FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews Juan Pablo Olyslager and Diane Bathen, actors of the film Tremors.

Juan Pablo Olyslager and Diane Bathen tell us the work and the struggle to catch the perfect depiction of the characters of a bisexual man caught and outed in the family, and his wife who cannot deal with it and forces him to enter a “corrective therapy” center, with all the violence and psychological distress this will ensue. We talk about religion and society in Guatemala, and the crossed influences that create the short circuit that will send Pablo’s life into disarray.

Tremors: When Pablo arrives at his family’s house outside Guatemala City, everyone is already waiting tensely for this beloved brother, son and husband to appear. Everyone at the clan’s villa is horrified: Pablo has fallen in love with another man, Francisco. In doing so, he is calling into question all the values by which this deeply religious evangelical family lives. In spite of resistance from his relatives, Pablo moves in with Francisco, who is closely linked to the city’s subculture and leads a completely different, liberated existence. Pablo loses his old home, but somehow never really settles in the new one. His wish to unite the two worlds turns out to be a dead end. Putting their faith before everything else, his relatives are adamant that Pablo can be ‘healed’. With help from their ultra-religious community, the family does everything in its power to get their prodigal son back on track, no matter the cost. In his very personal second film, Jayro Bustamante makes use of a consistently direct cinematic style to describe one individual’s bid to break away and find their identity and a sense of belonging. In a deeply repressive society God loves the sinner, but not the sin itself.

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

The post Juan Pablo Olyslager, Diane Bathen – Tremors #Berlinale2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews Jayro Bustamante, director of the film Tremors.

Jayro Bustamante met a man who had a story that he used as inspiration for Tremors. He was touched and intrigued at the same time by it; while researching for the film, he was susprised even more by the number of men in the same situation he found in his country. This is where Tremors comes from, and what gives it power and intensity.

Tremors: When Pablo arrives at his family’s house outside Guatemala City, everyone is already waiting tensely for this beloved brother, son and husband to appear. Everyone at the clan’s villa is horrified: Pablo has fallen in love with another man, Francisco. In doing so, he is calling into question all the values by which this deeply religious evangelical family lives. In spite of resistance from his relatives, Pablo moves in with Francisco, who is closely linked to the city’s subculture and leads a completely different, liberated existence. Pablo loses his old home, but somehow never really settles in the new one. His wish to unite the two worlds turns out to be a dead end. Putting their faith before everything else, his relatives are adamant that Pablo can be ‘healed’. With help from their ultra-religious community, the family does everything in its power to get their prodigal son back on track, no matter the cost. In his very personal second film, Jayro Bustamante makes use of a consistently direct cinematic style to describe one individual’s bid to break away and find their identity and a sense of belonging. In a deeply repressive society God loves the sinner, but not the sin itself.

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

The post Jayro Bustamante – Tremors #Berlinale2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews Judith State and Cristian Popa, actors of the film Monsters.

Judith State is a well known face in the Romanian cinema, for Cristian Popa this was his first time on screen, being a veteran stage actor. They both manage to bring the film on in a splendid way and with such intense performances. They talk about their characters, their work with the director Olteanu to enter the story and the narrative structure of it, and some resemblances with real life, too.

Monsters: Arthur and Dana are married, they seem the perfect pari, from the outside. Over the course of a single day, the film shows first Dana, then Arthur then the two together: marriage, love, friendship, repressed sexuality and society pressure all entertwine in an agonising but inevitable interaction.

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

The post Judith State, Cristian Popa – Monsters #Berlinale2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews Elle-Màjià Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn, directors of the film The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open.

What is narrated in the film really happened to Elle-Màjià Tailfetahers, years ago. She decided to tell it in a film, with the help of a longtime friend, Kathleen Hepburn, taking also the brave choice to act in it. The two directors tell us about the writing process they followed to transform the real story into a film, the process of preparation and how the real facts lived by Elle were molded in her acting, too.

The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open: Rosie lives in the same neighborhood of Vancouver as Áila. Their lives, however, could hardly be more different. While Áila listens to Joni Mitchell on vinyl in her tastefully furnished home, Rosie shares a flat with her child’s violently abusive father-to-be and his mother. When Áila finds Rosie standing hurt and barefoot in the rain, she promptly takes her home. Told almost entirely in real time and composed mostly of close-ups, the encounter between the two women constitutes a delicate moment of exchange, which touches upon issues of motherhood, female self-care and the precarious situation of Indigenous women.

The post Elle-Màjià Tailfeathers, Kathleen Hepburn – The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open #Berlinale2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews Mateo Bendeski, director of the film Los Miembros De La Familia.

Taken from a famous book, the film was born as an original rendition of the classic coming of age film, using the marvelous two young actors. Steven Wouterlood tells us why he is interested in telling stories of children and their difficult position when adults are that entity needed but not understood.

Los Miembros De La Familia: As the youngest of the family, Sam’s afraid of dying last. Which explains his peculiar obsession with practicing being alone while on summer vacation. Then along comes unconventional Tess! She’s got a secret plan and needs Sam’s help to pull it off.

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

The post Mateo Bendeski – Los Miembros De La Familia #Berlinale2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews Steven Wouterlood, director of the film My Extraordinary Summer With Tess.

Taken from a famous book, the film was born as an original rendition of the classic coming of age film, using the marvelous two young actors. Steven Wouterlood tells us why he is interested in telling stories of children and their difficult position when adults are that entity needed but not understood.

My Extraordinary Summer With Tess: As the youngest of the family, Sam’s afraid of dying last. Which explains his peculiar obsession with practicing being alone while on summer vacation. Then along comes unconventional Tess! She’s got a secret plan and needs Sam’s help to pull it off.

