FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Filip Jan Rymsza, producer of the film Hopper/Welles.

A conversation with Filip Jan Rymsza, producer with Royal Road Entertainment, which presented the film Hopper/Welles in collaboration with Grindhouse Releasing and Fixafilm at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. A must-see for cinephiles and film history lovers, this is an over two-hour long conversation between icons Orson Welles and Dennis Hopper. In this interview, Rymsza shares how this previously unseen footage emerged and how it came to be released as a standalone feature. He also talks about the relationship between Hopper and Welles, which shaped the dynamics of the conversation and that Rymsza points out some have referred to as an interrogation.

Hopper/Welles: Presented for the first time at 77th Venice Film Festival, Hopper/Welles is an intimate and revelatory 1970 conversation between two film giants, Dennis Hopper, then riding high on the massive success of Easy Rider, and Orson Welles, ever the iconoclast and an offscreen interviewer of probing authority. Both had emerged from notoriety to change the face of cinema. It seems only natural that they would meet – and so they did, over a long, boisterous dinner. Captured during the guerrilla shooting of Welles’ troubled, long-in-the-making The Other Side of the Wind (and Hopper’s own difficult editing of The Last Movie), the back and forth yields two fascinatingly similar characters: the elder lion in winter and the younger rebrand headed for a fall from grace. Their subjects are legion and the questions run deep. Is a director a “god” or a “magician”? Will America survive its own violence? Sex, liberation, radical chic and political sincerity—their chat is timelier than ever. Hopper/Welles is an essential piece of movie history, pitched at the hinge of a changing industry, voiced by a pair of filmdom’s most radical creators.

The post Filip Jan Rymsza – Hopper/Welles #Venezia77 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Ann Hui, director of the film Love After Love.

A conversation with filmmaker Ann Hui, who presented her latest film Love After Love out of competition at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. Here, the director talks about the original short story the film is based on and why she wanted to remain faithful to it in taking it to the screen, as well as the context that makes this story so powerful and fascinating. Hui, who is a major figure of the movement known as the Hong Kong New Wave, is also receiving in Venice a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

Love After Love: Ge Weilong, a young girl from Shanghai, travels to Hong Kong in pursuit of her education. In order to pay for her studies, she asks her aunt, Mrs. Liang, for help. Mrs. Liang is leading a shady life, and Weilong gradually becomes her aunt’s puppet in the game of luring the rich and powerful men. As it happens, Weilong gets genuinely attracted to playboy George Qiao, whose aim is to marry a wealthy girl to maintain his own high-end class lifestyle.

The post Ann Hui – Love After Love #Venezia77 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Amos Gitai, director of the film Laila in Haifa.

There’s a club in Haifa, the Fattoush, founded by a young Palestinian that welcomes people from different backgrounds, religion and sexual orientation. Director Amos Gitai, despite being born in Haifa discovered this place through an actress friend of his and decided to direct a film about it. That’s how Laila in Haifa was born. At the 77th Venice International Film Festival , where the film is in competition, the director reveals why he decided to focus on women and how Fattoush should be a virtuous example on how society should act and should be. Five Stories, Five Women, 14 characters and only one choice: to stay optimistic.

Laila in Haifa: Over the course of one night, we witness the interweaving stories of five women through a series of encounters and situations, defying all categories and labels in their relationships and personal identities. With an ensemble cast of both Israeli and Palestinian actors, Laila in Haifa is a drama with wry humor set over one night in a club in the port town of Haifa. The film presents a candid snapshot of contemporary life in one of the last remaining spaces where Israelis and Palestinians come together to engage in face-to-face relationships. The club itself is vital to the fabric of the film. Amos Gitai delivers a sensitive and distinctly humanist reflection of life in the region. Laila in Haifa is a lieu de rencontres, a moment of dialogue, in a region that otherwise suffers from chronic violence and hatred. Posing the questions: how can the arts create a space in which people can express their different identities but are looking for ways of mutual and peaceful coexistence? How can the language of cinema using juxtaposition of fragments of stories create a common human tissue?

The post Amos Gitai – Laila in Haifa #Venezia77 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Ivan Tverdovskiy, director of the film Conference.

Ivan Tverdovskiy narrates the memory of a huge Russian tragedy where many people died and the people who survived carrying the burden of these memories. In a film with a semi documentarist narrative rhythm, the world of the nun who is the center of the story is unfolded in a subtle and at the same time intense way.

Conference: Natalia, a nun from a remote Russian monastery, comes to Moscow 17 years after the terrorist attack on the Dubrovka Theatre. She has been sent there to organize a memorial evening for the victims of the attack that took place in October 2002. We soon learn that Natalia and her family themselves were witnesses to the attack. Almost forgotten now by the outside world, the organizers and participants of the memorial evening or the Conference (as they have been asked to call it officially) are made to feel like a burden by the rest of the society. Following the chronology of the events as told by a few participants in the memorial evening, we learn the dark details of Natalia’s personal story.

The post Ivan Tverdovskiy – Conference #Giornate2020 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Anders Ølholm and Frederik Louis Hviid, directors of the film Shorta.

