FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Bruce LaBruce, director of the film Saint-Narcisse.

Bruce LaBruce is a funny man, extroverted, irreverent with a passionate love for the films of the 70’s and their world of experimenting. His films touch uncomfortable issues (for others, not for him) and sex, in any form and expression. We learn, from this talk, about his ideas and approach to art in any form.

Saint-Narcisse: Canada, 1972. Dominic, 22 years old, has a fetish… for himself. Nothing turns him on more than his reflection, with much of his time spent taking Polaroid selfies. When his loving grandmother dies, he discovers a deep family secret: his lesbian mother didn’t die in childbirth and he has a twin brother, Daniel, raised in a remote monastery by a depraved priest. The power of destiny brings back together the two beautiful, identical brothers, who, after being reunited with their mother Beatrice, are soon embroiled in a strange web of sex, revenge and redemption.

The post Bruce LaBruce – Saint-Narcisse #Giornate2020 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Yulene Olaizola, director of the film Selva Trágica.

For her 5th film, Selva Trágica, presented at the 77th Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti section Yulene Olaizola chooses a setting as challenging as the jungle as this is the perfect fit for a visually enchanting and super natural tale on nature taking revenge for being exploited. The director focuses on nature being the real protagonist and opens up to the possibility of her film reminding us the painful lives women lived in the 1920’s.

Selva Trágica: 1920, on the border between Mexico and Belize. Deep in the Mayan jungle, a lawless territory where myths abound, a group of Mexican gum workers cross paths with Agnes, a mysterious young Belizean woman. Her presence incites tension among the men, arousing their fantasies and desires. Filled with new vigor, they face their destiny, without knowing that they have woken up Xtabay, a legendary being that lurks in the heart of the jungle.

To watch FRED video interview, click here.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Jorge Cuchí, director of the film 50 or Two Whales Meet at the Beach.

An interview with Jorge Cuchí, director of 50 or Two Whales Meet at the Beach, presented within the program of the International Critics’ Week section of the 77th Venice International Film Festival. The story of the film draws inspiration from the Blue Whale trend on social media from not too long ago. Here, the director talks about what drew him to this story, including its psychological connotations, as well as his views on the positives and negatives of social media and some thoughts about the style of the movie.

50 or Two Whales Meet at the Beach: Félix, a 17-year-old boy, receives an invitation on WhatsApp: do you want to play the Blue Whale Game? The one with the 50 challenges? The one where you have to kill yourself at the end? Félix accepts. That is how he meets Elisa. They start completing the challenges together. 50 is a story of love between two suicidal teens who decide to play together till death do them part. Which is six days away.

The post Jorge Cuchí – 50 or Two Whales Meet at the Beach #SIC35 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Tadhg O’Sullivan and Clare Stronge, director and producer of the film To the Moon.

A conversation with director Tadhg O’Sullivan and producer Clare Stronge, who presented To the Moon at the Giornate degli Autori, the parallel and independent strand of the 77th Venice International Film Festival. The film is described as an ode to the mood and it is composed via a wealth of archive material and literary fragments. Here, O’Sullivan and Stronge talk about the concept as well as the process of putting this poetic work together – a work that, O’Sullivan reveals, took some four years to complete.

To the Moon is a beautiful and poetic cinematic ode to our moon. Made primarily from international cinematic archives in combination with literary fragments and original moonlit cinematography filmed across five continents, To the Moon steps lightly through the ages and ideas that people have drawn from the moon to create a meditative work of timeless resonance.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Filip Jan Rymsza, producer of the film Hopper/Welles.

A conversation with Filip Jan Rymsza, producer with Royal Road Entertainment, which presented the film Hopper/Welles in collaboration with Grindhouse Releasing and Fixafilm at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. A must-see for cinephiles and film history lovers, this is an over two-hour long conversation between icons Orson Welles and Dennis Hopper. In this interview, Rymsza shares how this previously unseen footage emerged and how it came to be released as a standalone feature. He also talks about the relationship between Hopper and Welles, which shaped the dynamics of the conversation and that Rymsza points out some have referred to as an interrogation.

Hopper/Welles: Presented for the first time at 77th Venice Film Festival, Hopper/Welles is an intimate and revelatory 1970 conversation between two film giants, Dennis Hopper, then riding high on the massive success of Easy Rider, and Orson Welles, ever the iconoclast and an offscreen interviewer of probing authority. Both had emerged from notoriety to change the face of cinema. It seems only natural that they would meet – and so they did, over a long, boisterous dinner. Captured during the guerrilla shooting of Welles’ troubled, long-in-the-making The Other Side of the Wind (and Hopper’s own difficult editing of The Last Movie), the back and forth yields two fascinatingly similar characters: the elder lion in winter and the younger rebrand headed for a fall from grace. Their subjects are legion and the questions run deep. Is a director a “god” or a “magician”? Will America survive its own violence? Sex, liberation, radical chic and political sincerity—their chat is timelier than ever. Hopper/Welles is an essential piece of movie history, pitched at the hinge of a changing industry, voiced by a pair of filmdom’s most radical creators.

