FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews Steven Wouterlood, director of the film My Extraordinary Summer With Tess.

Taken from a famous book, the film was born as an original rendition of the classic coming of age film, using the marvelous two young actors. Steven Wouterlood tells us why he is interested in telling stories of children and their difficult position when adults are that entity needed but not understood.

My Extraordinary Summer With Tess: As the youngest of the family, Sam’s afraid of dying last. Which explains his peculiar obsession with practicing being alone while on summer vacation. Then along comes unconventional Tess! She’s got a secret plan and needs Sam’s help to pull it off.

The post Steven Wouterlood – My Extraordinary Summer With Tess #Berlinale2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Béla Tarr, director of the film Sátántangó.

Béla Tarr sits down with us on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his seminal work Sátántangó, newly restored in its original 450-minute long black and white splendour. We talk about Cinema’s current state, the difficulties that new filmmakers face nowadays, film’s addiction and a few other topics.

Sátántangó: The renewed version of Sátántangó will reveal details few have ever seen before, recreating the Hungarian luminary’s original vision far more successfully than the formerly available digital prints. Sátántangó, also called the Mount Everest of modern cinema due to its 7.5-hour running time, was restored in cooperation with the Hungarian Filmlab and Arbelos Films (US) under the guidance of Béla Tarr himself. “We’ve kept a short list of ‘dream films’ to restore and re-release over the years and Sátántangó has always been at the top – it’s simply a flat-out masterpiece”, says David Marriott of Arbelos Films, the boutique film distributor and digital restoration company based in Los Angeles that financed and oversaw the restoration process.

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PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews Antonella Sudasassi Furniss, director of the film Hormigas.

Antonella Sudasassi Furniss tells us the life in a small town though the life of a young woman, wife and mother of two, whose dreams crash against the rules of her community and the machista culture of society. She creates an intimate but intense portrait of Isa, and her strong endurance till she wins and manages to impose her will.

Hormigas: Isa is a dressmaker and lives with her family in a small town in Costa Rica. She and her two daughters all have luxuriant long hair, of which they take exquisite care. It is plaited and combed, knots are carefully untangled, chewing gum laboriously removed. No scissors are used. Alcides, Isa’s husband and the father of the two girls, wants a third child – a son. Isa, however, doesn’t want another pregnancy. She wants to focus on working and already has more than enough on her plate with two children and the household, which she manages on her own. Until now, she’s never questioned her role within the family. Yet when she notices that Alcides doesn’t seem to be listening and persists with his wish for a third child, she realises that something must change. She secretly obtains birth-control pills. Is she now starting to take charge of her sexuality and identity? Told in vivid colours and with fleeting moments of surrealism, El despertar de las hormigas is the arresting story of the emancipation of a young woman, who despite the narrow confines of patriarchal social structures begins to find her own path and articulate her own needs.

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PODCAST| Sarah Bradbury interviews Agnieszka Holland, director of the film Mr. Jones.

Polish film director Agnieszka Holland tells us about why she thought felt compelled to make a film about Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, after learning about his role in uncovering the famine-genocide in Ukraine in 1932-33, Holodomor, how she worked with actor James Norton to develop the central character and the links made in the film to George Orwell and his writing of Animal Farm. The acclaimed director also shared her views on our corrupt media as the biggest threat to modernity and the exciting new opportunities TV has opened up for directors and actors alike in recent years.

Mr. Jones: In March 1933, Welsh journalist Gareth Jones takes a train from Moscow to Kharkov in the Ukraine. He disembarks at a small station and sets off on foot on a journey through the country where he experiences at first hand the horrors of a famine. Everywhere there are dead people, and everywhere he goes he meets henchmen of the Soviet secret service who are determined to prevent news about the catastrophe from getting out to the general public. Stalin’s forced collectivisation of agriculture has resulted in misery and ruin; the policy is tantamount to mass murder. Supported by Ada Brooks, a New York Times reporter, Jones succeeds in spreading the shocking news in the West, thereby putting his powerful rival, the Pulitzer Prize-winning, pro-Stalin journalist Walter Duranty, firmly in his place. Shot in Poland, Scotland and in original locations in the Ukraine, Agnieszka Holland’s film recalls the legendary journalist Gareth Jones (1905-1935) who, despite fierce resistance, could not be dissuaded from telling the truth. Jones’s encounter with the young George Orwell is said to have inspired the latter’s dystopian parable Animal Farm (1945).

To discover more about the film, click here.

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PODCAST| Chiara Nicoletti interviews Valerie Pachner, actress of the film The Ground Beneath My Feet.

“Lola is so many women I have seen. Actually women I am highly irritated by, personally”: these are the words director Marie Kreutzer uses to describe the protagonist of her film, The Ground Beneath My Feet, screening in competition at the 69th edition of the Berlinale. Valerie Pachner, who plays Lola in the film, confirms her director’s opinion and her struggle to play a deeply troubled woman who wants to exercise control over everything in her life. How difficult was it to play Lola and to not judge her while pitying her and disagreeing with her actions? Valerie Pachner describes her approach to the character and her work on finding a balance.

The Ground Beneath My Feet: Lola is almost thirty. A successful management consultant, she is constantly on the move between the companies she is tasked with restructuring. Her chic apartment in Vienna is more of a mailbox and a launderette than a home. A hundred working hours a week is not uncommon in addition to five sessions at the gym, expensive dinners with clients and nights spent in sterile hotels. Her career, which she is advancing with cleverness, efficiency and ruthless cunning, appears to be unstoppable. She applies a similarly disciplined approach when it comes to managing her private life. This means that nobody is allowed to know about the existence of her older sister Conny, who has been suffering from mental illness for a long time and who never leaves her apartment. But when Conny attempts to commit suicide, Lola searches for a way to be there for her. Marie Kreutzer’s portrait of the jet-setting Lola reveals that there is sometimes just a thin line separating polar opposites such as order and chaos, rise and fall – even for someone who thrives in a society fixated on achievement.

