Last week's 48-hour press blitz for Marie Antoinette was covered tag-team style by Netscape at the Movies and Cinematical, with the former covering the film's NYFF press conference and the latter covering junket roundtables at Sony headquarters.At both events, the Converse questions came fast and furious.For those who haven't yet seen the film, there's a scene where an impossible-to-miss pair of Chuck Taylor All Star Converse show up at 18th century Versailles. One journalist at the roundtables was so irked by this that she decided to interrogate Sofia Coppola on that and other other points of historical inaccuracy, down to and including Antoinette's panties. Coppola wasn't easily rattled, however. She displayed a relaxed-but-unshakable manner and patiently addressed the charges one by one. The next day at the press conference, however, Coppola was again asked why she decided to include the sneakers. This time she immediately spit back "Because I could." I think that's a pretty great answer.
In addition to Sofia Coppola, stars Kirsten Dunst and Jason Schwartzman, who play the blundering King Louis and Queen Antoinette of France, were also on hand to participate in the roundtables and offer their views on the making of the film. Cinematical's official digital tape recorder was strategically placed to capture all of the best and worst questions from the event. Here's a sampling of what went on:
When I cover a film festival, I usually do a small handful of interviews for various publications. In nearly every case, the sit-down is with a young filmmaker or some indie actors. When I was asked if I'd like to spend a half-hour with the Midnight Madness Guru for the Toronto International Film Festival, I figured it'd be a whole lot of fun. I mean... the guy's job is to pick through the world's newest wierd movies and pick his ten favorites! Now that's a guy you want to drink a coffee with! Here now is a conversation between Colin Geddes, filmmaker J.T. Petty and yours truly. And I had to snip about 35% of this chat session because it often devolved into a really nerdy conversation between three hardcore genre geeks. Obviously it was a lot of fun.
Cinematical: How important is a "midnight movie" slate to a festival like Toronto?
Colin Geddes: The Midnight Madness category was originally devised as a spot for films that didn't really "fit in" with a traditional festival agenda. We're talking back in, say, 1988, when genre films didn't necessarily "belong" at a film festival. So the category gave us a chance to introduce quality genre films to an appreciative audience. Plus these movies often work as a "gateway" for new audience members. With the festival being so huge, it's sometimes overwhelming. And if you're an 18-year-old kid coming to Toronto, like I was, where are you going to start? You're probably going to start in the horror stuff, the weird stuff. The rest of the film festival gets the "art," and I get the "fun." And the art. And what we see now is that, of all the different slates, Midnight Madness is one that almost always sells out, ticket-wise. From an industry standpoint, these are quite often the films that sold -- and seen.
Cine: And they're not always horror films either. You have seven or eight of 'em, but then something like Borat makes the cut as well...
CG: Yeah, it's a mixed bag. Now, Borat is an outrageous comedy, but I also knew it would it would bring a lot of attention, and it's great to have that kind of "hook" sometimes. If I can get an 18-year-old kid who'll come and see Borat, and then he comes back to see The Host from Korea or Princess from Denmark, I've done my job there. Borat is kind of the "anchor." On the other hand, I like to take a chance with one or two selections. Two years ago I programmed Calvaire (The Ordeal), which was ... an out-there film. Half the audience was truly perplexed by that one, but it's an excellent film and precisely the kind of title we like to "introduce" to our viewers. This year we have J.T. Petty's S&MAN, which is in a similar vein. Something that's going to be confrontational; something that might divide audiences.
Cine: Something that's going to get people talking. ...
Jesuit maxim: "Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man." That's the inspiration for the 7 Up documentary series, which has been interviewing the same group of British subjects at seven year intervals since 1964, when they were each seven years old. In the first film, they are seen in sharp black and white, bouncing off the walls and full of quips like pre-school Beatles. At age 21, we see them in the gauzy color of 70s film stock. They are faux-rebellious chain-smokers, reflective and cool-headed, with all the time in the world to spare. At 28, they are still young, but they've made choices that can't be un-made. They are like adults-in-training. At 42, they are heartbreaking. Youth has quietly slipped away. Spouses have come and gone, and the answers they give to the interview questions are things like..."We both knew it wasn't going any further..."
Now at 49, old age is rapidly approaching, but they are still the same people. The ones who have always seemed buoyant are still that way. Tony, [pictured above] the poor Eastend kid who was hustling as a taxi driver at 28 now owns his own taxi service. He has kids and grandkids and seems bemused at the minor celebrity bestowed on him by the 7 Up series. Jackie, who in her twenties mocked the women she saw pushing baby carriages down the street, now seems lonely and regretful. Simon, a black orphan whose white mother wanted nothing to do with him, is now compelled to open his home to the most hopeless foster children. "One child had two knives in his hands," he tells us.
