Interview: Julia Loktev (The Loneliest Planet)

By Simon Miraudo April 8, 2013 Writer-director Julia Loktev warns that her film The Loneliest Planet is a “dangerous” date movie. In it, an engaged couple played by Hani Furstenberg and Gael Garcia Bernal roam Georgia’s picturesque Caucasus Mountains. Though madly in love one another, they are confronted with a life-threatening situation that completely changes […]

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Interview: David Petrarca (Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, True Blood)

By Simon Miraudo February 21, 2013 “I look at the networks as dinosaurs standing in the tar pits; they’re just waiting to fall over.” So says David Petrarca, one of the television industry’s go-to directors. Over the past decade, he’s had a front-row seat to the medium’s extraordinary evolution. Having helmed episodes of hit HBO […]

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Interview: James Marsh (Shadow Dancer)

Interview: James Marsh (Shadow Dancer). By Simon Miraudo.  James Marsh won the Best Documentary Oscar in 2008 for his literally-buoyant Man on Wire, and followed it up with the doco Project Nim, a startling tale of animal cruelty towards an adorable chimp that may in fact justify any future Rise of the Planet of the […]

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Interview: Catriona McKenzie (Satellite Boy)

Interview: Catriona McKenzie (Satellite Boy). By Simon Miraudo. Catriona McKenzie says her feature debut Satellite Boy is a descendant of such Aussie classics as Storm Boy and Walkabout. A good thing then that she’s recruited the legendary David Gulpilil from those flicks to appear in her movie too. The picture stars newcomers Cameron Wallaby and […]

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Interview: Joshua Marston (The Forgiveness of Blood)

Interview: Joshua Marston (The Forgiveness of Blood). By Simon Miraudo. New York-based writer/director Joshua Marston made a splash with his feature debut Maria, Full of Grace in 2004; a Spanish-language film that earned star Catalina Sandina Moreno a Best Actress nomination at the 77th Academy Awards. He spent the next six years trying to put […]

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Interview: Aki Kaurismäki (Le Havre)

Interview: Aki Kaurismäki (Le Havre). By Simon Miraudo. Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki (ah-kee kaur-oohs-mak-ee – more fun to pronounce than even Michel Hazanavicius!) is one of the most acclaimed writer-directors in the world. Famous for his adaptation of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, as well as The Match Factory Girl and The Man Without a Past, […]

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Perth International Arts Festival – Interview: Miranda July (The Future)

Interview: Miranda July (The Future). By Simon Miraudo. Miranda July is a unique talent with many strings to her bow; she’s a performance artist, musician, novelist, screenwriter, director, actor, and, as I discovered when I sat down with her at the Sydney Film Festival, a generally charming human being. Her latest movie – The Future – is a […]

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Interview: Alexei Popogrebsky; director of How I Ended This Summer

Interview: Alexei Popogrebsky; director of How I Ended This Summer. By Simon Miraudo. Russian thriller How I Ended This Summer follows a young meteorologist named Pavel (Grigoriy Dobrygin) and his senior supervisor (Sergei Puskepalis) at an isolated Arctic outpost. When they discover a devastating piece of news from home, paranoia sets in and they slowly […]

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Interview: Todd Solondz; writer/director of Life During Wartime

Interview: Todd Solondz; writer/director of Life During Wartime. By Simon Miraudo. “Now you’re a storyteller you might think you are without responsibility. But in directions, actions and words, cause and effect, you need consistency.” Belle and Sebastian sing these lines on the title track of their soundtrack to Todd Solondz’s 2001 feature Storytelling; a two-part […]

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Interview: Tannishtha Chatterjee; star of Road, Movie.

Interview: Tannishtha Chatterjee; star of Road, Movie. By Simon Miraudo. Tannishtha Chatterjee, the Indian actress who starred in the acclaimed drama Brick Lane, makes an impressive entrance in her latest feature Road, Movie. Like a specter wandering the desert, her nameless gypsy is happened upon by a trio of mismatched souls on a road trip […]

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