FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews the costume designer Oana Paunescu.

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

Oana Paunescu is the most prolific and celebrated Romanian costume designer in cinema, and this year, the Transilvania International Film Festival decided to honor her with a Lifetime Achievement Award. We met her in Cluj to talk about her earliest memories of cinema, and some of the landmark moments of her career up to now. She reveals to us that she never really imagined herself having a career in cinema, but that cinema work suited her for a number of different reasons. Paunescu also talks with us about other things, such as the influence of dreams on her work, and what it was like to work on What Happened to Monday. Tommy Wirkola’s film, one of the most recent films that Paunescu has worked on, was in fact screened at the festival on the occasion of her award.

The post Oana Paunescu #TIFF18 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Marta Balaga interviews Corneliu Porumboiu, director of the film The Whistlers.

Acclaimed Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu kicks off with Iggy Pop’s The Passenger and ends up in the Canary Islands, where his latest feature takes place.

The Whistlers: In The Whistlers, Corneliu Porumboiu focuses on shady police officer from Bucharest trying to free an even shadier businessman from prison with the help of a stunning woman and secret whistling language. A rather unconventional method of communication known as El Silbo Gomero.

To learn more about the film, click here.

The post Corneliu Porumboiu – The Whistlers #TIFF18 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Nicolas Winding Refn, Miles Teller, director and actor of the film Too Old to Die Young – North of Hollywood, West of Hell.

Nicolas Winding Refn is back at the Festival De Cannes, at the 72nd edition to present, out of competition, his new and first series, distributed by Amazon: Too old to die young – North of Hollywood, West of hell. Accompanied by his protagonist Miles Teller who plays Martin, a dark and ambiguous cop, Refn makes a distinction between TV and streaming by declaring that the former is dead while the streaming offers infinite possibilities in terms of creativity and its rules as a director has no limits ( besides money) when it comes to length, style, running time of each episode and plot. To play with this “infinite” theory, Refn has chosen to show Cannes’ audience the 4th and 5th episode to stimulate everybody’s imagination and obviously mess with people’s minds. Miles Teller reveals the reasons why he chose to work with Nick Refn and describes how he learned to follow Refn’s stream of consciousness as the script of every episode was being written while shooting.

Too Old to Die Young – North of Hollywood, West of Hell: Groundbreaking filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn expands his boundary-pushing approach to storytelling with the 10-part limited series Too Old to Die Young. As the lives of a young police officer and the heir to a Mexican drug cartel collide, their parallel journeys through the criminal underbelly of Los Angeles guarantee a catastrophic confrontation. Martin (Miles Teller), a cop on a career fast-track, and Jesus (Augusto Aguilera), a budding drug kingpin, are both operating on the seedier side of the San Fernando Valley when a violent act of revenge ties their fates together inextricably. Under the tutelage of ex-FBI agent turned vigilante Viggo (John Hawkes), Martin attempts to atone for his role in the death of a fellow officer by assassinating the most depraved criminals he can find, while Jesus steps up to lead the Los Angeles branch of his family’s crime empire, as inevitable tragedy envelops them both. By the series midpoint, the stage is set for Martin’s rebirth, transforming him from crooked cop into unrelenting hunter, stalking the city and beyond for loathsome predators. Starting with a pair of degenerate siblings whose stock-in-trade is violent, degrading pornography, Martin exacts his own brand of justice on a world that will soon demand vengeance of its own. In Refn’s stylized world, infused with poetic mayhem, Martin and Jesus cross paths with a hedge-fund billionaire, a precocious 17-year-old girl, a victim’s rights advocate turned avenging angel and the self-proclaimed high priestess of death, as they unknowingly hurtle toward disaster. Brilliant colors, pulsating music and unadulterated violence alternate with eerie silence and deceptive stillness as Refn deftly navigates operatic plot twists on the way to an explosive conclusion.

If you want to learn more about the serie, click here.

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The post Nicolas Winding Refn, Miles Teller – Too Old to Die Young – North of Hollywood, West of Hell #Cannes2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews the producer Effie Brown.

Effie Brown talks with FRED about her career, her call to be a producer and the bumpy road to get where she is. The secret is finding a good story and being true to yourself and to your ideas. A refreshing and honest chat about the importance that films have in culture and in society. And some good lines, too .

The post Effie Brown #SIFF2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Gary Lucas, guitarist and composer of the film The Goddess.

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

Guitar virtuoso Gary Lucas performed his original score for the Chinese 1934 silent masterpiece, The Goddess, directed by Wu Yonggang in 1934 in the midst of the period known as the Golden Age of Chinese Cinematography, at the 2019 Transilvania International Film Festival. In our conversation with Lucas, he tells us about how he got to composing and performing music for silent films, and all the influences of his score for The Goddess, including that of the underrated genre of ’30s Shanghai Pop, with a fascinating history that he fills us in on.

The Goddess: The Goddess is a celebrated 1934 silent classic directed by Wu Yonggang, now seen as a major title of the golden age of Chinese cinema. The protagonist, played by Ruan Lingyu, is a mother forced into prostitution in order to support her son’s education – a daring subject for the time. In composing the live score for the film, Lucas drew on his vast knowledge of 1930s Shanghai pop, thus re-creating the atmosphere of the era while rendering the emotional charge of the story.

