FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Paolo Cherchi Usai, one of the founders of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival and curator of its “Canon Revisited” section.

Paolo Cherchi Usai, who is among other things the Senior Curator of the Motion Picture Department at George Eastman House, was one of the founders of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 35 years ago.

He is the curator of the section titled “Canon Revisited,” which puts silent films often highlighted by historians, critics and other such figures as landmark titles in the history of cinema to the test.

We talk about what a canon is and whether there is a need for it in cinema. He also discusses some of the titles in the program this year, picking out a number of highlights. Given the fact that he was among the founders of this wonderful festival, we take this opportunity to ask him how he believes the festival has evolved over the years.

The post Paolo Cherchi Usai – Giornate del Cinema Muto #PordenoneSilent appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews James Curtis, author of William Cameron Menzies: The Shape of Film to Come from the 35th Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

Having written a number of must-read biographies on such classic Hollywood greats as James Whale, W.C. Fields and Preston Sturges, James Whale released his book on William Cameron Menzies, titled The Shape of Film to Come, last year (the title comes from the Menzies film Things to Come, 1936).

This year, the 35th Pordenone Silent Film Festival dedicated a section of its program to Menzies and some of the highlights from the silent period. But who was William Cameron Menzies?

In short, he was an innovator. The birth of the “production design,” the part of filmmaking dedicated to coming up with a visual concept of the film, can be traced back to him. He won the first Academy Award for Art Direction – for The Dove, released in 1923 and of which only five reels survive to this day – and worked on such productions as Gone With the Wind, The Eagle and The Thief of Baghdad to name but a very few.

The latter, starring Douglas Fairbanks, is screened at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto as the closing film, and will be accompanied by a full orchestra and a restored original score.

Curtis introduces Menzies to any of our listeners who may not be fami liar with him and the impact he had on film. He also talks about some of his works as a director, including Our Town, Things to Come and Invaders from Mars.

The post James Curtis – William Cameron Menzies #PordenoneSilent appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Eva Hieschler, curator of the Other City Symphonies section of the 35th Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

The city symphony film was a type of film that was made in the interwar years during the 20’s and 30’s. It was really a style that emerged during the silent era, but its influence on the cinematic language is unquestionable. To talk about it in more detail, we met with the curator of a section at the 35th Pordenone Silent Film Festival, Eva Hieschler, who is an expert on the topic.

The program, named Other City Symphonies (also because it is a follow up of the program presented at last year’s edition) because it highlights films that reveal that city symphonies were not only a European thing, aside from the fact that they are films that are rarely talked about, aside from the well-known masterpieces of the genre, such as Walter Ruttamnn’s Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927).

Aside from talking about some of the films in this year’s program, Eva discusses what it is that defines this type of film as well as what type of directors were making them.

The post Eva Hielscher – City symphonies #PordenoneSilent appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews David Robinson, film critic and former artistic director of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

If you have an interest in film history and criticism, chances are, you have read at least some of David Robinson‘s writings on cinema. The usual FRED introduction here is skipped for a reason – the list of the things Robinson has done and continues to do would have been too lengthy. Also, given the fact that we are in Pordenone for the Silent Film Festival, it is almost obligatory about his almost two decades as the festival’s director and the festival’s evolution during this time.

This year, the festival celebrated its 35th edition, and it is the first edition of Robinson as a spectator: “now I know why people like this festival so much,” he says. After talking about the festival we get into a discussion of silent cinema in general and how silent cinema can be promoted to a modern audience, as well as whether or not an audience naturally reacts differently to silent cinema than contemporary cinema (or even just any ‘talkie’).

In the second part of the interview, Robinson, the official biographer of Charlie Chaplin, reveals some inside scoop on his latest book on Chaplin that he is currently writing, and will focus on the film that Chaplin was working on before he died, and which was therefore never made.

The post David Robinson – Giornate del Cinema Muto #PordenoneSilent appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews filmmaker Gus Van Sant, who talks about the exhibition dedicated to him hosted at the National Museum of Cinema in Turin.

The fall brings new events to town, and among them the exhibition dedicated to Gus Van Sant, housed by the National Museum of Cinema at Mole Antonelliana from October 6th, 2016 to January 9th, 2017.

We met with the director Gus Van Sant himself in Torino, to talk about the exhibition. We had a nice chat about his art, that went beyond filmaking; his approach and use of photography as an alternative expressing tool, but not only; and his thoughts on the necessity and meaning of films on lgbt issues, in our times.

(…and he’s a fan of the TV show Transparent.)

The post Gus Van Sant – Exhibition at the National Museum of Cinema in Turin, Italy appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi, who introduced the 1928 film Pan Tadeusz at the 35th Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

Filmmaker Krzystof Zanussi attended the Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Giornate del Cinema Muto) for the first time this year. Which is hard to believe considering his passion for film, as our conversation with him shows.

