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THE FUPLERS: Q&A with Matt Koval

There are few web series that I’ve enjoyed watching; of those, Matt Koval’s "The Fuplers" is probably my favorite. The series chronicles the table-time interactions of your typical Mondo Bizarro family, with Koval playing Mom, Dad, Teen Son, and lithping, pig-tailed Little Daughter.
According to Koval’s profile on his website, in one year his 20-video YouTube channel has grown from 50 to 50,000 subscribers, while "The Fuplers" has been averaging 300,000 views per episode. Additionally, earlier this year Koval wrote and directed a web series for Fox Digital Studios.
The Los Angeles-based filmmaker has also done work away from the Internet. Among his film credits are Ryan Craig’s feature Small Town Saturday Night, starring Star [...]

PRECIOUS Music: Q&A with Composer Mario Grigorov

The son of a concert pianist and trumpeter, Bulgarian-born, Austrian-trained composer Mario Grigorov has been creating film music for two decades, having become particularly busy in the last ten years or so. Among his movie credits are Leonardo Ricagni’s 29 Palms (1999) and El chevrolé (2002), Alison Thompson’s documentary The Third Wave: A Volunteer Story (2007), additional music for Alex Gibney’s Oscar-winning Iraq War documentary Taxi to the Dark Side, and a number of short films.
Grigorov’s other music credits include the albums "Rhymes with Orange" and "Aria on Café del Mar," musical scores for numerous commercial outlets, and even playing in the Shah’s Symphony Orchestra in Iran, where Grigorov lived for six years. "Both on disc and onstage," [...]

Ramon Novarro III: Anita Page, Murder, Life As a Gay Man

Anita Page, Ramon Novarro in The Flying Fleet

Ramon Novarro: Allan Ellenberger Interview II
Ramon Novarro and Anita Page. Do you believe he actually asked her hand in marriage as she claimed later in life?
I do, and the main reason is that I knew Anita Page and interviewed her extensively for over a year before her health really began to decline. At that point, she would have short-term memory loss due to a stroke, which made interviewing her more difficult. That, and the image that she presented to the world in some ways made her appear unreliable. All I know is that I was able to prove most of the stories she told me with secondary [...]

Ramon Novarro II: Best Films, Rex Ingram

Jeanette MacDonald, Ramon Novarro in The Cat and the Fiddle. Photo: Courtesy Matias Bombal Collection.

Ramon Novarro: Allan Ellenberger Interview I
How would you describe Ramon Novarro the actor?
Novarro was a first-rate actor – maybe not an Olivier, but a good solid actor. Even in bad films such as Laughing Boy (1934), he had his moments. He was excellent in dramatic roles such as the aviator Alexis Rosanoff opposite Greta Garbo in Mata Hari (1931), or as the rapist-suitor of Myrna Loy in The Barbarian (1933). He excelled in light comedic moments, especially in The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) and in several of his musicals including The Cat and the Fiddle (1934) and The [...]

Ramon Novarro: Q&A with Author Allan Ellenberger

I first contacted author Allan Ellenberger shortly before the publication of his book on Old Hollywood star Ramon Novarro, as at the time I was working on my own Novarro bio. Instead of treating me like a pesky rival, Allan generously shared the information he’d amassed throughout about a decade of research — and for that I was very thankful.
We’ve since become good friends (but Allan, you need to buy me pizza more often), so I’m glad to report that his Ramon Novarro (McFarland, 1999) is now available in paperback at online bookstores. In his carefully researched book (I’ve read it about four or five times), Allan discusses Ramon Novarro’s life and career from his early beginnings in [...]

FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN: Q&A with Oliver Hirschbiegel

Inspired by a true incident that occurred in Northern Ireland in the mid-1970s, while placing the real-life participants in a fictitious set-up, Five Minutes of Heaven stars Liam Neeson as Alistair Little, the former leader of an Ulster Volunteer Force cell who, as a teenager, shot in the head a young Catholic man, James Griffin, in front of his 11-year-old brother, Joe Griffin (played by British Independent Film Award winner, and Golden Globe and BAFTA nominee James Nesbitt).
Written by Guy Hibbert (who wrote Omagh, winner of the Irish Film & Television Academy’s 2004 best film award) and directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (above right, whose Downfall was nominated for a best foreign-language film Oscar), Five Minutes of Heaven explores [...]

