FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews actor Udo Kier, who received a career award at the 2nd International Film Festival & Awards Macao.

Actor Udo Kier received a career award at the 2nd International Film Festival & Awards Macao. Kier tells us that he didn’t always want to be an actor, yet, he has starred in over two-hundred films; so many, in fact, that he has lost count, although he believes that at least fifty of the films in which he starred are good. In this interviews, Kier tells us about some of the many highlights of his career. He talks about his beginnings, being cast in such roles as Dracula and Frankenstein in the films of Paul Morrissey. He also talks about working with Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Curiously, Kier knew Fassbinder years before they worked together. Kier also tells us why actors who worked with Fassbinder didn’t work with the other prominent German directors of the 60’s and 70’s, a golden era for German cinema, Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog. Although Kier tells us here that he will be taking a break, many films featuring him have been screened this year, including Brawl in Cell Block 99, directed by Craig S. Zahler, and he has about 10 films that will be released in the new year, including one, which he tells us about, that will premiere in Berlin. Kier also talks about his one attempt to direct one, years ago, and why it failed despite its fascinating story.

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Xavier Legrand, director of the film Custody.

Director Xavier Legrand presented his feature debut, Custody, at the 2nd International Film Festival & Awards Macao. The film has been very successful this year and was already celebrated at the Venice Film Festival, where Legrand picked up the award for best director. Custody is, indeed, a powerful film that talks about the horrors of domestic violence. Although Legrand, in this interview, tells us that the film was not inspired by a situation he experienced first hand, it was in his interest to explore this nightmarish situation, which, as he says, is frighteningly common in France. Custody explores the horrors of the patriarchal society in a naturalistic way, and Legrand appears to be completely in control. We ask him about this, as well as the importance of suspense of the film.

Custody:  Myriam and Antoine Besson have divorced, and Myriam seeks sole custody of their 12 year-old son Julien to protect him from a father she claims is violent and abusive. Antoine effectively pleads his case as a scorned man and the appointed judge rules in favor of joint custody. But his disturbed father really does have ulterior motives to regain control of his traumatized ex-wife’s life, and Julien is held hostage to the escalating conflict between his parents. The boy is pushed to the edge to prevent the worst possible outcome.

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, director of the film Samui Song.

Filmmaker Pen-Ek Ratanaruang presented his latest film, Samui Song, at the 2nd International Film Festival & Awards Macao. We had already met him in Venice, where this film of his premiered, so we took the opportunity in Macao to ask him broader questions about his working method as an artist. He tells us about how he is influenced by random images he encounters in his everyday life; for instance, for Samui Song, he was inspired by such things as a chance encounter with an actress at a supermarket and reading about a shady organized religion in the newspaper. After that, he starts to visualize a story as a film. Nonetheless, Ratanaruang also tells us that he understands that the film remains a constant work in progress, arguing that it is even impossible to control everything during production. He brings up the name of Alfred Hitchcock to prove his point, arguing that the British cineaste may not truly have believed, for instance, in his famous statement that “actors are sheep,” thinking that there is no way that Hitchcock could have told an actor like Anthony Perkins in Psycho how to move and where to stand. Ratanaruang also talks about how his own opinion of his own previous films changes over time. “When you become a bit older,” he says, “you start to accept your limitations [and] your mistakes.” Nonetheless, his films are always talked about very well, which prompts the question of whether he got, or could ever get, used to praise. Ratanaruang also programmed a film in the Crossfire section of the festival. This section was a cultural exchange where Asian filmmakers were asked to pick one Western genre film and Western filmmakers were asked to pick one Asian genre film to screen during the festival. Ratanaruang’s choice was the famous Ealing studios British feature Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), directed by Robert Hamer and starring Dennis Price and Alec Guinness. He tells us why he chose this film and recalls the time when he first watched it.

Samui Song:  Viyada, a Thai soap opera actress in her 30s, is married to Jerome, a rich foreign national. Though their marriage started out happily, Jerome has lately become increasingly controlling as he gets more involved with an alternative religious sect founded by a powerful figure named the Holy One. When Jerome apparently allows the Holy One to violate his wife, Viyada responds by hiring a suave drifter named Guy Spencer to kill her husband for a fee. A murder plan is set, but, when it all goes wrong, Viyada and Guy both find themselves in mortal danger.

