Bob Hoskins called the original Nintendo spin-off the ‘worst thing I ever did’, which has set the tone for video game movies ever since – can this latest effort buck the trend?
“The worst thing I ever did? Super Mario Bros. It was a fuckin’ nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks their own agent told them to get off the set! Fuckin’ nightmare. Fuckin’ idiots.”
These are the words of the late, great Bob Hoskins to Simon Hattenstone of the Guardian in 2007. Anyone who has actually seen the horrifyingly bad 1993 film he is talking about, known for being the first mainstream Hollywood adaptation of a video game, might wonder why we are about to get a remake. Here’s Dennis Hopper, who played villain King Koopa on his own feelings about the movie:...
“The worst thing I ever did? Super Mario Bros. It was a fuckin’ nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks their own agent told them to get off the set! Fuckin’ nightmare. Fuckin’ idiots.”
These are the words of the late, great Bob Hoskins to Simon Hattenstone of the Guardian in 2007. Anyone who has actually seen the horrifyingly bad 1993 film he is talking about, known for being the first mainstream Hollywood adaptation of a video game, might wonder why we are about to get a remake. Here’s Dennis Hopper, who played villain King Koopa on his own feelings about the movie:...
- 2/10/2023
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
David S. Goyer’s Blade: Trinity marked the end of Wesley Snipes’ big screen tenure as Marvel’s iconic vampire hunter. The 2004 superhero horror movie was allegedly plagued with issues during its production, and some of those reports were fuelled years ago by comedian Patton Oswalt, who starred alongside Snipes in the middling threequel. Oswalt told Av Club back in 2012 that Snipes acted strangely throughout filming on Blade: Trinity and even “tried to strangle” its director at one point.
The Guardian has raised these claims in a new interview with the 58-year-old actor, who denies them.
“Let me tell you one thing,” said Snipes. “If I had tried to strangle David Goyer, you probably wouldn’t be talking to me now. A black guy with muscles strangling the director of a movie is going to jail, I guarantee you.”
Snipes added “Why do people believe this guy’s version of this story?...
The Guardian has raised these claims in a new interview with the 58-year-old actor, who denies them.
“Let me tell you one thing,” said Snipes. “If I had tried to strangle David Goyer, you probably wouldn’t be talking to me now. A black guy with muscles strangling the director of a movie is going to jail, I guarantee you.”
Snipes added “Why do people believe this guy’s version of this story?...
- 11/3/2020
- by Kirsten Howard
- Den of Geek
Nobody plays flawed heroes like actor Toby Jones, from Capote to Hitchcock to Captain Mainwaring. But they’re winners in his eyes, he tells Simon Hattenstone
It wasn’t meant to be like this. Toby Jones was the little fella destined for a life in clowning, or fringe theatre, or radio drama. Maybe even the occasional walk-on part in an art house movie. Take his first couple of film roles in the early 1990s: “the valet” in an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and “man at tea bar” in Mike Leigh’s Naked. That was Toby Jones. Or, even better, the scene-stealer in the Richard Curtis comedy Notting Hill – the man who stalked Julia Roberts. You don’t remember that? Well, that would be because it was cut out of the movie. But, hey ho, that was his destiny. Jones did what he always did: made the best of it,...
It wasn’t meant to be like this. Toby Jones was the little fella destined for a life in clowning, or fringe theatre, or radio drama. Maybe even the occasional walk-on part in an art house movie. Take his first couple of film roles in the early 1990s: “the valet” in an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and “man at tea bar” in Mike Leigh’s Naked. That was Toby Jones. Or, even better, the scene-stealer in the Richard Curtis comedy Notting Hill – the man who stalked Julia Roberts. You don’t remember that? Well, that would be because it was cut out of the movie. But, hey ho, that was his destiny. Jones did what he always did: made the best of it,...
- 11/14/2015
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
Love – or at least sweat-soaked Bdsm – is in the air this week on the Guardian film show. Guest host Simon Hattenstone indulges in bondage and badinage with critics Peter Bradshaw and Andrew Pulver as they discuss Sam Taylor-Johnson's adaptation of El James's Fifty Shades of Grey; Alfred Molina and John Lithgow as a long-term couple beset by catastrophe in Love is Strange; Kim Longinotto's petting documentary Love is All; and London-set gangster yarn Snow in Paradise
• Turn on the audio version
• Join our film team, live, for an Oscars special on 19 February at the Brixton Ritzy
• Why you should watch The Philadelphia Story this week Continue reading...
• Turn on the audio version
• Join our film team, live, for an Oscars special on 19 February at the Brixton Ritzy
• Why you should watch The Philadelphia Story this week Continue reading...
- 2/13/2015
- by Peter Bradshaw, Andrew Pulver, Simon Hattenstone, Paul Frankl and Ben Kape
- The Guardian - Film News
In an exclusive interview with The Guardian, pop singer and former Spice Girls member Melanie Brown made some pretty surprising revelations about her sex life, her career and some of her past scandals.
Better known as Mel B, or Scary Spice, the star is currently making waves as one of the most talked-about judges on The X Factor in the U.K., even overshadowing the returning judge Simon Cowell. With her sharp tongue, quick wit and bluntness, she's become a fan favorite.
Video: Watch Mel B bring Spice Girls superfan Emma Stone to tears!
She was no less blunt with Guardian reporter Simon Hattenstone during their interview, which was published on Saturday. Here are some of the surprising highlights from their expansive conversation.
Her 4-Year Relationship With a Woman- "People call me lesbian, bisexual or heterosexual, but I know who's in my bed and that's it," she said. "I have a huge libido and a great sex life...
Better known as Mel B, or Scary Spice, the star is currently making waves as one of the most talked-about judges on The X Factor in the U.K., even overshadowing the returning judge Simon Cowell. With her sharp tongue, quick wit and bluntness, she's become a fan favorite.
Video: Watch Mel B bring Spice Girls superfan Emma Stone to tears!
She was no less blunt with Guardian reporter Simon Hattenstone during their interview, which was published on Saturday. Here are some of the surprising highlights from their expansive conversation.
Her 4-Year Relationship With a Woman- "People call me lesbian, bisexual or heterosexual, but I know who's in my bed and that's it," she said. "I have a huge libido and a great sex life...
- 12/1/2014
- Entertainment Tonight
The actor Philip Seymour Hoffman has died in New York aged 46. We look back over his career in clips
Philip Seymour Hoffman has died aged 46 in New York. Peter Bradshaw's tribute to the actor is here, and Simon Hattenstone recalls interviewing him in 2011. Here's 10 of the best from a virtuosic talent.
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Ten great performances? Philip Seymour Hoffman produced scores of them, dealing them out with a lordly abandon, in both lead roles and supporting turns. No shortlist worth its salt should ignore his brilliant early appearances in Nobody's Fool, Hard Eight or Boogie Nights. But, for the sake of brevity, let's start with his brief, delicious masterclass as Brandt, the gloriously obsequious Pa to a boorish billionaire, in the Coens' freewheeling 1998 classic The Big Lebowski. So what if the script gave him few lines to work with? Hoffman's embarrassed, defensive chuckle played like a comic monologue in itself.
Philip Seymour Hoffman has died aged 46 in New York. Peter Bradshaw's tribute to the actor is here, and Simon Hattenstone recalls interviewing him in 2011. Here's 10 of the best from a virtuosic talent.
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Ten great performances? Philip Seymour Hoffman produced scores of them, dealing them out with a lordly abandon, in both lead roles and supporting turns. No shortlist worth its salt should ignore his brilliant early appearances in Nobody's Fool, Hard Eight or Boogie Nights. But, for the sake of brevity, let's start with his brief, delicious masterclass as Brandt, the gloriously obsequious Pa to a boorish billionaire, in the Coens' freewheeling 1998 classic The Big Lebowski. So what if the script gave him few lines to work with? Hoffman's embarrassed, defensive chuckle played like a comic monologue in itself.
- 2/3/2014
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
Steve Coogan and Naomie Harris lead eulogies to late star at London Critics' Circle awards, while Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro and George Clooney also release statements
• Twitter tributes to Philip Seymour Hoffman
The British film industry paid tribute to Philip Seymour Hoffman at the London Critics' Circle awards last night, with Steve Coogan and Naomie Harris among the stars lining up to celebrate the work of the late Oscar winner.
