• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 NEWS/FEATURES 13 People & Places Film Haddish brings the light Page at Venice fest to present Zeppelin docu VENICE, Italy, Sept 5, (AP): Guitarist Jimmy Page says he turned down a lot of “pretty miserable” pitches over the years to make a documentary about Led Zeppelin. But he fi nally bit when he received a deeply-researched proposal focusing almost exclu- sively on the music and chronicling the band’s birth in 1968 and its meteoric early rise. The result is “Becoming Led Zeppelin,” one of the most eagerly anticipated documentaries at the Venice Film Festival, which made its premiere Sat- urday with Page on the red carpet. Producers Bernard MacMahon and Allison McG- ourty — avowed Zeppelin fans — obtained never- before-seen footage of some of the band’s early U.S. and British concerts as well as an astonishing audio interview that drummer John Bonham gave to an Austral- ian journalist before he died in 1980. The interview, concert foot- age and other archive material are spliced into contempo- rary interviews with the three surviving band members — Page, Robert Plant and John Page Paul Jones — to create a mon- tage that maps the frenetic fi rst two years of the band’s existence and its early musical infl uences. MacMahon, who along with McGourty launched the PBS “American Epic” documentary series, said it took a year to locate the Bonham recording, after Antonio Banderas, (from left), Penelope Cruz and Oscar Martinez pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the fi lm ‘Offi cial Competition’ during the hearing a bootleg version of the interview on a vinyl 78th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Saturday, Sept 4. (AP) record. From the sound, he knew that it had been con- verted into a quarter-inch tape. He then “went to every Australian journalist that we knew from that Film era saying do you recognize this voice? Because the journalist doesn’t identify himself.” “Eventually I tracked down someone who said, ‘We know who it was but he died.’” Chastain and Isaac redo Bergman MacMahon then drew on previous contacts he had with a sound archive in Canberra, Australia, which went through “30,000 unmarked reels” to fi nd the one with the interview. Gyllenhaal makes her directorial debut He went to similar lengths to get full concert re- cordings of the songs as performed, sometimes fi nd- VENICE, Italy, Sept 5, (AP): Maggie Colman said. “That’s what I loved what an excellent actress she is, but ing reels of uncut songs that had never before been Gyllenhaal may come from a family about it.” being around her is truly inspiring,” he seen. He said he went to such lengths because he of fi lmmakers, yet she never let herself Colman found the prospect of play- said. “She has a real eye for an uncon- wanted the fi lm to essentially be a musical inter- dream about directing until recently. ing someone who does something un- ventional truth.” spersed with interviews. Things changed very quickly and very thinkable exciting. Page said he particularly appreciated the focus on profoundly for Gyllenhaal when she “All people want to be one person, Also: the music — the songs are played at full-length, not found herself writing to Elena Fer- turns out they’re not that person and VENICE, Italy: Jessica Chastain has just snippets. And it lets the band members tell their rante, asking for permission to adapt they’re probably someone else,” Col- been friends with Oscar Isaac since own story in their own words. There are no other on- her 2008 novel “The Lost Daughter.” man said. “It was intriguing to play a their Julliard days but says it was “a camera interviews. Ferrante said yes, she could have character who does something that I blessing and a curse” to play his wife Page said he agreed to the producers’ pitch after the rights, but there was one condition: wouldn’t do, but (maybe) I’ve thought in a remake of Ingmar Bergman’s he received a leather-bound storyboard mapping out Gyllenhaal had to direct it herself or about it.” classic “Scenes From a Marriage,” the movie as they had researched it and envisaged it. Maggie Gyllenhaal, (left), and Jake the contract was “null and void.” For Johnson, it was the opposite. which premiered Saturday at the Ven- “When we fi rst met we were probably a little Gyllenhaal pose for photographers “I think I’ve always been a director “Olivia found it fun and I found it ice Film Festival. nervous of each other. But the conduit was the story- upon arrival at the premiere of the fi lm and I just didn’t feel entitled to admit really hard,” Johnson laughed. “I at It was a blessing because they didn’t board,” Page said. “And I thought they’ve really got ‘The Lost Daughter’ during the 78th it to myself,” Gyllenhaal