FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Lorene Scafaria, director of the film Hustlers.

After Seeking a friend for the end of the world and The Meddler, Lorene Scafaria presents Hustlers starring Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu. Inspired by the article published by New York Magazine entitled “The Hustlers at Scores” written by Jessica Pressler, the film follows a crew of savvy former strip club employees who band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients. At the 14th Rome Film Fest, Lorene Scafaria talks about a line in the film that reflects its metaphoric intention to talk about today’s America and financial system: “This whole city, this whole country is one big strip club”. Hustlers celebrates sisterhood while managing not to judge its characters or their actions. Do women and female characters always need to justify, explain why they become villains? Lorene Scafaria comments on this big question arising from the film.

Hustlers: In 2007, Destiny has become a stripper so she can provide for herself and her grandmother; her life will change when she meets Ramona, the star of the strip joint, and the two immediately hit it off. Destiny learns how to win over her male audience from Ramona, and also that when you’re inside a corrupt system, you have to exploit the situation instead of being exploited. To that end, Ramona gives Destiny a complete rundown on her Wall Street customers at the club. From that point on, the two women start raking in much more money than they can ever spend, right up to the Great Recession of 2008. Destiny and Ramona are joined by two dancers, Mercedes and Annabelle, and make a stab at changing the rules of the game, but it quickly spirals out of their control.

To discover more about Hustlers, click here.

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The post Lorene Scafaria – Hustlers #RomaFF14 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | David Martos interviews Jesper Ganslandt, director of the film 438 Days.

Jesper Ganslandt, director of 438 Days, talks to FRED Film Radio in the context of the 14th edition of the Rome Film Festival. He talks about what interested him about directing a film based in a real event -an a book by the two journalists involved-, and how difficult was the shooting, that took place in South Africa.

438 Days: On the eve of June 28th, 2011 Swedish journalists Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson put everything at stake by illegally crossing the border from Somalia into Ethiopia. After months of research, planning and failed attempts, they were finally on their way to report on how the ruthless hunt for oil effected the population of the isolated and conflict-ridden Ogaden region. Five days later they lay wounded in the desert sand, shot and captured by the Ethiopian army. But when their initial reportage died, another story began. A story about lawlessness, propaganda and global politics. After a Kafkaesque trial they were sentenced to eleven years in prison for terrorism. And they were far from alone. Their cellmates were journalists, writers and politicians persecuted for not bowing down to dictatorship. Their reportage about oil was transformed into a story about ink, and their daily lives turned into a fight for survival inside the notorious Kality prison in Addis Ababa. Exposed to deadly diseases, daily beatings and fierce repression – deprived of their shoelaces and their freedom of speech – they fought to preserve the most valuable thing of all: the freedom to determine who you are and what you believe. This is their story of 438 days of hell.

The post Jesper Ganslandt – 438 Days #RomaFF14 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Imelda Staunton, Gareth Neame, Liz Trubridge and Michael Engler of the TV series Downtown Abbey.

On the red carpet of Downtown Abbey‘s Italian premiere, at the 14th Rome Film Fest, actors Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Imelda Staunton, director Michael Engler and producers Gareth Neame and Liz Trubridge talk about the making of Downtown Abbey, the film and going back breathing that sense of family which is the main reason why we all love the series. Imelda Stanton thanks the good writing for her fitting perfectly in the family as her character is the new entry in the film and the story. Cast, producers and director all agree on the fact that Downtown Abbey is loved because we are all nostalgic for important values such loyalty and devotion in a world that doesn’t really seem to care anymore.

Downtown Abbey: The television series Downtown Abbey followed the lives of the Crawley family and the servants who worked for them at the turn of the 20th century in an Edwardian English country house. Over its 6 seasons, the series garnered 3 Golden Globe Awards, 15 Primetime Emmy Awards, 69 Emmy nominations in total, making Downtown Abbey the most nominated non-US television show in the history of the Emmys – even earning a Special BAFTA award and a Guinness World Record for the highest critically rated TV show along the way.

To discover more about Downtown Abbey, click here.

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The post Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Imelda Staunton, Gareth Neame, Liz Trubridge, Michael Engler – Downtown Abbey #RomaFF14 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Sarah Bradbury interviews Amanda Nevill, Chief Executive Officer of BFI London Film Festival.

BFI London Film Festival Cheif Executive Officer, Amanda Nevill, spoke to us about this year’s festival from the red carpet of The Irishman, explaining what had stood out for 2019 and why Scorsese’s film was chosen to close the festival.

The post Amanda Nevill #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Sarah Bradbury interviews Craig Roberts, director of the film Eternal Beauty.