The post Gary Lucas – The Goddess #TIFF18 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews film scholar Wang Yao.

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

Wang Yao is a 360 degree film scholar: a critic, researcher, curator, writer, lecturer, collector and so on. He wore many hats at the 2019 Transilvania International Film Festival, including as a curator of an exhibition of Romanian film posters, brochures and various other memorabilia from China, all of which came from his personal collection. This gives us the lead into an outline of the film relations between China and Romania over the years, and Wang Yao gives us insightful information about the little-known history of why old Romanian films were so popular in China. We also talk about the China Focus that took place at this year’s TIFF, and included such events as a special cine-concert of the Chinese 1934 masterpiece The Goddess by Wu Yonggang, along with other more contemporary works.

The post Wang Yao #TIFF18 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Syllas Tzoumerkas, director of the film The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea.

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

Having met Syllas Tzoumerkas after the premiere of his latest film, The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea, earlier this year at the Berlinale, we catch up with him again on the occasion of this feature’s screening at the 2019 Transilvania International Film Festival. This is an important work in Tzoumerkas’ oeuvre, as it marks a shift from that of his previous titles. In this interview – including three spectacular location changes – we discuss this transition, as well as the influence of dreams on The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea, his familiarity with a small village setting, the importance of such aspects as age and gender in the movie, and much more.

The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea: In a small town in the west of Greece, two women live solitary lives while dreaming of getting away. Elisabeth is a once-ambitious policewoman forced to relocate from Athens ten years ago and now living a joyless, hung-over life; Rita is the quiet, mysterious sister of a lounge singer in the local disco. When a sudden death upsets the town and turns the local community upside-down, the two women who had been ignoring each other’s existence begin drifting towards each other. As the secrets hidden in the swamps begin to surface, they will have a chance to become each other’s saviours.

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The post Syllas Tzoumerkas – The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea #TIFF18 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Simon Jaquemet, director of the film The Innocent.

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

An interview with director Simon Jaquemet, who presented his latest film, The Innocent, at the 2019 Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj, Romania. The film revolves around a woman working in a research facility involved in head transplants for monkey, and is marked by themes of religion, science and morality. We talk about these themes at great length, even asking Jaquemet whether he believes in God, and whether ge believes that religion does have an important role in life and the world at large. He also talks about the connection his film has with dreams, seeking a subjective response from the viewers of his movies, and much more.

The Innocent: Ruth works in a neuroscience research lab, as much as she’s part of an extreme traditionalist and conservative Christian family. She suddenly finds herself facing her own past when her former lover reemerges after disappearing twenty years in jail, putting into question her feelings, her life and soon her faith.

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The post Simon Jaquemet – The Innocent #TIFF18 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Mihály Schwechtje, director of the film I Hope You’ll Die Next Time .

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

Director Mihály Schwechtje talks with us about his film, I Hope You’ll Die Next Time , screened at the 2019 Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The film was part of the Hungarian film showcase strand named Hungarian Day. I Hope You’ll Die Next Time is a drama: its protagonists are vulnerable teenagers and its main topic is cyberbullying. Schwechtje talks with us about how he researched on this topic, why he chose to see it from both the perspective of the victim and the bully, and whether he believes the internet has made things worse for teenagers.

I Hope You’ll Die Next Time : 16-year-old Eszter is secretly in love with her English teacher, while Peter, also 16, is hopelessly in love with Eszter. One day the teacher announces that he will leave the school and will move to London. On the same day, Eszter gets a special farewell e-mail from the teacher…

The post Mihály Schwechtje – I Hope You’ll Die Next Time :-) #TIFF18 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Nora Fingscheidt, director of the film System Crasher.

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

Having met filmmaker Nora Fingscheidt after the premiere of her new film, System Crasher, earlier this year at the Berlinale (where she was awarded with the Alfred Bauer Silver Bear), we meet her again on the occasion of the screening of the film at the 2019 Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj, Romania. Still completely shaken and stirred by the power of the film, we ask her to tell us more about the making of the film but also how System Crasher could contribute to the discourse of child welfare. Fingscheidt talks with us about her research in several institutions, a painstaking four-year-long writing process and meeting the Helena Zengel, the young actress who plays the lead role of nine-year-old girl Benni, who is simply a force of nature. But celebrating it also as a work of powerful cinema, our conversation touches on influences, tone and rhythm, with passing reference to the legendary Francois Truffaut, whose works from The 400 Blows to Small Change to The Wild Child and beyond did much to tell real stories that mattered about children.

System Crasher: She is small, but dangerous. Wherever Benni ends up, she is immediately expelled. The wild 9-year-old girl has already become what child protection services call a “system crasher”. And she is certainly not looking to change her ways. Because Benni has one single goal: to be back at home with her mommy! But Bianca is scared of her own daughter. Mrs. Bafané from child protection services is trying her best to find a permanent placement for Benni. She hires the anger management trainer Micha as Benni’s school escort and suddenly there is a seed of hope. Will Micha be able to succeed where all others despaired?

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