A film about a Swedish queen, directed by a Finnish filmmaker, and performed in English. That’s Mika Kaurismaki’s THE GIRL KING, the story of Queen Christina, an 18th-century monarch, raised as a boy, who fell in love with her lady-in-waiting, and abdicated her throne in order to convert to Catholicism and live a more satisfying… Read More »
Parker Posey Ponders IRRATIONAL MAN
How is it possible that this is the first time Parker Posey has worked with Woody Allen? It’s a question for the ages, but the answer to how they finally collaborated came about in a way perfectly suited to the metaphysical questions posed by their film, IRRATIONAL MAN. In it, Allen ponders whether or not… Read More »
A Philosophical IRRATIONAL MAN
Some of Woody Allen’s best films deal with the problem of absolute ethics in a world that is full of moral ambiguity. CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS beings the epitome of his musings on the subject, with lesser, but no less satisfying efforts such as MATCH POINT continuing the dialogue. In IRRATIONAL MAN, Allen has crafted another… Read More »
J.C Chandor Stays In Control When ALL IS LOST
One of the best parts of doing an interview is being able to ask nitpicky questions. I chose to ask mine while taking the photo you see to the right and it was where J.C. had come up with the name of the boat, Virginia Jean, that sinks in the Indian Ocean, leaving Robert Redford’s… Read More »
Ang Lee Tells the LIFE OF PI
When I spoke to Ang Lee on October 15, 2012, one thing I wanted to know first was what was the spark that let him think he could film a book that had been considered unfilmable by a bevy of studios and directors. His answer revealed both his innate modesty, and his personal spark of… Read More »
Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright Gift Us with SHAUN OF THE DEAD
Co-screenwriters Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, star and director respectively, of SHAUN OF THE DEAD were, you’ll pardon the expression, dead tired when I chatted with them on August 12, 2004. They’d been up late the night before doing a smashingly successful Q&A at a preview screening of their film and they had been doing… Read More »
Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright are Cool as HOT FUZZ
It was the end of a grueling day for Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright when I talked to them on April 3, 2007. Fatigue notwithstanding, these guys were primed for a chat filled with banter and philosophy as they trekked from the heights of filmmaking in theory and in practice, to the silliness,… Read More »
Edward Espe Brown Explains HOW TO COOK YOUR LIFE
I’ve owned a copy of the Tassajara Bread book for over a decade and so it was pretty much inevitable that when I spoke to its author, Edward Espé Brown, on October 8, 2007, the subject of baking the perfect loaf would come up. But first, I needed to cover the illusion of perfection, the metaphor… Read More »
IN BRUGES with Martin McDonagh
Martin McDonagh has the same sort of dark, yet whimsical sense of humor with which his film IN BRUGES, is rife. When I talked with him on January 30, 2008, the twisted way in which he examines morality was top of my list of thing I wanted to discuss, as well as the redefinition of… Read More »