Tag: cinephile
Interviewing Susan Seidelman: From Madonna to Menopause
With a perceptive eye and an ear for dialogue, Susan Seidelman has an understanding of human behaviour that might, had filmmaking not existed, have landed her in a more scientific profession. Yet she’s a director at heart, and films like Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) and Cookie (1989), as well as TV series like Sex and…
Great beginnings: 40 impressive directorial feature film debuts
The key to 21st century communication is the blog. And, as every blogger knows, the key to the blog is the list. Nothing generates discussion faster than labelling something “The Ten Best…” or “The Twenty Most Overrated….”. After recently writing a piece on Ryan Coogler’s impressive debut film Fruitvale Station (for which Michael B. Jordan…
Interviewing Hal Hartley: Cinema, words and music
If Hal Hartley’s autobiography were written today, a fitting title might be Words and Music. The director, writer and composer, whose films have ranged from The Unbelievable Truth (1989) to the upcoming Ned Rifle (expected 2015), is as much concerned with the literary and musical components of his movies as the visual ones … and…
Interviewing Whit Stillman: A cinematic sense and sensibility
There’s a lot happening for Whit Stillman nowadays. Known for the wry, urbane quality of his films as well as the almost Kubrickian periods between them, Stillman always had a lot on his plate, and this year is no exception. With two major cinematic projects in the works, a pilot for a new series called…
Interviewing Beverly Ross and Ferris Butler: Skits, films and rock ’n’ roll
To me, they’ve always been Uncle Ferris and Aunt Beverly, yet Ferris Butler and Beverly Ross have much more to them than merely a personal relationship. Ferris, a former film-school student of Martin Scorsese’s at New York University who went on to create the cult cable show Waste Meat News before writing for Saturday Night…