Matt's Blog
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Friday, 9 September 2011
Friends With Kids
World Premiere
6:00pm – Ryerson Theatre
Director: Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein)
Plot: When a few members of a close group of married and single friends start to have children, it has a big impact on everyone. Stars Kristen Wiig, Megan Fox, Jon Hamm, Maya Rudolph and Edward Burns.
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360
World Premiere
9:00pm – Visa Screening Room (Elgin Theatre)
Director: Fernando Meirelles (City Of God, The Constant Gardener)
Plot: Director Fernando Meirelles reunites with his Constant Gardener star Rachel Weisz, who stars opposite Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, and Ben Foster in this uncompromising dramatic thriller fuelled by the notion of how sexual relationships can transgress social boundaries.
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Saturday, 10 September 2011
The Ides Of March
North American Premiere
11:00am – Visa Screening Room (Elgin Theatre)
Director: George Clooney (Good Night, And Good Luck)
Plot: George Clooney is back in the director’s chair for this edgy political drama set in the days leading up to a fictional presidential primary. Clooney also stars as a Democratic candidate who schools his idealistic campaign press secretary (Ryan Gosling) in the dubious machinations of modern politics.
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Moneyball
World Premiere
2:30pm – Visa Screening Room (Elgin Theatre)
Director: Bennett Miller (Capote)
Plot: Bennett Miller’s follow-up to 2005’s Capote stars Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, the Oakland Athletics’ general manager whose unorthodox approach to fielding a team had a major impact on the game. Jonah Hill and Phillip Seymour Hoffman co-star in this clever and compelling work of sports realism.
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The Descendants
World Premiere
6:00pm – Visa Screening Room (Elgin Theatre)
Director: Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways)
Plot: George Clooney plays the leader of a storied Hawaiian family as they are forced to decide what to do with their last, vast parcel of land. At the same time he learns a secret about his critically ill wife.
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Drive
Canadian Premiere
9:15pm – Ryerson Theatre
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn (Valhalla Rising)
Plot: Ryan Gosling plays a stunt driver by day, getaway driver by night in this lean and mean crime thriller by the director of Valhalla Rising that won Best Direction in Cannes.
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Sunday, 11 September 2011
Take This Waltz
World Premiere
12:00pm – Ryerson Theatre
Director: Sarah Polley (Away We Go)
Plot: Sarah Polley makes a welcome return to directing with her first feature since 2006 Festival favourite Away from Her. Luke Kirby, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman and two-time Oscar-nominee Michelle Williams star in this bittersweet story about a married woman struggling to choose between her husband and a man she's just met.
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Dark Horse
North American Premiere
2:30pm – Visa Screening Room (Elgin Theatre)
Director: Todd Solondz (Happiness, Storytelling)
Plot: Todd Solondz creates an intimate dark comedy about a manchild whose desire for a romantic relationship runs smack into reality.
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Shame
North American Premiere
7:00pm – Princess Of Wales Theatre
Director: Steve McQueen (Hunger)
Plot: Michael Fassbender plays a New York man confronting his sexual compulsions and the self-destructive acts of his sister (Carey Mulligan).
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The Skin I Live In
North American Premiere
10:00pm – Princess Of Wales Theatre
Director: Pedro Almodovar (All About My Mother, Talk To Her)
Plot: Pedro Almodovar's disturbing and gripping new thriller sees the director reteaming with star Antonio Banderas after 21 years. Banderas plays an accomplished plastic surgeon who creates a new kind of synthetic skin and uses his worst enemy as a guinea pig.
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Monday, 12 September 2011
Albert Nobbs
World Premiere
12:30pm – Winter Garden Theatre
Director: Rodrigo Garcia (Six Feet Under, In Treatment)
Plot: Glenn Close co-wrote and stars in this adaptation of the play about a nineteenth-century Irishwoman who disguises herself as a man and works as a butler for twenty years. Mia Wasikowska, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Aaron Johnson co-star in this intelligent and often surprising period drama.
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50/50
World Premiere
6:00pm – Ryerson Theatre
Director: Jonathan Lavine (The Wackness)
Plot: As far as movie formulas go, cancer and comedy shouldn't mix. But 50/50 defies these odds by finding the perfect balance of humour and honesty. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as a 27-year old nice guy who's been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Luckily, he doesn't have to face this dark journey alone: by his side are his best friend (Seth Rogen), his doctor (Philip Baker Hall) and a therapist-in-training (Anna Kendrick).