PASSENGER SIDE: Q&A with Matt Bissonnette

In Matt Bissonnette’s psychological comedy-drama Passenger Side, recently screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival, two brothers go on a road trip throughout the Los Angeles area and the desert nearby.
Michael Brown (Adam Scott) begins his birthday with a telephone call from his estranged brother, Tobey (Joel Bissonnette), who has a long history of drug addiction. Tobey needs a ride to several places throughout town, but is initially reluctant to explain exactly where he wants to go and why. Just as reluctantly, Michael becomes Tobey’s chauffeur for the day.

What happens next is a series of vignettes featuring disparate characters in the Southern California landscape, among them a transvestite sex worker (Vitta Quinn, above), a young migrant worker who’s [...]

TRAINING RULES: Q&A with Dee Mosbacher

Winner of the audience award for best documentary at the 2009 edition of San Francisco’s gay film festival, Frameline, Dee Mosbacher (right) and Fawn Yacker’s Training Rules — screening at Outfest tomorrow, July 11, at 4:30pm at the FAIRFAX 1 (on a double bill with Elizabeth Hesik’s Lady Trojans) — tackles the issue of anti-gay bigotry in women’s sports, particularly at the Pennsylvania State University.
For nearly three decades, Penn State’s Lady Lions basketball coach Rene Portland (above, lower photo), known as "The Mommy Coach," insisted that in her team there would be absolutely no drugs, no booze, and no lesbians — purportedly with the intent of removing the stigma of lesbianism from women’s sports. In 2006, [...]

TRAINING RULES: Dee Mosbacher Interview II

TRAINING RULES: Q&A with Dee Mosbacher: Part I
Have you heard from Rene Portland — or anyone associated with her — after the film was completed?
No. We made a diligent effort to find her, but it was clear she had no interest in talking to us.
I would like to clarify something. Although we’ve been discussing the Penn State case, I want to make sure that you understand that this form of discrimination, based on sexual orientation goes on every day at colleges, universities, high schools and in professional sports. And it happens to both women and men, albeit in very different ways.
 
So, what about men’s sports? Would you say that blatant homophobia is an issue there as well? [...]

Jason Bushman Interview II

Jason Bushman Interview – Part I
My favorite line in the movie has to do with the un-specialness of nonstop sunshine. You show a very deglamorized — i.e., very real — Los Angeles in Hollywood, je t’aime, e.g., people riding buses, homeless people in the streets, dingy motels, etc. Since you’ve referred to Hollywood, je t’aime as your "love letter" to LA, were you ever tempted to glamorize the place?
What I love about Los Angeles isn’t the glamour, and glamour doesn’t turn me on. I live in Silver Lake, and I only ever go to Beverly Hills when I have to, for business or a doctor’s appointment. (That’s not to say the Eastside doesn’t have it’s own bobo snobbiness, but [...]

HOLLYWOOD, JE T’AIME: Q&A with Jason Bushman

Writer-director Jason Bushman’s feature-film debut, Hollywood, je t’aime was recently screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The tale of a Frenchman befriended by a handful of social outcasts while looking for Hollywood stardom, Hollywood je t’aime turned out to be a quirky, funny, touching revelation. The good news is that those who missed the film at LAFF will now get the chance to check it out at Outfest, where it’ll be screened on Friday, July 17, at 8:30 at the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood.
In Hollywood, je t’aime Eric Debets plays Jérôme Beaunez (pronounced "Bea-nie" by a clueless casting director), a befuddled blend of Jacques Tati, Buster Keaton, and Adrien Brody. ("Beaunez" literally means "Beautiful Nose.") After being dumped by [...]

Jesse Rosen Interview II

Jesse Rosen Interview: Part I
Your fellow The Art of Being Straight cast members. Where were they found? Why did you choose them? And what was it like handling actors, most of whom had little-to-no experience performing in front of a camera?
Many of the cast were old friends or acquaintances from Emerson College, who just simply came to auditions and blew everyone away. I remember rummaging through friends and friends of friends on Myspace, or LA casting websites.
I think for people with lesser experience in front of the camera, like myself, we just focused on simply telling this story the best way we could. I did have some interesting casting experiences though, most notably for Paul, the older man. Amy, [...]