Cinematical recently spoke with director Michael Apted, who began his involvement with the series as a young researcher on 7 Up and now keeps the project alive. Although he's too mannered and too British to admit it, Apted seems to have internalized what many critics have already noted: that 7 Up may be the most important documentary project of all time.
Canadian actress Lisa Ray has had a very busy couple of years. After starring in 2002's Bollywood/Hollywood, directed by Deepa Mehta, Ray filmed Ball & Chain in 2004, Water (Canada's entry for Best Foreign Film, also directed by Mehta) and Seeking Fear in 2005, and Quarter Life Crisis and A Stone's Throw in 2006. A Stone's Throw, the directorial debut of producer Camelia Frieberg, played at the Toronto International Film Festival, where Ray graciously sat down with Cinematical to talk about the film and what's up next for her. Ray had just flown in the night before, to catch the end of the fest and spend some downtime visiting her parents in Toronto.
Jesus Camp, a documentary about kids attending evangelical Christian camps made by filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Boys of Baraka), has already weathered one controversy about whether or not it would play at Michael Moore's Moorefest. As we reported in July, Magnolia Pictures acquired the film and wanted to pull it from Moore's festival, fearing that screening it there would mark the film as a Liberal touchstone, but Moorefest denied the request to pull the film and showed it anyhow.
Now another controversy is brewing around the film: It's not playing to the evangelical market the way Magnolia had hoped. In this video, Netscape's Karina Longworth interviews the film's directors, explores the film and why evangelicals might be turning away from it. You can watch the film right here, or download it over on Netscape.
Ever since the Dixie Chicks went off on George W. Bush at a concert in the UK back in 2003, the musical trio have been almost as well known for their politics as for their music. Country music fans, who tend as a group to lean to the right side of the political aisle, took great umbrage to the Chicks making their opinion on the president -- is is from their home state of Texas -- be known to the world. In Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing, directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck take a look at the fallout of the Chicks refusal to shut up: The radio stations refusing to play their music, the right-wing bloggers urging fans to boycott them, the letters from fans, one of which inspired both a Dixie Chicks song and the title of this documentary, by telling the women to just "shut up and sing." Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck sat down with Cinematical's James Rocchi and Netscape's Alexia Prichard to discuss their controversial film. You can download the video here (60.9MB, 9: or watch it over on Netscape.
Jindabyne, starring Laura Linney and Gabriel Byrne, is about what happens when four men on a fishing trip find the body of a murdered young woman, and decide to leave her in the water, tethered to a tree, until their fishing weekend is over. Their decision has wrenching ramifications both within their personal relationships, and in their relationship with their entire community. Laura Linney very graciously sat down with Cinematical at the Toronto International Film Festival to talk about Jindabyne and her character, Claire. You can download the interview here (31.1MB, five minutes) or watch it over on Netscape. For more on Jindabyne, you can read our review of the film from the Telluride Film Festival.
Ah, punk rock. Director Paul Rachman and screenwriter Steven Blush explore the history of punk rock from 1980-1986 in their documentary American Hardcore, which features interviews with a veritabe who's who of the hardcore scene. Cinematical's James Rocchi sat down with Rachman and Blush at the Toronto International Film Festival to talk about their film. You can download the full video here (76.6MB, 12 minutes) or watch it over on Netscape, where there's an interesting discussion of the film and punk rock going on. Dive on in, hardcore fans.
Phillip Noyce's political-apartheid thriller, Catch a Fire, tells the tale of real-life hero Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke), a foreman at an oil refinery, falsely accused of sabotage amid the political heat of the rise of the African National Congress (ANC). After he and his wife are interrogated and tortured at the hands of Nick Vos (Tim Robbins), a colonel in the Police Security Force, and his men, the previously apolitical Chamusso, who had always toed the line of apartheid, leaves his beloved family to fight against apartheid with the ANC. Noyce sat down with James Rocchi during the Toronto International Film Festival to discuss his film. You can download the video here ( 20MB, 9:49 minutes) or watch it over on Netscape.
The U.S. vs. John Lennon, a documentary by filmmakers David Leaf and John Scheinfeld, shines a light on John Lennon's life during the period from 1966-1976, when the famous singer was transitioning from artist to activist. The film features interviews and archival footage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and explores how the U.S. government attempted to silence Lennon for speaking out against the Vietnam War. James Rocchi sat down with Scheinfeld during the Toronto International Film Festival to talk about his film. You can download the video here (56.3 MB, 8:35 minutes) or go watch it over on Netscape.