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Ten Year
World Premiere
9:00pm – Ryerson Theatre
Director: Jamie Linden
Plot: A group of high school friends meet again at their high school reunion and discover that the passing of time changes some things--and others not at all. It stars a large ensemble cast that includes Channing Tatum, Rosario Dawson, Justin Long, Kate Mara, Anthony Mackie and Chris Pratt.
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The Incident
World Premiere
11:59pm – Ryerson Theatre
Director: Alexandre Courtes
Plot: When a power outage hits a high security mental institution, three cooks working in the kitchen endure a cat and mouse chase with the maniacs on the loose.
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Tuesday, 13 September 2011
The Oranges
World Premiere
12:00pm – Ryerson Theatre
Director: Julian Farino
Plot: A guy falls for the daughter of a good friend, resulting in a massive upheaval for all the families involved. The cast includes Hugh Laurie, Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Allison Janney and Adam Brody.
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Killer Joe
North American Premiere
3:00pm – Ryerson Theatre
Director: William Friedkin (Rules Of Engagement, The Exorcist)
Plot: Emile Hirsch plays a desperate Texas debtor who plots to kill his mother, with help of his family (Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon). They hire a crooked cop (Matthew McConaughey) to do the job, but Killer Joe asks for their teenage daughter (Juno Temple) as a "retainer."
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Like Crazy
International Premiere
6:00pm – Ryerson Theatre
Director: Drake Doremus
Plot: Anna (Felicity Jones) notices Jacob (Anton Yelchin) in one of her college classes in Los Angeles. In a move worthy only of her youth, she scribbles a love poem and leaves it on his car. The pair soon catapults into that most potent brand of romance: naïve, pure and possibly fleeting.
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Sisters & Brothers
World Premiere
8:30pm – AMC 6
Director: Carl Bessai
Plot: Carl Bessai’s third installment in his familial trilogy is a bracingly funny look into the lives of four sets of siblings. Brimming with affection, hostility and a healthy dose of guilt, it is a rich and gratifying journey through siblinghood's love and dysfunction and features an impressive ensemble cast that includes Cory Monteith from Glee.
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Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Damsels In Distress
North American Premiere
9:15am – Scotiabank 4
Director: Whit Stillman (The Last Days Of Disco)
Plot: Damsels in Distress takes a unique look into the psyche of privileged American youth, focusing on a group of undergraduates at a leafy East Coast university that has only recently begun to accept female students.
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Peace, Love & Misunderstanding
World Premiere
11:00am – Visa Screening Room (Elgin Theatre)
Director: Bruce Beresford (Mao’s Last Dancer, Driving Miss Daisy)
Plot: Australian film veteran Bruce Beresford delivers a heartfelt comedy that centres on a conservative lawyer (Catherine Keener) who, after splitting with her husband, takes her two teenage children to meet their estranged, eccentric grandmother (Jane Fonda).
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Butter
World Premiere
2:30pm – Visa Screening Room (Elgin Theatre)
Director: Jim Field Smith (She’s Out Of My League)
Plot: Olivia Wilde and Hugh Jackman star in this deliciously unlikely comedy about a Midwestern misfit thrown into the hostile, high-stakes world of competitive butter carving. Also starring Jennifer Garner, Ashley Greene, Alicia Silverstone and cult-comedy favourites Rob Corddry and Kristen Schaal.
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Heleno
World Premiere
6:00pm – Scotiabank 1
Director: Jose Henrique Fonseca
Plot: Rio in the forties was an oasis in a world fraught by war. Its star was Heleno de Freitas, (a stand-out performance by Rodrigo Santoro), a footballer, whose violent temper both on and off the pitch led to his decline in the late fifties. Shot in luminous black and white, José Henrique Fonseca’s latest feature film evokes Heleno’s glory days when he was king of Rio’s night and day, to his lonely end in a sanatorium due to untreated syphilis.
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Jeff, Who Lives At Home
World Premiere
9:00pm – Visa Screening Room (Elgin Theatre)
Director: Jay Duplass and Jeff Duplass
Plot: When he leaves his house on a banal errand for his mother, Jeff discovers that the universe might be sending him messages about his destiny. Stars Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Judy Greer and Susan Sarandon.