THE ART OF BEING STRAIGHT: Q&A with Jesse Rosen

In Jesse Rosen’s feature-film debut, The Art of Being Straight, 23-year-old Jon (played by Rosen himself), recently arrived in Los Angeles after leaving behind his girlfriend in New York, discovers that Southern California has more than sunshine and hot chicks to offer. Like, a hot-in-the-pants (male) boss who simply won’t take no for an answer. So, that leads to a kiss, which leads to some more intimate stuff, which leads to self-denial, identity issues, and problems with anti-gay buddies. Being straight — if you ain’t, really — is not just an art form. In fact, it’s a chore.
In writer-director Rosen’s laidback, unpretentious dramatic comedy, which is currently playing at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills in addition to being available [...]

Martin Provost Interview II

Martin Provost Interview: Part I
What was it like working with Yolande Moreau? What was needed to make her really get into the skin of a historical character?
For a year we got to know one another. I believe I did my best to guide her toward her own best, to something she already had within herself. And toward Séraphine as well. It’s not easy to incarnate someone who was once alive. It’s necessary to have decency and respect. I believe we shared the same vision for Séraphine. Yolande had to learn to sing, to paint; it was all a learning experience, something that made her very happy. And from the first day of shooting, we were in full [...]

SÉRAPHINE: Q&A with Martin Provost

The winner of 7 French Academy Awards, including best film, best original screenplay, and best actress, Martin Provost’s Séraphine stars Yolande Moreau as painter Séraphine Louis, aka Séraphine de Senlis, a plain, poor, uncultured, devoutly Catholic, and emotionally unbalanced housekeeper who became known as a major artistic talent in the early 20th century.
Written by Provost and Marc Abdelnour, Séraphine focuses on the artist’s relationship with avant-garde art dealer Wilhelm Uhde (played by Ulrich Tukur), who one day discovered that his cleaning lady in the town of Senlis was a masterful painter.
A sleeper hit in France, Séraphine has been met with raves on this side of the Atlantic as well. The LA Weekly’s Scott Foundas called it "the best movie [...]

Phill Hall on THE HISTORY OF INDEPENDENT CINEMA III

Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Lil Dagover in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Phil Hall Interview: Part I
Phil Hall Interview: Part II
What have been the top foreign influences on American independent filmmaking?
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and the European avant-garde films of the 1920s were a huge influence on U.S. underground filmmakers. The Italian neo-realism in the post-World War II era had a strong impact, primarily because it enabled filmmakers to adopt an obvious low-budget approach — with the caveat that the film was appropriately gritty enough to warrant the glamour-free style.
The 1962 Italian feature Mondo Cane helped to inaugurate the shockumentary filmmaking school that is still with us. More recently, the Dogme school of filmmaking had a flurry of [...]

Phil Hall Interview II

Mary Pickford, one of the first major independent producers, and screenwriter Frances Marion

Phil Hall Interview: Part I
The History of Independent Cinema. I’m assuming that refers to US-made films. Even so, that’s a lot of ground to cover. What sort of parameters did you have to use in order to condense that very long and very diverse history into one volume?
Clearly, I could not accommodate every independent film into the book. I decided to focus primarily on films and creative artists that made a significant contribution to the commercial and/or artistic development of film production and distribution. That helped to eliminate many obscure films and filmmakers from coverage.
There are two genres that were not pursued in depth. I opted not [...]

THE HISTORY OF INDEPENDENT CINEMA: Q&A with Phil Hall

"Independent film is a vast and varied territory, and Phil Hall’s remarkable book explores every inch of it with wit, intelligence, a sympathetic spirit, and a wide-open mind. Fresh discoveries and surprising revelations abound on every topic from Edison to Aronofsky, Anger to Warhol, the silent era to the Internet age. It’s hard to imagine a study more keenly in tune with one of cinema’s liveliest, most multifaceted fields.” — David Sterritt, Ph.D, chairman, National Society of Film Critics
The "remarkable book" in question is called The History of Independent Cinema, which, as the title implies, covers the century-long development of American filmmaking outside the big-studio lots. Published by BearManor Media, The History [...]

LEMON TREE: Q&A with Eran Riklis

Based on actual events, Eran Riklis‘ Lemon Tree (no connection to Sandy Tolan’s novel The Lemon Tree), which opens today in the Los Angeles area, chronicles a Palestinian widow’s fight to prevent the Israeli army from razing her lemon grove. The problem is that all those lemon trees are located right next door to the brand new house — actually, "fortress" would be a better description — of the Israeli minister of defense. Security agents have deemed the grove a potential hide-out for terrorists, who could then fire rockets right onto the minister’s dining table.
Sounds like a political film? Well, sure. Lemon Tree is definitely political. (The real-life case was that of defense minister Shaul Mofaz and his [...]