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PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Jonathan Vinel and Caroline Poggi, directors of the film Jessica Forever.

Directors Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Videl describe the journey that led to the making of their debut film Jessica Forever. Shaped by its highly original influences and a deeply unique way of representing Cinema, Jessica Forever is the duo’s ambitious start in the realm of long feature filmmaking, following their success in 2014 when they won the golden Bear for shorts with As Long as Shotguns Remain. Jessica Forever is part of Panorama’s official selection.

Jessica Forever: A blonde-haired boy crashes through the glazed wall of a suburban house and falls to the floor, unconscious. A militia of young men carries him away. They are led by a young woman, a blue-eyed, futuristic Jeanne d’Arc. They exit just as a swarm of threatening drones invades the room. A voice-over informs us that the state has deemed these boys to be violent orphans and social outcasts and the authorities are now hunting them down. What follows is a quiet but emotional story of brotherhood, angst, mutual protection, violent impulses and infinite tenderness amongst a band of hyper-masculine warriors living under the protective wing of the caring Jessica. True to the themes of their short films, and featuring the young tribe that populates their previous works, Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel’s first feature combines a minimalistic plot, fantasy elements and hyper-realistic cinematography to create a lifelike version of a video game environment, in which alienation and isolation can only be conquered by affection. Friends forever. Love forever.

The post Jonathan Vinel, Caroline Poggi – Jessica Forever #Berlinale2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Chiara Nicoletti interviews Matthjis Wouter Knol, director of the European Film Market.

The Director of the EFM, Mathijs Wouter Knol opens up this year’s interview on the 2019 edition of the EFM by describing how challenging but inspiring it is to be the first film market of the year and not only one of the most important ones. While confirming all the panels, events and sections introduced successfully in the past years, the year 2019 is not only about representing what’s happening in the film business but it’s about actually doing something to promote new initiatives or simply a change. This year’s EFM aims to increase, promote and generate inclusion and diversity in production, co-production, access to funds and distribution. Following Mexico and Canada, the 2019’s Country in Focus is Norway, an European country ready to bloom and reach its full potential. At the 16th edition of Berlinale Co-production market, made of 600 international producers and financiers 37 new feature film projects whose producers are looking to team up with co-production partners from other countries have participated. The EFM always keeps an eye on the new digital and technical developments and Artificial Intelligence is under the microscope in the event heading “The Transforming Force of AI: Hype or High Potential?”. Mathijs Wouter Knol also clarifies what’s the EFM’s point of view on the Netflix controversy and the general discussion of the movie theatre vs online platforms .

Originally launched in 1978 as the commercial component of the Berlin International Film Festival, the ‘film fair’ really took off with the arrival of Swiss exhibitor Beki Probst, who renamed the market into European Film Market in 1988. The EFM has since grown to become one of the top three film markets in the world. For nine days during the Berlinale, representatives of the international film industry — producers, buyers, sales agents, exhibitors, and financiers — come together to explore, to connect, and to do business. Strongly positioned as the first market event of the year, the EFM serves as kick-off for the upcoming year in film.

The post Matthjis Wouter Knol #EFM2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Renate Ranzi and Birgit Oberkofler, IDM Südtirol and Alto Adige’s Film Fund & Commission coordinators.

IDM Südtirol and Alto Adige’s Film Fund & Commission coordinators Birgit Oberkofler and Renate Ranzi tell us about their achievements and their future goals to make IDM an ever-growing and successful identity in the European film landscape.

This interview was recorded during the 2019 European Film Market, in partnership with the Italian Film Commissions Association and with the support of the Italian Trade Agency. To discover more about the IDM Südtirol Alto Adige, click here.

The post Renate Ranzi, Birgit Oberkofler – IDM Südtirol Alto Adige #EFM2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Sarah Bradbury interviews Stephan James, actor of the film If Beale Street Could Talk.

We sat down with American actor Stephan James to discuss the themes of love, racial injustice and black masculinity in Barry Jenkins’ screen adaptation of James Baldwin novel If Beale Street Could Talk ahead of its UK release.

If Beale Street Could Talk: For the follow-up to his Oscar-winning Moonlight, director Barry Jenkins chose to adapt the 1974 James Baldwin novel If Beale Street Could Talk. The film tells the story of Tish and Fonny, played by KiKi Layne and Stephan James, whose childhood friendship blossoms into romance until a cruelly unjust criminal system allows Fonny to be jailed for a crime he didn’t commit. A strong supporting cast – Regina King, Colman Domingo – completes a beautifully crafted, visually powerful and elegiac screen version of a tale that carries with it timely themes of racial justice as well as a belief in love trumping all else.

To discover more about the film, click here.

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PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews film translator Andrea Kirchhartz.

Andrea Kirchhartz is an expert of Film translation in all its facets: subtitling, book translation, Live Voice-Over and plenty more. On the occasion of the conference and the presentation of the book The Translation of Films, 1900-1950 – edited by Jean François Cornu and Carol O’Sullivan – Andrea reveals a few tricks she has learnt over the years. Although, perhaps, the real secret is only one: an unconditional love towards Cinema and all its forms.

Andrea Kirchhartz studied Theatre, Film and Television Studies in Cologne and Paris and has worked as a freelance film translator for subtitling, voice-overs and dubbing since 1999. She translates screenplays and texts in the field of Film Studies and is an interpreter at festivals. She is a member of the subtitlers’ association Untertitelforum – AVÜ.

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