Coogan said Hoffman raised the quality of every film he was cast in. "There are actors and there are movie stars and sometimes they're both but he was an actor first and a movie star second," he said. "He did some tremendous work. People have different opinions about actors but you wouldn't find anybody who would have a bad word to say about any of his performances – they were all incredibly nuanced."
Skyfall's Naomie Harris told the ceremony...
• Twitter tributes to Philip Seymour Hoffman
The British film industry paid tribute to Philip Seymour Hoffman at the London Critics' Circle awards last night, with Steve Coogan and Naomie Harris among the stars lining up to celebrate the work of the late Oscar winner.
Coogan said Hoffman raised the quality of every film he was cast in. "There are actors and there are movie stars and sometimes they're both but he was an actor first and a movie star second," he said. "He did some tremendous work. People have different opinions about actors but you wouldn't find anybody who would have a bad word to say about any of his performances – they were all incredibly nuanced."
Skyfall's Naomie Harris told the ceremony...
- 2/3/2014
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
Richard Norton-Taylor and Simon Hattenstone write: Barry Jackson's best-known role may have been the pathologist George Bullard in Midsomer Murders, but his favourite was the title role of Horace, the hero with learning difficulties of a BBC Play for Today (1972) and a series for ITV (1982), written for him by Roy Minton.
He was quietly determined and ludicrously brave. One night when he was making the film The Bofors Gun (1968) he was out with its fiery star Nicol Williamson – not a man to mess with. Williamson challenged him to a game of darts with a difference: while one placed his hand on the dart board, the other would throw round it. Barry went first, and duly threw round Williamson. Then Williamson went and threw the dart straight through Barry's hand. Barry smiled and didn't utter a world. You didn't dare show weakness in front of Nicol, he later told us.
He was quietly determined and ludicrously brave. One night when he was making the film The Bofors Gun (1968) he was out with its fiery star Nicol Williamson – not a man to mess with. Williamson challenged him to a game of darts with a difference: while one placed his hand on the dart board, the other would throw round it. Barry went first, and duly threw round Williamson. Then Williamson went and threw the dart straight through Barry's hand. Barry smiled and didn't utter a world. You didn't dare show weakness in front of Nicol, he later told us.
- 12/10/2013
- by Richard Norton-Taylor, Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
Statistics paint grim portrait of UK movie production. Plus: the rest of the day in film
In the news
- Only 7% of UK films turn a profit, with the percentage even lower for low-budget productions.
- Rita Ora to play Christian Grey's sister in Fifty Shades movie.
- Police deny "second car theory" in Paul Walker crash.
- Monsters University battles Frozen at Annie nominations.
Your feature presentations
- "I didn't take that much acid": James Fox talks to Simon Hattenstone.
- Supercali-fag-on-the-set-ious! Behind the scenes at the making of Mary Poppins.
- "Cinema Paradiso is about the power of dreams": what child star Toto did next.
- Nebraska director Alexander Payne will be talking to Xan Brooks.
- And we'll have snaps of all the orcs, elves and stars at The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug premiere in La.
You may have missed
- "Showing Sandra Bullock...
In the news
- Only 7% of UK films turn a profit, with the percentage even lower for low-budget productions.
- Rita Ora to play Christian Grey's sister in Fifty Shades movie.
- Police deny "second car theory" in Paul Walker crash.
- Monsters University battles Frozen at Annie nominations.
Your feature presentations
- "I didn't take that much acid": James Fox talks to Simon Hattenstone.
- Supercali-fag-on-the-set-ious! Behind the scenes at the making of Mary Poppins.
- "Cinema Paradiso is about the power of dreams": what child star Toto did next.
- Nebraska director Alexander Payne will be talking to Xan Brooks.
- And we'll have snaps of all the orcs, elves and stars at The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug premiere in La.
You may have missed
- "Showing Sandra Bullock...
- 12/3/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
At the height of his career, he packed in acting to sell telephone-sterilisers for a Christian sect. As James Fox finally gets a part worthy of his talent, he relives the louche years with Simon Hattenstone
James Fox is telling me how, at the age of 74, he has finally got his confidence back. Not before time. It's half a lifetime since he walked away from acting, at the height of his fame, to become a door-to-door salesman for an obscure Christian movement.
In his new film, A Long Way from Home, he is desperately moving as Joseph, a man who has retired to France with his wife, only to fall for a young woman travelling with her boyfriend. It's his most dominant role since his incendiary Chas in 1970's Performance, but it couldn't be more different: Chas was a terrifying cockney gangster in a movie about decadence; Joseph is a restrained,...
James Fox is telling me how, at the age of 74, he has finally got his confidence back. Not before time. It's half a lifetime since he walked away from acting, at the height of his fame, to become a door-to-door salesman for an obscure Christian movement.
In his new film, A Long Way from Home, he is desperately moving as Joseph, a man who has retired to France with his wife, only to fall for a young woman travelling with her boyfriend. It's his most dominant role since his incendiary Chas in 1970's Performance, but it couldn't be more different: Chas was a terrifying cockney gangster in a movie about decadence; Joseph is a restrained,...
- 12/3/2013
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
As the Jj Abrams audition juggernaut hits London, we've all the news and more coming up today
Coming up on the site today
• Star Wars auditions held in London
• Rick Santorum's first faith-based movie proves huge Xmas turkey in Us
• Workers to protest Obama Dreamworks visit over "decimated" Californian VFX industry as Pixar to lay off 60 at HQ
• Cary Elwes to write Princess Bride memoir
• First reactions to American Hustle very positive
• Alice in Wonderland 2 signs Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska
• Jeremy Kay tells us how well Hunger Games 2 did in the Us. Spoiler: pretty well.
• We round up the top 10 sports movies
You may have missed
• Alexander Payne on Nebraska, road trips, families and black and white
• Harry Dean Stanton gives a rare interview
• And so does Billy Bob Thornton
• Simon Pegg goes all Slavoj Žižek
• Daniel Radcliffe talks to Simon Hattenstone
• Mark Kermode reviews all the big...
Coming up on the site today
• Star Wars auditions held in London
• Rick Santorum's first faith-based movie proves huge Xmas turkey in Us
• Workers to protest Obama Dreamworks visit over "decimated" Californian VFX industry as Pixar to lay off 60 at HQ
• Cary Elwes to write Princess Bride memoir
• First reactions to American Hustle very positive
• Alice in Wonderland 2 signs Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska
• Jeremy Kay tells us how well Hunger Games 2 did in the Us. Spoiler: pretty well.
• We round up the top 10 sports movies
You may have missed
• Alexander Payne on Nebraska, road trips, families and black and white
• Harry Dean Stanton gives a rare interview
• And so does Billy Bob Thornton
• Simon Pegg goes all Slavoj Žižek
• Daniel Radcliffe talks to Simon Hattenstone
• Mark Kermode reviews all the big...
- 11/25/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
As a young man Frank Langella worked with Laurence Olivier, partied with Noël Coward and seduced Rita Hayworth. Then his career fell apart. He tells Simon Hattenstone about losing everything and what he's learned from King Lear
It's all about the crown, Frank Langella says: are you prepared to lose it, and if so can you cope? The great American actor is preparing to play King Lear. At 75, he says he's still too young – Lear is in his mid-80s - but Langella knows plenty about losing his crown.
As a young man, he was gorgeous – lithe, snake-hipped, l'homme fatal. He played fabulously seductive, often cruel, characters. His 1970s Dracula was pure sex. In Diary of a Mad Housewife, his priapic author has come-to-bed eyes, come-to-bed voice, come-to-bed everything. And his own life didn't seem far removed from the characters he played. He has been on intimate terms with many...
It's all about the crown, Frank Langella says: are you prepared to lose it, and if so can you cope? The great American actor is preparing to play King Lear. At 75, he says he's still too young – Lear is in his mid-80s - but Langella knows plenty about losing his crown.
As a young man, he was gorgeous – lithe, snake-hipped, l'homme fatal. He played fabulously seductive, often cruel, characters. His 1970s Dracula was pure sex. In Diary of a Mad Housewife, his priapic author has come-to-bed eyes, come-to-bed voice, come-to-bed everything. And his own life didn't seem far removed from the characters he played. He has been on intimate terms with many...
- 10/30/2013
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
The movie that most embarrasses Julianne Moore is back to haunt her on TV this weekend. Revel in its silliness
• Julianne Moore calls Next her worst film
• Nicolas Cage: 'People think I'm not in on the joke'
• More film on TV recaps
Spoiler Alert: This blog is published ahead of the screening on Channel 5 on Sunday at 10pm. Do not read if you have not seen the film and don't want to know anything about it.
