FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST : Director László Nemes, cinematographer Mátyás Erdély and co-writer Clara Royer on Son of Saul (68th Festival de Cannes)

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

Think you’ve seen enough Holocaust movies? Think again. Son of Saul is the type of film that engulfs you in its atmosphere and offers the viewer no way out.

This powerful and interactive Hungarian film by László Nemes was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 68th Cannes Film Festival. Not bad for a feature directorial debut. FRED’s Angelo Acerbi caught up with him shortly after the film’s premiere, along with cinematographer Mátyás Erdély and co-screenwriter Clara Royer to talk about what is certainly set to be one of the highlights from the Croisette this year.

Many are the subjects to be discussed. The struggle and passion to make such a film, that tells a little known story about concentration camps. We also discuss the singular visual approach and choice in shooting, on 35mm and in 4:3.

SON OF SAUL (Saul fia): “Two days in the life of Saul Auslander, Hungarian prisoner working as a member of the Sonderkommando at one of the Auschwitz Crematoriums who, to bury the corpse of a boy he takes for his son, tries to carry out his impossible deed: salvage the body and find a rabbi to bury it. While the Sonderkommando is to be liquidated at any moment, Saul turns away of the living and their plans of rebellion to save the remains of a son he never took care of when he was still alive.” (official synopsis of the film taken from the official Facebook page of “Son of Saul”)

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT “SON OF SAUL”?: Click here to listen to our interview with Géza Röhrig, actor of Son of Saul (English channel)

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Jacques Audiard – director – Dheepan

FRED’s Bénédicte Prot interviews Jacques Audiard, whose latest work Dheepan won the coveted 2015 Palme d’Or at the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Jacques Audiard tells us how his film became a love story, with genre elements, describes his characters and their function in the story, and his work with the actors…

DHEEPAN: Dheepan tells the story of a makeshift family of three who, in order to escape the war in Sri Lanka and stay in Europe under borrowed identities, have to learn to live together, possibly love one another.

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Barbet Schroeder – director – Amnesia

FRED’s Angelo Acerbi interviews director Barbet Schroeder, whose latest directorial work Amnesia was one of the special screenings from the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Barbet Schroeder was in Cannes to present his latest work Amnesia, but also to present the restored edition of one of his first masterworks – More (1969). He talks about the similarities between the two films, and the common subtext that strangely enough seems to link them.

AMNESIA: Ibiza, the early nineties, Jo is a twenty-five-year-old music composer. He has come over from Berlin and wants to be part of the nascent electronic music revolution, ideally by getting a job first as a DJ in the new nightclub on the island, Amnesia.

Martha has been living alone in her house facing the sea for forty years. One night Jo knocks on her door. Her solitude intrigues him. They become friends even as the mysteries around her accumulate: that cello in the corner she refuses to play, the German language she refuses to speak…

As Jo draws her into his world of techno music, Martha puts everything she had previously lived by into question.

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Marthe Keller – actress – Amnesia

FRED’s Angelo Acerbi interviews Marthe Keller, actress of Barbet Schroeder’s latest film Amnesia, presented as a special screening at the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Talking with Marthe Keller is like talking with a big part of the history of cinema. The freshness she still possesses, together with the sheer love she still has for her job as an actress is a blessing and a pleasure to her.

AMNESIA: Ibiza, the early nineties, Jo is a twenty-five-year-old music composer. He has come over from Berlin and wants to be part of the nascent electronic music revolution, ideally by getting a job first as a DJ in the new nightclub on the island, Amnesia.

Martha has been living alone in her house facing the sea for forty years. One night Jo knocks on her door. Her solitude intrigues him. They become friends even as the mysteries around her accumulate: that cello in the corner she refuses to play, the German language she refuses to speak…

As Jo draws her into his world of techno music, Martha puts everything she had previously lived by into question.

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Anton Yelchin – actor – Green Room

FRED’s Angelo Acerbi interviews Anton Yelchin, actor in Jeremy Saulnier’s latest directorial work Green Room, from the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs of the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Having seen the film for the first time in the official Quinzaine des Réalisateur screening in Cannes, actor Anton Yelchin talks with us about how funny it is to watch Green Room with an audience and how differet it was to from the perception he had while shooting the film.

Anton does not consider himself a “gore porn” type of guy, but he trusted the director Jeremy Saulnier knowing that the film would have been the type of great genre film it in fact revealed itself to be.

