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Home , 20th Century Women, Elle Fanning, Roger Pulvers, You (season 3)

NOVEMBER 2017

ROGER THE UNTAMED PULVERS MEXICAN STAR SAND HORROR WITH AND 5 OTHER A DIFFERENCE TRUE ANTI-WAR FILMS

ELLE FANNING 21st CENTURY WOMAN FOR MORE MOVIE NEWS, REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS, HEAD TO WWW.FILMINK.COM.AU COMES DOWN TO EARTH The star of , Neon Demon and How To Talk to Girls at Parties is only getting started. BY RHIANA DAVIES-COTTER AND JAMES MOTTRAM.

n How to Talk to Girls at Parties, an alien touring the galaxy (Elle on Elle’s film career – her last three films have been directed by female Fanning) leaves her group and meets two young inhabitants of a brave directors. “There was with The Beguiled,” she says, “Then new world – 1970s (prime punk era) Croydon, in South London. The I did a Melanie Laurent film [upcoming Galveston], and then I did one with film is directed by , of Hedwig and the Angry [upcoming I Think We’re Alone Now]. I don’t necessarily IInch and Shortbus fame, and adapted from ’s 2006 short story. think about the gender, I just loved the stories, and they happened to be In Elle’s words, the film is “A love story. It’s like a punk-alien Romeo and directed by amazing female directors.” Elle admits that she wouldn’t be Juliet.” Aside from Fanning, the film stars (To the Bone), Ruth where she is today without the help of Sofia Coppola. “I feel like I might Wilson (Luther) and Nicole Kidman – Elle’s idol. “I always dreamed of not even be here if it wasn’t for the film Somewhere [Elle’s first film with meeting Nicole,” she says, “She was one of those actresses that I really Coppola]. Somewhere was the first movie that people really saw me in. I admired and respected. I was fascinated with her. She chooses so many was 11 at the time, and Sofia and I have kept in touch ever since then.” different characters. She’s not afraid – she just goes for it.” After Somewhere, Sofia and Elle were on the lookout for the next film they Kidman gave Elle some welcome advice about staying afloat in the cut- could do together – and the opportunity presented itself with The Beguiled. throat world of Hollywood. “Nicole was like, ‘ need to find your tribe, and “I got an email from Sofia saying that she had this idea, and that Kirsten surround yourself with people that support you. Especially in this business, [Dunst] was already signed on. Sofia said it was based off this movie that people can love you for the wrong reasons. You need to make sure that you Clint Eastwood did a while ago, and she said ‘I’m going to make you the protect yourself and have people around you that are really supportive’.” bad girl!’.” In the film, which is set during the American Civil War, a wound- So far, this is exactly what Elle is doing. “I still live at home with my par- ed Union soldier (Corporal McBurney, played by Colin Farrell) is taken in by ents,” Elle muses. “My family is full of strong women. My grandmother lives a group of women at a girls’ school in Virginia. Elle plays Alicia, a hormonal, with us, and my aunt, and my cousin and her daughter. We’re just a bunch of bored and sexually charged teenager intent on seducing the Corporal. Let’s ladies. And my sister () is so supportive. It was very strange just say things don’t end well. for my family when my sister and I chose to act. My parents wanted us to be Elle’s character in The Beguiled is just one example of her determination players. We didn’t live in L.A, we lived in Georgia, and it was my sister to choose complex and daring roles. “When you do films,” Elle remarks, who was originally like ‘I want to be an actress.’ Then after she started, I was “You have these experiences and you expand as a person. I care about like ‘Okay, me too.’ I wanted to try it, and once you start – if you love that how I’m growing as an actress and as a woman, and I want to choose world of just dressing up and playing pretend – it’s the best thing. You can’t films that are going to teach me something – that are going to make an really get enough of it, and you miss it when you’re not acting. You’re always impact on the world, even if it’s like [best scene – Elle like ‘what’s the next character going to be?’” felates a knife held by ]. I’ve had some people say ‘That’s my Being surrounded by strong women at home seems to have rubbed off favourite film ever!’, and others say they thought it was absolutely horrible.

WWW.FILMINK.COM.AU So, it’s like, you know what? That’s just the way it is. Another film that Elle holds close to her heart is “I’ve never had a movie where I’m just a high school And I like it that way, because you’ve made an impact ’ 20th Century Women, which is the story of student walking through the school halls. And it’s not on someone, and it’s memorable. I want to do movies a teenage boy and the three women who attempt to necessarily that I’m against that, but I just haven’t that people are going to remember, movies that stand raise him into a caring and intelligent man. The film is really gravitated towards roles like that, until this film. I out from the crowd.” set in Southern California in 1979, and Fanning plays thought How to Talk to Girls at Parties was really funny, At just 19 years old, Elle already has over 25 films Julie, the boy’s best friend and a young woman trying and it’s something that I’d never really done.” under her belt. She started acting at 18 months old to navigate her burgeoning adulthood. “I love that film, We thought we’d finish our interview with the (when she played a younger version of her sister in and I love Mike Mills,” Elle says, “We became really most important question of all – how exactly does one the film ) – but the first time she remembers close. I just love to call him and talk to him. He’s so talk to girls at parties? “I would say no weird pick-up really connecting with her character was in Ginger and soulful, and you can see it in his films.” lines,” Elle answers. “I think your eyes just need to Rosa, when she was 13. “In that film, I realised what Elle’s determination to grow as a woman and meet. There’s not really any words that need to be it was like to not feel like myself. I lost myself in the artist through her films has kept her away from roles said. A little mystery is always good.” character in a great way. I had an accent, I had red that are more typical for actresses her age. For hair – that movie just meant a lot. I had my first kiss in example, she has never played a high school student How to Talk to Girls at Parties plays at the Ad- that film. Like my first real kiss ever! I was bright red. in a teen movie – until now (if an extra-terrestrial elaide Film Festival which is on October 5 – 15, Yeah, I definitely grew up a lot.” being in the form of a high school student counts). 2017 n