"I've seen every possible ending. None of them are good for you" – Cris Johnson
Next was one of the first indications that Nicolas Cage's quality control had gone haywire. Looking back, it's easy to see it as one of the gateway films leading him from borderline respectability into a world of boggle-eyed lunacy. But it also marks the precise moment that Hollywood fell out of love with Philip K Dick, too. The...
• Julianne Moore calls Next her worst film
• Nicolas Cage: 'People think I'm not in on the joke'
• More film on TV recaps
Spoiler Alert: This blog is published ahead of the screening on Channel 5 on Sunday at 10pm. Do not read if you have not seen the film and don't want to know anything about it.
"I've seen every possible ending. None of them are good for you" – Cris Johnson
Next was one of the first indications that Nicolas Cage's quality control had gone haywire. Looking back, it's easy to see it as one of the gateway films leading him from borderline respectability into a world of boggle-eyed lunacy. But it also marks the precise moment that Hollywood fell out of love with Philip K Dick, too. The...
- 8/18/2013
- by Stuart Heritage
- The Guardian - Film News
The top-line on the big news stories in cinema today – plus a preview of what's coming up on the site
Welcome to the first in a new series, launching every week day at 7:30am GMT, giving you the latest movie headlines – and a look ahead to what's coming up on theguardian.com/film.
News today
Disney boss booed at D23 convention after failing to spill beans on Star Wars.
Pixar have changed the Finding Nemo sequel in wake of Blackfish documentary.
George Galloway has turned to Kickstarter to fund his documentary, The Killing of Tony Blair.
Footage from Jerry Lewis's The Day the Clown Cried has shown up on YouTube; likewise from Werner Herzog's "don't text and drive" documentary.
More Expendables 3 cast additions: Mel Gibson and Antonio Banderas.
World War Z has become Brad Pitt's highest-earning film ever.
James Gray's next project is to be White Devil,...
Welcome to the first in a new series, launching every week day at 7:30am GMT, giving you the latest movie headlines – and a look ahead to what's coming up on theguardian.com/film.
News today
Disney boss booed at D23 convention after failing to spill beans on Star Wars.
Pixar have changed the Finding Nemo sequel in wake of Blackfish documentary.
George Galloway has turned to Kickstarter to fund his documentary, The Killing of Tony Blair.
Footage from Jerry Lewis's The Day the Clown Cried has shown up on YouTube; likewise from Werner Herzog's "don't text and drive" documentary.
More Expendables 3 cast additions: Mel Gibson and Antonio Banderas.
World War Z has become Brad Pitt's highest-earning film ever.
James Gray's next project is to be White Devil,...
- 8/12/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Junkies, porn stars, alcoholics and in her latest film What Maisie Knew a terrible mother – on screen Julianne Moore lets it all hang out. So surely she won't mind Simon Hattenstone quizzing her about all those sex scenes…?
Montauk, New York, final stop on the Long Island Rail Road. Three hours from Manhattan, past the rarefied privilege of the Hamptons, it has that end-of-the-line feel to it: a sleepy, honeysuckled seaside town. This is where kids come to surf, adults to wind down, families to hang. The well-to-do, and the famous, tend to get off the train a few stops earlier. I'm sitting outside an organic cafe waiting for Julianne Moore. All is still and quiet. I'm not sure how Moore fits in here. She's a brilliant actor, who burns up the screen with that shock of red hair and fiery passion.
It would be wrong to say she stars...
Montauk, New York, final stop on the Long Island Rail Road. Three hours from Manhattan, past the rarefied privilege of the Hamptons, it has that end-of-the-line feel to it: a sleepy, honeysuckled seaside town. This is where kids come to surf, adults to wind down, families to hang. The well-to-do, and the famous, tend to get off the train a few stops earlier. I'm sitting outside an organic cafe waiting for Julianne Moore. All is still and quiet. I'm not sure how Moore fits in here. She's a brilliant actor, who burns up the screen with that shock of red hair and fiery passion.
It would be wrong to say she stars...
- 8/10/2013
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
The actor famous for being game for anything talks about his passion for physical theatre, his attraction to strong directors – but declines to comment on the size of his penis
When Willem Dafoe was a little boy in Appleton, Wisconsin, he shut himself in a closet for two days. Nobody missed him. "It was a big family. My dad was a surgeon, my mom a nurse, and they were always out working. I had five sisters and a brother. They didn't care what I got up to."
Maybe – and it's a theory that would get me evicted from Freudian analysis 101 – the abandoned boy became the inveterate pleaser of adults. Perhaps that early experience of neglect explains why Dafoe has so often been an obliging actor, ready to do anything to accommodate a director's fruity demands. Think Lars von Trier directing Charlotte Gainsbourg to crush his testicles with a block of wood in Antichrist; Madonna,...
When Willem Dafoe was a little boy in Appleton, Wisconsin, he shut himself in a closet for two days. Nobody missed him. "It was a big family. My dad was a surgeon, my mom a nurse, and they were always out working. I had five sisters and a brother. They didn't care what I got up to."
Maybe – and it's a theory that would get me evicted from Freudian analysis 101 – the abandoned boy became the inveterate pleaser of adults. Perhaps that early experience of neglect explains why Dafoe has so often been an obliging actor, ready to do anything to accommodate a director's fruity demands. Think Lars von Trier directing Charlotte Gainsbourg to crush his testicles with a block of wood in Antichrist; Madonna,...
- 6/16/2013
- by Stuart Jeffries
- The Guardian - Film News
The celebrity interview is a fraught affair. After actor Rhys Ifans stalks out of his unhappy encounter with a Times journalist, we ask those who interview the stars about their worst experiences
Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph
The film industry is now less caring about [traditional] media exposure. A lot of their PR campaign – and the interview is part of that – is much more driven by Twitter, YouTube, those types of things. So the celebrity interview has fallen down the ranking in importance, and particularly in the British media.
The way they try to control the environment has become more palpable. If they want the PR to sit in, I always try to say there's no need, but the main form of control is time. I was doing a lot of music interviews in the early part of my career, and I would be allowed to go on the road with Elvis Costello and Queen.
Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph
The film industry is now less caring about [traditional] media exposure. A lot of their PR campaign – and the interview is part of that – is much more driven by Twitter, YouTube, those types of things. So the celebrity interview has fallen down the ranking in importance, and particularly in the British media.
The way they try to control the environment has become more palpable. If they want the PR to sit in, I always try to say there's no need, but the main form of control is time. I was doing a lot of music interviews in the early part of my career, and I would be allowed to go on the road with Elvis Costello and Queen.
- 6/7/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
How an onstage Q&A with the great drummer turned into a professional horror show
The video above doesn't really capture the full horror of my thankfully brief time with Ginger Baker. It was an onstage Q&A at the Curzon Soho cinema in London, after a screening of the excellent documentary Beware of Mr Baker, and the best that can be said is that – having already seen the film – I knew what to expect.
The title alone tells you pretty much all you need to know – but in the course of the film scores of collaborators and family members outline that while he may be one of the greatest musicians these shores have ever produced, Baker isn't all that much of a pleasure to be around. Mind you, you don't need other people to tell you that; the evidence is there in the interviews with him, in which scorn...
The video above doesn't really capture the full horror of my thankfully brief time with Ginger Baker. It was an onstage Q&A at the Curzon Soho cinema in London, after a screening of the excellent documentary Beware of Mr Baker, and the best that can be said is that – having already seen the film – I knew what to expect.
The title alone tells you pretty much all you need to know – but in the course of the film scores of collaborators and family members outline that while he may be one of the greatest musicians these shores have ever produced, Baker isn't all that much of a pleasure to be around. Mind you, you don't need other people to tell you that; the evidence is there in the interviews with him, in which scorn...
- 5/15/2013
- by Michael Hann
- The Guardian - Film News
Big names will take part in venture with Comedy Central, BBC sketch had over 2,000 complaints, plus Ian McKellen's sitcom
This week's comedy news
Can't get to Edinburgh? Kilkenny just that bit too far away? Never fear. The cable channel Comedy Central is teaming up with Twitter to launch the first 140-character comedy festival. The festival will commence on 29 April and run for five days, featuring a host of comedy names tweeting jokes and posting six second videos using Twitter's new video app Vine. Next Monday, Twitter will stream the only live #ComedyFest event, a panel discussion featuring Mel Brooks and Judd Apatow. The New York Times has more on the story, including the lowdown on a new app Comedy Central is developing to help users discover their favourite new comedians.
