FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Paul Schrader, Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried, director and actors of the film First Reformed.

FRED interviews director Paul Schrader and actors Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried, who presented their film First Reformed in competition at the 74th Venice International Film festival. During this brief but intense chat, Schrader tells us that this was the type of spiritual film that he had always wanted to make, ever since he was a film critic, and has never lost interest in. Hawke shares with us a unique approach that helped him prepare for his role, while Seyfried talks about how being pregnant in real life helped her give her performance of a pregnant character an added depth.

First Reformed is a film about spiritual life starring Ethan Hawke as the minister of a small, historical and empty church. An ex-military chaplain, Toller is tortured by the loss of a son he encouraged to enlist in the armed forces. As Toller struggles with his faith, he is further challenged after a young couple, Mary and her radical environmentalist husband Michael, come to him for counselling. Consumed by thoughts that the world is being destroyed by big business and discovering the church’s complicity with unscrupulous corporations, Toller embarks on a perilous selfassigned undertaking with the hope that he may finally restore the faith and purpose he’s been longing for in his mission to right the wrongs done to so many.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Deborah Haywood, Joanna Scanlan, Lily Newmark, director and actresses of the film Pin Cushion.

Director Deborah Haywood and actresses Joanna Scanlan and Lily Newmark stopped by the FRED studio at the 74th Venice International Film Festival to talk about their film, Pin Cushion, which opened the program of Settimana della Critica. In this interview, Haywood talks about the reading of the film as a fairytale, and the depiction of a hostile world in which its protagonists find themselves. Scanlan and Newmark describe their experience of working on a film production during which they felt protected, and the director talks about whether and how she is able to preserve the originality of the vision and what, in her words, “comes from the belly.”

Pin Cushion: Unusually close mother Lyn and daughter Iona are excited for their new life in a new town. After a tricky start, Iona becomes ‘best friends’ with Keely, Stacey, and Chelsea. Used to being Iona’s best friend herself, Lyn feels left out, so she also makes friends with Belinda, her neighbour. As much as Lyn and Iona pretend with each other that things are great, things are not going that well for either of them. Both mother and daughter hide behind fantasies and lies. When Lyn understands what is really going on with Iona, she figures out a way to punish her friends and keep Iona safe by her side … forever.

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

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PODCAST | Nicolò Comotti interviews Ziad Doueiri, Adel Karam, Kamel El Basha, director and actors of the film The Insult.

Ziad Doueiri talks about his latest feature The Insult, here in competition at Venice 74. A trivial quarrel can go a long, wrong, way, when it encapsulates unresolved issues of race and war. The Insult throws us deep into Beirut, with its religious and political factions and make us feel helpless and yet full of anger in the face of injustice, and its savage exploitation.

The Insult:  In today’s Beirut, an insult blown out of proportion finds Toni, a Lebanese Christian, and Yasser, a Palestinian refugee, in court. From secret wounds to traumatic revelations, the media circus surrounding the case puts Lebanon through a social explosion, forcing Toni and Yasser to reconsider their lives and prejudices.

For the trailer of the film, click here.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Celia Rolwson-Hall, director of the film (The [End) of History Illusion].

If change is a natural part of our existence, then “why are we recycling instead of advancing.” Drawing inspiration from current times, Celia Rolwson-Hall, whom we met two years ago at Giornate degli Autori with her feature film Ma, directed one of this year’s Miu Miu Women’s Tales, presented in the same section. The short is titled (The [End) of History Illusion], which she explains is a kind of film that she is interested in making, one that interacts with the audience: “I like to ask questions so that we can find answers together.”

The [End) of History Illusion]:  “We understand this political climate has turned your world upside down,” the 1950s TV-ad voice-over tells you. “Underground shelter is your best defense against radioactive fallout.” Cue perky music, tap dancing twins, and a ballerina that bakes the perfect croissant. Welcome to your new luxury home – buried 26 feet below. Complete with mini-golf course, dance floor, swimming pool, two jacuzzis, and a thoroughly modern mermaid. “This is reality.” That is, until the nuclear siren rings. (The [End) of History Illusion], by Celia Rowlson-Hall, is the 14th commission from Miu Miu Women’s Tales. The acclaimed short-film series invites today’s most profound and original female directors to investigate vanity and femininity in the 21st century.

For the official page of the film, click here.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Chloë Sevigny, director of the film Carmen.

FRED meets Chloë Sevigny, director of Carmen, one of the two Miu Miu Women’s Tales shorts screened at this year’s Venice Film Festival in the Giornate degli Autori section and the 13th of the series. The film is inspired by life on the road; its protagonist is a female comic. Sevigny tells us she was partially inspired by Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy. She also talks about the commitment of becoming a director, which she tells us is something that she always wanted to do.