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THE UNTAMED: THE DEVIL WITHINThe Untamed. BY CHRISTINE WESTWOOD Writer director Amat Escalante was born in Spain but spoke to us from his adoptive Mexico aboutthe mist, his traumatised.latest film The scene shifts to the home of Alejandra (Ruth Ramos) serving a meal to her children and he origin of the story was that I wanted to explore husband. We quickly discover the overtly macho Angel is the anger that I find in the culture around me. I feel conducting an abusive affair (reflecting his own repression that sexuality is connected to that anger, like in - and self-loathing) with his brother-in-law Fabien (Vincent homophobia, and the treatment of women.” Villa Vicencio). But before we meet any human protago TThe first human character we see in his film is a wounded girl, Veronica (Simone Bucio) walking through WWW.FILMINK.COM.AU attracts more profile and backing. “I’m not sure about the next project but I’m trying as instinctive animals. to get inspired by writing and making notes. And I’ve “I work intuitively,” Escalante says. “I’m not ac- been looking at a project in the US for about 3 years nists, the opening scene of The Untamed is a glimpse ademic or intellectual, I didn’t go to film school. The now. I’m interested in how that would be a new of the world from the point of view of a nebulous, way I structure a film is not very orthodox. I wanted experience, learning to handle a bigger production. alien creature. to do documentaries but failed! So I decided to apply “Looking back at Heli it tells the story in quite a It is this marrying of a mundane world with a that style to fiction – it was a half left-over desire. precise and different way. So, it’s not the story itself science fiction, horror theme that Escalante wanted My actors are mainly non-actors. The way I cast so much as how it was told,” he explains. “I have to tackle. characters for every movie is different, I have people “I was happy to have this strong challenge,” he changed quite a bit from the first movies I made. who are close to me who help, especially my brother They were very simple narratives for practical and says. “Introducing this Thing and integrating it into who knows what I like. I do casting from the street budget reasons. The restrictions made it easier in the physical world. It was mostly in the editing I saw as well as actors. I found the Veronica character on many ways. But in each movie, I’ve tried to expand how difficult the challenge was. I made the film play Facebook, I wrote to her and she came on board and ease restrictions. For example, The Untamed is with something that wasn’t real. The sci-fi and horror but she doesn’t want to be an actor. The other three the first movie that has a soundtrack to give freed me to express what the characters felt inside.” main characters have done acting. I found them What Escalante achieves is a sense of depth, atmosphere not just music that the characters listen through friends of friends.” to on the radio. taking us into a world that is mundane on the surface A stand-out is Ramos as Alejandra, the young “I’m also focusing more on working the scenes but references and reveals a vast undertow of mother trapped in a toxic relationship with Angel. with the actors. I’ve come to realise that it’s through primal influences where we all operate from. These - Her performance spans a wide arc from completely the actors that the audience has access to the film. impulses are a source of power, empowering or believable ordinariness to an almost mythic develop In previous films, the actors didn’t read the script, but deadly depending on each person’s relationship to ment as her relationship with the alien progresses. they did in The Untamed. the creature. The Untamed had its first outing at the 2016 Because I work intuitively and open-ended, I find Audiences seeking classic horror fare may be where Escalante won the Best that each stage of the process is incomplete in itself disappointed as the usual genre structure of menace Director award. One of his first films, Sangre (2005) from the script onwards. And when I’m shooting, is broken at the outset. Also, horror monsters - found a place at Cannes and Rotterdam festivals, but I feel like I’m shooting pieces of something bigger. are usually characterised by the repetitious and it was Heli, described as “a brutal slice of work Once it’s finished, the perception from the audience escalating nature of their attacks – their predictability ing-class life in narco-terrorist Mexico,” that won him and what they bring to the experience, completes adds to anticipation, but here the creature’s ‘attacks’ Best Director at Cannes (2013) from a jury headed by the process. The beauty of film is that it can continue become more of a reflection of its more or less Steven Spielberg. into the future, images stay in your mind and you can willing victims. Even if The Untamed doesn’t quite match up to What Escalante achieves particularly well is an gain more from watching them at different times. its predecessor, Escalante’s unique style and vision They don’t stand still. I don’t intellectualise, I can let almost reality TV sense of cinema verite, immersing guarantees him an enduring place as a director to it be like a dream which doesn’t make sense.” us in the characters’ ordinary world in such a way watch. In his interview with us he described his that lends the alien elements more strangeness. At commitment to growing as a filmmaker as his work the same time the depiction of mundane details, The Untamed is in cinemas October 26, 2017 n eating, peeing, illness underpin the sense of humans