Kind Hearts and Coronets: Son of an aristocrat and a commoner, Louis d’Ascoyne Mazzini is ninth in order of succession of a British dukedom. With meticulousness and imagination, he eliminates the eight members of the d’Ascoyne family who separate him from the coveted title. Sentenced for another crime he did not commit, he writes his memoirs in prison. In his manuscript, he tells with panache how he eliminated the members of his family.

The post Pen-Ek Ratanaruang – Samui Song #IFFAM2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Joe Cole, actor of the film A Prayer Before Dawn.

Joe Cole stars in Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s film, A Prayer Before Dawn, which was presented at the 2nd International Film Festival & Awards Macao. Cole plays the protagonist of the film, Billy Moore, a real-life former Muay Thai boxer who survived the horrors of a hellhole Thai prison. Moore also wrote a book about those times and was involved as a consultant in this film from the start. Cole talks about meeting Moore and working with him, as well as his experience of working on an intense shoot that entailed isolation and long shots. Despite the apparent difficulties and struggles, Cole tells us that he enjoyed the experience, saying that at some point it felt like a theatre play or a documentary.

A Prayer Before Dawn:  Billy Moore is a troubled young British man whose life spirals into hell when he is given a three year sentence in one of Thailand’s most notorious prisons on drug charges. Life on the inside is vicious, and Billy has to navigate his way around the constant threat of gang violence, drug abuse and sexual assault. But when the prison authorities allow him to take part in the Muay Thai boxing tournaments, he realizes that boxing is his only hope for survival and possibly represents a road to redemption.

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Bornila Chatterjee, director of the film The Hungry.

Director Bornila Chatterjee presented her film, The Hungry, in competition at the 2nd International Film Festival & Awards Macao. The film is based on William Shakespeare’s goriest play, Titus Andronicus, which she describes as a play known for its gore and violence but undermined by complex themes of power and family. We ask her about what it is that makes Shakespearean works so timeless and so universal. We also ask her about the images of the film, which despite its occasional violent imagery feels like an explosion of colour. This was intentional, as she reveals her wish to depict a “colourful journey that ultimately ends in white.” Chatterjee also talks about her work with the actors and the challenge of keeping everything together, especially while working in a low-budget arena, which prompts one to “learn how to compromise, cheat your way around things.”

The Hungry:  This modern-day take on Shakespeare’s bloodiest play Titus Andronicus is set among the fabulously wealthy elite families of north India. The central character is Tulsi Joshi, a widow whose son is about to marry into the Ahuja family, uniting two big business families, when he is discovered dead in the bathtub after an apparent suicide. Two years later Tulsi herself is now about to marry the Ahuja heir but all is not as it seems, and Tulsi believes her son was murdered and she is out for revenge on his killers.

The post Bornila Chatterjee – The Hungry #IFFAM2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Federico Spoletti interviews Ilaria Gomarasca, festival manager of Pyramide International.

Ilaria Gomarasca explains the importance of audience design in developing a new film project in order to understand your audience since inception.

The post Ilaria Gomarasca – TorinoFilmLab #TFF35 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, director of the film A Prayer Before Dawn.

Director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire presented his film, A Prayer Before Dawn, at the 2nd International Film Festival & Awards Macao. The film is based on the true story of Billy Moore, a troubled young British man who ended up in a hellish Thai prison for three years. Sauvaire tells us about his desire to make his film as immersive as possible. He also talks about the arduous task of the challenging production, which was filmed, among other things, with a large cast of Thai ex-convicts in an abandoned prison. Sauvaire also talks about the style of the film, such as his use of long takes, as well as meeting and casting Joe Cole in the role of the protagonist.