Carmen:  What do you need to be, to be really funny? Stand-up comedienne Carmen Lynch knows what it takes. As she wanders from make-up mirror to performance stage, via Portland’s woozy streets and an all-night grocery store, we’re given an intimate insight into a talented individual. The city’s saturated lights and dying, showbiz neon become Carmen’s passing backdrop. She confronts herself – her looks, her dreams, the weird rituals of mating in the modern world – by confronting her audiences. Sometimes they laugh with her. Sometimes they don’t laugh at all.

For the official page of the film, click here.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson, director of the film Under the Tree.

Director Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson presented his film Under the Tree at the 2017 Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti section. The filmmaker describes the film as his biggest one yet. Despite its dark themes, it makes also makes a great use of sense of irony that makes the plot compelling. Sigurdsson talks about what prompted him to return to these themes, the important of location in the movie, and more.

Under the Tree: Agnes throws Atli out and does not want him to see their daughter Ása anymore. He moves in with his parents, who are involved in a bitter dispute over their big and beautiful tree that casts a shadow on the neighbours’ deck. As Atli fights for the right to see his daughter, the dispute with the neighbours intensifies —property is damaged, pets mysteriously go missing, security cameras are being installed and there is a rumor that the neighbor was seen with a chainsaw.

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PODCAST | Nicolò Comotti interviews Savi Gabizon, director of the film Longing.

Fred has the pleasure to meet Savi Gabizon, director of Longing, a beautiful study on identity and parenting…with the child’s absence. Longing is in the Giornate degli Autori’s selection.

Longing:  Ariel, a well-off, childless man, gets a phone call from his college girlfriend. She needs to tell him a couple of very surprising things: first, when they broke up twenty years ago, she was pregnant and went on to have a lovely baby boy. The second thing will change his life forever. This is a journey that creates laboratory-like conditions under which to explore the hidden aspects of parenthood that go beyond giving and responsibility.

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PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Kim Nguyen, director of the film Eye on Juliet.

Kim Nguyen brings us a love story so strange and dreamy, in modern way, that you will be pleasantly shocked. A link between a romantic drama and a sci-fi flick, with a contemporaray side and an harsh look on the global surveillance we cannot escape, Eye on Juliet is the mean Kim uses to tell us that purity of the heart can still survive and blossom, even in a world where control and drones rule globally.

Eye on Juliet:  A love story through the eye of a spider drone. Across the landscape of a Middle Eastern desert and an oil pipeline, appears a strange spider-like robot that seems to be scoping the horizon. At the other end of the world, in America, Gordon, drone operator and safe keeper of the pipeline, surveys the desolate landscapes from his screens. Having lost his way in a world he no longer comprehends, he becomes fascinated by Ayusha, a young woman promised to an older man she doesn’t love. Despite the distance, their mutual fear and their imperfect interaction, Gordon will do everything in his power to help Ayusha escape her fate, falling for her in the process.

For the official page of the film, click here.

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PODCAST | Nicolò Comotti interviews Susanna Nicchiarelli and Trine Dyrholm,  director and actress of the film NICO, 1988

To listen to the interview, click on the ► icon on the right, just above the picture

Fred has the pleasure to chat with Susanna Nicchiarelli, here in Venice’s Orizzonti with her latest feature NICO, 1988. The film covers the last few years of the legendary singer Christa Päffgen, a.k.a Nico. Trine Dyrholm brilliant performs as the troubled and deeply fascinating music star, that managed to influence entire generations with her dark and moving opus.

NICO, 1988: Set in Paris, Prague, Nuremberg, Manchester, the Polish countryside and the Roman coast, Nico, 1988 is a road movie dedicated to the final years of Christa Päffgen, stage name Nico. The muse of Andy Warhol, singer with the band Velvet Underground and a woman of legendary beauty, Nico gained a new lease of life after the story everyone knows, when she launched her solo career.

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PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Vithaya Pansaringarm, David Asavanond and Stephane Sednaoui, actors in  the film Samui Song

To listen to the interview, click on the ► icon on the right, just above the picture

The three lead actors of Samui Song are here with us to talk about their characters’ differences and their approaches to playing them. From the guru to the rejected husband to the con man plagiarized by that same woman, all of them related to the art of the director to explore and give their best performance. Have a listen …

Samui Song: Viyada, a Thai soap opera actress in her mid-30s, finds herself increasingly pressured by her husband Jérôme, a rich foreigner entirely devoted to a charismatic cult leader called The Holy One. Viyada has no other choice than to take the most drastic measures in order to escape from the cult’s influence once and for all.

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