Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > In Print category
In Print
May 26, 2011
A Coffee With ... Cinematographer Peter Simonite
It seems natural to find Simonite close to the action but not in the spotlight. He has spent the past 18 years working behind the camera on movies. After graduating from the University of Texas in 1994 with a degree in film, the San Antonio native packed his car and headed west. But his was no aimless road-trip or a follow-your-dreams-to-Hollywood fairy tale.
“I got in a hail-damaged Honda Civic and drove out to Alpine and slept in a sleeping bag in a Pizza Hut out there and worked as a loader on the TV movie ‘The Good Old Boys,’” Simonite said. “And it was awesome. It was great. I was like, ‘I can’t believe I’m making money doing this.’”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: In Print
May 25, 2011
This year's Cannes: a tale of celebrity - and anti-celebrity
The Cannes film festival has a split personality.
Organizers always pick the best of new arthouse cinema from around the world for the festival’s official competition. And this year, two Austin movies — Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” and Jeff Nichols’ “Take Shelter” — won top awards, with “Tree” taking home the coveted Palme d’Or. And after winning the top two prizes at the festival’s Critics’ Week sidebar, Nichols characterized the Cannes experience as “the highlight of my career to date.”
But Cannes has a wild celebrity component as well, attracting thousands of actors because it’s the world’s largest annual movie industry gathering. The celebrity quotient for this year’s festival, in fact, was the highest in recent years, with movie legends, current Hollywood stars and up-and-comers.
Among the legends were Jane Fonda, Robert De Niro, Faye Dunaway, Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Fonda, who helped deliver the Palme d’Or to “The Tree of Life” at Sunday’s ceremony, was omnipresent at the festival, eating breakfast each morning at the Hotel Martinez and looking fresh, even after a string of late-night parties. But it wasn’t mere coincidence that she also wanted to raise her profile, because she has two new movies coming out this year: Bruce Beresford’s “Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding,” co-starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chace Crawford, Elizabeth Olsen and Catherine Keener, as well as the comedy “Et si on vivait tous ensemble?”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: In Print
May 19, 2011
A Coffee With ... Paramount Theatre programmer Jesse Trussell
It seems fitting that the film programmer for one of Austin’s oldest cultural institutions would choose to meet at fellow Congress Avenue icon Little City on the beloved coffee shop’s penultimate day. His iced coffee sits relatively ignored as the 27 year-old discusses his love of film and details his plans for the theatre’s 36th annual summer series.
The self-described film nerd, who now works in a building that could in its balcony hold the entire population of his hometown of Mount Calm says he feels honored to have been given the responsibility for the 80-film summer series but recognizes the burden inherent in having control of the program.
“I definitely feel the responsibility to the community because it’s such a big series. Once I got this job it was really a dream because it was a tradition I had always been so proud of and now to have my own work be a part of it was very exciting,” Trussell said. “I distinctly remember when the list would come out thinking, ‘Oh, I wish they would play X,Y and Z.’ And now I have those reins, and so I know there is someone else out there saying, ‘Oh! Why didn’t Jesse play X, Y and Z?’”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: In Print
May 13, 2011
Interview: Will Ferrell likes not having to be the funny guy
Will Ferrell relaxes into a stuffed armchair, legs crossed, his shoeless feet propped in front of him. Wearing plaid shorts and a red polo shirt, he looks like your brother-in-law after a round of golf.
Most people have come to know one side of the comedy icon: the loud, guffawing goofball with a knack for physical comedy and over-the-top impressions. In person, Ferrell barely resembles his public persona. With no hint of sarcasm or a longing to please, Ferrell casually talks about his broadcast journalism studies at the University of Southern California, asking as many questions as he answers.
He’s made a fortune playing broad comedic characters on television and in movies, but his silliness has always belied a calmer nature.
In his new movie, “Everything Must Go,” Ferrell gets another chance to present his more serious side to audiences. He plays Nick Halsey, an alcoholic salesman who has recently fallen off the wagon, an unfortunate slip that results in him losing his job and his wife. As he figures out how to piece together his fractured life, Halsey struggles to come to terms with his own complicity in his fall from grace. The script features few strictly comical scenes, which came as a welcome relief for Ferrell.
“It’s very freeing to just know - because it becomes very apparent to the audience very early in the movie that this is going to be different - that it’s something that is not going to be reliant on laughs the whole way through,” Ferrell said. “It’s probably the opposite that you would guess. I think there’s an impression that the director was having to talk me down. If anything, if (director Dan Rush wanted) something to be `funny’ in quotes, let me know, because I was going to play everything down here.”
Will Ferrell talks with reporters during a red carpet for the special screening of his film “Everything Must Go” at the south Alamo Drafthouse on Thursday, May 5, 2011. (Deborah Cannon AMERICAN-STATESMAN.)
