FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews director Ronny Trocker, who talks about his film The Eremites from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

THE EREMITES. Albert grew up on an isolated mountain farm in the middle of nowhere in the Alps. Although he’s already in his 30s, his omnipresent mother Marianne still pulls the strings in his life. Not intentionally and only because of his mother’s pressure, Albert went to live in the nearby valley to make his living in a marble quarry. Marianne wants to protect him from the poor and lonesome life on the mountain and is even willing to denounce their bonds to the tradition of the farm, that has existed over centuries. Like an abandoned animal that keeps coming back to its territory, the introverted farmers son keeps sneaking back to the mountain as often as possible. When his father dies accidently whilst repairing the roof, Marianne fears, that Albert will take over the role of his father and return to the farm. Instead, she decides to hide the death from Albert and the outside world—and buries his corpse on the mountain.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews director Nicolas Winding Refn, who talks about the European Cut of Dawn of the Dead from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

DAWN OF THE DEAD. 1978: the Apocalypse has suddenly struck the world. For some unknown reason, the bodies of the recently dead have begun to reanimate themselves have aggressive and cannibalistic instincts. A mixed group of people escape in a helicopter find and refuge in a large shopping center near to Pittsburg which, after having eliminated all the living dead there, they transform into a kind of new Eden where they try to create a semblance of normal life. The threat of the zombies is added to by a band of ferocious motor-powered looters who take whatever they can find, killing and shooting as they do so. In order to survive there is no other choice that to fight and kill, so as not to lose what they have so laboriously achieved…

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews director Charlie Siskel, who talks about his new film American Anarchist from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

AMERICAN ANARCHIST. In 1970 William Powell wanted to help build a new society, so he taught the world how to blow up the old one. As the heady days of the late 1960s’ counterculture and political upheaval turned darker, Powell, at age 19, wrote one of the most infamous books ever published: The Anarchist Cookbook. Part manifesto and part bomb making manual, it went on to sell over 2 million copies. Since then, theCookbook has been associated with decades of violent anti-government attacks, abortion clinic bombings, school shootings and homegrown domestic terrorism. Now 65, Powell is a man haunted by his own creation, struggling to make sense of the damage it has done. After writing the book, Powell left the US and has lead an itinerant life ever since. He has traversed the globe teaching kids with special needs—committed, ironically, to the kinds of kids who in some cases have turned to violence and the Cookbook. American Anarchist tells a cautionary tale of youthful rebellion and unforeseen consequences, a universal, all-too-human story of a man at the end of his life wrestling with his past, his identity, and coming to terms with who he really is.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews director Crystal Moselle, who talks about her new short film That One Day from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

Following the success of The Wolfpack, Crystal Moselle was approached by MIU MIU, the renowned fashion brand to direct an addition to the series “Women’s Tales”, which screens annually within the Venice Days parallel secton of the Venice Film Festival. Her film, That One Day, is the story of a young girl who becomes fascinated with a group of skater girls.

Besides That One Day, and the origins of this collaboration with MIU MIU, Moselle talks to us about what she is working on right now, future ambitions, the filmmaker’s desire to tell stories and even offers her own perspective on the issue being highlighted by MIU MIU with their Women’s Tales series – the role of women on the cinematic landscape, both work-wise and narratively speaking.

THAT ONE DAY. Everything can change in one day. Rachelle, a 17-year-old girl living outside of New York City, discovers this, riding her skateboard through a journey of self-discovery. Intimidated by casual, macho sexism, Rachelle stumbles across a gang of charismatic, fearless skater girls. They show her another world is out there. A world of female friendship, strength and belonging. “Today,” confesses Rachelle “is the first day that I haven’t been feeling that sense of loneliness.” That One Day, by American director Crystal Moselle, is the 12th commission from Miu Miu Women’s Tales, the acclaimed short-film series by women who critically celebrate femininity in the 21st century. Crystal Moselle’s debut, The Wolfpack, about a family who home schooled and raised their seven children in the confinement of their apartment in the Lower East Side, won the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize at 2015’s Sundance Film Festival. Moselle also made the viral video sensation Shapeshifting, on a pack of 14-year-old ballerinas. “I am in love with the transformation stage in a girl’s life,” says Moselle, “when they are not quite a girl but not quite a woman.” That One Day renders this moment as a tender daydream -ardently feminine skaters in serene slow-mo- which isn’t afraid of the tough truths facing young women. “When I was in my transformation stage,” Moselle reveals, “as a young girl, Miu Miu was a big part of that story.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, who talks about his new film Heartstone from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