Back in the world of real festivals, veteran Anglo-American standup Rich Hall has won the Barry award at the Melbourne comedy festival,...
This week's comedy news
Can't get to Edinburgh? Kilkenny just that bit too far away? Never fear. The cable channel Comedy Central is teaming up with Twitter to launch the first 140-character comedy festival. The festival will commence on 29 April and run for five days, featuring a host of comedy names tweeting jokes and posting six second videos using Twitter's new video app Vine. Next Monday, Twitter will stream the only live #ComedyFest event, a panel discussion featuring Mel Brooks and Judd Apatow. The New York Times has more on the story, including the lowdown on a new app Comedy Central is developing to help users discover their favourite new comedians.
Back in the world of real festivals, veteran Anglo-American standup Rich Hall has won the Barry award at the Melbourne comedy festival,...
- 4/23/2013
- by Brian Logan
- The Guardian - Film News
At the weekend in New Orleans, an interviewer asked Mo Farah if he had run before. From forgetting the name of Lady Gaga's album to not recognising comedian Julia Davis, Simon Hattenstone recalls his own interview gaffes
It's been a brilliant few days for appalling celebrity interviews. At a post-Oscars press junket, Jennifer Lawrence, winner of this year's Academy award for best actress, was asked: "You look so great today, great dress, what was the process of getting ready?" Lawrence made the best of a bad question. "What was the process? I don't know. I woke up, tried on the dress – it fit, thank God. Took a shower …" She giggled and apologised for her insubstantial answer by explaining that she had just done a shot.
But the art of the incompetent interview reached new heights when Wdsu news anchor Latonya Norton quizzed double Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah just...
It's been a brilliant few days for appalling celebrity interviews. At a post-Oscars press junket, Jennifer Lawrence, winner of this year's Academy award for best actress, was asked: "You look so great today, great dress, what was the process of getting ready?" Lawrence made the best of a bad question. "What was the process? I don't know. I woke up, tried on the dress – it fit, thank God. Took a shower …" She giggled and apologised for her insubstantial answer by explaining that she had just done a shot.
But the art of the incompetent interview reached new heights when Wdsu news anchor Latonya Norton quizzed double Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah just...
- 2/28/2013
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
Pauline Collins has just had another big break – playing an ex-opera singer with dementia in Dustin Hoffman's directing debut. She talks to Simon Hattenstone about her mother, escaping Shirley Valentine – and the baby she gave up
"Surprises," says Pauline Collins. "That's what I love about this business. Even at my age, you can get surprises." The surprise in question was a request from Dustin Hoffman to star in Quartet, his debut as a director. "I thought, he doesn't even know me." And actually he didn't. But Maggie Smith and Tom Courtenay had recommended her, and Hoffman watched her give an interview on the red carpet for some movie event and decided he wanted her.
He phoned her and they chatted for two hours, and then he offered her the part. Collins plays Cissy, a former opera singer with vascular dementia living in a home for retired musicians, in this gentle,...
"Surprises," says Pauline Collins. "That's what I love about this business. Even at my age, you can get surprises." The surprise in question was a request from Dustin Hoffman to star in Quartet, his debut as a director. "I thought, he doesn't even know me." And actually he didn't. But Maggie Smith and Tom Courtenay had recommended her, and Hoffman watched her give an interview on the red carpet for some movie event and decided he wanted her.
He phoned her and they chatted for two hours, and then he offered her the part. Collins plays Cissy, a former opera singer with vascular dementia living in a home for retired musicians, in this gentle,...
- 12/13/2012
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
From a grumpy Ariel Sharon to a splenetic Tracey Emin, some of the most entertaining, controversial – and cringe-making – encounters from the Guardian's daily features section, G2
Thora Hird
Simon Hattenstone
12 April 1999
She introduces me to Scotty by way of a photograph on her sideboard. "That is the best picture of my husband and my grandson. He was a good man." The picture is taken in Beverly Hills where her daughter, the former child movie star Janette Scott, used to live. "We had 54 years together. It was a wonderful life. And you see, Simon, I was ashamed that I didn't know it was a stroke he'd had. I was getting ready to go to work in the back, and we've got two bedrooms, and I was in one and he was in the other, not because we didn't speak to each other, because my arthritis, well, with all this you wouldn't...
Thora Hird
Simon Hattenstone
12 April 1999
She introduces me to Scotty by way of a photograph on her sideboard. "That is the best picture of my husband and my grandson. He was a good man." The picture is taken in Beverly Hills where her daughter, the former child movie star Janette Scott, used to live. "We had 54 years together. It was a wonderful life. And you see, Simon, I was ashamed that I didn't know it was a stroke he'd had. I was getting ready to go to work in the back, and we've got two bedrooms, and I was in one and he was in the other, not because we didn't speak to each other, because my arthritis, well, with all this you wouldn't...
- 10/17/2012
- by Simon Hattenstone, Emma Brockes, Decca Aitkenhead
- The Guardian - Film News
Three years ago he was a 19-year-old getting his Hollywood break. Now Aaron Taylor-Johnson has two kids and is married to artist Sam Taylor-Wood. As his career matures with roles in Anna Karenina and Oliver Stone's Savages, the actor explains why all he really wants to do is work with his wife
I meet Aaron Taylor-Johnson in a drably functional dressing room at Pinewood Studios at the end of his working day. Wearing a grimy grey sweatshirt and matching baggy shorts, he looks more like a skateboarder than a film star. He has just finished filming some action sequences for Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall, in which he reprises his role as Dave Lizewski, real-life superhero, in the sequel to the Matthew Vaughn-directed cult movie Kick-Ass. "I'm sorry I'm so grubby," he says, reaching for a towel. "I've just spent the day being thrown about a lot.
I meet Aaron Taylor-Johnson in a drably functional dressing room at Pinewood Studios at the end of his working day. Wearing a grimy grey sweatshirt and matching baggy shorts, he looks more like a skateboarder than a film star. He has just finished filming some action sequences for Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall, in which he reprises his role as Dave Lizewski, real-life superhero, in the sequel to the Matthew Vaughn-directed cult movie Kick-Ass. "I'm sorry I'm so grubby," he says, reaching for a towel. "I've just spent the day being thrown about a lot.
- 9/1/2012
- by Sean O'Hagan
- The Guardian - Film News
Sam Frears has a rare condition and wasn't expected to live beyond five. Now 40, he's an actor, an avid rock climber and an inspiration to his family and friends. By Simon Hattenstone
Mary-Kay Wilmers is determined to plug the book she has written about her family of Russian baddies; notably Leonid Eitingon, who hired Trotsky's assassin. Sod Sam, and his illness, and all this mother-son relationship yuck, she says, can't we get something worthwhile out of this?
"People always talk about Sam," she complains. Earlier this year My Friend Sam, a Storyville documentary about her son, was shown on BBC Four. Now an ebook has been written about him. Perhaps it was inevitable. After all, Mary-Kay runs the prestigious London Review of Books, while his father, Stephen Frears, is a leading film director whose work includes The Queen, The Grifters, Dangerous Liaisons and My Beautiful Laundrette.
Sam was born 40 years ago,...
Mary-Kay Wilmers is determined to plug the book she has written about her family of Russian baddies; notably Leonid Eitingon, who hired Trotsky's assassin. Sod Sam, and his illness, and all this mother-son relationship yuck, she says, can't we get something worthwhile out of this?
"People always talk about Sam," she complains. Earlier this year My Friend Sam, a Storyville documentary about her son, was shown on BBC Four. Now an ebook has been written about him. Perhaps it was inevitable. After all, Mary-Kay runs the prestigious London Review of Books, while his father, Stephen Frears, is a leading film director whose work includes The Queen, The Grifters, Dangerous Liaisons and My Beautiful Laundrette.
Sam was born 40 years ago,...
- 7/6/2012
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
Guardian.co.uk/film are co-hosting a stream of Aki Kaurismäki's Le Havre, which will screen at the Curzon Soho and be available through Curzon on Demand from 18:40 this evening. Join us as we watch the film and liveblog a Q&A between Curzon's Ian Haydn Smith and evolutionary biologist and author Mark Pagel
9.28pm: Right ... the Q&A's finished. The audience in the Curzon are heading for the door. I can see them streaming through into the foyer and ... Yes! ... people are holding the door for each other. Mark's theory seems to be playing out.