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: In Print
Controversial 'Serbian Film' returns to Austin for general run
Though its title might seem innocuous, the foreign-made horror movie “A Serbian Film” has shocked and revolted viewers around the world with its graphic depictions of rape, murder and pedophilia. The controversial movie opens today at a handful of U.S. theaters, including the Alamo South.
Tim League, Alamo Drafthouse CEO and co-founder of Fantastic Fest, has seen his share of gory, graphic and scandalous movies. So his proclamation that “A Serbian Film” is “one of the most disturbing films” he has ever seen should give any potential moviegoer pause. But League offers strong praise for the film, which tells the story of a retired porn star who, driven by a need to support his family, is lured under false pretenses back into the world of sex films only to discover that his new job will force him to confront the depths of human depravity.
“I was vaguely troubled by the subject material, but I really loved the overall film,” League said. “It’s a really trangressive film. It goes further than most films dare to even think of going. But it’s not doing it just for the sake of being controversial. I really, really don’t like films that are just being over the top for the sake of being over the top. For one, they bore me to a certain extent and also they’re sort of childish. And this is not a childish film. This definitely has political context. Not that you have to have a message per se in a film, but I think it’s clear the influence of this film and the experience these filmmakers had growing up in the regime that they did.”
Audiences will have to sit through an onslaught of incredibly disturbing images in order to eventually piece together Serbian director Srdjan Spasojevic’s intended message about Serbian society and the evil forces that terrorized that country for decades.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: In Print
May 12, 2011
AMC adding IMAX screen at Barton Creek Square cinema
AMC Theatres is betting that Austin’s big enough for two IMAX screens, charging ahead with plans to add one at its Barton Creek Square cineplex.
When completed — perhaps as soon as late this summer — it will join an IMAX theater that’s been at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum since it opened a decade ago.
AMC plans to convert one of the cinema’s 14 auditoriums, adding high-tech features that will allow a variety of films to be shown in 2-D and 3-D. A few rows of seats will be removed to improve sightlines.
Once started, the entire renovation process is expected to take two to three weeks, AMC spokesman Justin Scott said.
“We’ll be offering that crystal-clear projection IMAX is known for,” Scott said. “We’ll go in there with IMAX and put in a new screen that will be about 25 percent larger, all new acoustic panels, and a new audio system that’s custom-made for that theater.”
The sound system, Scott promises, will “make your sternum rattle.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: In Print
May 6, 2011
All eyes to turn to Malick in Cannes
<
This year’s Cannes Film Festival, which begins Wednesday, promises to be one of the best in decades, with some of the biggest names in world cinema competing for the top prize, the Palme d’Or.Among the contenders are Denmark’s enfant terrible Lars von Trier, Spain’s Pedro Almodóvar, Italy’s Nanni Moretti, Finland’s Aki Kaurismäki and the Dardenne brothers of Belgium.
But no one has been getting more prefestival attention than Austin director Terrence Malick, who will screen the long-awaited “The Tree of Life,” much of which was filmed in Smithville in 2008. The movie — starring Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and Sean Penn — is scheduled to open in major U.S. cities on Memorial Day weekend and debut in Austin the following Friday, June 3.
Why all the buzz?
Malick, who lives in the Westlake area, ranks as one of cinema’s biggest mysteries, rarely appearing in public and steadfastly refusing critics’ requests for interviews. It’s not even known whether he will show up for the traditional press conference after his movie screens in Cannes on May 16.
A recent email inquiry to a Texas publicist for Fox Searchlight, which will be distributing the movie, brought the following response: “Terrence Malick is not confirmed for the press conference.” That response leaves open the possibility that he might be “confirmed for the press conference” at a later date, but it’s probably unlikely.
Malick has been super-secretive about the plot of “The Tree of Life,” which is only his fifth movie since 1973’s “Badlands.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: In Print
Interview: Jodie Foster, director of 'The Beaver'
“I feel like I’ve had a series of them in my life, and they are what have propelled me forward and have allowed me to hopefully evolve to become a more well-adjusted person … to continually have to say, `I want to live. How do I live? Because I’m dying,’ ” Foster said while in Austin in March for the world premiere of her latest, “The Beaver.”
“Tate” told the story of a 7-year-old boy going through his own spiritual crisis. Stigmatized with the label of “child genius,” Fred Tate battled the idea that he must choose between his head and his heart. Eventually, the prodigy (and audience) realizes the fallacy of the dualistic approach and finds a more nuanced understanding of himself and his place in the world.
“`The Beaver’ in some ways is an extension of that,” Foster said. “A man who struggles with the belief that he must choose between a life sentence and a death sentence. And he doesn’t want either one. He doesn’t want to be asleep for the rest of his life, and he doesn’t want to throw himself off a building.”