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Thursday, 15 September 2011
That Summer
North American Premiere
12:00pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox 1
Director: Philippe Garrell
Plot: A couple living together in Paris, he a painter, she a film actress, befriend a couple of film extras who fall in love with each other. All four go to Rome where their relationships undergo profound changes as emotions shift and change.
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Breathing
North American Premiere
2:45pm – AMC 3
Director: Karl Markovics
Plot: An 18-year old boy incarcerated for accidentally killing a minor consistently fails to hold down a job through the day-release program as if he never really wants to get out.
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Violet & Daisy
World Premiere
6:00pm – Visa Screening Room (Elgin Theatre)
Director: Geoffrey Fletcher
Plot: Oscar-winning screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher's visually adventurous directorial debut is a brutal fable about a pair of teenage assassins, played by Saoirse Ronan and Alexis Bledel, who believe they've landed a straightforward assignment but soon find themselves thrown off their game when their latest target isn't who they expected.
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Hysteria
World Premiere
9:30pm – Roy Thomson Hall
Director: Tanya Wexler
Plot: Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy star in this cheeky romantic comedy about the invention of the vibrator. Victorian London is brought to life in vivid colour as a young doctor (Dancy) struggles to establish himself while confronting the gutsy daughter of his boss (Gyllenhaal). Rupert Everett and Felicity Jones play supporting roles.
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Getting Ready For TIFF - Sifting Through The Program!
The time has almost come. After months of planning, I jet off to the United States and Canada in 2 weeks time. I’ll run through my full itinerary in more detail soon but in this week’s blog, I thought I’d talk about some of the amazing film that will be featured at the Toronto Film Festival.
I wrote about a month ago about the ticketing process in Toronto and you can check it out here. The great news is that I’ve been selected for the online ticket courier service which means I can submit my movie preferences online as opposed to couriering them to the ticket office (which was always going to be tough time-wise from here in Australia). At this point, I’m still waiting to hear word about my media accreditation. Keeping the fingers crossed.
The full program with times will be released on August 23 but many of the galas and special presentations have been announced. Having sifted through many of the films, I’ve come up with a quick list of just some of the films I’m hoping to see. I have to admit that I’m pretty damn excited. Hopefully I’ll be able to secure tickets to many of these.
In a pitiful effort to make you jealous, here’s a look at what the 2011 Toronto Film Festival will have to offer…
The top 10 films on my early list…
The Ides Of March
Director: George Clooney (Good Night, And Good Luck)
Plot: George Clooney is back in the director’s chair for this edgy political drama set in the days leading up to a fictional presidential primary. Clooney also stars as a Democratic candidate who schools his idealistic campaign press secretary (Ryan Gosling) in the dubious machinations of modern politics.
The Descendants
Director: Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways)
Plot: George Clooney plays the leader of a storied Hawaiian family as they are forced to decide what to do with their last, vast parcel of land. At the same time he learns a secret about his critically ill wife.
A Dangerous Method
Director: David Cronenberg (A History Of Violence, eXistenZ, Crash)
Plot: For his third consecutive collaboration with Viggo Mortensen, David Cronenberg adapts Christopher Hampton's 2002 stage play concerning the turbulent relationship between Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and his mentor Sigmund Freud (Mortensen) as they struggle to treat a troubled patient (Keira Knightley).
Moneyball
Director: Bennett Miller (Capote)
Plot: Bennett Miller’s follow-up to 2005’s Capote stars Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, the Oakland Athletics’ general manager whose unorthodox approach to fielding a team had a major impact on the game. Jonah Hill and Phillip Seymour Hoffman co-star in this clever and compelling work of sports realism.
50/50
Director: Jonathan Lavine (The Wackness)
Plot: As far as movie formulas go, cancer and comedy shouldn't mix. But 50/50 defies these odds by finding the perfect balance of humour and honesty. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as a 27-year old nice guy who's been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Luckily, he doesn't have to face this dark journey alone: by his side are his best friend (Seth Rogen), his doctor (Philip Baker Hall) and a therapist-in-training (Anna Kendrick).