Thanks very much for reading and joining the watch-a-long. Le Havre is available on Curzon on Demand here and via the Watch Now banner.
Keep your comments on the film coming below. You can also get into the debate on Twitter where we'll be under the #GuardianCurzon hashtag. Look out for news...
9.28pm: Right ... the Q&A's finished. The audience in the Curzon are heading for the door. I can see them streaming through into the foyer and ... Yes! ... people are holding the door for each other. Mark's theory seems to be playing out.
Thanks very much for reading and joining the watch-a-long. Le Havre is available on Curzon on Demand here and via the Watch Now banner.
Keep your comments on the film coming below. You can also get into the debate on Twitter where we'll be under the #GuardianCurzon hashtag. Look out for news...
- 4/6/2012
- by Henry Barnes
- The Guardian - Film News
Catch up with the last seven days in the world of film
The big story
Name the computer nerd who has had the biggest effect on all our lives? Yes, well, they already made a film about Mark Zuckerberg, so let's all look forward to Jobs – the forthcoming film about the late Apple supremo Steve Jobs, pioneer of the iPod, the iPad, the iMac, the iPhone and scores of other fancy-looking techware beginning with a little "i". And who in all Hollywood has been picked to impersonate one of the greatest brains ever to walk the earth? A shoo-in for that intellectual giant Ashton Kutcher, owner of the world's biggest Twitter account (or something), and veteran of such deathless cinematic masterworks as Dude, Where's My Car? ("Sweet!"). The film that will now be called The Kutcher Job is in fact one of two duelling biogs of the Apple CEO. Sony...
The big story
Name the computer nerd who has had the biggest effect on all our lives? Yes, well, they already made a film about Mark Zuckerberg, so let's all look forward to Jobs – the forthcoming film about the late Apple supremo Steve Jobs, pioneer of the iPod, the iPad, the iMac, the iPhone and scores of other fancy-looking techware beginning with a little "i". And who in all Hollywood has been picked to impersonate one of the greatest brains ever to walk the earth? A shoo-in for that intellectual giant Ashton Kutcher, owner of the world's biggest Twitter account (or something), and veteran of such deathless cinematic masterworks as Dude, Where's My Car? ("Sweet!"). The film that will now be called The Kutcher Job is in fact one of two duelling biogs of the Apple CEO. Sony...
- 4/5/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
From April 6, Cannes favourite Le Havre will be in cinemas. But for those who might prefer (and live in the UK or Ireland), you can stream it here via Curzon on Demand. Either way, be sure to tune in for our Q&A with top evolutionary theorist Mark Pagel next Friday night
Cannes 2011, on reflection, looks an absolutely vintage year. Not only did it introduce us to The Artist and Melancholia, The Tree of Life and Take Shelter, it also gave us The Skin I Live In, Footnote, Drive, The Kid on the Bike and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.
And now we're approaching the release one of the films which Peter Bradshaw wrote about most warmly last May: Le Havre.
Reviewing the latest from Aki Kaurismäki – the deadpan Finnish film-maker behind I Hired A Contract Killer, The Match Factory Girl, Leningrad Cowboys Go America and The Man Without...
Cannes 2011, on reflection, looks an absolutely vintage year. Not only did it introduce us to The Artist and Melancholia, The Tree of Life and Take Shelter, it also gave us The Skin I Live In, Footnote, Drive, The Kid on the Bike and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.
And now we're approaching the release one of the films which Peter Bradshaw wrote about most warmly last May: Le Havre.
Reviewing the latest from Aki Kaurismäki – the deadpan Finnish film-maker behind I Hired A Contract Killer, The Match Factory Girl, Leningrad Cowboys Go America and The Man Without...
- 3/29/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
Catch up with the last seven days in the world of film
Read our 4-star Hunger Games review
The big story
With the John Carter fiasco rumbling on Hollywood was desperate for some good news, and it duly came in the slinky form of Jennifer Lawrence and Hunger Games. The set of novels by Suzanne Collins have been touted as the new Twilight and – to all astonishment – have been turned into a rather good film, if you believe Xan Brooks, our man at the first press preview. As the week wore on, it became clear that The Hunger Games was looking at a serious pile of cash when it would finally be released – perhaps even beating the first Twilight film's opening weekend mark of $69m in 2008. Fortunately, as is their way, the Guide had got in quickly and interviewed Lawrence last weekend – and she had little truck with the Twilight...
Read our 4-star Hunger Games review
The big story
With the John Carter fiasco rumbling on Hollywood was desperate for some good news, and it duly came in the slinky form of Jennifer Lawrence and Hunger Games. The set of novels by Suzanne Collins have been touted as the new Twilight and – to all astonishment – have been turned into a rather good film, if you believe Xan Brooks, our man at the first press preview. As the week wore on, it became clear that The Hunger Games was looking at a serious pile of cash when it would finally be released – perhaps even beating the first Twilight film's opening weekend mark of $69m in 2008. Fortunately, as is their way, the Guide had got in quickly and interviewed Lawrence last weekend – and she had little truck with the Twilight...
- 3/22/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
Simon Hattenstone sits down with a group of London teenagers to talk about a video watched by 50m over the past five days
Students from Stoke Newington School in north east London had Thursday off because it was "progress review" day. But it might just as well have been Stop Kony day. That's all they wanted to talk about.
Six 14- to 15-year-olds gathered in Fergus Mason's house to discuss Kony 2012 – what the film meant, what the next stage of action was, how to stop the rebel leader. There was a sense of astonishment: that one man could be responsible for so much evil, that a film could have so much power, that they had the potential to change so much.
Few of them had heard of Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, before the video Kony 2012 went viral on the internet. But now teenagers all over...
Students from Stoke Newington School in north east London had Thursday off because it was "progress review" day. But it might just as well have been Stop Kony day. That's all they wanted to talk about.
Six 14- to 15-year-olds gathered in Fergus Mason's house to discuss Kony 2012 – what the film meant, what the next stage of action was, how to stop the rebel leader. There was a sense of astonishment: that one man could be responsible for so much evil, that a film could have so much power, that they had the potential to change so much.
Few of them had heard of Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, before the video Kony 2012 went viral on the internet. But now teenagers all over...
- 3/9/2012
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
All the coverage of Sunday's Baftas ceremony, plus the rest of this week's goings-on in film
The big story
I don't know about you, but the end of the awards season can't come quick enough. This week saw the last but one of the major gong-bestowing jamborees, and doesn't it make us feel proud to be British that the Baftas are second only to the really big one, the Oscars?
As usual, Xan Brooks' liveblog was the place to be if you weren't actually inside the hall (or maybe even if you were). As we suspected, The Artist turned out to have scooped the lion's share, while the assembled throng did their level best to look nice and act a bit surprised. We even had people on the inside: Black Pond co-directors Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe.
After the event, us Guardian types rushed into print (and video):
Peter Bradshaw...
The big story
I don't know about you, but the end of the awards season can't come quick enough. This week saw the last but one of the major gong-bestowing jamborees, and doesn't it make us feel proud to be British that the Baftas are second only to the really big one, the Oscars?
As usual, Xan Brooks' liveblog was the place to be if you weren't actually inside the hall (or maybe even if you were). As we suspected, The Artist turned out to have scooped the lion's share, while the assembled throng did their level best to look nice and act a bit surprised. We even had people on the inside: Black Pond co-directors Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe.
After the event, us Guardian types rushed into print (and video):
Peter Bradshaw...
- 2/16/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
Trailer for The Films of Kenneth Anger, Vol 1,
released by Fantoma in 2007
Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer was born on this day in 1927 and if you pay him a call at his official site, you'll find a biographical overview he's got to relish. In 2003, Maximilian Le Cain, writing for Senses of Cinema, cut straight to the chase in his opening paragraph: "Offering a description of himself for the program of a 1966 screening, Kenneth Anger stated his 'lifework' as being Magick and his 'magical weapon' the cinematograph. A follower of Aleister Crowley's teachings, Anger is a high level practitioner of occult magic who regards the projection of his films as ceremonies capable of invoking spiritual forces. Cinema, he claims, is an evil force. Its point is to exert control over people and events and his filmmaking is carried out with precisely that intention."