said Friday times felt so uncomfortable because need to get to know one another and it, they really understand what it was about.” edition of the Venice Film Festival in at the Venice Film Festival before her (Nina) was so uncomfortable. It was could be brutally honest with one an- He said he had received plenty of proposals over Venice, Italy, Friday, Sept 3. (AP) fi lm makes its world premiere in com- fun sometimes to be so twisted, but other. But it was also a curse because the years to tell Led Zeppelin’s story, but “they were petition. “I think it’s a better job for me other times it really hurt me.” they couldn’t take a break from their pretty miserable. Miserable and also to the point actually.” But Johnson did fi nd in Gyllenhaal, togetherness and got to the point where they would want to be concentrating on any- Ferrante’s novel, which preceded “the kind of relationship, artistic, crea- “where we were reading each others thing but the music.” her Neapolitan quartet, follows a mid- tive collaboration that is of dreams.” minds!” dle-aged college professor and mother “So I was like ‘Get out of my “This one, it’s everything about the music, and Bonding what made the music tick,” he said. “It’s not just a of two grown daughters on a solo va- head!’” Chastain told reporters ahead sample of it with a talking head. This is something in cation, where she is transfi xed by a “She really catches me off guard all of the premiere. “I felt on this job that a totally different genre.” younger mother and her daughter. the time in a way that makes me re- there was no quiet time.” Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley ally want to evolve as a person and an The project was an intense one, re- ❑ ❑ ❑ play the lead, Leda, at different stages actress,” Johnson said. “That’s some- imagining in a contemporary American Tiffany Haddish may have Martin Scorsese to of life. Colman’s Leda is vacationing thing I fi nd really rare in making mov- context the unravelling of a marriage thank for her role in Paul Schrader’s “The Card in Greece when she notices Nina (Da- ies. That used to be a more common depicted in Bergman’s 1973 Swedish Counter,” at least indirectly. kota Johnson) and her young daughter experience bonding with a director television miniseries that starred Berg- It was Scorsese who opened Schrader’s eyes to Scott Kelly on the same beach and makes a bi- where you felt like you could unzip man’s longtime partner, Liv Ullmann. the power of the comedic actor when he cast Albert zarre decision involving the daugh- and be safe.” In this fi ve-episode HBO series di- Brooks in a vanilla — seemingly plain — role in ter’s doll. Gyllenhaal cast her husband Peter rected by Hagai Levi, the gender roles “Taxi Driver.” Schrader asked him why and he said Gyllenhaal said Ferrante’s novels Sarsgaard in the fi lm as well, as a bril- are essentially fl ipped and the circum- he thought Brooks would fi nd something in it. Variety present, “Secret truths about a femi- liant professor who Buckley’s Leda is stances brought up-to-date. “You cast a comic, they will break something nine experience in the world that I re- drawn to. But she said thought twice Isaac, who has two other movies ally liked having spoken out loud... It about it. showing at Venice, agreed that their in a role, even if it isn’t laughs. They will make NEW YORK: Willard Scott, the beloved seemed like a kind of dangerous, excit- “To be completely honest there close friendship posed “its own chal- themselves interesting,” Schrader said. “It’s in their weatherman who charmed viewers of ing thing to try. That was why I wanted was a moment where I thought maybe lenges” when fi lming such an inher- DNA.” NBC’s “Today” show with his self-depre- to try to adapt it into a fi lm.” it’s not a great idea to have him play ently fraught projectm since “you care And it’s a theory he’s often gone back to, from cating humor and cheerful personality, has She corresponded with Ferrante the object of desire for a (beautiful) about the person so much.” casting Richard Pryor in his debut “Blue Collar” to died. He was 87. who gave notes on the script, which actress,” Gyllenhaal said. “Then I The two, who starred together in the bringing Cedric the Entertainer to his last fi lm “First His successor on the morning news takes many creative liberties with the thought, ‘You’re so bourgeois.’ Peter 2014 “A Most Violent Year,”’ used an Reformed.” So when Haddish’s name came up for show, Al Roker, announced that Scott died text, including making Leda British and I have been together since I was 23 intimacy coordinator and lots of talk- the role of La Linda, a gambling agent who gets en- peacefully Saturday morning surrounded by family.

Load more

  1

Copy Link