360
Director: Fernando Meirelles (City Of God, The Constant Gardener)
Plot: Director Fernando Meirelles reunites with his Constant Gardener star Rachel Weisz, who stars opposite Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, and Ben Foster in this uncompromising dramatic thriller fuelled by the notion of how sexual relationships can transgress social boundaries.
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Director: Lynne Ramsay (Morvern Callar)
Plot: Based on the best-selling novel, Tilda Swinton gives a strong performance as a mother who always knew her son was different, angry and perhaps evil.
Albert Nobbs
Director: Rodrigo Garcia (Six Feet Under, In Treatment)
Plot: Glenn Close co-wrote and stars in this adaptation of the play about a nineteenth-century Irishwoman who disguises herself as a man and works as a butler for twenty years. Mia Wasikowska, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Aaron Johnson co-star in this intelligent and often surprising period drama.
Shame
Director: Steve McQueen (Hunger)
Plot: Michael Fassbender plays a New York man confronting his sexual compulsions and the self-destructive acts of his sister (Carey Mulligan).
Like Crazy
Director: Drake Doremus
Plot: Anna (Felicity Jones) notices Jacob (Anton Yelchin) in one of her college classes in Los Angeles. In a move worthy only of her youth, she scribbles a love poem and leaves it on his car. The pair soon catapults into that most potent brand of romance: naïve, pure and possibly fleeting.
A whole bunch of others I’m keen to see…
Butter
Director: Jim Field Smith (She’s Out Of My League)
Plot: Olivia Wilde and Hugh Jackman star in this deliciously unlikely comedy about a Midwestern misfit thrown into the hostile, high-stakes world of competitive butter carving. Also starring Jennifer Garner, Ashley Greene, Alicia Silverstone and cult-comedy favourites Rob Corddry and Kristen Schaal.
Coriolanus
Director: Fernando Meirelles (City Of God, The Constant Gardener)
Plot: Director Fernando Meirelles reunites with his Constant Gardener star Rachel Weisz, who stars opposite Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, and Ben Foster in this uncompromising dramatic thriller fuelled by the notion of how sexual relationships can transgress social boundaries.
Dark Horse
Director: Todd Solondz (Happiness, Storytelling)
Plot: Todd Solondz creates an intimate dark comedy about a manchild whose desire for a romantic relationship runs smack into reality.
Drive
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn (Valhalla Rising)
Plot: Ryan Gosling plays a stunt driver by day, getaway driver by night in this lean and mean crime thriller by the director of Valhalla Rising that won Best Direction in Cannes.
Friends With Kids
Director: Jennifer Westfeldt
Plot: When a few members of a close group of married and single friends start to have children, it has a big impact on everyone. Stars Kristen Wiig, Megan Fox, Jon Hamm, Maya Rudolph and Edward Burns.
Hick
Director: Derick Martini
Plot: A Nebraska teen gets much more than she bargained for when she sets out for the bright lights of the big city. Stars Blake Lively, Chloe Moretz, Alec Baldwin, Juliette Lewis, Eddie Redmayne and Rory Culkin.
Killer Joe
Director: William Friedkin (Rules Of Engagement, The Exorcist)
Plot: Emile Hirsch plays a desperate Texas debtor who plots to kill his mother, with help of his family (Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon). They hire a crooked cop (Matthew McConaughey) to do the job, but Killer Joe asks for their teenage daughter (Juno Temple) as a "retainer."
Machine Gun Preacher
Director: Marc Foster (Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland)
Plot: The true story of Sam Childers, an American drug dealing biker who turned his life around and became a crusader for hundreds of Sudanese child soldiers. Gerard Butler (300) delivers a searing performance as Childers in Golden Globe®-nominated director Marc Forster's moving story of violence and redemption.
Peace, Love & Misunderstanding
Director: Bruce Beresford (Mao’s Last Dancer, Paradise Road, Driving Miss Daisy)
Plot: Australian film veteran Bruce Beresford delivers a heartfelt comedy that centres on a conservative lawyer (Catherine Keener) who, after splitting with her husband, takes her two teenage children to meet their estranged, eccentric grandmother (Jane Fonda).
The Skin I Live In
Director: Pedro Almodovar (Talk To Her, All About My Mother)
Plot: Pedro Almodóvar’s disturbing and gripping new thriller sees the director reteaming with star Antonio Banderas after 21 years. Banderas plays an accomplished plastic surgeon who creates a new kind of synthetic skin and uses his worst enemy as a guinea pig.