Then: "Whatever one's view of this belief may be,...
released by Fantoma in 2007
Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer was born on this day in 1927 and if you pay him a call at his official site, you'll find a biographical overview he's got to relish. In 2003, Maximilian Le Cain, writing for Senses of Cinema, cut straight to the chase in his opening paragraph: "Offering a description of himself for the program of a 1966 screening, Kenneth Anger stated his 'lifework' as being Magick and his 'magical weapon' the cinematograph. A follower of Aleister Crowley's teachings, Anger is a high level practitioner of occult magic who regards the projection of his films as ceremonies capable of invoking spiritual forces. Cinema, he claims, is an evil force. Its point is to exert control over people and events and his filmmaking is carried out with precisely that intention."
Then: "Whatever one's view of this belief may be,...
- 2/2/2012
- MUBI
He bagged an Oscar for Sideways (after refusing George Clooney a lead role). Now he's back with The Descendants (and this time Clooney made the cut). Alexander Payne talks to Simon Hattenstone about the importance of casting – and why his own films make him wince
Alexander Payne is the champion of male middle-class losers. Films such as Election, About Schmidt and Sideways star men who have the rug pulled from underneath them. So Matthew Broderick's teacher in the wonderful high school satire Election is bullied by Reese Witherspoon's monomaniac student Tracy Flick, almost has an affair, gets so badly bee-stung that his face is reduced to a raw burger, and loses pretty much everything. In About Schmidt, Jack Nicholson is left with nothing but repressed anger and an existential crisis when he's forced to take retirement. Sideways features Paul Giamatti as a depressed schlump of a teacher who...
Alexander Payne is the champion of male middle-class losers. Films such as Election, About Schmidt and Sideways star men who have the rug pulled from underneath them. So Matthew Broderick's teacher in the wonderful high school satire Election is bullied by Reese Witherspoon's monomaniac student Tracy Flick, almost has an affair, gets so badly bee-stung that his face is reduced to a raw burger, and loses pretty much everything. In About Schmidt, Jack Nicholson is left with nothing but repressed anger and an existential crisis when he's forced to take retirement. Sideways features Paul Giamatti as a depressed schlump of a teacher who...
- 1/14/2012
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
Film's favourite Pm, David Cameron, stepped in to give his views on what sort of features deserve lottery funding – the big ones
The big story
What sort of British films do we want? Or, more specifically, what sort of British films does David Cameron want? More commercial, big-box-office ones it seems, as the prime minister carefully primed the media for the publication of the government's film policy review. His "remarks" were fed to the press overnight, in advance of his visit to the James Bond studios at Pinewood – leading to immediate suggestions that garlanded veterans like Mike Leigh were "finished". More films like The King's Speech and Slumdog Millionaire, please, said Cameron – but, as Peter Bradshaw pointed out, when politicians meddle in film-making, disaster is never far away. Perhaps Cameron could reflect on what might happen to a film he claimed to admire, Lindsay Anderson's If..., if it had it been around today.
The big story
What sort of British films do we want? Or, more specifically, what sort of British films does David Cameron want? More commercial, big-box-office ones it seems, as the prime minister carefully primed the media for the publication of the government's film policy review. His "remarks" were fed to the press overnight, in advance of his visit to the James Bond studios at Pinewood – leading to immediate suggestions that garlanded veterans like Mike Leigh were "finished". More films like The King's Speech and Slumdog Millionaire, please, said Cameron – but, as Peter Bradshaw pointed out, when politicians meddle in film-making, disaster is never far away. Perhaps Cameron could reflect on what might happen to a film he claimed to admire, Lindsay Anderson's If..., if it had it been around today.
- 1/12/2012
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
We've been enjoying your responses to our My favourite film series, for which Guardian writers have selected the movies they hold closest to their hearts.
Here's a roundup of how you responded in week six, when the selections were Way Out West, Double Indemnity, Tampopo, Back to the Future and Kes
Commence to dancing! For in the sixth week of our My favourite film series you achieved something pretty much unheard of – a Guardian article that provoked absolutely no dissenting opinion whatsoever. Just 156 comments worth of awe and affection for Laurel and Hardy with the odd smattering of praise for Jonathan Glancey's take on their "happily inconsequential" classic Way Out West. Debate be damned! We could get used to this.
"Strung between songs and a creaking plot are gags aplenty and a gloriously wayward score," said Glancey of James W Horne's collaboration with the pair, which sees the boys pop...
Here's a roundup of how you responded in week six, when the selections were Way Out West, Double Indemnity, Tampopo, Back to the Future and Kes
Commence to dancing! For in the sixth week of our My favourite film series you achieved something pretty much unheard of – a Guardian article that provoked absolutely no dissenting opinion whatsoever. Just 156 comments worth of awe and affection for Laurel and Hardy with the odd smattering of praise for Jonathan Glancey's take on their "happily inconsequential" classic Way Out West. Debate be damned! We could get used to this.
"Strung between songs and a creaking plot are gags aplenty and a gloriously wayward score," said Glancey of James W Horne's collaboration with the pair, which sees the boys pop...
- 12/13/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
In our writers' favourite film series, Simon Hattenstone finds real meaning in Ken Loach's film about a boy and a kestrel
Are your feathers ruffled by this review? Then write your own here or take flight to the comments section below
We didn't come from a very filmy family. I'd only seen two movies before Kes. One was The Poseidon Adventure – all I can remember is going in my pyjamas (I was ill) and being cold – and the other the film of Steptoe and Son. It was a friend's birthday, and I think (my memory might be playing a sick trick here) Albert Steptoe takes a bath in a tin tub and I found it weirdly thrilling.
Then came Kes. By now I was 12 years old, and at a special school, Crumpsall Open Air – or, as we pupils called it, Crumpsall Open Air for Mongs (no, I won't attempt...
Are your feathers ruffled by this review? Then write your own here or take flight to the comments section below
We didn't come from a very filmy family. I'd only seen two movies before Kes. One was The Poseidon Adventure – all I can remember is going in my pyjamas (I was ill) and being cold – and the other the film of Steptoe and Son. It was a friend's birthday, and I think (my memory might be playing a sick trick here) Albert Steptoe takes a bath in a tin tub and I found it weirdly thrilling.
Then came Kes. By now I was 12 years old, and at a special school, Crumpsall Open Air – or, as we pupils called it, Crumpsall Open Air for Mongs (no, I won't attempt...
- 12/2/2011
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
From Piers Morgan to Polly Toynbee, Jemima Khan to Jarvis Cocker – David Cameron takes questions from public figures who want answers
Hear what the Pm has to say in our audio interactive
David Mitchell, comedian
Do you wish you were less posh?
"[Laughs] No. You can't change who you are. For a long time I thought my full name was 'The Old Etonian David Cameron'. I had parents who gave me a wonderful start in life, who sacrificed a lot to give me a great education. So I don't ever want to change – I don't want to drop my accent or change my vowels. I am who I am."
Piers Morgan, TV presenter
If you could relive one moment in your life, excluding births of children and marriage, what would it be?
"God, that's a really good question. Piers, why don't you ever ask really good questions like that normally? I...
Hear what the Pm has to say in our audio interactive
David Mitchell, comedian
Do you wish you were less posh?
"[Laughs] No. You can't change who you are. For a long time I thought my full name was 'The Old Etonian David Cameron'. I had parents who gave me a wonderful start in life, who sacrificed a lot to give me a great education. So I don't ever want to change – I don't want to drop my accent or change my vowels. I am who I am."
Piers Morgan, TV presenter
If you could relive one moment in your life, excluding births of children and marriage, what would it be?
"God, that's a really good question. Piers, why don't you ever ask really good questions like that normally? I...
- 11/26/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
When Paddy Considine brought Tyrannosaur to New York for New Directors/New Films in March (reviews), Graham Fuller met up with him to interview him for Film Comment, noting that, as an actor, "Considine, 37, has blessed a range of downbeat British films with his lugubrious, sometimes volatile presence, among them his friend Shane Meadows's A Room for Romeo Brass (99) and Dead Man's Shoes (04), Pavel Pawlikowski's Last Resort (00) and My Summer of Love (04), Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People (02), Stoned (05), and Red Riding: 1980 (09). He has also made the odd foray into Hollywood for Cinderella Man (05) and The Bourne Ultimatum (07). As a writer-director, Considine cranks up the volatility with his outstanding feature debut, Tyrannosaur, which he took a dry run at with his 2007 short, Dog Altogether."
The film "opens with Joseph (Peter Mullan) taking out his rage and self-loathing on the last thing he loves, his dog, kicking the animal to death,...
The film "opens with Joseph (Peter Mullan) taking out his rage and self-loathing on the last thing he loves, his dog, kicking the animal to death,...
