FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Rashaad Ernesto Green, director of the film Premature.

Rashaad Ernesto Green, at his second feature, tells us how the film was born: starting for a short film by the same name and a longtime friendship with his co-writer, and actress in the film.

Premature: Budding writer Ayanna’s life is transformed over the course of one hot Harlem summer, when a handsome and mysterious stranger walks into her life.

The post Rashaad Ernesto Green – Premature #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Antonio Monda, artistic director of the 2019 Rome Film Fest.

An interview with Antonio Monda, artistic director of the Rome Film Fest, recorded just a few days before the beginning of the festival – although, as he explains, it would be more right to call this international event a “feast.” Monda explains to us this driving concept and talks about how this year’s program reflects it. We also discuss the marked female presence on the program, two new sections (“Duel” and “Loyalty/Betrayal”), some of the international guests and his thoughts on the much-discussed presence of Netflix productions at film festivals.

Rome Film Fest Rome was born in 2006. Since the beginning, it has imposed itself as one of the most important film events internationally. This year, as other years, will include many international guests – from Wes Anderson to John Travolta to Viola Davis and beyond – and will be defined by lots of great films – a mixture of highbrow and lowbrow – and noteworthy events. Greta Garbo’s image adorns the posters of this year’s Rome Film Fest.

The post Antonio Monda #RomaFF14 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, directors of the film The Lodge.

Veronika Franz and Severine Fiala are fun to talk to, like their films are fun to watch. We discover their ideas about not using the genre rules, trying to build up their own rules and involving the audience in a journey that will stay with them for a long time.

The Lodge: After the sudden death of their beloved mother, heartbroken siblings Aidan and Mia struggle to embrace their father’s new fiancée – the reserved, somewhat mysterious Grace. Forced to spend the holidays together at their isolated family lodge, the kids begrudgingly find themselves alone with their new mother figure when their dad heads back to work for a few days. As the weather outside worsens, tensions inside the cabin show little signs of thawing. Meanwhile, dark secrets from Grace’s traumatic past slowly begin to surface.

The post Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala – The Lodge #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Lisa Barros D’sa and Glenn Lyburn, directors of the film Ordinary Love.

Lisa Barros D’sa and Glenn Lyburn talk about the tone they chose for a film about a serious issue, that is unfortunately common. But they managed to give us a positive and never manipulative film. They tell us how.

Ordinary Love: As the Christmas decorations go up, we quickly get a sense of Joan and Tom’s bantering relationship; witty and teasing, they’re a couple who can finish each other’s sentences. When Joan is diagnosed with breast cancer, Tom is there to support and we follow as they navigate the mundane and frightening new world of exams, diagnoses, and waiting rooms. a warm and affecting drama.

The post Lisa Barros D’sa, Glenn Lyburn – Ordinary Love #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Stanley Nelson, director of the film Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool.

An interview with documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson, who presented his latest film, Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, in the Create strand of the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. The film is a comprehensive and beautiful portrayal of the life, times and formidable works of Miles Davis, one of the greatest music artists of the 20th-century and still one of the most popular jazz artists to this day. In this interview, we talk about Davis and Nelson shares with us how he first came across him and the first album of his that he remembers listening to. We also discuss the wealth of archive material and contributions from fans, colleagues and people from Davis’ life, as well as whether he found it challenging to condense this life in a two-hour movie and more.

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool: Veteran documentarian Stanley Nelson takes on the multifaceted creativity and myriad contradictions of Miles Davis in a mere two hours. This detailed, textured chronology offers something for all, from jazz newbies to viewers who’ve long been drowning in the ocean of genre-expanding music that poured from the musician’s magically muted trumpet. Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool swings through five decades of sonic innovation: from hard bop to heavenly orchestrations, the ambient acoustics of Kind of Blue to the funky fusion of Bitches Brew. It’s a treasure trove of electrifying archive and authoritative interviewees (including several collaborators and ex-lovers), which smartly deploys extracts from Miles’s searing autobiography. The film also explores his impact on black cultural identity and doesn’t flinch from discussing the violent, drug-fuelled ravages of a troubled and troubling icon.

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The post Stanley Nelson – Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Michael Caton-Jones, director of the film Our Ladies.

An interview with Michael Caton-Jones, director of Our Ladies, screened as a special presentation at the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. The director reveals to us that he had wanted to make the movie in the mid-’90s and why he had difficulties making it until now. He also shares with us his thought about the representation of young women in movies and whether he believes that women in charge of their sexuality still seem threatening, as well as his interest in making multi-layered films and more.

Our Ladies: A pitch-perfect evocation of the possibilities and frustrations of being young and riotously alive in mid-90s Scotland, Our Ladies follows the teenage choirgirls of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour on a day trip from their port town in the Highlands to a singing competition in Edinburgh. Its focus is the rebellious gang sitting at the back of the bus, who are less interested in the contest than furthering their own version of a catholic education in the big city. Booze and boys feature heavily and hilariously, but this unvarnished coming-of-age saga also ponders (without preachiness) sexuality, pregnancy, class difference and the tumultuous path of true friendship. The six central characters are brought to life by brilliant performances from Eve Austin, Tallulah Greive, Abigail Lawrie, Sally Messham, Rona Morison and Marli Siu. Each is given her space to shine by Alan Sharp and Michael Caton-Jones’s screenplay, which skilfully adapts Alan Warner’s widely acclaimed novel The Sopranos, without compromising the source material’s gloriously profane and swaggeringly musical spirit. This is the author’s second book to be made into a film (following Morvern Callar) and a long-gestating labour of love for veteran Scottish director Caton-Jones, who optioned it 20 years ago.