The post Steven Wouterlood – My Extraordinary Summer With Tess #Berlinale2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Béla Tarr, director of the film Sátántangó.

Béla Tarr sits down with us on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his seminal work Sátántangó, newly restored in its original 450-minute long black and white splendour. We talk about Cinema’s current state, the difficulties that new filmmakers face nowadays, film’s addiction and a few other topics.

Sátántangó: The renewed version of Sátántangó will reveal details few have ever seen before, recreating the Hungarian luminary’s original vision far more successfully than the formerly available digital prints. Sátántangó, also called the Mount Everest of modern cinema due to its 7.5-hour running time, was restored in cooperation with the Hungarian Filmlab and Arbelos Films (US) under the guidance of Béla Tarr himself. “We’ve kept a short list of ‘dream films’ to restore and re-release over the years and Sátántangó has always been at the top – it’s simply a flat-out masterpiece”, says David Marriott of Arbelos Films, the boutique film distributor and digital restoration company based in Los Angeles that financed and oversaw the restoration process.

The post Béla Tarr – Sátántangó #Berlinale2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews Antonella Sudasassi Furniss, director of the film Hormigas.

Antonella Sudasassi Furniss tells us the life in a small town though the life of a young woman, wife and mother of two, whose dreams crash against the rules of her community and the machista culture of society. She creates an intimate but intense portrait of Isa, and her strong endurance till she wins and manages to impose her will.

Hormigas: Isa is a dressmaker and lives with her family in a small town in Costa Rica. She and her two daughters all have luxuriant long hair, of which they take exquisite care. It is plaited and combed, knots are carefully untangled, chewing gum laboriously removed. No scissors are used. Alcides, Isa’s husband and the father of the two girls, wants a third child – a son. Isa, however, doesn’t want another pregnancy. She wants to focus on working and already has more than enough on her plate with two children and the household, which she manages on her own. Until now, she’s never questioned her role within the family. Yet when she notices that Alcides doesn’t seem to be listening and persists with his wish for a third child, she realises that something must change. She secretly obtains birth-control pills. Is she now starting to take charge of her sexuality and identity? Told in vivid colours and with fleeting moments of surrealism, El despertar de las hormigas is the arresting story of the emancipation of a young woman, who despite the narrow confines of patriarchal social structures begins to find her own path and articulate her own needs.

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

The post Antonella Sudasassi Furniss – Hormigas #Berlinale2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Sarah Bradbury interviews Agnieszka Holland, director of the film Mr. Jones.

Polish film director Agnieszka Holland tells us about why she thought felt compelled to make a film about Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, after learning about his role in uncovering the famine-genocide in Ukraine in 1932-33, Holodomor, how she worked with actor James Norton to develop the central character and the links made in the film to George Orwell and his writing of Animal Farm. The acclaimed director also shared her views on our corrupt media as the biggest threat to modernity and the exciting new opportunities TV has opened up for directors and actors alike in recent years.

Mr. Jones: In March 1933, Welsh journalist Gareth Jones takes a train from Moscow to Kharkov in the Ukraine. He disembarks at a small station and sets off on foot on a journey through the country where he experiences at first hand the horrors of a famine. Everywhere there are dead people, and everywhere he goes he meets henchmen of the Soviet secret service who are determined to prevent news about the catastrophe from getting out to the general public. Stalin’s forced collectivisation of agriculture has resulted in misery and ruin; the policy is tantamount to mass murder. Supported by Ada Brooks, a New York Times reporter, Jones succeeds in spreading the shocking news in the West, thereby putting his powerful rival, the Pulitzer Prize-winning, pro-Stalin journalist Walter Duranty, firmly in his place. Shot in Poland, Scotland and in original locations in the Ukraine, Agnieszka Holland’s film recalls the legendary journalist Gareth Jones (1905-1935) who, despite fierce resistance, could not be dissuaded from telling the truth. Jones’s encounter with the young George Orwell is said to have inspired the latter’s dystopian parable Animal Farm (1945).

To discover more about the film, click here.

The post Agnieszka Holland – Mr. Jones #Berlinale2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Chiara Nicoletti interviews Valerie Pachner, actress of the film The Ground Beneath My Feet.

“Lola is so many women I have seen. Actually women I am highly irritated by, personally”: these are the words director Marie Kreutzer uses to describe the protagonist of her film, The Ground Beneath My Feet, screening in competition at the 69th edition of the Berlinale. Valerie Pachner, who plays Lola in the film, confirms her director’s opinion and her struggle to play a deeply troubled woman who wants to exercise control over everything in her life. How difficult was it to play Lola and to not judge her while pitying her and disagreeing with her actions? Valerie Pachner describes her approach to the character and her work on finding a balance.

The Ground Beneath My Feet: Lola is almost thirty. A successful management consultant, she is constantly on the move between the companies she is tasked with restructuring. Her chic apartment in Vienna is more of a mailbox and a launderette than a home. A hundred working hours a week is not uncommon in addition to five sessions at the gym, expensive dinners with clients and nights spent in sterile hotels. Her career, which she is advancing with cleverness, efficiency and ruthless cunning, appears to be unstoppable. She applies a similarly disciplined approach when it comes to managing her private life. This means that nobody is allowed to know about the existence of her older sister Conny, who has been suffering from mental illness for a long time and who never leaves her apartment. But when Conny attempts to commit suicide, Lola searches for a way to be there for her. Marie Kreutzer’s portrait of the jet-setting Lola reveals that there is sometimes just a thin line separating polar opposites such as order and chaos, rise and fall – even for someone who thrives in a society fixated on achievement.

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

The post Valerie Pachner – The Ground Beneath My Feet #Berlinale2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.