British director Craig Roberts told us what inspired him to make Sally Hawkins-starring Eternal Beauty. He explained how personal experience of knowing someone with a “superpower” led him to tell the story of a woman living with schizophrenia, written specifically with Sally Hawkins in mind.

Eternal Beauty: Sally Hawkins is a schizophrenic woman coping with a hallucinatory existence in Craig Roberts’ bold, sometimes hilarious and disturbing exploration of mental illness. Jilted as a young woman on her wedding day, the outsider in a fragmented family and beset with anxieties both real and imaginary, June has a life of constant struggle. Pills offer a possible solution and her relationship with vagrant musician Mike (David Thewlis) might be another. But does the medication and even love just exacerbate June’s delusional state of mind? Following his 2015 directorial debut Just Jim, Submarine star Craig Roberts’ sophomore feature is a true high-wire act, depicting the unstable perceptions of a fragile persona with delirious colour and design across ever-shifting time frames. Sally Hawkins’ fearless performance again confirms her as one of Britain’s best, and an ace supporting cast – Alice Lowe, Billie Piper, Penelope Wilton – prove equally committed to Roberts’ singular, humane vision.

To discover more about the film, click here.

The post Craig Roberts – Eternal Beauty #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Sarah Bradbury interviews Head of Jury for documentary film Yance Ford.

African-American director and producer Yance Ford tells us about leading the jury to decide on Best Documentary Film at the BFI London Film Festival from the red carpet at the LFF awards. He spoke about the plethora of films presented, why they chose White Riot for the prize and how the documentary world can set an example to fiction film in terms of diversity in front and behind the camera.

White Riot won Best Documentary: Expanding her 2017 short, Rubika Shah’s energising film charts a vital London protest movement. Rock Against Racism (RAR) was formed in 1976, prompted by ‘music’s biggest colonialist’ Eric Clapton and his support of racist MP Enoch Powell. White Riot blends fresh interviews with queasy archive footage to recreate a hostile environment of anti-immigrant hysteria and National Front marches. As neo-Nazis recruited the nation’s youth, RAR’s multicultural punk and reggae gigs provided rallying points for resistance. As founder Red Saunders explains: ‘We peeled away the Union Jack to reveal the swastika’. The campaign grew from Hoxton fanzine roots to 1978’s huge antifascist carnival in Victoria Park, featuring X-Ray Spex, Steel Pulse and of course The Clash, whose rock star charisma and gale-force conviction took RAR’s message to the masses.

The post Yance Ford #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Sarah Bradbury interviews Stephanie Kurtzuba, actress of the film The Irishman.

Actress Stephanie Kurtzuba spoke to us from the red carpet about her role as Irene Sheeran opposite Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman at the BFI London Film Festival. She told us why she thinks Scorsese is such a visionary director and what a modern twist on a mafia film had to say about masculinity.

The Irishman: Martin Scorsese’s ninth collaboration with Robert De Niro finds the master filmmaker returning to the genre he has helped define, with a mystery that has never been solved. Who killed Jimmy Hoffa? A labour leader and the infamous head of the Teamsters union, whose connections with organised crime were wide ranging, his career ended with a conviction for jury tampering, attempted bribery and fraud, but he was pardoned by President Nixon in 1971. Not long after, he disappeared. Declared legally dead in 1982, various theories have circulated as to what happened to him. Few are as convincing as that told by Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran. The account he revealed to journalist Charles Brandt and published in the 2004 book I Heard You Paint Houses, is the basis of this riveting, epic crime drama. Written by Gangs of New York collaborator Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List), Scorsese’s The Irishman weaves an engrossing and intricate web of connected events, audaciously cutting back and forth across decades. Presented through the prism of Sheeran’s (De Niro) memories of his criminal past, the film uses state-of-the-art visual effects to ‘de-age’ the cast from their 70s through their 30s. The seamless (and astonishing) post-production allows Scorsese to bring together a favoured megawatt cast, all on exceptional form: the former Goodfellas pairing of De Niro and Joe Pesci (out of retirement here for Scorsese), alongside Harvey Keitel, Stephen Graham, Anna Paquin, Jesse Plemons, Bobby Cannavale and Ray Romano. Al Pacino, appearing for the first time in a Scorsese film, gives a performance as Jimmy Hoffa so good you’ll want to watch scenes again straight away, not least the many two-handers with Pacino’s Hoffa and De Niro’s Irishman Sheeran, whose friendship forms the heart of the film. What a way to close the LFF – with a total showstopper.

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The post Stephanie Kurtzuba – The Irishman #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Sarah Bradbury interviews Sandy Powell, costume designer of the film The Irishman.