LEMON TREE: Q&A with Eran Riklis Part II

LEMON TREE: Q&A with Eran Riklis Part I
Along those lines, the men in charge in Lemon Tree don’t come across in a very positive light. A bossy male security agent demands the destruction of the lemon grove. A bossy Palestinian man threatens Salma because of her relationship with her lawyer. The defense minister is obsessed with his career and may be having an affair with an assistant. The Palestinian lawyer himself seems to be as interested in advancing his career as in helping Salma, even though he actually cares for her.
The two women, however, are both admirable characters. Was that a conscious decision, to make the women “stronger” — in their [...]

UN BAISER S’IL VOUS PLAIT: Interview avec Emmanuel Mouret

English version of the Emmanuel Mouret interview.
 
Quelle était votre inspiration pour l’histoire de Un baiser s’il vou plaît?
En ce qui concerne l’histoire, elle a été plus inspirée par ma vie personnelle que par un film en particulier. Mais ma vie est à l’image de beaucoup d’autres vies et il s’agit d’une situation finalement très commune, et cependant exceptionnelle pour celui qui est traversé par elle.
 
Pour quoi le choix d’avoir l’histoire principale – celle entre Nicolas et Judith – être un sorte de “flashback”?
Parce que cela correspond aux allers et retours que fait notre pensées lorsqu’on est sexuellement tenté. Nous nous interrogeons en nous remémorant des situations similaires à la notre et leurs conséquences. Dans ces [...]

AMERICAN SWING: Q&A with Co-Director Jon Hart

Jon Hart and Mathew Kaufman’s entertaining documentary American Swing chronicles the rise and fall of Larry Levenson, whose nightclub & sex club Plato’s Retreat became, along with Studio 54, one of the top New York City hangouts of the late 1970s.
Jon Hart (right) has kindly answered (via e-mail) a few brief questions about American Swing. See below.
American Swing is currently playing at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in West Hollywood.
Photos: Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
 
How difficult (or easy) was it to get all those people who had worked at or gone to Plato’s Retreat to be so candid about their experiences at the club? Did you run into many who refused to discuss the past?
Almost everyone was extremely apprehensive about being [...]

HAPPY HOLIDAYS: Q&A with Filmmaker James C. Ferguson

I’m always happy when a filmmaker is inspired by Woody Allen — as opposed to, say, Quentin Tarantino or Zack Snyder.
Case in point: First-timer James C. Ferguson (right, in blue), whose Happy Holidays (written by Ferguson and Tom Misuraca) is a three-way character study about old school friends who are reunited at their Connecticut hometown for a brief period right before Christmas. During that time, deeply buried emotions burst to the surface, old secrets are revealed, and one character ends up suffering a nervous breakdown. Old buddies can do that to you.
Shot in black in white during the course of two weeks, Happy Holidays features Paul Hungerford as Patrick Donovan, an openly gay man and avowed [...]

THE SINGING REVOLUTION: Q&A with Filmmakers James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty

"Imagine the scene in Casablanca in which the French patrons sing ‘La Marseillaise’ in defiance of the Germans, then multiply its power by a factor of thousands, and you’ve only begun to imagine the force of The Singing Revolution," wrote Matt Zoller Seitz in the New York Times in his review of James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty’s documentary about Estonia’s struggle to end Soviet occupation in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The curiously titled The Singing Revolution chronicles the history behind the little-known, nonviolent protests that began in the late 1980s in the small Baltic republic of Estonia, which had been annexed by the Soviet Union nearly half a century earlier.
With glasnost and [...]

LEADING COUPLES: Q&A with Author Frank Miller

In Leading Couples: The Most Unforgettable Screen Romances of the Studio Era (Chronicle Books, 2008), author Frank Miller, whose previous books include Leading Ladies, Leading Men, and Censored Hollywood, presents nearly forty highly successful movie pairings from the 1920s to the 1960s.
Among those featured in Leading Couples are dancing lovebirds Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, singing lovebirds Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, singing & dancing lovebirds Betty Grable and Dan Dailey, sparring lovebirds Doris Day and Rock Hudson, and costumed lovebirds Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn (above, in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex).
Also, odd lovebirds Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery, sentimental lovebirds Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor, cool lovebirds Alan Ladd and Veronica [...]

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