Take Shelter
Director: Jeff Nichols
Plot: Overwhelmed by visions of an impending apocalypse, a young father and husband (Michael Shannon) channels his anxieties into obsessively constructing a storm shelter in the family’s backyard. As he does this, the entire community begins to lash out against his erratic behaviour.
Take This Waltz
Director: Sarah Polley (Away We Go)
Plot: Sarah Polley makes a welcome return to directing with her first feature since 2006 Festival favourite Away from Her. Luke Kirby, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman and two-time Oscar®-nominee Michelle Williams star in this bittersweet story about a married woman struggling to choose between her husband and a man she's just met.
Ten Year
Director: Jamie Linden
Plot: A group of high school friends meet again at their high school reunion and discover that the passing of time changes some things--and others not at all. It stars a large ensemble cast that includes Channing Tatum, Rosario Dawson, Justin Long, Kate Mara, Anthony Mackie and Chris Pratt.
Twixt
Director: Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, The Rainmaker)
Plot: Inspired by the gothic horror of Edgar Allen Poe, Coppola's latest tells the tale of a burnt-out mystery writer (Val Kilmer) who gets mixed up in murder and evil in a California town.
Add a comment An Interview With Asif Kapadia, Director Of Senna
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Senna is one of the finest documentaries that I’ve ever seen and it’s guaranteed to appear on my top 10 list for 2011. It’s also the first A-grade film that I’ve seen in over 2 months. I’ll be very surprised if it doesn’t earn an Oscar nomination for best documentary next year.
When offered the chance to speak with director Asif Kapadia, I jumped at the opportunity! Asif is a 39-year-old filmmaker from London. His previous credits include The Warrior, The Return and Far North. The process behind the film is incredibly interesting so here’s how Asif went about it. You can listen to an extract of the interview and my review on 612ABC Brisbane in my special podcasts section by clicking here.
Matt: Two of my best friends went to see this film in London a few weeks ago and they both said it reduced them to tears. As soon as they said that, I knew I had to see it. Have you been getting similar reactions when showing the film yourself?
Asif: Yes. We’ve had an amazing reaction. Across the board we’ve been really lucky. People who are big fans of formula one and Ayrton Senna really love the film because it reminds them of their hero and shows him at his prime.
On the other end of the spectrum, people who have no interest in sport, have never seen a formula one race and have never heard of Ayrton Senna have really responded well to the film. There are moments when they laugh a lot and there are definitely moments towards the end of the film where they get very emotional.
Matt: So where do you fit on that scale? Did you know a lot about Senna before you got involved with this documentary?
Asif: I’m a sport fan. I was aware obviously of formula one and I remember the Senna and Prost rivalry. I remember that period of time and watching Imola live. It’s very clear in my memory about exactly where I was when it all happened.
That said, I would never consider myself an authority on formula one. I have never read lots of books on Senna or read articles and blogs on the internet. I knew enough to know he was a great driver but I didn’t know much about the “man” and that really came out through the process of making the film.
The more I learned about the man, the more interesting I thought he was and I realised it could be a really good movie. He is an amazing character. He is so charismatic, he stands up for what he believes in, his ideals are good ideals and you can’t help but like him. The ending therefore becomes much more powerful and emotional.
Matt: You mentioned that you learned a lot about Senna during the process but some of the other key players such as Alain Prost – we learn a lot about him too during the movie. Did you find your opinion of some of these people changed?
Asif: I remember from 20 years ago and I knew who Alain Prost was but I didn’t really have an opinion because I wasn’t that involved with the sport. For me, it became a process of working with the writer, producer and editor to try to tell the story and just show what happened at that particular moment in time.
By using real footage, we’re using what they really said at that moment and how they felt rather than telling the story in hindsight and having interviews from now. People change their opinion and the story changes over time so that was a key thing for me to just show what happened. As much as possible, we tried to cut down and edit this huge amount of footage and fit it into 100 minutes.
Matt: How much footage are we talking about? I believe there was a treasure trove of stuff within the F1 archives that isn’t accessible to the public. How did you get all that?
