Toronto International Film Festival 2007 INTERVIEWS

James Rocchi's series of TIFF Audio Interviews:

Eastern Promises Director David Cronenberg:
"Cinematical had the pleasure of speaking with Cronenberg on a pre-Toronto press stop in San Francisco about working with Viggo Mortensen again, London's bustling modern cityscape and why it's not so much that he's moved past making horror films than it is how the genre's fallen behind ..." LISTEN HERE

The Orphanage Director Juan Antonio Bayona:
"Mixing character-driven drama with a host of jumps and starts, Bayona's film chills and startles -- and also works as a sensitive, character-driven drama between the jumps and starts ..."  LISTEN HERE

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days Director Christian Mungui:
"After a rapturous reception, rave reviews and winning the Palme D'Or at Cannes earlier this year, Romanian writer/director Christian Mungiu's film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and Two Days has finally made it to North America -- playing at both the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals ..." LISTEN HERE

Lust, Caution Director Ang Lee
"Cinematical's first interview with Lust, Caution director Ang Lee had to be re-scheduled so that Lee could fly to Venice to receive the Golden Lion for his latest film; entirely understandable, and certainly not the worst reason I've ever had an interview move around on the schedule. One of the more polarizing entries at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, Lust, Caution tells the story of a radical group of Chinese students in the 1940s who send Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei) undercover in an attempt to kill the collaborator Mr. Yee (Tony Leung) ..." LISTEN HERE

Joy Division Director Grant Gee
"The press notes for Joy Division offer that director Grant Gee "Essentially is a geography teacher and owns two corduroy jackets ..."; he's also a film maker whose music-based projects like Radiohead: Meeting People is Easy and Demon Days Live have both been Grammy-nominated. His latest film looks at the music and influence of the Manchester band Joy Division ..." LISTEN HERE

I'm Not There Director Todd Haynes
"I walked directly from the delayed press screening of I'm Not There, the new film from director Todd Haynes (Safe, Far From Heaven) to our interview. It didn't feel like enough time -- and also like you couldn't possibly prepare enough to take on the layers and levels and tricks and treats of Haynes's sprawling, fractured take on the life and times of Bob Dylan. Haynes spoke with Cinematical about finding truth through myth, pop and politics and which Bob Dylan songs he can, in fact, still listen to after capturing six different iterations of one man ..." LISTEN HERE

Reservation Road Director Terry George
"Director and writer Terry George may best be known for his Oscar-nominated work on Hotel Rwanda; Reservation Road, his new film at the Toronto International Film Festival, may very well earn a few Oscar nominations of its own. George spoke with Cinematical in Toronto about working with an impressive group of actors (including Mark Ruffalo, Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connelly and Mia Sorvino), the challenges of adapting John Burnham Schwartz's novel and the difference between simple villains and complex characters ..." LISTEN HERE

Reservation Road Star Mark Ruffalo
"In Reservation Road, Mark Ruffalo plays Dwight --a divorced lawyer drifting through life who accidentally strikes and kills a young boy with his SUV one night -- and drives away, leaving shattered lives in his wake. Ruffalo's performance is careful and yet raw, sincere and complex -- and his work opposite Joaquin Phoenix (who plays the father bereaved by Dwight's accident) has riveting power. Ruffalo spoke with Cinematical in Toronto about tackling tough characters, working opposite Phoenix and his character's love of the Red Sox ..." LISTEN HERE

Honeydripper Director John Sayles
"Many people may have done more for independent film -- producers who funded groundbreaking work, directors who brought crowds to theaters with groundbreaking work, pioneers who paved the way -- but, looking at the career of writer-director John Sayles, it's hard to think of anyone who's done more with independent film ..." LISTEN HERE

Trumbo Director Peter Askin
" Trumbo, director Peter Askins' new documentary about the life and work of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, began life as a series of letters archived by Dalton Trumbo's son Christopher; it then became a two-person play. On-screen -- where it's become one of the breakout documentary surprises of this year's Toronto International Film Festival -- the story mixes archival footage and interviews with brand-new readings of Trumbo's letters by a cast of true talents ..." LISTEN HERE

Other Interviews ...

Chop Shop Director Ramin Bahrani
"With his second feature film, Chop Shop, director Ramin Bahrani carries on his theme of exploring the "invisible people" of society that he started with his first film, Man Push Cart, which played Sundance (and other fests) in 2006. Where Man Push Cart showed a cross-section of the life of a former Pakistani pop star reduced to selling doughnuts and coffee to busy Manhattanites, in Chop Shop Bahrani shows us the life of a young Latino boy who lives and works in the Iron Triangle district of New York City ..."

Atonement Director Joe Wright
"Here at the Toronto Film Festival, I had a chance to sit down with Joe Wright, one of the most exciting filmmakers working today. For the last two years I've been saying good things to everyone I know about his most recent film, a loose and lively adaptation of Jane Austen's classic Pride & Prejudice, and now I'll be able to change the subject to the joys of his new picture, an adaptation of Ian McEwan's Atonement."

Toronto Report: Juno Interview Highlights
"It's not every day that one gets to see a film that's charming, sweet, intelligent and also happens to be written by an erstwhile stripper/phone sex operator (who, incidentally, owns a cat named Douchepacker). I had that pleasure at the Toronto Film Festival, however, when I took in Juno, penned with surprising astuteness by first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody (the aforementioned former stripper), directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking), and starring Ellen Page (Hard Candy), Michael Cera (Superbad), Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner ..."

It's a Free World Director Ken Loach
"It's all sorted! It's all sorted!" Angie yells out at one point during an argument in It's a Free World, the new film from Ken Loach. What she really seems to be saying, however, is 'It's all sordid,' which it is. Angie, played by newcomer Kierston Wareing, is a 33 year-old wrangler of day laborers for the London work force ..."

King of California Star Michael Douglas
"He's glorified greed, fended off a psycho ex-girlfriend and even served as president of the United States -- but at heart, Michael Douglas has always been plain ol' crazy. In King of California, a festival crowd-pleaser from first-time director Mike Cahill, Douglas is Charlie, who's just been released from a mental institution and is convinced that there's Spanish treasure buried under the local Costco ..."

Margot at the Wedding Director Noah Baumbach
"Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale, a semi-autobiographical film about a Brooklyn family's experience with divorce, was the sleeper indie hit of 2005, and after its success Baumbach shot to prominence as a director to watch. His highly anticipated follow-up effort, Margot at the Wedding, returns to similar themes of family love and loathing ..."

Atonement Screenwriter Christopher Hampton
"One of the best-received films at this year's TIFF, Atonement tells the story of a 13 year-old girl who, thinking she's doing something right, actually does something horribly wrong and starts a chain reaction of terrible events that will go on for several years. To say more than that seems unfair, since this is the kind of film that everyone should go into tabula rasa the first time, if at all possible ..."

Ping Ping Playa Writer-Director Jessica Yu
"One of the most dynamic female documentarians today, Jessica Yu, has made the big jump into narrative features with the Asian American-led comedy, Ping Pong Playa'. The film is about a carefree guy named C-Dub, who would rather gripe about his missed basketball prospects than get a solid job or take up the family sport of ping pong -- that is, until his mother and brother are hurt, and he has to save the family's honor at the ping pong championship ..."

Ping Pong Playa Writer-Star Jimmy Tsai
"One of the most surprising performances that came out of the Toronto International Film Festival was Jimmy Tsai's C-Dub in Jessica Yu's Ping Pong Playa'. It was not a stunning or eye-opening look into a dramatic character, but rather a simple account of a guy who loves basketball, but begrudgingly enters the world of ping pong to help out his parents ..."


 

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