FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | David Martos interviews Steve James, director of the film A compassionate spy.

Steve James, director of the documentary A compassionate spy, out of competition in Venice Film Festival, talks to FRED about how he discovered the story of Ted Hall. He was a young scientist hired to work in the Manhattan Project that began to leak classified information about nuclear weapons to Russia. The film leans on the testimony of Ted Hall’s widow, Joan, and some TV material found by the production team

A compassionate spy: Recruited in 1944 as an 18-year-old Harvard undergraduate to be the youngest physicist on the Manhattan Project, to create a bomb before the Germans did, Ted Hall didn’t share his colleagues’ elation after the successful detonation of the world’s first atomic bomb. Increasingly concerned during 1944—with Germany clearly losing the war—that a U.S. post-war monopoly on such a powerful weapon after the war could lead to nuclear catastrophe, he decided beginning that October to start passing key information about the bomb’s construction to the Soviet Union. After the war, at the University of Chicago, he met and married Joan, a fellow student with whom he shared a passion for classical music and socialist causes — and the explosive secret of his espionage. Living under a cloud of suspicion and years of FBI surveillance and intimidation, the pair raised a family while Ted refocused his scientific brilliance on groundbreaking bio-physics research. A Compassionate Spy reveals the twists and turns of this real-life spy story, and the couple’s remarkable love and life together during more than 50 years of marriage.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Abel Ferrara, director of the film Padre Pio.

Abel Ferrara talks about his latest film, Padre Pio. The film was presented at the Giornate degli Autori, the parallel and independent section of the 79th Venice Film Festival. Aside from speaking about the film and the events it portrays, including the too little talked about massacre at San Giovanni Rotondo of 1920, Ferrara talks about his own spirituality and talks about casting Shia LeBeouf in the role of Padre Pio because he felt the actor was undergoing a similarly profound awakening of his own.

Padre Pio: It is the end of World War I and the young Italian soldiers are making their way back to San Giovanni Rotondo, a land of poverty, with a tradition of violence and submission to the iron-clad rule of the church and its wealthy landowners. Families are desperate, the men are broken, albeit victorious. Padre Pio also arrives, at a remote Capuchin monastery, to begin his ministry, evoking an aura of charisma, saintliness and epic visions of Jesus, Mary and the Devil himself. The eve of the first free elections in Italy sets the stage for a massacre with a metaphorical dimension: an apocalyptic event that changes the course of history.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Georgia Oakley and Rosy McEwen, director and actress of the film Blue Jean.

Director Georgia Oakley and actress Rosy McEwen talk about Blue Jean, a film presented in the program of the Giornate degli Autori, the parallel and independent strand of the 79th Venice Film Festival. Together, they talk about revisiting the late ’80s, during which Thatcher’s government passed a law stereotyping lesbians and gays as paedophiles. They also talk about the intimacy of the story, drawing inspiration from movies of the past and whether they believe that cinema and art can still counter lawful oppression.

Blue Jean: It’s 1988. Thatcher’s government have just passed a law that stereotypes lesbians and gays as paedophiles, recruiting children for their ‘deviant’ lifestyles. Female PE teachers are prime targets for homophobic accusations, and as a result, Jean is forced to lead a double life. During the week she’s a respected member of staff; on the weekend she slips surreptitiously into Newcastle’s gay scene with her girlfriend Viv. But when she’s confronted by one of her students in a lesbian bar, Jean is pushed to extreme lengths to save her job and her sanity.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Cecilia Maniucchi, director of the film Worlds Apart.

An interview with Cecilia Maniucchi, director of Worlds Apart. The film was presented as a special event of the Giornate degli Autori, the parallel and independent section of the 79th Venice Film Festival. Maniucchi talks with us about representing and working during the time of the pandemic, which also prompted her to experiment with alternative ways of filmmaking and shooting. She also talks about working with an amazing cast ensemble, featuring Bob Odenkirk, Radha Mitchell and Danny Houston, among others.

Worlds Apart: Three couples of friends are forced to stay each in their own home, due to the unexpected lockdown in Los Angeles. Jonathan has an art gallery and lives with his wife Sue, but he has a mistress, Clarissa, whom he cannot see. Instead, she lives alone, next to her Iranian tenant Darius and with few people she hears on the phone, including her ex-professor and dear friend Paul who is married to Rita, a much younger woman and very different from him. Forced isolation will lead everyone to re-evaluate their relationships with the people they live with, with those with whom they would like to be and in the end with themselves.

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PODCAST | David Martos interviews Oliver Hermanus, director of the film Living.

After premiering the film in Sundance, Oliver Hermanus brings his new film –Living– to the Lido. It’s an adaptation of Kurosawa’s ‘Ikiru’ by Nobel Prize Kazuo Ishiguro that translates the story into the life of a grey bureaucrat in 1953 London [Bill Nighy], that decides to savor life after being diagnosticated with a terminal illness.

Living is the story of an ordinary man, reduced by years of oppressive office routine to a shadow existence, who at the eleventh hour makes a supreme effort to turn his dull life into something wonderful—into one he can say has been lived to the full.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci presents Big FRED Venice, FRED Film Radio’s daily and live-streamed show from the 79th Venice Film Festival.

