Archive for the ‘2014’ Tag
Here’s a really great article by LA Times – ‘The Rover,’ shot in the scorching outback, chills the heart and soul
Film directors fretting on the set is nothing new, but David Michod, whose “The Rover” will debut at the Festival du Cannes on Saturday, had a concern that was considerably out of the ordinary: “I worried,” he says, “that the actors would die.”
Michod’s first feature since 2010’s knockout “Animal Kingdom,” “The Rover” stars Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson and was filmed in the South Australian outback, where temperatures in the hottest time of the year are literally inhumane.
“We had a technical scout the week before we started shooting and it felt dangerous, the temperature was 50 degrees Celsius, which is 122 degrees Fahrenheit,” the director recalled while in the cool interior of a posh hotel bar.
“You couldn’t work in that kind of heat, if you stood outside for more than 20 minutes you could start to die. … The producers [and I] had a short conversation about that, it was short because we didn’t want to contemplate that possibility. Fortunately, the temperature during shooting went down to 40 to 45 degrees Celsius [104-113 Fahrenheit.] That sits within the spectrum suitable for human life.”
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In an article from Deadline about the Cannes Film Market, ‘Queen of the Desert’ and ‘Life’ are listed as two of the movies that have the most buzz in the market
Deadline:
QUEEN OF THE DESERT – Director, Writer: Werner Herzog, Cast: James Franco, Robert Pattinson, Nicole Kidman, Damian Lewis. Kidman plays Gertrude Bell, the Lawrence of Arabia of female diplomats and political attaché for the British Empire at the dawn of the 20th century. Sales: Sierra Affinity, CAA, Cassian Elwes.
LIFE – Director: Anton Corbijn. Cast: Robert Pattinson, Dane DeHaan, Ben Kingsley, Joel Edgerton. A photographer for Life Magazine is assigned to shoot pictures of James Dean. Sales: CAA / WME / FilmNation. Based on 15 minutes of footage, this one’s in play and is gonna sell.
Via
Sandy George from SBS Movies sent some questions to David and his responses are as follows:
“Every filmmaker dreams of getting a film into Cannes. Why do you think The Rover did?
Hopefully, it feels like a film they haven’t seen before – it’s tense and unusual – and because the central performances from Guy and Rob are really extraordinary.
You have said that the film is “not a post-apocalyptic film”, that “this is an Australia that has broken down into a kind of resource-rich Third World country.” Can you expand on that?
I didn’t want the world of the movie to feel like we’d been reduced to psychotic apes because of a single cataclysmic event. Rather, I wanted it to feel like the entirely plausible and frighteningly possible result of the world we live in today: economic and environmental collapse, as a product of rampant greed and exploitation, reduce Australia to a dangerous resource-rich third world country. Infrastructure, products, and an economy of sorts still exist – they’re just broken, fragile and the world of the movie as a consequence is dangerous and unpredictable.
For the many people who know and love Animal Kingdom, what would you say to them about how the film is most different from or influenced by or still shows the David Michôd touch.
I think it will feel like it was made by the same guy who made Animal Kingdom. The Rover is much leaner in narrative and more epic in landscape but, like Animal Kingdom, it’s still about the sadness and menace of people trying to make sense of a world that doesn’t make any sense.”
Read the rest of Sandy’s interaction with David at SBS.
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The Rover’ review by Studio Ciné Live
A road movie with ironic darkness.
David Michôd likes contrasts. Discovered with ‘Animal Kingdom’, a psychological thriller, almost behind closed doors, visually dark, we find him three years later with a postapocalyptique western located in the australian outtaback, overwhelmed by the sun. But this light is misleading. ‘The Rover’ works in the same tetanizing way as his first feature film. (… Synopsis …) Accompanied by an anxiogenic and intriguing sountrack, this road movie is terribly ironic especially for his darkness. Subtly blowing hot and cold, Michôd manages to create empathetic conditions toward the selfish and monstrous central character in the literal sense. Until a disconcerting final scene, but finalizing the work of a this master of cynicism, so assured that it becomes fascinating. In the main roles, the rough hardness of Guy Pearce goes perfectly with lost innocence brought out by Robert Pattinson. Any resemblance to any existing characters and economic situtations … or about to be are obviously anything but accidental.
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Here’s a wonderful new still of Rob in The Rover:
and here’s an older one with Guy (no Rob) in UHQ now as well
source
Studio Cinelive magazine dedicates an interview to David Cronenberg. Moreover there are two articles about Maps To The Stars:
In short: it says Rob will show more than his pretty face, that Cronenberg is going back to his roots, the cast is pretty good and that Julianne’s performance is probably gonna be the best out of all her already amazing performances.
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From Tribute:
World Film Locations: Toronto by editor/author Tom Ue is the latest in a series of books that focuses on a city that has been the location of a number of well-known films. Tom, who was born in Toronto, now lives in London, England, where he works at Oxford. He did an extensive amount of research for the book and in his opening piece, Toronto: City of the Imagination, he talks about the earliest recorded film footage of Toronto, shot in 1904. The book goes from early Toronto-filmed features right through to the recent Pacific Rim (2013). Favorite shooting locations such as Black Creek Pioneer Village, Toronto Harbor, Eaton Centre, CN Tower, The Distillery District, Don Jail and more are featured, including photos from each location as well as stills from the movies. Tom, who has previously worked as an accredited journalist at the Toronto International Film Festival, graciously answered our questions about this exciting new book.
How did you choose Robert Pattinson/Cosmopolis for the cover?
Early in the production process, we knew we wanted to showcase David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis both because it is a great Cronenberg film and because it emblemizes some of the key themes about identity and representation that the book explores. Robert Pattinson’s links to Canadian cinema and Toronto as a city are further realized through his starring in Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars (2014) and Anton Corbijn’s Life (2015). He is a fantastic actor with phenomenal range.
Thanks to Tom Ue for sending us the link!
Assayas mentioned Rob again in a different interview. This time with Studio Cine Live:
“These young guys deserved to be known. By the way, I’ll likely shoot my next movie with Robert Pattinson.”
Scans and Translation | via RPLife
‘The Rover’ director, David Michôd, talked about casting Rob and Guy and their characters in the movie. From the Cannes’ French Press Kit (click on the link to read the full interview and the press kit – in French)
How did you choose your actors?
I had Guy Pearce in mind from the beginning. We needed a man who was his age, who had a quiet and mysterious strength, who had is talent and his extraordinary attention to detail. I didn’t forget the pleasure I had working with him on Animal Kingdom. Rob (Pattinson) came later. We met, I liked him a lot and then he did some screen tests for me, awesome tests, full of life, never forced or artificial, and it was done. And there is something very exciting in having the opportunity to show the world that a star underestimated and reduced to a certain image actually has a wealth of unexploited talent. I quickly found out that Rob is a great actor. And I look forward to everyone can realize the same.
If Guy Pearce’s character is the “Rover”, how do you define Robert Pattinson’s?
He is also a “rover”. Guy is a rover in the sense of “wanderer”. But in classical English, “rover” is also used as affectionate term for a dog. Rob follows Guy everywhere, a bit like a lost dog would.
Translation and via | via
Thinking of Rob 