GREEN ROOM: A young punk rock band find themselves trapped in a secluded venue after stumbling upon a horrific act of violence, fighting for their lives against a gang of white power skinheads intent on eliminating all witnesses.

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Jeremy Saulnier – director – Green Room

FRED’s Angelo Acerbi interviews Jeremy Saulnier on his latest work, Green Room, which her presented at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs section of the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Jeremy Saulnier is an interesting individuals. He loves genre movies. He loves all types of music and has played in rock and punk bands before. Therefore, his latest directorial work Green Room was the perfect film for him to make – and for us to enjoy.

GREEN ROOM: A young punk rock band find themselves trapped in a secluded venue after stumbling upon a horrific act of violence, fighting for their lives against a gang of white power skinheads intent on eliminating all witnesses.

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Magnus von Horn / Ulrik Munther – filmmaker / actor – The Here After (Efterskalv)

FRED’s Matt Micucci interviews Magnus von Horn and Ulrik Munther, respectively director and actor of the film The Here After from the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs from the 68th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

Magnus talks with us about the initial inspiration for the film – quite delicate considering the fact that it is his feature directorial debut. He also extensively talks about his non judgmental approach and the process of humanizing the figure of the young man with a criminal past.

Ulrik, on the other hand, talks about how he got involved in the film, and what he thought were the challenges of playing such a delicate role, particularly in his quiet nature.

THE HERE AFTER (EFTERSKALV): When John returns home to his father after serving time in prison, he is looking forward to start his life afresh.

However in the local community, his crime is neither forgotten nor forgiven. John’s presence brings out the worst in everyone around him and a lynch-mob atmosphere slowly takes shape. Feeling abandoned by his former friends and the people he loves, John loses hope and the same aggressions that previously sent him to prison start building up again.

Unable to leave the past behind, he decides to confront it.

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Michel Franco – filmmaker – Chronic

FRED’s Chiara Nicoletti interviews Michel Franco, director of Chronic, in competition at the 68th edition of Festival de Cannes.

The film’s starting point is Franco‘s personal experience with his grandmother who had a stroke that permanently paralyzed half of her body. He became interested with the life and work of this nurse, who not only took care of her but also became an emotional support to his grandmother and a bridge for communication for her with her relatives.

Tim Roth liked the idea of the film and once he decided to join he also prepared his part by working with real patients and performing the tasks that a nurse normally does.

Michel Franco uses a static camera almost all the time in Chronic so that the portrait of these people’s lives can be as realistic as possible. In the interview we discuss a lot about the reasons behind the choice of the shocking and unexpected ending.

CHRONIC: David is a nurse who works with terminally ill patients. Efficient and dedicated to his profession, he develops strong and even intimate relationships with each person he cares for. But outside of his work David is ineffectual, awkward, and reserved. It is clear that he needs each patient as much as they need him.

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Géza Röhrig – Actor – Son of Saul (Saul Fia)

FRED’s Angelo Acerbi interviews Géza Röhrig, the leading actor of the film Son of Saul (Saul Fia) by László Nemes, in the official competition of the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Géza tells us how he got ready to play such a delicate role. In this film, he plays a sonderkommando in the Auschwitz concentration camp. He tells us about the challenges that this role posed him and what the role left him with.

SON OF SAUL (SAUL FIA): October 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau. Saul Ausländer is a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners isolated from the camp and forced to assist the Nazis in the machinery of large-scale extermination. While working in one of the crematoriums, Saul discovers the corpse of a boy he takes for his son.

As the Sonderkommando plans a rebellion, Saul decides to carry out an impossible task: save the child’s body from the flames, find a rabbi to recite the mourner’s Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial.

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Roger Deakins – Director of Photography

FRED’s Nicolò Comotti meets the legendary director of photographer Roger Deakins at the 68th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

Deakins was present at the Croisette this year wearing many hats. As the cinematographer of Sicario, the new film by director Denis Villeneuve in Competition at this year’s Festival de Cannes. As a long time collaborator of presidents of the jury, the Coen Brothers. And as a legend in his art, cinematography, for which he receives the 2015 Pierre Angénieux Excellens in Cinematography Award.

This also proved to be a great occasion for FRED Film Radio to talk with him about filmmaking in general, travelling, the good and the bad things about CGI…and Van Morrison’s friends.

SICARIO: In Mexico, sicario means hitman.

In the lawless border area stretching between the U.S. and Mexico, an idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by an elite government task force official to aid in the escalating war against drugs.

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