Zanussi reveals his excitement at being at the festival and visiting Pordenone, a city with which he has personal ties. He is here also for a special reason: to give an introduction to Pan Tadeusz, a 1928 film by Ryszard Ordynski, which to this day is one of the only surviving films from the Polish silent era. When we ask him about the reason behind the scarce quantity of Polish film from the early cinema, he points out that films were not only the only things that Poland lost during the second world war.

In this interview, we also try to understand what Polish cinema was like in those days, the influence that it had in the cinema that was to follow from Poland, and even specifically talk about Pan Tadeusz, which he indtroduces as a very Polish film. Zanussi’s fascinting theories on cinema, not only in its silent form, broaden the scope of this interview, as we ponder on such things as what changes the introduction of sound brought to the cinematic language.

The post Krzysztof Zanussi – Pan Tadeusz (1928) #PordenoneSilent appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Bénédicte Prot interviews Oliver Père, managing director of ARTE France Cinéma.

Managing director of ARTE France Cinéma Olivier Père underlines the desire to share and promote European films at the root of the brand new and innovative ARTE Kino Festival, a unique initiative instigated by French/German broadcaster ARTE in cooperation with the platform Festival Scope which allows 50 000 viewers from 44 countries to watch ten quality European features over ten days, free of charge.

Père, also a renowned figure on the international festival circuit, tells us more about the experience offered by ARTE Kino, the festival’s selection criteria, the community the event intends to connect together, and the €50,000 Nespresso Prize which will be awarded by the viewers themselves at the end of each edition.

The post Olivier Père – ARTE France Cinéma #ArteKinoFestival appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews actor Mark Whalberg on his role in the film Deepwater Horizon.

FRED’s Chiara Nicoletti interviews Mark Wahlberg on the occasion of the italian release of Deepwater Horizon. The film focuses on paying homage to the victims of the oil platform explosion of 2010 in USA that led to the biggest ecologic disaster in the history of United States’.

Deepwater Horizon portrays these working class heroes, not only the victims but also the 115 people that not only tried to save their colleagues instead of jumping down on lifeboats but desperately tried to stop the oil from leaking out and spreading into the ocean.

DEEPWATER HORIZON. On April 20th, 2010, one of the world’s largest man-made disasters occurred on the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. Directed by Peter Berg (Lone Survivor), this story honors the brave men and women whose heroism would save many on board, and change everyone’s lives forever.

The post Mark Whalberg – Deepwater Horizon appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Elena Di Giovanni interviews Pedro Bardadillo and Nevina Satta on the topic of cinema accessibility.

Elena Di Giovanni, Professor of audiovisual translation and accessibility, interviewed Mr Pedro Barbadillo and Ms Nevina Satta. Pedro is Chairman of Cineciudad, and President of Cine Arte. He is a member of the Board of CICAE (Conféderation Internationale des Cinémas d’Art ed d’Essai), a producer and filmmaker himself. Nevina Satta is CEO of the Sardinia Film Commission in Italy, and also Vice Precident of the Italian Film Commission.

The interview explored the concept of cinema accessibility from creation to fruition. Relying on his own experience, Pedro Barbadillo explained how tantamount universal access to cinema is, for him. Even small productions should be made accessible for all, from the sensory impaired to migrants, students, the elderly.

Nevina Satta expressed her satisfaction at participating in the EU funded Fred at School project, whose aim was to spread the knowledge and awareness of European cinema among young audiences. She also praised all techniques used to make cinema accessible, which, to her, should become increasingly common throughout Europe.

The post Pedro Barbadillo, Nevina Satta – Cinema accessibility #Venezia73 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Peter Zemek, director of the Visegrad Film Festival in Cork, Ireland.

The second edition of the Visegrad Film Festival took place in Cork this year. This is a festival highlighting the cinema of theVisegrad region, which is the region that includes the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Poland and Hungary.

We talk about in with its director, Peter Zemek, who founded the festival two years ago. The interview was conducted near the end of the festival, a good time to round up an overview of this year’s edition and give an idea of what filmd were selected for its program. But in more general term, as an introduction of the festival on our “online airwaves,” it is quite simply an introduction to examine the challenges encountered in setting up such an event and the way in which the city of Cork in Ireland responds to the festival in general.

Peter also programs a small cinema in Cork, and organizes a number of screenings called the Deja View Screenings, so we also briefly talk about them, and the need to promote alternative cinem a in a place where it is difficult to watch films that fall outside of the mainstream circuit.

The post Peter Zemek – Visegrad Film Festival #VisegradFilmFest appeared first on Fred Film Radio.