Indieville : In quotes

Desplechin vs. Anderson: "Fantastic" family men.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:36:19 GMT

Wes Anderson's "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (which is, yes, fantastic) begins its platform release domestically two Fridays from now, but it's already out in the UK -- complete with a "Fantastic Mr. Fox Happy Meal" -- and the publicity mill is already grinding. One of the cooler interviews Anderson's done is with French director Arnaud Desplechin (recently ordained the future of cinema by Alain Resnais at a New York Film Festival press conference) -- though, per Interview magazine's...(read more)

Rob Lowe, keeper of the '80s grail.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:39:00 GMT

Hell hath no fury like a British journalist scorned. Even by the notoriously scathing standards of UK interview profiles, Elizabeth Day's take on Rob Lowe is a pretty stiff read. The first sentence: "Rob Lowe announces his presence as he walks into the hotel bar by shouting across the room to order his coffee." It gets worse from there: when Lowe spouts platitudes ("I enjoy meeting people and I enjoy interacting with humanity"), Day is "left with the impression that he...(read more)

When Judi Dench swears, people cry.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:55:00 GMT

Here in the U.S., Judi Dench is gazed at with the same gauzy reverence given to all British actors with crisp enunciation, but in the UK she's a bona fide cultural treasure (she was once voted second only to the queen as the most-liked and respected Brit in a poll). Which is what makes the long, prickly profile of her by Kira Cochrane in the Guardian so great. For one, she doesn't care for the designation: "That sounds pretty dusty to me. It's [playwright] Alan Bennett and I behind...(read more)

Whit Stillman heads back to the dance.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:15:00 GMT

Whit Stillman will never again have to answer that nagging question -- when will "The Last Days of Disco" finally be rereleased on DVD? Criterion, who did a splendid job with "Metropolitan" in 2006, released their edition of "Disco" today, with the full bells-and-whistles treatment. There's also a screening at Lincoln Center in New York on August 27th, complete with a dance party, and a subsequent screening at the Jacob Burns Film Center on September 1st, both with...(read more)

Selections from David Fincher.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:10:50 GMT

A few highlights from "Behind Button: A Conversation with David Fincher," hosted by the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Kent Jones to close out their Fincher retrospective pairing the director's work with films he likes, a set-up that yielded the whiplash double feature of "Se7en" and "Mary Poppins." He was drawn to "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" because it seemed to offer "a more complete telling of a love story... because it involved...(read more)

"When have we ever had the chance to vote for the 'most liberal' of anything?"

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:50:36 GMT

A tour around the interview circuit: "Personally, the opportunity to vote for someone like Barack Obama will be one of the greatest things I will have done in my life. The Republicans aren't kidding when they say he's the 'most liberal' senator in the Senate. When have we ever had the chance to vote for the 'most liberal' of anything?" --Michael Moore gets out the vote, at Time. "It's always the same story. Everyone will be gathered in the house, and after...(read more)

Watch your mouth.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:12:02 GMT

"My apologies." --Viggo Mortensen, after going off about the things "that have been happening in the last eight years in this country," and being reminded that he's actually in Toronto, from the New York Times. "Contrary to what I was quoted as saying, I feel very proud of my country and through my work I have always tried to contribute to its culture within and outside Spain and to honour my people." --Javier Bardem backpedals after calling the Spanish "a bunch...(read more)

"I would simply go to the Internet and watch real people having real sex."

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:52:21 GMT

"I was on a roll, so I kept going with it. I said, 'Look, if I were a 13-year-old boy, and I saw ['Zack and Miri'] on cable back in 1983? Yes, it would send me to the bathroom to jerk off. Now, as a 13-year-old boy, if I saw this movie? It would not titillate me. I would simply go to the Internet and watch real people having real sex. How can you possibly say this is too erotically charged when it's so obviously a comedy with people having over-the-top fake sex, when we can see...(read more)

"Oh, Lynch is way weirder than I am."

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:16:47 GMT

The world in quotes: "Oh, Lynch is way weirder than I am. That's obvious." --David Cronenberg weighs in on the eternal question of which David is weirder, at Defamer. "You know how there's no Asian American players in the NBA yet? There are Asians -- Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi -- but no Asian American has yet broken that barrier. My theory is that that guy exists or did exist who had the natural ability and the physiology and everything, but his parents were so fixated on him playing...(read more)

"Kurt Russell is to the right of Attila the Hun."

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:48:35 GMT

Quotes from the interview circuit: "No one seems to mention that the President of the United States in Escape from New York is British! [Laughs] We made up some story about him being the love child of Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. That didn't make it into the movie because Kurt Russell is to the right of Attila the Hun. He actually doesn't think we should have to pay for roads--unbelievable. But we're friends because we respect each other's work ethic. He's a wonderful guy;...(read more)

"I knew then that the SOB was going to be a 'star.' "

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:51:05 GMT

The world in quotes: "I knew then that the SOB was going to be a 'star,' " --Christopher Plummer's thoughts (and judicious use of quotation marks) on having to give understudy William Shatner a chance at his role in a 1956 stage production of "Henry V," after a one-night stand dislodged a kidney stone and put him in surgery, at Page Six. "The event for London could never have the same political clout as Beijing; we should find a way to be self-advertising. Considering...(read more)

"It was all in the script, and that is why Joan did the movie."

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:12:58 GMT

The world in quotes: "It was all in the script, and that is why Joan did the movie. She loved it. It's Death Race, right? And Joan Allen, three-time Oscar nominee, The Notebook, The Upside of Anger: she is always seen as the moral center of films...And I thought how interesting to take someone who is usually the moral center of movies and make her the exact opposite. But I knew that if I am going to get Joan Allen in the movie I am going to have to write a fucking good role, because she...(read more)

"Oh, my God, I'm kissing Spicoli."

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:55:59 GMT

Yet again, the world in quotes: "The ﬁrst kiss of the movie was out on Haight Street, with, like, 200 people watching, outside. It was a crane shot--I'm sure in the end it will be a really cool shot, but it starts close and then it takes maybe a minute. That's a long time on film with everybody watching and, like, a fake mustache getting in your mouth. It was long enough that you couldn't help thinking, 'Oh, my God, I'm kissing Spicoli.' " --James Franco on his role...(read more)

"I thought, eh, I'll be dead in three years."

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:27:40 GMT

The world in quotes: "This was like three years ago. And I thought, eh, I'll be dead in three years. So I said OK. And then I didn't die." --Woody Allen on how he ended up directing an opera, at E! Online. "It's the big action ones or the ones with Will Ferrell. In those you howl for two hours and you feel like you get a six-pack [of ab muscles] from all the laughs!" --California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on his moviegoing choices, at the LA Times. "I'd...(read more)

"That's like saying Americans are gangsters because they like Michael Corleone in The Godfather."

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:25:23 GMT

Quotes from the interview circuit: "That's basically ridiculous. That's like saying Americans are gangsters because they like Michael Corleone in The Godfather. We don't take ourselves that seriously." --José Padilha, director of "Elite Squad" (I'm filled with urge to follow that title up with sound effects -- "Elite Squad: BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!") on why the success of his film doesn't indicate a nation-wide endorsement of vigilante justice, at the London...(read more)