FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig, actors of the film Downsizing.

Actors Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig are the protagonists of Alexander Payne’s latest feature, which opened the 74th Venice International Film Festival. They stopped by the Venetian FRED studio for a brief chat about the movie. They discuss the roles of their characters. Damon also praises the director for doing great job in representing a real struggle of our world today. Wiig and Damon also reflect on how they would have dealt with the situation the characters go through in Downsizing if it had happened to them in real life.

Downsizing imagines what might happen if, as a solution to over-population, Norwegian scientists discover how to shrink humans to five inches tall and propose a 200-year global transition from big to small. People soon realize how much further money goes in a miniaturized world, and with the promise of a better life, everyman Paul Safranek and wife Audrey decide to abandon their stressed lives in Omaha in order to get small and move to a new downsized community—a choice that triggers life-changing adventures.

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Alexander Payne and Hong Chau, director and actress of the film Downsizing.

Downsizing by Alexander Payne opened the 74th Venice International Film Festival. The director stopped by our FRED studio to chat about it, alongside actress Hong Chau. Payne talks about the writing process of the film, “writing is never fun,” while Chau tells our listeners about the character she plays.

Downsizing imagines what might happen if, as a solution to over-population, Norwegian scientists discover how to shrink humans to five inches tall and propose a 200-year global transition from big to small. People soon realize how much further money goes in a miniaturized world, and with the promise of a better life, everyman Paul Safranek and wife Audrey decide to abandon their stressed lives in Omaha in order to get small and move to a new downsized community—a choice that triggers life-changing adventures.

The post Alexander Payne, Hong Chau – Downsizing #Venezia74 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Andrew Haigh, director of the film Lean on Pete.

Director Andrew Haigh talks about his latest feature, Lean on Pete, presented in competition at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. He stopped by our FRED studio in Venice for a chat, discussing such topics as why he doesn’t think that Lean on Pete is a coming of age movie, how he knows how and when to close his movies (“I think it’s a feeling more than an intellectual understanding), and more.

Lean on Pete follows fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson. He wants a home, food on the table and a high school he can attend for more than part of the year. As the son of a single father working in warehouses across the Pacific Northwest, stability is hard to find. Hoping for a new start they move to Portland, Oregon, where Charley takes a summer job, with a washed-up horse trainer, and befriends a failing racehorse named Lean on Pete.

For the officiale page of the film on the festival website, click here.

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Chloë Sevigny and Charlie Plummer, actors of the film Lean on Pete.

Andrew Haigh presented his latest film, Lean on Pete, in competition at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. Two of the actors in the film, Chloë Sevigny and Charlie Plummer (FRED also interviewed Sevigny on her short film Carmen from this year’s MIU MIU Women’s Tales, also presented in Venice this year), stopped by our Venice studio to talk about working on the film. During this interview, they share with us their experience of working on the movie and how they connected with their characters.

Lean on Pete follows fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson. He wants a home, food on the table and a high school he can attend for more than part of the year. As the son of a single father working in warehouses across the Pacific Northwest, stability is hard to find. Hoping for a new start they move to Portland, Oregon, where Charley takes a summer job, with a washed-up horse trainer, and befriends a failing racehorse named Lean on Pete.

The post Chloë Sevigny, Charlie Plummer – Lean on Pete #Venezia74 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Ai Weiwei, artist and director of the film Human Flow.

“You cannot avoid hearing the refugee situation,” says artist Ai Weiwei, who made a documentary feature inspired by it, Human Flow, presented at the 74th Venice Film Festival. The activist, artist and filmmaker stopped by our studio to talk about it. He discusses balancing research with personal experience (such as his own upbringing in China), the visual style of Human Flow, his thoughts on the role of filmmakers today, and more.

Human Flow:  over 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war in the greatest human displacement since World War II. Human Flow, an epic film journey led by the internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei, gives a powerful visual expression to this massive human migration. The documentary elucidates both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact. Captured over the course of an eventful year in 23 countries, the film follows a chain of urgent human stories that stretches across the globe in countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, France, Greece, Germany, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, and Turkey. Human Flow is a witness to its subjects and their desperate search for safety, shelter and justice: from teeming refugee camps to perilous ocean crossings to barbed- wire borders; from dislocation and disillusionment to courage, endurance and adaptation; from the haunting lure of lives left behind to the unknown potential of the future. Human Flow comes at a crucial time when tolerance, compassion and trust are needed more than ever. This visceral work of cinema is a testament to the unassailable human spirit and poses one of the questions that will define this century: Will our global society emerge from fear, isolation, and self-interest and choose a path of openness, freedom, and respect for humanity?

