FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Johnny Ma, director of the film To Live To Sing.

An interview with Johnny Ma, director of To Live To Sing, which was presented in the Create section of the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. This is a drama that revolves around a Sichuan Opera troupe and we ask the director to tell us more about that as well as his personal connection with it. We also ask him about the theme of family as it is portrayed in the movie, how To Live To Sing has a universal dimension despite its dealing with many traditional aspects that are specifically Chinese, and he shares with us a little of his experience about being an independent filmmaker.

To Live To Sing: Zhao Li is a woman trying to hold it all together. The Sichuan Opera troupe she manages is creating beautiful work, but it plays to a dwindling audience of the loyal elderly from the theatre’s down-at-heel neighbourhood. With the troupe consisting mainly of veteran performers, her hopes for a change in fortune rest on the shoulders of her talented niece Dan Dan. So, Zhao Li sets about putting on a show to grab the attention of a local bureaucrat who could reverse their eviction notice. For his second feature, Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Johnny Ma corrals a cast made up of real-life Sichuan Opera performers, painting this makeshift family in brightly coloured hues, and injecting humour and splashes of fantasy into this engaging tribute to the endurance of the artistic spirit.

<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>

The post Johnny Ma – To Live To Sing #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Craig Roberts, director of the film Eternal Beauty.

An interview with Craig Roberts, director and writer of the film Eternal Beauty, which was screened in the Dare section of the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. The film talks about mental health issues and stars a wonderful Sally Hawkins, in her first role after her performance in the Oscar-winning film, The Shape of Water. It also deal with mental health, which Roberts discusses in this interview through his very positive way of looking at them as superpowers. Other topics discussed in this interview include the use of sense of humor in this film, working with Hawkins on developing her character and more.

Eternal Beauty: 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.

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

PODCAST | Sarah Bradbury interviews Scott Z. Burns, director of the film The Report.

We sat down with the director and screenwriter Scott Z.Burns to discuss his new film The Report. He told us about discovering a report on the CIA’s approach to torture post 9/11, his investigative journalist approach to researching and how he turned it into a compelling drama starring Adam Driver. He also spoke about what he wants people to take away from the film and the importance of truth in the post-truth era.

The Report: The American government takes a long hard look at itself in this politically urgent drama starring Adam Driver. Is torture ever warranted? Has it ever thwarted a terrorist attack? Did it lead to information that found Osama bin Laden? Daniel Jones (Adam Driver) is the report-writing man in the basement, piecing together the facts about the CIA’s cavalier approach to torture following 9/11. But many powerful people would rather the military’s ‘Enhanced Interrogation Techniques’ stayed in the shadows and it becomes evident that Jones and the report’s commissioner Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening) have a fight on their hands. Director Scott Z Burns (screenwriter of Contagion, The Bourne Ultimatum and the forthcoming Bond film) nods to the politically conscious thrillers of the 1970s with this lean and timely drama, showing how vital it is that a nation can look clear-eyed into its own darkest moments.

The post Scott Z. Burns – The Report #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Claire Oakley, director of the film Make Up.

An interview with Claire Oakley, director of Make Up, presented in the First Feature Competition of the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. Here, she talks about her movie, a coming age drama and journey of self-discovery, which is set in specific place but deals with very universal and female themes. Oakley also reveals to us that she comes from a literary background and tells us about the challenges of making the transition to cinema, as well as what the medium can offer in terms of representing what is difficult to communicate.

Make Up: Teenager Ruth (Molly Windsor) travels to a seaside holiday park to stay with her boyfriend Tom. It’s off-season, so the resort is mostly deserted, except for a few residents and a handful of staff charged with sprucing up the place. Ruth gradually settles into her new environment, finding work and making a new friend in the form of make-up enthusiast Jade. But one afternoon, while giving Tom’s caravan a spring clean, Ruth finds evidence her beau might be cheating on her. As her desire to uncover the truth turns into an obsession, she begins to realise she might be looking for something else entirely. Transforming her remote coastal setting into an intangible labyrinth of creeping intrigue, Claire Oakley inventively flirts with genre conventions to weave a singular tale of self-acceptance and sexual awakening.

The post Claire Oakley – Make Up #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Sam Kelly, director of the film Savage.

An interview with director Sam Kelly, who presented his latest film, Savage, in the Thrill section of the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. The movie is set in New Zealand and explores the world of biker gangs via the story of one of its seargeants, spanning three decades. Kelly talks about the origins of the film, the fascinating research process and behind-the-scenes nuggets from the casting session. He also shares with us the challenge of balancing grit and compassion in a film that reveals sides of the violent world of gang life rarely ever seen.

Savage: What turns a man into a monster? This multi-stranded drama attempts to explain how a normal young boy named Danny became a fearsome biker by the name of Damage, who wears his gang membership as a full-face tattoo. Kicking off in the late 1980s, where an increasingly jaded Damage is propping up the gang’s divisive leader Moses, Sam Kelly’s debut flashes back to the 1960s, when Danny is remanded in custody for thievery, then cruises through the 1970s as Danny finds his outlaw home. This journey of reflection is the spine of the film, which comes to a head when internal gang tensions boil over and Danny/Damage is embroiled in a murder plot. But is he really the killer they think he is?