Teenage boys in an Icelandic fishing town grow up. We follow them in their everyday lives and various awakening – a strong, honest and genuine coming of age drama by first time feature director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, selected in competition at the Venice Days section of the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

Given the delicate nature of Heartstone and some of its sequences, we talk about the casting process and his work with the young actors; he tells us that they are first time actors in film, and the choice appropriately fits the bill when it comes to realism. It is somewhat surprising to find out that the cinematography, handheld, was not the way Guðmundsson pictured it in the first place – that is mostly because it seems so appropriate.

Finally, among the subjects of this Heartstone interview, we ask him about whether he sees this film as being one fit to be seen to a young audience, due to his maturity. There is no doubt in our minds that it is; cinematic representation of young people in a way that defies personality certainly has a place in today’s cinema, and is in fact needed, but the cinematic machine also has a tendency to forget that all too often.

HEARTSTONE – A remote fishing village in Iceland. Teenage boys Thor and Christian experience a turbulent summer as one tries to win the heart of a girl while the other discovers new feelings toward his best friend. When summer ends and the harsh nature of Iceland takes back its rights, it’s time to leave the playground and face adulthood.

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews director Rama Burshtein, who talks about her film Through the Wall from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

THROUGH THE WALL. Michal is 32 years old. She became religious 12 years ago, and only now is she getting married. A month before the wedding, while checking out the catering for the event, the groom has a change of heart and the wedding is called off. Michal feels she’s unable to go back to ordinary life, to the usual course of matchmaking. She feels this is the moment to change something very basic in her personality. A simple belief that God is good and sweet; that He wants to give and is only waiting for her to wish it. Michal goes on a month-long journey lasting up to the planned wedding day: “I have the venue, the dress, the apartment; God can easily come up with my groom.”

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews actors Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, who talk about the film The Light Between Oceans from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS. Set off the remote edge of Western Australia following World War I, a shell-shocked veteran devotes himself to his new job as lighthouse keeper, seeking solace in the solitude of the island. He intends to remain alone, until he meets a vivacious young woman from the town across the bay. Despite the obstacles, their love flourishes, they marry and hope to start a family, but fate intercedes. When a rowboat holding a dead man and an infant washes ashore, it sets off a chain of decisions that unravel with shattering consequences.

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews director Derek Cianfrance, who talks about his new film The Light Between Oceans from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS. Set off the remote edge of Western Australia following World War I, a shell-shocked veteran devotes himself to his new job as lighthouse keeper, seeking solace in the solitude of the island. He intends to remain alone, until he meets a vivacious young woman from the town across the bay. Despite the obstacles, their love flourishes, they marry and hope to start a family, but fate intercedes. When a rowboat holding a dead man and an infant washes ashore, it sets off a chain of decisions that unravel with shattering consequences.

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews actors Joseph Haro and Taylor Frei, who talk about the film Summertime from Venezia 73.

L’ESTATE ADDOSSO. Marco, who has just finished high school, is worried about his uncertain future. His graduation summer will, as the result of a series of unexpected and lucky coincidences, lead him to spend twenty days in San Francisco. He travels with Maria, a girl from his own school who is considered conservative and pedantic. Waiting for them are Matt and Paul, two American boys with whom Marco and Maria will undertake some enthusiastic explorations which will lead them to come to grips with themselves and define who they are and who they want to become. When the time comes to say goodbye and go home, the four will have shared a unique, perhaps unrepeatable, experience of friendship, of growth and development that will stay with them forever.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews director Marco Martins and actor Nuno Lopes on their film São Jorge from Venezia 73.

SÃO JORGE. In 2011 Portugal began the so-called “year of the Troika” (EU, IMF and ECB budget cuts and economic restructuring), with the level of debt among the Portuguese people reaching staggering amounts and a growing number of families and companies unable to repay their installment loans. Jorge is an unemployed boxer on the verge of losing his son and his wife, who has decided to return to Brazil. As a means of paying off his debt and persuading his wife to remain in Portugal, Jorge accepts a job with a debt-collection agency, which will drag him into a world of violence and crime.

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