Photo by Ben Sklar FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN/
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: In Print
May 5, 2011
Summer movie preview: Here come the comic-book movies
Prepare for a summer bursting at the seams with multi-million-dollar special effects and familiar names. Always a staple of Hollywood’s high season, comic-book movies will dominate theaters in the months to come. From relatively obscure (Korean graphic novel-inspired “Priest”) to the truly iconic (“X-Men: First Class”), heroes and villains will spring from the pages of famous graphic novels and onto the silver screen.
A few legendary characters (Thor and Green Lantern) will get their first shot at feature-film glory, while others, like Conan the Barbarian, get a 21st-century face-lift.
Harry Potter, in his final bow, leads a slew of sequels (“The Hangover Part II,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” and “Cars 2”), adding to the long list of familiar faces.
In between all the big-budget films and their cross-promotions (just try to pick up a soda can this sweaty summer and not find a fictional film character), Hollywood still has found room for some more mature material. Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” finally comes to theaters, and the Jodie Foster-directed “The Beaver,” penned by Austinite Kyle Killen, finally will be judged based on its merits and not star Mel Gibson’s behavior.
Follow the link below for our look at 25 of the biggest movies coming to Austin in the coming months.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: In Print
April 28, 2011
Interview: 'In a Better World' director Susanne Bier
Danish director Susanne Bier has had an interesting and at times adversarial history with the film culture of her native Europe. She also has an Oscar.
The director of “In a Better World,” which won the Academy Award this year for foreign-language film, spent the early part of her career with one foot in both the commercial and arthouse worlds of European film.
Though she gained notoriety as a popular filmmaker in Denmark with 1999’s romantic comedy “The One and Only,” her first critical smash, “Open Hearts,” came as a member of the Dogma movement. The loose-knit, avant-garde collective made stripped-down films that did not rely on lighting, costumes or music — among other limitations — with the intention of telling stories that focused on character and story.
After the 2002 critical success of “Open Hearts,” Bier began to regularly defy the constraints of her filmmaking peers from Europe. “Brødre” (“Brothers”), the 2004 drama later remade in America about a love triangle borne of tragedy, and 2007’s English-language “Things We Lost in the Fire” raised the filmmaker’s profile internationally and led some in the European film scene to accuse the director of falling prey to commercialism.
The confident and thoughtful Bier, who visited Austin for the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival in March, makes no apologies for her style or motives.
“There is in Europe a kind of elitist culture — where it is not a good thing if you are actively engaging with the audience,” Bier says. “I think it’s incredible. I think it’s from a time when anything considered innovative had to be rejected by the audience. Like any new school of painting was rejected by the public and then it became sort of recognized. I don’t think the directors who are now never being recognized by the public suddenly will then be recognized in 100 years time. Because that’s not what a movie is about. Movies are a mass media, and the way to treat movies is to tell stories with a real substance and then actually address an audience.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Interview: Rainn Wilson and James Gunn of 'Super'
“Basically, all the shots, all the tone, it’s exactly what I intended,” Gunn said. “So there’s nobody to blame but me if that’s something that didn’t work for people.”
Visiting Austin for the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival last month, the spiky-haired and bug-eyed Gunn admitted the thing he hears most often from people about his movie “Super” is how unexpected the genre-twisting movie is.
“I think the element of surprise and disorientation is all a part of what ‘Super’ is,” Gunn said. “I think it’s a little too much, frankly, for some people because it comes at you from so many different angles at the same time.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: In Print, Interview
April 21, 2011
Interview: Morgan Spurlock, director of 'POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold'
A man can only take so much. Eventually he reaches a tipping point. In the fall of 2007, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock decided he’d had enough.
During an episode of one of Spurlock’s favorite (at the time) TV shows, “Heroes,” the character Claire Bennet (portrayed by Hayden Panettiere) receives a car as a gift from her parents.
Not just any car. The Rogue!
“Oh my gosh, the Rogue!” she says, the joy of new ownership overwhelming her.
For the “Heroes”-uninitiated and the marketing-unsaturated, that would be the Nissan Rogue, a sports-utility vehicle framed very carefully to show off the car’s logo on this particular episode of the NBC drama. Also the same car that would appear in commercial breaks during the show.
“The next day we came in (to the office), and we were both so angry,” Spurlock said, referring to his producing partner Jeremy Chilnick.
The shameless shilling represented the latest affront to Spurlock and Chilnick’s sense of propriety. After several years of watching product placement slowly infiltrate every nook and cranny of the entertainment world, the two men decided to pull back the curtain on the nasty business that has made paid-for corporate products as visible in movies as superheroes, man-children and talking animals.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: In Print