Matt Micucci presents Big FRED Venice, FRED Film Radio’s daily and live-streamed show from the 79th Venice Film Festival. In this third episode, Matt is all alone and tries his best to cover some of the major films recently screened at the lido. Among them, Todd Field’s Tár, starring Cate Blanchett, and Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Bardo.

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PODCAST | David Martos interviews Bill Nighy, actor of the film Living.

Bill Nighy, lead actor in Living by Oliver Hermanus, talks to FRED about coming to Venice Film Festival for the first time with this re-imagination of Akira Kurosawa’s classic Ikiru. In Living he portraits a bureaucrat that leads a dull life that gets a diagnosis of a terminal illness.

Living is the story of an ordinary man, reduced by years of oppressive office routine to a shadow existence, who at the eleventh hour makes a supreme effort to turn his dull life into something wonderful—into one he can say has been lived to the full.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Ida Engvoll, actors of the film The Kingdom: Exodus.

An interview with Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Ida Engvoll, actors part of the ensemble cast of The Kingdom: Exodus. This is the new instalment in Lars Von Trier’s The Kingdom series, presented out of competition at the 79th Venice Film Festival. Together, they talk about the experience of working on this film and becoming part of the world of the Danish director. They also talk about confronting some of their own fears throughout the production, working in a real hospital at the time of the pandemic, the depth of the hostilities between Sweden and Denmark, and more.

The Kingdom: Exodus: An enormous organism of flesh and blood has materialised itself in The Kingdom’s rooms and corridors. On a dark and stormy night, the sleepwalking Karen senses something is wrong and travels to The Kingdom to search for answers. On her arrival, she discovers that the hospital is suffering and that she is the only one who can free The Kingdom from its torment. At the same time the Swedish doctor, Helmer Junior, is newly employed at The Kingdom. He soon starts to feel a denigrating attitude from his Danish colleagues. Being a Swede, he puts his foot down and launches new approaches on the ward, such as total gender neutrality, which has almost fatal consequences. But evil gets in the way with even bigger and more horrifying plans. The time has come, it is going to happen: Exodus. It is now that the spirits surrounding the hospital shall be divided into the light and the dark, and the gate localized and opened. It is now the air must be cleared of the big flock that never sleeps. When good men, who undoubtedly master science and state-of-the-art modern technology fail, and even the gatekeeper himself becomes too weak, it is up to Karen to carry the seemingly impossible task through a battle with pride and stupidity. Now, more than ever, we must all be prepared to take the good with the evil, as the gateway to the Kingdom is once again opening.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Kei Ishikawa, director of the film A Man.

An interview with Kei Ishikawa, director of A Man. The film was presented in the Orizzonti section of the 79th Venice Film Festival. The director discusses the topic of identity, which has inspired many filmmakers of the past. He also stops to think whether it is possible to become someone else and start anew. We also speak with him about the mystery side of the movie and the rhythm of A Man.

A Man: Akira, who works as a lawyer, receives a request from Rie, one of her former clients. Rie wants to do a background check on her deceased husband, Daisuke. Previously, after getting a divorce, Rie moved back to her hometown where she raised her child alone before eventually meeting Daisuke and marrying him. They had started a happy family of four with the addition of a new child, when one day, Daisuke died in a tragic accident. Stricken with grief, the family holds a memorial service, where Daisuke’s estranged brother Kyoichi appears. To everyone’s surprise, when he sees the photo of his dead brother, he remarked that the man in the photo was not his brother. So, was Rie’s beloved “Daisuke” actually someone else? Then who was the “man” and why was he impersonating another person? Akira in his private investigation encounters an array of people in his pursuit to identify the man who had lived his life as a different person. He starts to close in on a shocking truth to reveal the identity of the mystery man, but the truth becomes more and more worrisome.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Bobi Wine, protagonist of the film Bobi Wine: Ghetto President.

An interview with Ugandan musician-turned-political activist Bobi Wine. He is the protagonist of a new documentary titled Bobi Wine: Ghetto President, presented at the 79th Venice Film Festival. Bobi Wine talks with us about his struggles, which led him from being a music superstar to being the leader of the opposition to Uganda’s current military regime. He talks about the importance of having his wife’s support and shares with us whether he hopes this new documentary will help spread the message of what is happening in Uganda in other parts of the world.

Bobi Wine: Ghetto President: This observational documentary film follows Bobi Wine and his wife Barbie. Bobi rises from the ghetto slums of Kampala to one of the country’s most loved superstars. His musical talent lifts him and emboldens millions of previously voiceless people. Bobi uses his music for activism, then becomes an Independent Member of Parliament to stand to defend the rights of his people, the ghetto people. Bobi’s wife, Barbie, by standing with him, plunges her own life into uncertainty. The film is an examination of the disturbing misuse of the legal and parliamentary systems, two supposed pillars of democracy. The country’s institutions are controlled by the State to ensure President Museveni, an autocratic strongman, who has held power since 1986, continues to rule Uganda. Bobi and Barbie must risk everything, their lives and their futures to challenge him. The state is determined to silence, not only them, but anyone who supports their cause. This is not just a story for Uganda, it is a narrative for all those who struggle under dictatorial regimes. Those who oppose them quickly discover that Western democracies have interests that do not extend to holding autocrats to account. This story has never been so relevant.

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