Martin McDonagh is the rare storyteller celebrated on the stage and screen alike, a fusion he loves to discuss.
“I always preferred movies to plays,” he told me in a recent conversation I moderated with the writer-director at the Hamptons Film Festival, shortly before a screening of “The Banshees of Inisherin,” his fourth feature. “The plays I saw as a kid were very dull.” He added under his breath, with acute comic timing, “I grew up in England.”
The crowd roared. Yet McDonagh’s roots are more complicated than that, and that complexity sits at the root of his work, never with more prominence than it does in “Banshees.” His first movie set in Ireland in almost 20 years relates back to his youth, and wrestles with deep questions about national identity, whether he wants to talk about it or not.
As the child of Irish parents who took their son back to their homeland,...
“I always preferred movies to plays,” he told me in a recent conversation I moderated with the writer-director at the Hamptons Film Festival, shortly before a screening of “The Banshees of Inisherin,” his fourth feature. “The plays I saw as a kid were very dull.” He added under his breath, with acute comic timing, “I grew up in England.”
The crowd roared. Yet McDonagh’s roots are more complicated than that, and that complexity sits at the root of his work, never with more prominence than it does in “Banshees.” His first movie set in Ireland in almost 20 years relates back to his youth, and wrestles with deep questions about national identity, whether he wants to talk about it or not.
As the child of Irish parents who took their son back to their homeland,...
- 10/19/2022
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Jammin’ the Blues by Gjon Mili. Completed in 1944.
Gjon Mili is primarily known for his work as a photographer, particularly his portraits and experimental use of strobe lighting, much of which appeared in Life magazine.
In the book Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz for Justice, author Tad Hershorn goes into great detail in the making and release of the film. After building a career as a photographer in New York City, Mili was flown to Los Angeles by Warner Bros. to see if he would be a good motion picture director. Mili proposed a jazz film to producer Gordon Hollingshead, which the studio moved forward on. Granz, the subject of Hershorn’s book, is listed as the Technical Director of the film in the opening credits (see below).
Jammin’ the Blues was filmed over four days in September 1944, and released that December. There was some controversy surrounding...
Gjon Mili is primarily known for his work as a photographer, particularly his portraits and experimental use of strobe lighting, much of which appeared in Life magazine.
In the book Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz for Justice, author Tad Hershorn goes into great detail in the making and release of the film. After building a career as a photographer in New York City, Mili was flown to Los Angeles by Warner Bros. to see if he would be a good motion picture director. Mili proposed a jazz film to producer Gordon Hollingshead, which the studio moved forward on. Granz, the subject of Hershorn’s book, is listed as the Technical Director of the film in the opening credits (see below).
Jammin’ the Blues was filmed over four days in September 1944, and released that December. There was some controversy surrounding...
- 7/16/2017
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
'120 Beats per Minute' trailer: Robin Campillo's AIDS movie features plenty of drama and a clear sociopolitical message. AIDS drama makes Pedro Almodóvar cry – but will Academy members tear up? (See previous post re: Cannes-Oscar connection.) In case France submits it to the 2018 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, screenwriter-director Robin Campillo's AIDS drama 120 Beats per Minute / 120 battements par minute, about the Paris Act Up chapter in the early 1990s, could quite possibly land a nomination. The Grand Prix (Cannes' second prize), international film critics' Fipresci prize, and Queer Palm winner offers a couple of key ingredients that, despite its gay sex scenes, should please a not insignificant segment of the Academy membership: emotionalism and a clear sociopolitical message. When discussing the film after the presentation of the Palme d'Or, Pedro Almodóvar (and, reportedly, jury member Jessica Chastain) broke into tears. Some believed, in fact, that 120 Beats per Minute...
- 6/21/2017
- by Steph Mont.
- Alt Film Guide
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