No we did not, even if I am not the most reassuring director you can have, I am not interested in arguing. I like silent complicity. Not demonstrative but generous. And I must admit that I was given a lot of it. Michel offered me many fragile, sincere, rare moments while being funny and moving. Which moments are you particularly proud of in the finished piece? Each scene has got a little piece of organic bravery, alcohol, sex, fighting, food, fear . . . I find all the actors very endearing and I took great pleasure in watching them living together, even with chaos and occasionally fighting, because even without always understanding each other, they would listen. They appreciated each other’s company until progressively creating in the film an inverted Stockholm syndrome that they were not aware of. Thursday, August 28, 7pm and Friday, August 29, 3pm
20,000 Days On Earth: Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard WITH bizarre but touching cameos from Kylie Minogue and Ray Winstone, docu-drama 20,000 Days On Earth tracks a fictional day in the life of cult musician Nick Cave (and the Bad Seeds). Put together by long time collaborators Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, it’s a unique portrayal of a rock star and legend, and a very different kind of music film altogether. Where did the idea for the film come from? Jane Pollard: It started with a phone call from Nick saying that him and Warren [Ellis] were going in to write the new album and he thought he could cope with having a studio with them. They’ve never had anybody film that early in that process, so we knew it was a unique opportunity and we grabbed it, then the stuff we were shooting and the album they were making was evidently so much better than we thought. So you wanted to do more with
The music docu-drama the material? JP: Let’s be honest, these things tend to end up as 10-minute videos on YouTube; we couldn’t let what we’d shot end up that way, so we decided we’d set about then making a bigger vessel to carry that in. And is Nick happy with the finished product? JP (laughing): Yeah, he likes it. And better than that, he says he recognises himself in it and that means a lot to us, because we see the Nick that we know in this film as well. You’ve said it was important for you to not “break the mythology” of Cave – what did you mean by that? Iain Forsyth: Nick is a creation. Nick is a rock star and like all rock stars
you create an image for yourself and you create a character you want to be and I think a lot of other documentaries and music films, they have this idea of going behind the mask, somehow showing the ‘real man’ behind the character. For us we felt quite strongly that there was a public and private Nick Cave, but it wasn’t two separate people that we were trying to document. Actually, Nick is one thing; so Nick on stage, Nick off stage, Nick at home with his family, is all the same person. How did you decide which moments to script, and which to let unspool naturally? JP: We had a script that had no dialogue in it, so we knew what the scenes were going to be, and we knew the kind of action between the scenes, but we didn’t know what was going to happen in a scene. Do you know what it is? Nick can’t act. IF: The film was set up like a dramatic feature film. So there was a script
that took us from the beginning to the end of the film, but the thing that was different for us was, within those scenes we shot the action more like you would a documentary, where you just let things happen in front of you and you capture what you can, then tie that together in the edit. What do you want people to feel after watching the film? JP: The feeling we wanted to leave you with is the feeling that we have through knowing Nick, the feeling of being inspired by somebody who works incredibly hard and, whilst being a mythic god of rock, he also demystifies the creative process because he tells it as it is. All you need to do is have a tiny idea, stick with it, protect the idea and see it through, and if you do that, sometimes really incredible things happen. Tuesday, September 2, 8.20pm and 10.30pm