When I spoke with Neil Burger on July 31, 2006, it was impossible to not start with his previous film, INTERVIEW WITH THE ASSASSIN. Both that film and THE ILLUSIONIST deal with what is real and what is a clever bit of misdirection. His newest film, though, boasts not just a fiendishly clever plot, but also… Read More »
THE LAST KISS of Zach Braff
Zach Braff had been to the Emmy Awards show the night before flying into San Francisco for THE LAST KISS’ press day on August 28, 2006. With little sleep, he was still very funny and very thoughtful as he pondered the film’s themes of love, commitment, and the definition of surprise, as well as what… Read More »
Forest Whitaker is THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Idi Amin is a daunting subject for a feature film, but Forest Whitaker played the former Ugandan dictator’s charismatic side as well as the murderous rages into which he could erupt at any moment. When I spoke with him on October 6, 2006, that was the first thing I asked him about before moving on… Read More »
Eric Steel’s View from THE BRIDGE
Eric Steel didn’t exactly make it easy for himself with his directorial debut. THE BRIDGE not only tackles suicide, but it also does so in a direct, visceral way that can’t help but provoke controversy. He, like his film, is quiet and thoughtful on the subject, but also partisan in what he feels are the failings in society… Read More »
Webster Colcord & Corey Rosen Create THE HOST
There was much more than just the usual giddy delight about their work to be found in Webster Colcord and Corey Rosen. These special effects masters from the San Francisco F/X house The Orphanage have an unabashed respect for their colleagues that they aren’t shy about sharing when discussing their collective work on Korean writer/director Bong Joon Ho’s iconoclastic… Read More »
Dean DeBlois & Clark Spencer & LILO AND STITCH
Dean DeBlois and Clark Spencer, co-director and producer respectively of LILO AND STITCH are, like so many Disney folk, big kids masquerading as grown-ups. Stitch, the alien of the title, is like nothing so much as Buster Keaton’s evil alter ego, and Lilo, the little girl who adopts him, is more like the typical Disney nemesis, not heroine.… Read More »
Hal Hartley & Parker Posey Revive FAY GRIM
The only room to be found in the shared suite was the cramped bedroom, and so Hartley, Posey, and I stretched out amid my recording equipment on the bed to chat about art, politics, and the effect of eye contact on and off the screen.
The MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES of Edward Burtynsky & Jennifer Baichwal
Edward Burtynsky has been taking photographs of the changing landscape of planet earth for decades. His enigmatic, haunting photos of the impact of industrialization on the planet, and on the people living on it, have been exquisitely translated to film by Jennifer Baichwal. When I talked with them on June 30, 2007, accomplishing that transmutation, including… Read More »
Richard Berge & Bonni Cohen Recount THE RAPE OF EUROPA
Richard Berge and Bonni Cohen spent years translating Lynn H. Nicholas’ book of the same name into a documentary. Hence, when I spoke with them on May 14, 2007, they had a wealth of stories to tell about both the subject matter, the Nazi plan to loot Europe of its art treasures and to destroy those… Read More »
Fredi M. Murer on VITUS
Fredi Murer, a courtly gentleman given to performing deft sleight-of-hand for his interviewers, tapped his own childhood when he created VITUS, both the film and the character. Murer himself was not a genius in the classroom, as he tells it, but he did have a creative streak that landed him in all sorts of usual scrapes. When we talked… Read More »