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PODCAST | Nicolò Comotti interviews Daniel McCabe and Horeb Bulambo Shindano, director and line producer of the film This is Congo.

FRED has the privilege to talk to Daniel McCabe and Horeb Bulambo Shindano, the filmmaking heroes that managed to bring us one of the fiercest documentaries in recent years: This is Congo. This is Congo is a blunt, violent, earnest and yet hopeful look at one of the largest countries in Africa, ridden by war and the plague of corruption. While today’s Congo is like “hell on earth”, there is a ray of hope for its future, thanks to the warmth, the strength, and the sense of justice that many Congolese have – and want for their own country.

This is Congo:  over the last two decades, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has seen more than five million conflict-related deaths, multiple regime changes and the wholesale impoverishment of its people. Though this ongoing conflict is the world’s bloodiest since WWII, little is known in the West about the players or stakes involved. For the first time, This is Congo provides a unique and unfiltered look into the world’s longest continuing conflict and those who are surviving within it. By following four compelling characters — a whistleblower, a patriotic military commander, a mineral smuggler and a displaced tailor — the film offers viewers a truly Congolese perspective on the problems that plague this lushly beautiful, mineral-rich nation. These characters exemplify the unique resilience of a people who have lived and died through generations due to the cycle of brutality generated by this conflict.

For the page of the film in the festival website, click here.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Damian Hill and Ty Perham, actors of the film West of Sunshine.

Actors Damian Hill and Ty Perham stopped by our FRED studio for a quick chat about their work on Jason Raftopoulos’ feature West of Sunshine, presented in the Orizzonti section of Venezia 74. Respectively, they play the father and the son, lead characters, of the film. In this interview we discover not only how they were able to get into their roles, but Hill also tells us that he is Perham’s stepfather in real life, and how this impacted their performances, particularly during the more delicate moments of the film.

West of Sunshine:  separated from his family and caught in a cycle of gambling and debt, Jim has less than a day to repay a violent loan shark. His day is turned upside down when he must look after his young son who is on school holidays. Jim’s relationship with his son is tested as his plans to pay back the loan fail. When his last desperate effort to repay the debt puts his son’s life at risk, he must make a choice between his past and a second chance at life.

For the page of the film in the festival website, click here.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Jason Raftopoulos and Alexandros Ouzas, director and producer of the film West of Sunshine.

Director Jason Raftopoulos stopped by FRED’s studio to talk about his film West of Sunshine, alongside the producer of the film, Alexandros Ouzas. In this short interview, many topics are discussed, including the importance of the road and the car, where most of this father-son family drama is set, while Ouzas gives us a brief overview on the production aspect of things.

West of Sunshine:  Separated from his family and caught in a cycle of gambling and debt, Jim has less than a day to repay a violent loan shark. His day is turned upside down when he must look after his young son who is on school holidays. Jim’s relationship with his son is tested as his plans to pay back the loan fail. When his last desperate effort to repay the debt puts his son’s life at risk, he must make a choice between his past and a second chance at life.

For the page of the film in the festival website, click here.

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins, actors of the film The Shape of Water.

Actors Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins stopped by FRED’s studio at the 74th Venice International Film Festival to talk about their work on Guillermo Del Toro’s latest film, The Shape of Water, presented in the festival’s competition. Among the topics discussed, Spencer tells us about the experience of working with a filmmaker she has been a fan of for a long time, while Jenkins reveals to us that he did not know he was going to be the film’s narrator until later in the production.

The Shape of Water: The Shape of Water is an other-worldly fairy tale, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda discover a secret classified experiment.

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Guillermo Del Toro and Sally Hawkins, director and actress of the film The Shape of Water.

Director Guillermo Del Toro and actress Sally Hawkins stopped by our FRED studios at the 74th Venice Film Festival to talk about their work, The Shape of Water, the feature film presented in Venice’s main competition. This brief and intense interview includes Del Toro discussing how he is able to suspend his disbelief with his movies, including his latest one, while Hawkins tells us how she was able to step into her role in the film; as she says: “it was on the page … I could just feel it from day one.”

The Shape of Water is an other-worldly fairy tale, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda discover a secret classified experiment.

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