Director Mira Nair's latest film, The Namesake, adapted from the novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri, is a story about a young Indian-American man who wants desparately to fit in among his fellow Americans, even as his parents are unwilling to let go of their heritage and traditions. James Rocchi had the opportunity to sit down with Nair for a video interview to talk about her film. You can download the video here (42.1MB, 10:08 minutes) or watch it over at Netscape.
I told you the other day about the screening of Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, which received a lengthy standing ovation. Now you can head over to Netscape and check out James Rocchi's amazing interview with the great director, in which they talk about everything from indie film to making a big budget feature, and del Toro gets out his personal journals and sketch books for us to peek at. Go check it out, it's well worth watching, whether you're already a fan of del Toro or haven't yet discovered him.
When I started putting together my Toronto Midnight Madness wish list, the Korean monster mash known as The Host (aka Gwoemul) was at the very top of my list -- partially because I'd been hearing some really good buzz from other blogs and my Cinematical colleagues, but mainly because it's a flick about a genetically mutated fish-like mega-beast who invades the Korean streets and chomps down on civilians left and right. So after sitting down and enjoying the heck out of The Host, I was thrilled to jump across the street and shoot the breeze with director Bong Joon-ho, and here's how that conversation went down:
Scott: How hard is it to juggle multiple genres and have them gel into a cohesive whole?
Bong Joon-ho: To mix all those elements is not exactly like a bartender making cocktails. I don't say "I need 20% of this, 30% of that," but I try to stay faithful to the story, and hopefully the elements come out naturally. Just like my previous film, Memories of Murder, is a story about a serial killer investigation, the humor or the satire just comes out naturally.
As I was working on the screenplay and shooting The Host, I never thought I was "mixing up" those elements, but after the movie came out, people came to me and said "Oh, you mixed together all these different genres." I think the secret regarding this film lies with our actors. Whether they're doing the comedy, the tragedy, or the suspense, they do their best within the reality of the movie. They never overdo it.
That's definitely a testament to your actors. It's certainly not easy to balance broad comedy followed by horror scenes and heroic stuff and moments of sadness. So what monster movies did you love growing up, and which ones inspired you on The Host?
It wasn't a specific inspiration, but M. Night Shyamalan'sSigns focuses on the family as opposed to the aliens. So the core narrative of the film is focused on Mel Gibson's family, and that gave me some inspiration there. John Carpenter'sThe Thing, while not a specific influence on The Host, is a classic monster movie. Also Ridley Scott'sAlien.
There's just something about those Midnight Madness screenings -- late though it is, film fanatics eager to see the cool Midnight selection are always very energetic. At the screening for Black Sheep, the tongue-in-cheek comedy/horror flick about bloodthirsty bad zombie sheep roaming around New Zealand eating people, the crowd energy was already high. And then came the sheep -- onto the Red Carpet. And our own Scott Weinberg was on hand -- not just to interview the director, but to ask the penetrating questions to the real stars of the show: sheep! Download the video right here, or, if you prefer, watch it here on YouTube.
Credits:
Host: Scott Weinberg Video: Alexia Prichard Music: "Spring Beasts of Death," Chachi on acid.
One of the most talked-about films in this year's Midnight Madness lineup at the Toronto Film Festival has been Jonathon Levine's All the Boys Love Mandy Lane. The film is about Mandy Lane, a shy, beautiful girl who makes all the guys swoon in the throes of adolescent lust. When Mandy accepts an invitation for an unsupervised weekend with a group of kids at a house in the country, she has to fend off the boys advances as they strive to be the first to finally conquer her. Then a secret admirer starts taking out the competition, and declaring undying love with the blood of the unfortunate dead guys. James Rocchi headed out to the line of eager horror fans waiting to get into the premiere screening of the film, and Alexia Prichard was there with her camera to capture the magic just for you. You can download the video here, or, if you prefer, watch it right here on YouTube.
Credits:
Host: James Rocchi Video: Alexia Prichard Music: Snowden Anti-Anti, Jade Tree Intro Music: Pl@stic
When I cover a film festival, I usually do a small handful of interviews for various publications. In nearly every case, the sit-down is with a young filmmaker or some indie actors. When I was asked if I'd like to spend a half-hour with the Midnight Madness Guru for the 
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When I started putting together my Toronto Midnight Madness wish list, the Korean monster mash known as 
