Tony Scott, director of Top Gun and the new Taking of Pelham 123 remake, tells Andrew Pulver about the lure of action movies, how he moved from painting to film-making, and the ‘R word’ – his brother Ridley
Posts Tagged ‘Andrew Pulver’
Reel review: Andrew Pulver on Antichrist
July 27th, 2009 |
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Whatever you’ve heard about Lars von Trier’s lightning rod for outrage, you should see it for the director’s brave attempt to dramatise the rawest of human emotions, says Andrew Pulver
Film Weekly: Antichrist controversy
July 24th, 2009 |
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In this edition of Film Weekly, Andrew Pulver and Peter Bradshaw discuss Lars von Trier’s Antichrist while Xan Brooks hears from the director himself. Film-maker Anthony Fabian explains why he was drawn to the story of Skin, and the week’s key releases are reviewed.
Lars von Trier’s psychodrama Antichrist caused a commotion in Cannes in May. As filmgoers in the UK finally get a chance this week to see what the fuss was all about, Andrew Pulver and Peter Bradshaw discuss what it is about the film that has provoked this reaction (Clue: it’s not just the genital mutilation and the talking fox.) For good measure, Xan Brooks talks to Von Trier himself, who explains that the film was an extreme form of therapy.
Andrew and Peter also run the rule over some of the week’s releases: the reissue of Sergio Leone’s still hypnotic Once Upon a Time in the West and the “so slow it’s surreal” documentary Charles Dickens’s England.
And finally, Andrew talks to the director Anthony Fabian, whose drama Skin stars Sophie Okonedo and Sam Neill and is based on the true story of Sandra Laing, a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in apartheid-era South Africa. The director shares how he stumbled across the story, his shock at realising just how the Laing family was torn apart by the system, and why he believes the time is now right for South Africa to confront its past.
Film Weekly: Moon talk with Duncan Jones
July 18th, 2009 |
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In the week of the 40th anniversary of the lunar landings, Jason Solomons catches up with British director Duncan Jones, currently achieving lift-off with Moon. The sci-fi thriller, starring Sam Rockwell opposite, um, Sam Rockwell, recently won the Michael Powell award for best new British feature at the Edinburgh film festival. Jones, the former Zowie Bowie, discusses how (and why) he achieved the industrial aesthetic of classic, early 70s sci-fi movies within Moon’s £2.5m budget, playing with audience expectations of the genre, and how his film is unconsciously influenced by his famous father.
Xan Brooks and Andrew Pulver then review the week’s key releases: in addition to Moon, they run the rule over Burma VJ, an extraordinary portrait of an uprising in a closed society, and the cinematic behemoth that is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
And finally, Jason meets Courtney Hunt, whose feature directorial debut Frozen River scored two nominations at this year’s Oscars: best screenplay for her and best actress for Melissa Leo’s gutsy portrayal of a woman forced into people-smuggling to make ends meet. Hunt shares why she chose Leo to carry Frozen River, how she got financing from private investors to make the film, and what it was like to be at the Academy Awards.