Interviews
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Interview: David Farr
With Susanne Bier bringing his adaptation of John Le Carré’s The Night Watchman to BBC primetime, British screenwriter David Farr has been busy behind the camera himself, crafting his directorial debut The Ones Below. A nightmarish upstairs/downstairs simmering suburban thriller, it is an impressive first outing on the big screen for the vastly experienced theatre…
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Interview: Andrew Bujalski, ‘Results’
Though he dislikes the term himself, Andrew Bujalski is widely regarded as the linchpin of the nebulous mumblecore scene that spawned the likes of the Duplass brothers, Joe Swanberg and Lynn Shelton. Whilst his first three features possess the low budget and shaggy tone that define the scene, Bujalski’s films have always been more keenly…
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Interview: July Jung, ‘A Girl at My Door’
The Un Certain Regard section was where the debut feature, A Girl at My Door (2014) from South Korean director July Jung unspooled to insidious acclaim by those who saw it. Following this auspicious beginning it played London Film Festival twelve months ago and now finally returns to cinemas as the always inventive Peccadillo Pictures…
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Interview: Radu Muntean, dir. One Floor Below
Radu Muntean has spent the last 13 years making films that examine the stranger undercurrents in Romanian society, particularly the way in which ordinary people react in extraordinary situations. He’s regarded as having been one of the leading lights of the Romanian New Wave although he’d probably grit his teeth at any mention of that.…
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Interview: Carol Morley, ‘The Falling’
Carol Morley was in high spirits on the breezy spring morning CineVue met her (she likens press junkets to speed dating). The wind rustled in the air outside, but not with the sense of foreboding mysticism of her remarkable new feature, The Falling (2014). They are the winds of change, of a Britain embracing counter-culture…
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Interview: Sheila Vand on vampirism and revolutions
“I don’t like when things are – I can’t believe I’m saying this – so black and white,” laughs Sheila Vand, the doe-eyed star of Ana Lily Amirapour’s stylish and darkly devious feature debut, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014), released on DVD and Blu-ray this week by StudioCanal. I chuckle as well,…
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Interview: Marjane Satrapi on black comedy ‘The Voices’
“Earl Grey is my favourite tea,” says Marjane Satrapi as she stuffs a handful of teabags into a large Thermos sat on the table before her. We’re sat in a London hotel room to chat about her new film, the Ryan Reynolds-starring black serial killer comedy The Voices (2014), but British audiences are likely to…
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Interview: Ruben Östlund, ‘Force Majeure’
“Have you cried as an adult?” My question to Ruben Östlund, the director of ice-cold Swedish black comedy Force Majeure (2014), is not as impertinent as it might appear. It’s a reference to a scene of his film in which patriarch Tomas (Johannes Kuhnke), on holiday with his family at a luxury French ski resort,…
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Interview: Desiree Akhaven, ‘Appropriate Behaviour’
“I love Curb Your Enthusiasm. I want to feel just as entitled as any rich, middle aged white man; that’s how entitled I want my protagonist to be.” Desiree Akhaven does not consider herself to be a political filmmaker. In her debut feature Appropriate Behaviour (2014), which she wrote and directed, she stars as Shirin,…
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Interview: Eskil Vogt on debut feature ‘Blind’
“You sound metallic, like I’m talking to a robot,” states director Eskil Vogt, referring to the poor reception on the line to Oslo. He’s enthusiastic to press on, an admirable attitude considering the UK release of his new film Blind (2014) comes over a year since its premiere at Sundance, where he won an award…