It comes like the most contemporary film we’ve seen at the 2020 Venice Critics week Shorta, the debut by danisk filmmakers Anders Ølholm and Frederik Louis Hviid. A crime story that sees two police officers getting trapped in a ghetto trying to get revenge on them after the unfair killing of one of them. The directors talk about finding a balance and the right rhytm to a film that manages to go straight to the point while changing points of view in the story.

Shorta: The exact details of what took place while Talib Ben Hassi, 19, was in police custody remain unclear. Police officers Jens and Mike are on routine patrol in Svalegården’s ghetto when news of Talib’s death comes in over the radio, igniting uncontrollable pent-up rage in the ghetto’s youth who lust for revenge. Suddenly, the two officers find themselves in a fair game and must fight tooth and claw to find a way out.

The post Anders Ølholm, Frederik Louis Hviid – Shorta #SIC35 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Romola Garai, actress of the film Miss Marx.

Romola Garai is Susanna Nicchiarelli’s new muse in Miss Marx, screening in competition at the 77th Venice Film Festival. The actress describes Eleanor Marx, her character and how it is the second time she gets to play a woman fighting for equality and people/women’s rights after Suffragette by Sarah Gavron. Romola Garai leads us into the world of Eleanor Marx, a woman so ahead of her time but overpowered by the contradictions between her private life and per public one. How can someone be so independent and brave in the public fights and at the same time a “slave” of passion and love in private? Miss Marx takes her revenge.

Miss Marx: Bright, intelligent, passionate and free, Eleanor is Karl Marx’s youngest daughter. Among the first women to link the themes of feminism and socialism, she takes part in the workers’ battles and fights for women’s rights and the abolition of child labor. In 1883 she meets Edward Aveling and her life is crushed by a passionate but tragic love story.

The post Romola Garai – Miss Marx #Venezia77 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Dongmei Li, director of the film Mama.

Dongmei Li tells the story of her childhood in the Chinese countryside, with vivid images and melancholic memories. This is the story of her life and her mother, her death and the elaboration of the closure that happens with this film. Dongmei will be mother soon, and this film about her mother was needed, before going on with her new life.

Mama tells what happens over seven days in a village in rural China during the 1990s. The story follows twelve-year-old Xiaoxian’s memories of her family and her village. During those seven days, the girl witnesses three deaths and two births, including the death of her own mother, who dies giving birth to her fourth sister.

The post Dongmei Li – Mama #Giornate2020 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Roger Michell, director of the film The Duke.

Notting Hill director Roger Michell lands at the 77th Venice International film festival with The Duke, presented out of competition. The film stars an unforgettable couple, Oscar winners Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent plus the emerging star Fionn Whitehead. Inspired by true events, Roger Michell describes the film as a Robin Hood story while pointing out that comedy is life and there was no other way of telling a funny but pensive story like this.

The Duke: In 1961, Kempton Bunton, a 60-year old taxi driver, stole Francisco Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first (and remains the only) theft in the Gallery’s history. Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government invested more in care for the elderly – he had long campaigned for pensioners to receive free television. What happened next became the stuff of legend. Only fifty years later did the full story emerge – Kempton had spun a web of lies. The only truth was that he was a good man, determined to change the world and save his marriage – how and why he used the Duke to achieve that is a wonderfully uplifting tale.

To watch FRED video interview, click here.

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Jim Broadbent, actor of the film The Duke.

“The Duke, in the great tradition of Ealing Comedies, shows a small man speaking truth to power. It is a serious story not to be taken too seriously”: these are the words of director Roger Michell when talking about his new film The Duke starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren. The film is in competition at the 77th Venice Film Festival and sees Jim Broadbent in the role of Kempton Bunton, a 60-year old taxi driver, who, in 1961, stole Francisco Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. Broadbent describes his character’s contradiction and comments on how the film can make us reflect about the importance of connecting to people.

The Duke: In 1961, Kempton Bunton, a 60-year old taxi driver, stole Francisco Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first (and remains the only) theft in the Gallery’s history. Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government invested more in care for the elderly – he had long campaigned for pensioners to receive free television. What happened next became the stuff of legend. Only fifty years later did the full story emerge – Kempton had spun a web of lies. The only truth was that he was a good man, determined to change the world and save his marriage – how and why he used the Duke to achieve that is a wonderfully uplifting tale.

To watch FRED video interview, click here.

The post Jim Broadbent – The Duke #Venezia77 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti and Angelo Acerbi interviews actor and director Matt Dillon, who was awarded the FRED Award Venice 2020.

Juror in the Venezia 77 official competition, fearless actor and upcoming second time director of El Gran Fellowe about to premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival, Matt Dillon is this year’s “FRED Award Venice 2020”. The actor-director describes his approach to directing and acting and finally reveals what le look for in a film as a juror and audience member.

“FRED Award Venice 2020 goes to Matt Dillon, a multifaceted artist – actor, director, painter, and music lover (as his upcoming documentary attests to) Mr. Dillon is an intense and versatile interpreter, whose range goes from blockbusters to indie films, without any genre limitation. He often choses inconvenient roles, showing uncommon autonomy and determination. Fred appreciates in particular the plurality of languages and the eclecticism of his artistic choices, which he has always pursued with consistency and authenticity”.

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