Asif: The producers (James Gay-Rees and Manish Pandey) initially approached Working Title who are one of the biggest production companies in Europe to finance the film. They then contacted the Senna family and we found out that many people in the past had tried to make formula one films, particularly about Ayrton Senna.
For one reason or another (thank god I would say), they never worked out. Generally, these people wanted to turn the story into a drama and get actors to play Senna and recreate the scenes. I think that becomes very expensive and the scripts very rarely work. When you try to dramatise sport, it often feels fake.
Once we had the family on board, they approached Bernie Ecclestone who owns the commercial rights to formula one. He pretty much owns all of the material during the timeframe of our story. Anything within the confines of the track on a race weekend or on a practice weekend, he owns. We had to deal with Bernie.
Initially, we made a deal to have access to 40 minutes of archive. There was so much amazing material. We were the first people ever to go into Bernie’s archives and that’s worth mentioning. The first cut we put together was about 7 hours long! The next cut was then 5 hours long which we showed in a cinema to a small number of people. From 5, we went down to 3, down to 2 and eventually we had to make many tough calls to bring it in under 100 minutes.
A lot of us had to lose favourite scenes but I think it’s important to make a film that is the right length. That’s why it works for people that are not hardcore fans. If it’s too long, it becomes a bit too much of a formula one racing fan’s movie.
Matt: One of the strongest parts of the film for me was the way it highlighted the rivalry between Senna and Prost. I know they didn’t like each other at times but it seemed this hatred helped fuel their passion and determination. I’m curious to know if Alain Prost was involved with this film, if he’s seen it and if he has any thoughts about it?
Asif: It was a pretty tough rivalry, a very bitter rivalry. It was one of those great sporting rivalries like Ali-Fraser or Borg-McEnroe because these two guys were brilliant at what they did and were both at the top of their game at a particular moment in time in the sport. Further, they were actually team mates for two years. The biggest rivalry in formula one is your team mate. You’ve got to beat the guy in the same car as you.
There was just something special about the two of them. They were very different characters and had very different styles of driving. It just happened to be a really amazing time.
We spoke to everyone. We met with Alain and we interviewed him for about 4 hours in his apartment in Paris. We made it quite clear at the beginning that we were making a film called Senna but it was still important that we talked to him. We had a really good conversation.
The problem in the film is that we don’t have enough time to always offer opposing points of view. When in doubt, we’re going to go with Senna’s actual opinion of what he felt was going on at that point in time. In the DVD version, we have more time to play with and Prost gets more of a chance to get across his opinion.
Matt: I look forward to seeing the additional footage! Senna comes off looking fairly well but there are others like Jean-Marie Balestre who don’t look quite so good. When you’re thinking about the footage to include do you think about those things? Do you not want to portray someone too well or too poorly?
Asif: That was Balestre. Anyone who was there says “yeah, that is a fair representation of what was going on.” He really was a character. If you had made him up then no one would have believed you. If you did dramatise it, people would say “you’re overdoing it, bring it down a tad” but that’s what’s so amazing.
I didn’t know that Jean-Marie Balestre even existed when I started making the film. He just came from scenes in driver’s meetings and seeing him and Senna argue time and time again. Some of the lines he comes out with are fantastic! Again, we were just trying to show what was going on. There was more that we could have put in and it was always a question of time.
When it came down to it, he was the guy who ran the sport. A lot of the decisions he made, particularly in 1989, were favouring his fellow Frenchman, Alain Prost and therefore they were working against Senna. I think that fact is important to show.
A lot of people didn’t understand the motivation of Senna in 1990 to get his revenge by crashing into Prost. Once you show what happened to him in 1989 and once you understand what was going on behind the scenes, you realise why Senna was so wound up and why he felt “this time I’m going to do it my way.”
Matt: I noticed like unlike many other documentaries, there is no narration track. We just watch the footage and hear interviews with some of the key players. What was your reasoning behind that?
Asif: I come from a drama background and this is my first feature documentary. My initial instinct was to never go off and shoot a “talking head” interview and to have a narrator. I felt I had to make a film that felt natural to me and my way is to show the images and tell the story through the pictures.
It wasn’t until we started looking at the material that we realised how amazing the images were and the fact that we could cut it like a drama. There were times when Senna was talking to someone and we’d have a reverse angle to show he was talking to. I can show a “two shot” and I then cut to a “helicopter shot” and when he goes to work I’ve got a camera right next to him.