Famed costume designer, Sandy Powell, shared her experience working on new Martin Scorsese film, The Irishman. The fourteen times nominated and three time Academy Award-winning designer told us about her process for developing the costumes and working with Scorsese and the all-star cast.

The Irishman: Martin Scorsese’s ninth collaboration with Robert De Niro finds the master filmmaker returning to the genre he has helped define, with a mystery that has never been solved. Who killed Jimmy Hoffa? A labour leader and the infamous head of the Teamsters union, whose connections with organised crime were wide ranging, his career ended with a conviction for jury tampering, attempted bribery and fraud, but he was pardoned by President Nixon in 1971. Not long after, he disappeared. Declared legally dead in 1982, various theories have circulated as to what happened to him. Few are as convincing as that told by Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran. The account he revealed to journalist Charles Brandt and published in the 2004 book I Heard You Paint Houses, is the basis of this riveting, epic crime drama. Written by Gangs of New York collaborator Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List), Scorsese’s The Irishman weaves an engrossing and intricate web of connected events, audaciously cutting back and forth across decades. Presented through the prism of Sheeran’s (De Niro) memories of his criminal past, the film uses state-of-the-art visual effects to ‘de-age’ the cast from their 70s through their 30s. The seamless (and astonishing) post-production allows Scorsese to bring together a favoured megawatt cast, all on exceptional form: the former Goodfellas pairing of De Niro and Joe Pesci (out of retirement here for Scorsese), alongside Harvey Keitel, Stephen Graham, Anna Paquin, Jesse Plemons, Bobby Cannavale and Ray Romano. Al Pacino, appearing for the first time in a Scorsese film, gives a performance as Jimmy Hoffa so good you’ll want to watch scenes again straight away, not least the many two-handers with Pacino’s Hoffa and De Niro’s Irishman Sheeran, whose friendship forms the heart of the film. What a way to close the LFF – with a total showstopper.

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The post Sandy Powell – The Irishman #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Sarah Bradbury interviews Santiago A Zapata, producer of the film Monos.

Producer Santiago A Zapata told us about winning Best Film for Monos, director by Alejandro Landes, at the BFI London Film Festival. He gave us a introduction to the film and its inspiration and shared what it means to him and Landes to be honoured with the award.

Monos: High in the mountains of South America, above the billowing clouds but with gunshots heard in the distance, a motley group of child and teenage soldiers train and wait for instruction. They stave off boredom by fucking, playing and fighting. This might be some teen rave gone feral, but for the deadly seriousness underlined by the presence of an American hostage, the Doctora. Monos has inspired feverish buzz wherever it has screened this year and comparisons to Apocalypse Now and Lord of the Flies are not off the mark in mapping out the film’s terrain. But this is also a wildly original vision from Landes and screenwriter Alexis dos Santos, referencing horrors on their own continent. The camera prowls over mud and organic decay, cutting swathes through the jungle, all to the strains of Mica Levi’s visceral score. Monos sparks with dark adrenal electricity and it’s completely, utterly thrilling.

Monos is released in UK cinemas across UK and Ireland on 25th October 2019. For more information visit the official website here , or visit the Facebook page, and find on Twitter #MONOSFILM.

To discover more about the film, click here.

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PODCAST | Sarah Bradbury interviews Fernando Meirelles, director of the film The Two Popes.

Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles spoke about what inspired him to make The Two Popes from the red carpet at the BFI London Film Festival. He shared how he already had Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce in mind for the roles, how their chemistry came alive on set and why he thinks it’s crucial to explore religion on the big screen.

The Two Popes: Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce tussle over the future of the Catholic Church in this thrillingly cinematic two-hander from Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener). Travelling from the streets of Buenos Aires to the hallowed halls of the Vatican, Jorge Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) has become disillusioned with the direction of the Catholic Church, even though he’s a contender for the top job. So when it’s Joseph Ratzinger (Anthony Hopkins) who gets the gig, becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Bergoglio is relieved. However, the institution faces a reckoning with itself. And when the two men are brought together for a few days over one summer, their clash of ideologies – forward-looking and progressive versus a stubborn adherence to tradition – makes for passionate debate. Terrific writing from Anthony McCarten (Bohemian Rhapsody, Darkest Hour) showcases the chemistry between Hopkins and Pryce, who relish the rich dialogue that crackles with humour. Director Fernando Mereilles’ technical bravura depicts – with rich textures – compassion, self-doubt, shame and pride as the intimate debate between these two powerful men progresses. And whatever your stakes in religion, Pryce and Hopkins are a joy to watch together on screen. Hallelujah!

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The post Fernando Meirelles – The Two Popes #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.