The post Filip Jan Rymsza – Hopper/Welles #Venezia77 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Ann Hui, director of the film Love After Love.

A conversation with filmmaker Ann Hui, who presented her latest film Love After Love out of competition at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. Here, the director talks about the original short story the film is based on and why she wanted to remain faithful to it in taking it to the screen, as well as the context that makes this story so powerful and fascinating. Hui, who is a major figure of the movement known as the Hong Kong New Wave, is also receiving in Venice a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

Love After Love: Ge Weilong, a young girl from Shanghai, travels to Hong Kong in pursuit of her education. In order to pay for her studies, she asks her aunt, Mrs. Liang, for help. Mrs. Liang is leading a shady life, and Weilong gradually becomes her aunt’s puppet in the game of luring the rich and powerful men. As it happens, Weilong gets genuinely attracted to playboy George Qiao, whose aim is to marry a wealthy girl to maintain his own high-end class lifestyle.

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Amos Gitai, director of the film Laila in Haifa.

There’s a club in Haifa, the Fattoush, founded by a young Palestinian that welcomes people from different backgrounds, religion and sexual orientation. Director Amos Gitai, despite being born in Haifa discovered this place through an actress friend of his and decided to direct a film about it. That’s how Laila in Haifa was born. At the 77th Venice International Film Festival , where the film is in competition, the director reveals why he decided to focus on women and how Fattoush should be a virtuous example on how society should act and should be. Five Stories, Five Women, 14 characters and only one choice: to stay optimistic.

Laila in Haifa: Over the course of one night, we witness the interweaving stories of five women through a series of encounters and situations, defying all categories and labels in their relationships and personal identities. With an ensemble cast of both Israeli and Palestinian actors, Laila in Haifa is a drama with wry humor set over one night in a club in the port town of Haifa. The film presents a candid snapshot of contemporary life in one of the last remaining spaces where Israelis and Palestinians come together to engage in face-to-face relationships. The club itself is vital to the fabric of the film. Amos Gitai delivers a sensitive and distinctly humanist reflection of life in the region. Laila in Haifa is a lieu de rencontres, a moment of dialogue, in a region that otherwise suffers from chronic violence and hatred. Posing the questions: how can the arts create a space in which people can express their different identities but are looking for ways of mutual and peaceful coexistence? How can the language of cinema using juxtaposition of fragments of stories create a common human tissue?

The post Amos Gitai – Laila in Haifa #Venezia77 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Ivan Tverdovskiy, director of the film Conference.

Ivan Tverdovskiy narrates the memory of a huge Russian tragedy where many people died and the people who survived carrying the burden of these memories. In a film with a semi documentarist narrative rhythm, the world of the nun who is the center of the story is unfolded in a subtle and at the same time intense way.

Conference: Natalia, a nun from a remote Russian monastery, comes to Moscow 17 years after the terrorist attack on the Dubrovka Theatre. She has been sent there to organize a memorial evening for the victims of the attack that took place in October 2002. We soon learn that Natalia and her family themselves were witnesses to the attack. Almost forgotten now by the outside world, the organizers and participants of the memorial evening or the Conference (as they have been asked to call it officially) are made to feel like a burden by the rest of the society. Following the chronology of the events as told by a few participants in the memorial evening, we learn the dark details of Natalia’s personal story.

The post Ivan Tverdovskiy – Conference #Giornate2020 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Anders Ølholm and Frederik Louis Hviid, directors of the film Shorta.

It comes like the most contemporary film we’ve seen at the 2020 Venice Critics week Shorta, the debut by danisk filmmakers Anders Ølholm and Frederik Louis Hviid. A crime story that sees two police officers getting trapped in a ghetto trying to get revenge on them after the unfair killing of one of them. The directors talk about finding a balance and the right rhytm to a film that manages to go straight to the point while changing points of view in the story.

Shorta: The exact details of what took place while Talib Ben Hassi, 19, was in police custody remain unclear. Police officers Jens and Mike are on routine patrol in Svalegården’s ghetto when news of Talib’s death comes in over the radio, igniting uncontrollable pent-up rage in the ghetto’s youth who lust for revenge. Suddenly, the two officers find themselves in a fair game and must fight tooth and claw to find a way out.

The post Anders Ølholm, Frederik Louis Hviid – Shorta #SIC35 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Romola Garai, actress of the film Miss Marx.

Romola Garai is Susanna Nicchiarelli’s new muse in Miss Marx, screening in competition at the 77th Venice Film Festival. The actress describes Eleanor Marx, her character and how it is the second time she gets to play a woman fighting for equality and people/women’s rights after Suffragette by Sarah Gavron. Romola Garai leads us into the world of Eleanor Marx, a woman so ahead of her time but overpowered by the contradictions between her private life and per public one. How can someone be so independent and brave in the public fights and at the same time a “slave” of passion and love in private? Miss Marx takes her revenge.

Miss Marx: Bright, intelligent, passionate and free, Eleanor is Karl Marx’s youngest daughter. Among the first women to link the themes of feminism and socialism, she takes part in the workers’ battles and fights for women’s rights and the abolition of child labor. In 1883 she meets Edward Aveling and her life is crushed by a passionate but tragic love story.

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