My job as the director is to find the best way to tell the story. In this particular case, the best way to tell the story was to just show the footage. It’s so much more dramatic, exciting and thrilling than anything I could shoot now.
An interview of a guy with a bookcase and plant in the background where he says “oh that Senna, he was great” – we didn’t need any of that! We just show him. That was the reason and it was very much a conscious decision. We did interviews but we chose not to show them. You just hear their voices over the top of the footage.
Matt: The film has received ringing endorsements. It won the audience award at Sundance for documentaries. I saw on Rotten Tomatoes that it has 27 positive reviews from 27 critics. On a personal level, it must be really satisfying to receive this acclaim for a film you’ve put together?
Asif: It’s been great. It was a bit of a gamble because I was moving from dramas to a documentary. A lot of people do documentaries and then go on and do drama.
A lot of my friends wrote to me and said “why the hell would you want to make a film about a racing driver? We didn’t realise you were that obsessed with racing?” I’m not actually but I just think there’s something interesting here.
They’d ask “well, who’s playing Senna?” and I’d say it was a documentary. They’d ask “who is the narrator?” and I’d say nobody. They’d ask “who have you interviewed?” and I’d say nobody. Suddenly you start doubting yourself and you wonder if you’re doing it the right way. Every time I looked at the film I realised it was the only way to do it.
I’m really proud of the film as are all of the team who helped make it. Hearing the positive comments gives you a bit of strength and makes you feel like you made the right decisions along the way.
Matt: I should ask as a final question that if you’ve gone from drama to documentaries, what’s next? Have you got a rom-com in the works?
Asif: Hahaha. Yeah, a big sci-fi film. In all honesty, I don’t know. Part of the fun of being a director is to try different things out. I wouldn’t say no and at one point I probably will do a rom-com if I can find the right script. Right now, I’m happy to juggle the two genres.
Dramas take a long time to put together so it’s always nice to be doing something where you have a smaller unit and a smaller budget. Also, I love sport so if I can continue my two loves of sport and cinema together, that would keep me happy.
Matt: Asif, thank you for talking with us this morning. The film is brilliant and it’s one of the best films I’ve seen this year.
Asif: Thank you. Thanks for your support!
My review of Senna can be viewed by clicking here.
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Talking With Nelson Woss, Producer Of Red Dog
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I recently had the chance to speak with Nelson Woss, producer of the new Australian film Red Dog. It's being released on August 4 and is showing on more than 200 screens in this country (trust me, that's a lot for a locally made film). You can listen to an extract of the interview in my special podcasts section by clicking here. Here's what Nelson had to say...
Matt: We’ve got a story set in the 1970s where the central character is a dog who doesn’t talk that roams remote Australia and forms a bond with people. It doesn’t scream out to me “Hollywood blockbuster” so I’m curious to know how you came across this story and why you thought it’d be suited to the big screen?
Nelson: I grew up in Perth and I’d heard these amazing stories as a kid of the Red Dog who roamed all over the great state of Western Australia. I was also working in Los Angeles and I heard that the famous author Louis De Bernieres (probably best known for Captain Corelli’s Mandolin) had travelled all the way to this remote region of Australia and had seen the Red Dog statue outside the front of Dampier. He was so moved by the story that he wrote this book. When I read Louis’s book, I thought it would be a terrific idea to do as a movie in Australia.
Matt: The statue that you mentioned we get to see at the very end of the film. Was that the real statue?
Nelson: Yep. If you go and visit Dampier today you will see that statue.
Matt: I’m sure Louis’s novel provided a wealth of material but did you and screenwriter Daniel Taplitz have to go beyond that, do your own research and speak with those who had a connection with the dog?
Nelson: Yeah we did a lot of research. I actually took Daniel Taplitz out to the Pilbara and we wandered around. It was easy because so many people would come up to us and Red Dog had obviously intersected so many people’s lives. Everyone up there who was there during the time had a Red Dog story.
I’d made a movie several years ago called Ned Kelly through a similar process. We started doing the research and then people came to us saying that my great great grandfather or a relation or a friend of a relation knew Ned Kelly. In some ways, it was a very similar thing with Red Dog.
Matt: So these characters in the story like John, Nancy, Jack and Peeto – are they actually based on real people or have they been fictionalised?