The post Sam Kelly – Savage #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Maura Delpero, director of the film Maternal.

An interview with Maura Delpero, director of Maternal, presented in the Love section of the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. The film is a fascinating portrayal of motherhood set in a women’s refuge in Argentina – known as a hogar. Delpero shares with us the reason why she became interested in this particular setting for the story and how she aimed to represent the theme of motherhood – the precocious one of the adolescent mothers who live in the refuge, and the absence of motherhood of the nuns who run the refuge. Among other things, she also talks about her interesting research process during which she gathered all the information, the documentary influence and the way in which she worked with her cast.

Maternal: Lu is a disruptive, rebellious teenage mother. She lives with her daughter Nina in a women’s refuge, or ‘hogar’, run by a group of nuns in Buenos Aires. The arrival of Paola, a sympathetic Italian nun who takes a shine to Nina, coincides with Lu going missing. What ensues is a sensitively realised and ultimately heartbreaking portrait of life in a refuge. With its collection of diverse occupants who run the gamut from tough to vulnerable and who are invariably impoverished, as well as the predominantly elderly nuns who support them, the hogar is depicted with gritty verisimilitude. But there’s also genuine empathy here, aided in no small part by the quality of the performances. Understated and all too believable, this is a striking feature debut from Maura Delpero.

<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>

The post Maura Delpero – Maternal #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

An interview with director Mariko Minoguchi, who presented her feature debut, Relativity, in the First Feature Competition strand of the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. The film is an ambitious portrayal of an event that illustrates, as Minoguchi herself puts it, fate or coincidence. Here, she talks about the very interesting and somewhat unusual way in which she decided to structure her narration. She also discusses the way in which she worked with Saskia Rosendahl, the lead actress of the film, to establish a trust relationship with which they could explore the difficult themes of the movie. Besides this, Minoguchi reveals to us some of the process that went into the making of and preparation for her film, including the writing stage, for which she chose the country of Taiwan.

Relativity: It’s love at first sight when Nora and Aaron first meet on a rainy day in an underground station. While she is a dreamer who believes in luck, he is convinced nothing happens by chance. Aaron’s fate is soon sealed, which changes Nora’s life in an instant. Her respite after this is Natan, a stranger who saves Nora’s life twice as she wanders aimlessly through the night – the only way she can numb her pain. Though Nora seeks Natan’s closeness, she can’t figure out what it is that connects them. Saskia Rosendahl (Lore, LFF 2012) gives a powerful performance, while debut director Minoguchi creates a romantic narrative of ambitious proportions, effortlessly looping between the present and past, all the while making clever use of cinema as an unfurling emotional landscape.

<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>

The post Mariko Minoguchi – Relativity #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Rowan Woods, Industry Events Programmer at the BFI London Film Festival 2019.

Rowan Woods explains the ideas and the motivations behind the events planning for industry delegates at the London Film Festival, analysing also the effects the new developments of the film industry both in UK and more general in the European film market.

To discover more about the BFI London Film Festival, click here.

The post Rowan Woods – Industry Events Programmer #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

The Man Who Cuts Tattoos: To mark the beginning of adulthood and prepare for marriage, a young girl in an Edo village must undergo a painful rite of passage through scarification. The agony she endures for a loving union finds her questioning the process. Sometime in the future, unencumbered by the traditions that exist in present day Lagos, Michelle questions her tumultuous relationship with boyfriend America. Having recently found out she’s pregnant, with America pushing her towards an abortion and with her job on the line, Michelle also considers the sacrifices that are made for love. With a stunning depiction of provincial Nigerian life and the grit of urban existence, Michael Omonua’s bold debut effortlessly bends time and human experience in ways that push the potential of Nigerian cinema.

To discover more about the film, click here.

<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>

The post Michael Omonua – The Man Who Cuts Tattoos #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

A White, White Day: As time passes and seasons change in a remote Icelandic town, off-duty police chief Ingimundur (Ingvar Sigurðsson) doggedly works at renovating a new home and starting over, following his wife’s death in a car accident. Debilitated by grief, Ingimundur still has a warm and devoted relationship with his granddaughter, but is increasingly alienated from other people. An accidental discovery about his wife sees Ingimundur’s detective instincts click back into gear. But this is no standard police procedural. Director Hlynur Pálmason’s (Winter Brothers, LFF 2017) highly original and emotionally complex drama is also an exploration of the ravages of loss. Hypnotic images highlight the beauty and strangeness of Iceland’s breathtaking landscape, while Sigurðsson’s towering performance reveals the interior devastation of a man consumed by loss.

To discover more about the film, click here.

<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>

The post Hlynur Pálmason – A White, White Day #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.