- 11/18/2011
- MUBI
From 7pm GMT Peter Bradshaw liveblogged the final part in Krzysztof Kieslowski's trilogy, which you can stream on our site. Also in the mix: a reader, and a drinking game …
3.00pm: And so we face the final frontier. Last night Andrew Pulver chuckled his way through Three Colours White. On Tuesday, Xan Brooks juggled pizza and existentialism during Three Colours Blue.
Tonight, Peter Bradshaw is in the hotseat, squished up alongside competition winner Joe Websper and Catherine Shoard, who'll be wrangling comments and overseeing the incredibly classy Three Colours Red drinking game (see below).
The third in the trilogy, Three Colours Red is also the most acclaimed. It's about a student (Irene Jacob) who befriends a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who is spying on his neighbours.
Some tips on how to fill the four hours till we begin:
• Study some more information about what we're up to, and some FAQs.
3.00pm: And so we face the final frontier. Last night Andrew Pulver chuckled his way through Three Colours White. On Tuesday, Xan Brooks juggled pizza and existentialism during Three Colours Blue.
Tonight, Peter Bradshaw is in the hotseat, squished up alongside competition winner Joe Websper and Catherine Shoard, who'll be wrangling comments and overseeing the incredibly classy Three Colours Red drinking game (see below).
The third in the trilogy, Three Colours Red is also the most acclaimed. It's about a student (Irene Jacob) who befriends a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who is spying on his neighbours.
Some tips on how to fill the four hours till we begin:
• Study some more information about what we're up to, and some FAQs.
- 11/17/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
This week we're reminding you of your invitation to join us at 7pm tonight when Peter Bradshaw (and a reader) will be liveblogging Three Colours Red on the site. And did anyone mention a drinking game … ?
The big story
And so we face the final frontier. Last night Andrew Pulver chuckled his way through Three Colours White. On Tuesday, Xan Brooks juggled pizza and existentialism during Three Colours Blue.
Tonight, Peter Bradshaw is in the hotseat, squished up alongside competition winner Joe Websper and Catherine Shoard, who'll be wrangling comments and overseeing the incredibly classy Three Colours Red drinking game (see below).
The third in the trilogy, Three Colours Red is also the most acclaimed. It's about a student (Irene Jacob) who befriends a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who is spying on his neighbours.
The big story
And so we face the final frontier. Last night Andrew Pulver chuckled his way through Three Colours White. On Tuesday, Xan Brooks juggled pizza and existentialism during Three Colours Blue.
Tonight, Peter Bradshaw is in the hotseat, squished up alongside competition winner Joe Websper and Catherine Shoard, who'll be wrangling comments and overseeing the incredibly classy Three Colours Red drinking game (see below).
The third in the trilogy, Three Colours Red is also the most acclaimed. It's about a student (Irene Jacob) who befriends a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who is spying on his neighbours.
- 11/17/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
What's funnier than being a hypochondriac? Being diagnosed with cancer and given only a 50% chance of survival. So say Will Reiser and Seth Rogen, who tell Simon Hattenstone why they've turned Reiser's real-life horror into 50/50, a gross-out film comedy
Seth Rogen is famous for his all-burping, all-farting gross-out comedies. But occasionally real life out-grosses even a Seth Rogen movie. Take, for example, the time he was told his friend Will Reiser had cancer. Another friend had already phoned Rogen to warn him that Reiser was going to call with the bad news. A few minutes later the phone rang. By now, Rogen was on the toilet, deeply concentrated.
"He was taking a dump. He couldn't not answer, so he picked up the phone," Reiser says.
"Too weird to put in the movie, hehehehehe!" Rogen roars.
Rogen had been told his friend's cancer was terminal, so when Reiser told him he...
Seth Rogen is famous for his all-burping, all-farting gross-out comedies. But occasionally real life out-grosses even a Seth Rogen movie. Take, for example, the time he was told his friend Will Reiser had cancer. Another friend had already phoned Rogen to warn him that Reiser was going to call with the bad news. A few minutes later the phone rang. By now, Rogen was on the toilet, deeply concentrated.
"He was taking a dump. He couldn't not answer, so he picked up the phone," Reiser says.
"Too weird to put in the movie, hehehehehe!" Rogen roars.
Rogen had been told his friend's cancer was terminal, so when Reiser told him he...
- 11/12/2011
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
This was the week that Eddie Murphy baled out of the Oscars, leaving the way clear for the some fabric puppets
The big story
Once upon a time the Oscar ceremony was a comforting drone punctuated only by the odd song-and-dance routine and the banshee wailing of overwhelmed best actress award winners. Not any more. Someone, somewhere, decided it had to get "edgy". Last time, they had cool young persons in the shape of James Franco and Anne Hathaway introducing it - and look how that worked out.
The big idea for 2012 was to hire a bona fide Hollywood hotshot, so naturally the word went out for Brett Ratner. Yes, well... he made Rush Hour 2, you know. No sooner had Ratner persuaded his mucker Eddie Murphy to act as the show's host (an inspired choice, we give him that) then he was promptly ejected from his co-producer role after...
The big story
Once upon a time the Oscar ceremony was a comforting drone punctuated only by the odd song-and-dance routine and the banshee wailing of overwhelmed best actress award winners. Not any more. Someone, somewhere, decided it had to get "edgy". Last time, they had cool young persons in the shape of James Franco and Anne Hathaway introducing it - and look how that worked out.
The big idea for 2012 was to hire a bona fide Hollywood hotshot, so naturally the word went out for Brett Ratner. Yes, well... he made Rush Hour 2, you know. No sooner had Ratner persuaded his mucker Eddie Murphy to act as the show's host (an inspired choice, we give him that) then he was promptly ejected from his co-producer role after...
- 11/11/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
Over the next few weeks, we're going to be hearing quite a bit about Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy — Blue (1993), White (1994) and Red (1994) — on both sides of the Atlantic. On Friday, the Guardian will begin streaming all three films in the UK and Eire, and you can read about the concurrent live-blogging sessions here. On Tuesday, Criterion will release the trilogy on DVD and Blu-ray and, on November 21, Artificial Eye will follow with its R2 Blu-ray package.
The Guardian has set up a special section on trilogy, gathering several related reviews and interviews it's run over the years. Dipping in, we can begin with Richard Williams, who wrote in 2006, "When Krzysztof Kieslowski died on March 13, 1996, it was as though a certain kind of cinema had come to an end along with him. The calm, reflective, compassionate gaze he brought to bear on the dilemmas faced by his characters made...
The Guardian has set up a special section on trilogy, gathering several related reviews and interviews it's run over the years. Dipping in, we can begin with Richard Williams, who wrote in 2006, "When Krzysztof Kieslowski died on March 13, 1996, it was as though a certain kind of cinema had come to an end along with him. The calm, reflective, compassionate gaze he brought to bear on the dilemmas faced by his characters made...
- 11/10/2011
- MUBI
We're streaming Krzysztof Kieslowski's brilliant trilogy live on the site. And we'd like you to join our discussion about the films
"When Krzysztof Kieslowski died on March 13, 1996," wrote Richard Williams a decade later in the Guardian, "it was as though a certain kind of cinema had come to an end along with him." A retrospective look at our archive content on the Polish director hammers home his point: this was a man of rare vision and brilliance. And his central achievement, the Three Colours trilogy – which takes its titles from the colours of the French flag, and inspiration from the political ideals at the heart of the Republic (liberty, equality, fraternity) – is an uncontested landmark in European cinema.
It was also, sadly, his final achievement: Kieslowski took early retirement at 52 after making the last in the trilogy, Red, then had a fatal heart attack two years later. It makes...
"When Krzysztof Kieslowski died on March 13, 1996," wrote Richard Williams a decade later in the Guardian, "it was as though a certain kind of cinema had come to an end along with him." A retrospective look at our archive content on the Polish director hammers home his point: this was a man of rare vision and brilliance. And his central achievement, the Three Colours trilogy – which takes its titles from the colours of the French flag, and inspiration from the political ideals at the heart of the Republic (liberty, equality, fraternity) – is an uncontested landmark in European cinema.
It was also, sadly, his final achievement: Kieslowski took early retirement at 52 after making the last in the trilogy, Red, then had a fatal heart attack two years later. It makes...
- 11/10/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
Polish film director Krzysztof Kieslowski has decided to retire as life behind the camera no longer appeals. He explains why to Simon Hattenstone in this piece originally published on 8 November 1994
Krzysztof Kieslowski is in top form, full of beans, raring to go. He sits in a pool of cigarette smoke, inhales with relish and scrubs out his past. 'It's enough. It's with pleasure that I'm putting film-making aside. I never enjoyed making films. I didn't like the whole film world, an invented, unreal world whose values are completely different to those I'm used to. Basic values. It's not an honourable profession.'