Nelson: All stories that are in the Red Dog film are loosely based on composites of stories that really happened. There’s nothing we made up. Everything came from either Louis De Bernieres’s research or our research.
Matt: Was there really a John? Someone who had a really strong connection with the dog?
Nelson: There was definitely a guy named John Stazzonelli and he was one of those who formed a strong bond with Red Dog.
Matt: We know the general process when it comes to actors but the lead character here is a dog. How do you go about casting a dog? What are you looking for and how did you find the right dog for this film?
Nelson: We really needed to find a dog that was strong and independent but we also needed to find a dog who could act and emote on the screen. It’s a bit like casting human actors really. There are some great actors and there are some actors who are stars. Our Koko is very much a star dog. He just stood out amongst all the other dogs that we auditioned.
Matt: I always think back to the Aussie film Babe and they had about 50 different pigs that played that leading role. Is this the same dog, Koko, all the way through the film?
Nelson: Koko was definitely our main dog but like Tom Cruise, Red Dog had stand-ins and stunt dogs. We had a number of dogs that we used throughout the filming but that being said, whenever you see a dog on screen with say, Josh Lucas or Rachael Taylor, that was our Koko.
Matt: So you actually had a stand-in for when Koko was off in his trailer or taking it easy?
Nelson: Haha, yeah exactly. Dogs are like people and they have a certain time limit that they can concentrate for. We’d have a stand-in dog that was put in position while the crew did all the set up and lighting and then when we were ready to go, we’d bring Koko and his trainer in and they’d do the part. It worked really well but we had a fantastic team.
Matt: How easy was it to get Koko to do all the things that were required in the film? Was it tough at times or was he a well behaved dog?
Nelson: Overall he was terrific but like all actors, he had his good days and his bad days. Some days he didn’t want to come out of his trailer but at the end of the day, we got everything in the can.
Matt: There’s a very small cameo in the film from the late Bill Hunter. I know it’s not a really big role so I’m curious to know how he came to be in the film?
Nelson: It was a really unique part. Bill played the character of Jumbo Smelt, an old-timer from the region who had been attacked by a shark. We thought about it and we wanted someone who had a lot of charisma and represented that “old style” Australian look and there was no one better than Bill Hunter. It was a great pleasure to work with him and it was terribly sad when we heard he had passed on. I’m sure people will remember his work for a long time.
Matt: I believe you made a small cameo in the film yourself?
Nelson: It wasn’t by design. We were on such a low budget and whenever we needed extras or more people on the screen, we’d just drag ourselves into it. There is a small scene when I’m on screen but it flashes by very quickly so it won’t spoil the film.
Matt: The 70s setting for me was interesting, particularly some of the costumes. Was it tricky to recreate the timeframe in terms of the costumes and sets?
Nelson: We had a terrific production designer, Ian Gracie, who had worked with Baz Luhrmann and we had a great costume designer, Marriott Kerr. They did the research and I think they delivered the quietly flamboyant costumes in this movie.
It’s funny that when we showed the film to some of the locals, they told us that it looked authentic and they really did wear that. A challenge of making the movie is that when we went to the mine sites, they have very rigid safety laws now. All the actors would be wearing hard hats and fluro gear and as soon as we started filming, they’d take that off and we’d shoot the scene wearing thongs and singlets (which is what they wore in the 70s). As soon as the director yelled “cut”, we’d have to cover up them up again. It was an interesting way to work.
Matt: It’s not often we see the star of the film travelling around Australia to promote it but that’s exactly what Koko is doing at the moment. How has he been going? Has the stardom gone to his head? What’s he been like on the road?
Nelson: He’s great. He loves people and loves meeting his fans. I don’t know about you but I have a Facebook account and maybe I’m a bit old for it but I only have 43 friends. Koko has 2,000 friends and they’re spread across Australia and the world. It’s quite interesting because the Red Dog story was also about a dog who pulled a community together.
He’s a good traveller. He flies in planes and he rides around in cabs with us. I think he enjoys it.
Matt: Hopefully the film is a great success here in Australia. Nelson, thank you for speaking with us.
Nelson: It’s a special film about Australian spirit and Australians coming together. It was a privilege to do it and hopefully people enjoy it.
You can read my review of Red Dog by clicking here.
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