A Prayer Before Dawn:  Billy Moore is a troubled young British man whose life spirals into hell when he is given a three-year sentence in one of Thailand’s most notorious prisons on drug charges. Life on the inside is vicious, and Billy has to navigate his way around the constant threat of gang violence, drug abuse, and sexual assault. But when the prison authorities allow him to take part in the Muay Thai boxing tournaments, he realizes that boxing is his only hope for survival and possibly represents a road to redemption.

The post Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire – A Prayer Before Dawn #IFFAM2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Xin Yukun, director of the film Wrath of Silence.

Director Xin Yukun presented his latest film, Wrath of Silence, at the 2nd International Film Festival & Awards Macao. (The film stars actor Song Yang, whom we have also interviewed in Macao.) In this interview, the director talks to us about what prompted him to make his film and his level of familiarity with the small mineral mining town in northern China setting where the story of Wrath of Silence takes place. Xin Yukun also shares with us his takes on some of the main themes of the film, the importance of silence and fighting in it, and whether it was intentional for him to portray all of his characters ambiguously; in a way in which the lines between good and bad are not always easily defined.

Wrath of Silence:  In a small mineral mining town in the mountains of northern China, a miner Zhang Baomin returns to his small family sheep farm only to learn that his young son Lei hasn’t come back from shepherding for two days. He begins a search for the boy which stirs up anxiety, resentment and distrust among the townsfolk who turn a blind eye to the reality of a missing child. But Zhang does not stop the search even when he comes head to head with the corruption and danger that permeates the local mining business.

The post Xin Yukun – Wrath of Silence #IFFAM2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Michael Pearce, director of the film  Beast.

Director Michael Pearce presented his feature debut, Beast, at the 2nd International Film Festival & Awards Macao. In this interview, he tells us that the film took him a long time to make but in retrospects considers the long process as worthwhile because it allowed him to make Beast a film that represented the type of film he is interested in making. He also talks about the importance of the setting – Jersey, England, and one of the motives behind his decision to have the protagonist of Beast female: “We have a lot of great male antiheroes in cinema… but I started to struggle to think about female versions of that.” Among the other topics of this interview, Pearce tells us about how he met and cast Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn, whose work on Beast was important because, as he says, “the film is so emotionally demanding for the performers.”

Beast:  Moll Huntford, 27, is a young woman who is yet to begin her life on the island of Jersey off the coast of England. Trapped by a controlling family, who have kept her on a tight leash ever since she was involved in a violent incident as a teenager, Moll still lives at home under the watchful eye of her domineering mother. When Moll falls in love with the mysterious outsider Pascal she feels like she can breathe for the first time in her life. However, when the body of a young girl is found on the island – the fourth victim of a sexually motivated serial killer – Pascal is a prime suspect.

The post Michael Pearce – Beast #IFFAM2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Chiara Nicoletti interviews Angela Robinson, director of the film Professor Marston and The Wonder Women.

Angela Robinson has always been a fan of Wonder Woman since infancy and had always wondered why, besides a TV series, we continued to watch films, sequel, remakes on Batman and Superman but we never got to watch a film about Diana and her super powers. But Wonder Woman was destined to shine again and it’s only a coincidence that Angela Robinson’s film Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is out in the same year as the first blockbuster DC comic movie on Wonder Woman directed by Patty Jenkins. Angela Robinson, in Torino to present the film at the 35th Torino Film Festival, describes the genesis of her film project. At first she wanted to narrate the life of William Moulton Marston, the inventor of Wonder Woman and author of the comic book but then she realized that she couldn’t really get deeper into this man’s life without focusing on the two women he shared his creativity and life with, his wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall) and their mutual lover Olive (Bella Heathcote).

Professor Marston and The Wonder Women:   The 1950s. William Moulton Marston teaches psychology at Harvard. An illustration buff, unbeknownst to his students and colleagues he has created Wonder Woman, the heroine of protofeminist comic books who was censured at the time. A controversial, sexy and astute character, her genesis can be traced back to the two women Marston loved: his wife Elizabeth and Olive, his student and the third element of a ménage à trois which had to be kept secret. But can a person love and live his own sexuality freely when he is surrounded by raging hate and obscurantism?

For the official page of the film on the Festival website, click here.

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