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WWW.FILMINK.COM.AU ROGER PULVERS: THE FILMS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE

ovelist, playwright, theatre director, translator, and now film Diamonds opened my eyes to the truth: that in war we are all victims; director, Roger Pulvers is someone that you need to know there are no winners. The title refers to a metaphor created by the about. 19th-century poet Cyprian Norwid. Diamonds, starlike, may be found Spending his time between and , US inside a pile of ashes. In March 1970, I was fortunate to meet Andrzej bornN Roger Pulvers has walked along a circuitous path to arrive at Wajda and have a friendship with him that lasted until his death in Oc- filmmaking. His debut as a director, Star Sand, based on his own tober 2016. In the summer of 1970 I stayed in his country home some novel, is a Japanese production, which will premiere at the Canberra 40 kilometres east of Warsaw. It was a manor house that had a small International Film Festival. plaque on the wall reading: “In this house Cyprian Norwid was born.” I have chosen five films that relate to war, since it is a war – per- petrated by the – in Vietnam that sent me away from MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE, the country of my birth more than fifty years ago. The theme of war directed by Nagisa Oshima also became the subject of my novel and feature film, Star Sand. Oshima said to me on a number of occasions, “A film that does not equally treat the enemy from his side cannot be called an antiwar film.” ASHES AND DIAMONDS, directed by I recall often looking around the lush landscape of Rarotonga during This 1958 film is the third in a trilogy that deals with the war in the shoot and thinking, “Such brutality taking place in such a beautiful Poland, with the complex network of motivations and arbitrary fates natural setting!” The direct experience of working as Oshima’s assistant that all wars create. Growing up with an American war cinema where on this film taught me a great deal about the process of filmmaking, everything was black (the enemy) and white (Americans), Ashes and how the director must have an overall vision of what the film is going

WWW.FILMINK.COM.AU ON LOCATION FOR MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE: FROM LEFT, , ME, NAGISA OSHIMA, JEREMY THOMAS

to look like – and feel like in its pace and internal festival was held. By then I had already made JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN, rhythms – and ensure that that vision comes through two month-long trips to the and was directed by the intense and spontaneous creative process of the enamoured of Russian cinema. The love story Made in 1971 by the famous blacklisted scriptwrit- shoot. The bonds sensed and experienced between between the young soldier Alyosha, who goes on er, this is one of the very few American films that enemies is the theme of this film; and those bonds temporary leave to visit his mother, and the young can truly be called antiwar. The usual “antiwar” can be more meaningful and significant for the future Shura moved me to tears, as it still does. It is a American film – such as Saving Private Ryan than bonds among compatriots. long bright flash of innocence in the midst of total or Hacksaw Ridge – is a nationalistic display of blackness. Before I learned Russian I had been self-righteous flag-waving in the guise of a peace BALLAD OF A SOLDIER, taught that the Russians were devils out to destroy march. This film’s hero, Joe, is destined to lie in a directed by Grigori Chukhrai God’s own (and only) country. This film showed locked-in state pleading with an outside world that I saw Ballad of a Soldier several years after it was me that all young people yearn to live out their cannot hear him. While he was a victim of World released in 1959. It was at the Cinémathèque in lives free of the fetters wound around them by old War I, it was clear to Trumbo that this “Johnny” Paris in 1967, when a comprehensive Soviet film people seeking “glory.” was every soldier in every war; and that we can

WWW.FILMINK.COM.AU WITH ANDRZEJ WAJDA ON THE DAY HE TURNED 80, 6 MARCH 2006, TAKEN AT HIS HOME IN WARSAW.

all be turned into half-dead Johnnies at the whim of THE HUMAN CONDITION, to the callous and often savage treatment dealt him crazed leaders. The call to arms “Johnny Get Your directed by Masaki Kobayashi by his military superiors, and yet never loses his will Gun” harks back to the American Civil War and even No other film treats the merciless drudgery and to survive or the belief in decency and love that he morphed into a song by America’s most popular senseless cruelties of war more relentlessly and hon- cherishes. That this work is titled what it is makes it a composer, Stephen Foster. The lyrics haunt me … estly than this three-part nearly-ten-hour-long antiwar narrative for all of us, not just Japanese, who may be Johnny get your gun, get your gun epic made between 1959 and 1961. Based on Junpei caught in the trap that is called, with affected pomp Satan’s coming, don’t you hide Gomikawa’s bestselling novel, The Human Condition and trumped-up glory, in every country, “patriotism.” Johnny get your gun, get your gun was a popular and critical success in Japan at the time, attesting to the deeply-held antiwar convictions Star Sand screens at 6pm on October 29, 2017 of the Japanese people. The hero, Kaji, stands up at the Canberra International Film Festival n

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