What is an honourable profession? 'Making shoes, that's honourable. Something which is useful.' So he's going back to Poland to make shoes? 'No, unfortunately, I don't know how to. I am trained as a film-maker. There is nothing else I can do.'
After The Dekalog, The Double Life Of Veronique...
Krzysztof Kieslowski is in top form, full of beans, raring to go. He sits in a pool of cigarette smoke, inhales with relish and scrubs out his past. 'It's enough. It's with pleasure that I'm putting film-making aside. I never enjoyed making films. I didn't like the whole film world, an invented, unreal world whose values are completely different to those I'm used to. Basic values. It's not an honourable profession.'
What is an honourable profession? 'Making shoes, that's honourable. Something which is useful.' So he's going back to Poland to make shoes? 'No, unfortunately, I don't know how to. I am trained as a film-maker. There is nothing else I can do.'
After The Dekalog, The Double Life Of Veronique...
- 11/9/2011
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
Tom Hollander's TV comedy Rev was a surprise hit – even the Archbishop of Canterbury is a fan – so why does the actor say he's a 'classic could-do-better person'? As a new series hits our screens, Simon Hattenstone finds out
I'm standing outside a greasy spoon in Notting Hill waiting for Tom Hollander. It's surprising that he's chosen a place like this – after all, he's hardly known for his working-class roots or roles. You're more likely to find him playing an aristocrat fallen on hard times (Gosford Park), a well-spoken toad of a politician (In The Loop), a right royal pain in the arse (the Duke of Windsor in Any Human Heart). In fact, anything but working class.
A few minutes later, a short scruffy man pants up the street, half walking, half running, and wholly apologetic. "I'm so s-s-s-sorry." He's so sorry he can't get the words out. Turns...
I'm standing outside a greasy spoon in Notting Hill waiting for Tom Hollander. It's surprising that he's chosen a place like this – after all, he's hardly known for his working-class roots or roles. You're more likely to find him playing an aristocrat fallen on hard times (Gosford Park), a well-spoken toad of a politician (In The Loop), a right royal pain in the arse (the Duke of Windsor in Any Human Heart). In fact, anything but working class.
A few minutes later, a short scruffy man pants up the street, half walking, half running, and wholly apologetic. "I'm so s-s-s-sorry." He's so sorry he can't get the words out. Turns...
- 11/5/2011
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
That was the week in which Sam Mendes confirmed the title, cast and thrust of Bond 23: Skyfall, and Roger Moore cocked an eyebrow at Quantum of Solace. Plus other, non-007, news
The big story
Every Bond begins with a kill. He walks in silhouette, turns and shoots us. The camera wobbles, fills with red and down we go. 007's first kill happens before anything else: before he's survived the Lake Como car chase, or flown a home-made plane through a hanger, or bungee-jumped from the Contra dam. Before the credits roll and the naked ladies start wrapping their legs around giant handguns.
Violence is as integral to the Bond franchise as product placement. Imagine the uproar then, when it was suggested that the appointment of Sam Mendes as the director of Bond 23 might do away with fist-fights and gunplay altogether. Mendes was a class act, out for Oscars.
The big story
Every Bond begins with a kill. He walks in silhouette, turns and shoots us. The camera wobbles, fills with red and down we go. 007's first kill happens before anything else: before he's survived the Lake Como car chase, or flown a home-made plane through a hanger, or bungee-jumped from the Contra dam. Before the credits roll and the naked ladies start wrapping their legs around giant handguns.
Violence is as integral to the Bond franchise as product placement. Imagine the uproar then, when it was suggested that the appointment of Sam Mendes as the director of Bond 23 might do away with fist-fights and gunplay altogether. Mendes was a class act, out for Oscars.
- 11/3/2011
- by Henry Barnes
- The Guardian - Film News
In our writers' favourite film series, Michael Hann and family find solace in Ted Demme's flawed but incisive ensemble drama
• Not pretty enough? Post your own review of Demme's Beautiful Girls – or leave a comment in the thread
You could argue that Ted Demme's Beautiful Girls is little more than an artfully arranged array of Hollywood comedy-drama archetypes. High school reunion? Yes. Bunch of tight childhood friends on divergent paths? Yes. Plus you've got unattainable girls, commitment issues, and the need to make a big decision that will change everything forever. And there are the character archetypes, too: the smooth lothario whose life is really a sham, the deluded jerk, the square, the happy loser, the cool but not too cool guy we're set up to identify with, the kinda kooky but great girl we're meant to fall in love with, the sassy best friend, the glamorous outsider with the model looks.
• Not pretty enough? Post your own review of Demme's Beautiful Girls – or leave a comment in the thread
You could argue that Ted Demme's Beautiful Girls is little more than an artfully arranged array of Hollywood comedy-drama archetypes. High school reunion? Yes. Bunch of tight childhood friends on divergent paths? Yes. Plus you've got unattainable girls, commitment issues, and the need to make a big decision that will change everything forever. And there are the character archetypes, too: the smooth lothario whose life is really a sham, the deluded jerk, the square, the happy loser, the cool but not too cool guy we're set up to identify with, the kinda kooky but great girl we're meant to fall in love with, the sassy best friend, the glamorous outsider with the model looks.
- 11/3/2011
- by Michael Hann
- The Guardian - Film News
He's made his name playing creeps and freaks. Now Philip Seymour Hoffman is directing his first film, Jack Goes Boating – and he's cast himself as the romantic hero. He tells Simon Hattenstone why it's time to stop beating up on himself
You want crippled communication, Philip Seymour Hoffman is your go-to man. You want all-round weirdos – red-faced, obese, heavy-breathing, sweating, self-loathing sickos – Hoffman's your man. There was a time when Masturbation could have been his middle name. Just look at the CV. As well as appearing in many of the best and bleakest movies of the past 15 years (often, unforgettably, for just a couple of minutes), there is a clear pattern. In Todd Solondz's Happiness he is the dysfunctional creep tossing himself off to strangers on the phone and convinced he is the least desirable man in the world. In Boogie Nights, he is a woeful hanger-on in a ginger bob,...
You want crippled communication, Philip Seymour Hoffman is your go-to man. You want all-round weirdos – red-faced, obese, heavy-breathing, sweating, self-loathing sickos – Hoffman's your man. There was a time when Masturbation could have been his middle name. Just look at the CV. As well as appearing in many of the best and bleakest movies of the past 15 years (often, unforgettably, for just a couple of minutes), there is a clear pattern. In Todd Solondz's Happiness he is the dysfunctional creep tossing himself off to strangers on the phone and convinced he is the least desirable man in the world. In Boogie Nights, he is a woeful hanger-on in a ginger bob,...
- 10/28/2011
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
Kenneth Anger's crazy, gorgeous, disturbing films almost landed him in jail. The avant-garde pioneer talks Simon Hattenstone through all his demons
The gallery is so tiny I think I've walked into somebody's front room. A 10-minute film plays on a loop. Weirded-out rock stars who look like Mick Jagger, or who are Mick Jagger, preen, strut and do their late-1960s satanic thing. White dots form a pyramid on a black background, naked boys lounge on a sofa, marines jump from a helicopter. There's a cat, a dog, an all-seeing Egyptian eye, people smoking dope out of a skull. A synthesiser makes an unbearable noise. There are no words, no story.
Around the screen, in London's Sprüth Magers gallery, a bunch of 21st-century trendies and stoners are watching this film, called Invocation of My Demon Brother, in awe, their ages ranging from late teens to late 80s. Next door,...
The gallery is so tiny I think I've walked into somebody's front room. A 10-minute film plays on a loop. Weirded-out rock stars who look like Mick Jagger, or who are Mick Jagger, preen, strut and do their late-1960s satanic thing. White dots form a pyramid on a black background, naked boys lounge on a sofa, marines jump from a helicopter. There's a cat, a dog, an all-seeing Egyptian eye, people smoking dope out of a skull. A synthesiser makes an unbearable noise. There are no words, no story.
Around the screen, in London's Sprüth Magers gallery, a bunch of 21st-century trendies and stoners are watching this film, called Invocation of My Demon Brother, in awe, their ages ranging from late teens to late 80s. Next door,...
- 3/10/2010
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.