The post Michael Caton-Jones – Our Ladies #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Johnny Ma, director of the film To Live To Sing.

An interview with Johnny Ma, director of To Live To Sing, which was presented in the Create section of the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. This is a drama that revolves around a Sichuan Opera troupe and we ask the director to tell us more about that as well as his personal connection with it. We also ask him about the theme of family as it is portrayed in the movie, how To Live To Sing has a universal dimension despite its dealing with many traditional aspects that are specifically Chinese, and he shares with us a little of his experience about being an independent filmmaker.

To Live To Sing: Zhao Li is a woman trying to hold it all together. The Sichuan Opera troupe she manages is creating beautiful work, but it plays to a dwindling audience of the loyal elderly from the theatre’s down-at-heel neighbourhood. With the troupe consisting mainly of veteran performers, her hopes for a change in fortune rest on the shoulders of her talented niece Dan Dan. So, Zhao Li sets about putting on a show to grab the attention of a local bureaucrat who could reverse their eviction notice. For his second feature, Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Johnny Ma corrals a cast made up of real-life Sichuan Opera performers, painting this makeshift family in brightly coloured hues, and injecting humour and splashes of fantasy into this engaging tribute to the endurance of the artistic spirit.

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The post Johnny Ma – To Live To Sing #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Craig Roberts, director of the film Eternal Beauty.

An interview with Craig Roberts, director and writer of the film Eternal Beauty, which was screened in the Dare section of the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. The film talks about mental health issues and stars a wonderful Sally Hawkins, in her first role after her performance in the Oscar-winning film, The Shape of Water. It also deal with mental health, which Roberts discusses in this interview through his very positive way of looking at them as superpowers. Other topics discussed in this interview include the use of sense of humor in this film, working with Hawkins on developing her character and more.

Eternal Beauty: Jilted as a young woman on her wedding day, the outsider in a fragmented family and beset with anxieties both real and imaginary, June has a life of constant struggle. Pills offer a possible solution and her relationship with vagrant musician Mike (David Thewlis) might be another. But does the medication and even love just exacerbate June’s delusional state of mind? Following his 2015 directorial debut Just Jim, Submarine star Craig Roberts’ sophomore feature is a true high-wire act, depicting the unstable perceptions of a fragile persona with delirious colour and design across ever-shifting time frames. Sally Hawkins’ fearless performance again confirms her as one of Britain’s best, and an ace supporting cast – Alice Lowe, Billie Piper, Penelope Wilton – prove equally committed to Roberts’ singular, humane vision.

The post Craig Roberts – Eternal Beauty #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Sarah Bradbury interviews Scott Z. Burns, director of the film The Report.

We sat down with the director and screenwriter Scott Z.Burns to discuss his new film The Report. He told us about discovering a report on the CIA’s approach to torture post 9/11, his investigative journalist approach to researching and how he turned it into a compelling drama starring Adam Driver. He also spoke about what he wants people to take away from the film and the importance of truth in the post-truth era.

The Report: The American government takes a long hard look at itself in this politically urgent drama starring Adam Driver. Is torture ever warranted? Has it ever thwarted a terrorist attack? Did it lead to information that found Osama bin Laden? Daniel Jones (Adam Driver) is the report-writing man in the basement, piecing together the facts about the CIA’s cavalier approach to torture following 9/11. But many powerful people would rather the military’s ‘Enhanced Interrogation Techniques’ stayed in the shadows and it becomes evident that Jones and the report’s commissioner Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening) have a fight on their hands. Director Scott Z Burns (screenwriter of Contagion, The Bourne Ultimatum and the forthcoming Bond film) nods to the politically conscious thrillers of the 1970s with this lean and timely drama, showing how vital it is that a nation can look clear-eyed into its own darkest moments.

The post Scott Z. Burns – The Report #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Claire Oakley, director of the film Make Up.

An interview with Claire Oakley, director of Make Up, presented in the First Feature Competition of the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. Here, she talks about her movie, a coming age drama and journey of self-discovery, which is set in specific place but deals with very universal and female themes. Oakley also reveals to us that she comes from a literary background and tells us about the challenges of making the transition to cinema, as well as what the medium can offer in terms of representing what is difficult to communicate.

Make Up: Teenager Ruth (Molly Windsor) travels to a seaside holiday park to stay with her boyfriend Tom. It’s off-season, so the resort is mostly deserted, except for a few residents and a handful of staff charged with sprucing up the place. Ruth gradually settles into her new environment, finding work and making a new friend in the form of make-up enthusiast Jade. But one afternoon, while giving Tom’s caravan a spring clean, Ruth finds evidence her beau might be cheating on her. As her desire to uncover the truth turns into an obsession, she begins to realise she might be looking for something else entirely. Transforming her remote coastal setting into an intangible labyrinth of creeping intrigue, Claire Oakley inventively flirts with genre conventions to weave a singular tale of self-acceptance and sexual awakening.

The post Claire Oakley – Make Up #LFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.