With final Oscar balloting closed on March 7, we’re continuing with our sixth annual series of interviews with Academy voters from different branches for their unfiltered takes on what got picked, overlooked, and overvalued in the 2023 award season. Interview edited for brevity.
Best Picture
Well, this year is the year of the repeat for me. I watched more movies a second time to try and figure out why I didn’t like them the first time.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” I watched three and a half times. I thought it was a generational thing. But then everyone else I know loved it. So I watched it once in the theater and I go, “I don’t really get it.” And I tried it a second time on the [Academy screening] portal. And I gave up halfway. And then it won all the awards. And I said to myself, “I’m not sure,...
Best Picture
Well, this year is the year of the repeat for me. I watched more movies a second time to try and figure out why I didn’t like them the first time.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” I watched three and a half times. I thought it was a generational thing. But then everyone else I know loved it. So I watched it once in the theater and I go, “I don’t really get it.” And I tried it a second time on the [Academy screening] portal. And I gave up halfway. And then it won all the awards. And I said to myself, “I’m not sure,...
- 3/11/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
This review originally ran September 3, 2022, in conjunction with the film’s premiere at the Telluride Film Festival.
If you’re a fan of a particular era of British rock ’n’ roll, this was the right year to be at the Telluride Film Festival. The festival’s opening day brought onetime photographer Anton Corbijn’s “Squaring the Circle,” which looked at the rock design company Hipgnosis through memories from Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, Roger Waters, Noah Gallagher and many others. And it was followed the next afternoon by onetime photographer Mary McCartney’s “If These Walls Could Sing,” which looks at London’s Abbey Road recording studio through memories from, oh, Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, Roger Waters, Noah Gallagher and many others.
While “Squaring the Circle” comes from a photographer and video director who has made several other feature films in the past, including “Control” and “A Most Wanted Man,” “If...
If you’re a fan of a particular era of British rock ’n’ roll, this was the right year to be at the Telluride Film Festival. The festival’s opening day brought onetime photographer Anton Corbijn’s “Squaring the Circle,” which looked at the rock design company Hipgnosis through memories from Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, Roger Waters, Noah Gallagher and many others. And it was followed the next afternoon by onetime photographer Mary McCartney’s “If These Walls Could Sing,” which looks at London’s Abbey Road recording studio through memories from, oh, Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, Roger Waters, Noah Gallagher and many others.
While “Squaring the Circle” comes from a photographer and video director who has made several other feature films in the past, including “Control” and “A Most Wanted Man,” “If...
- 12/16/2022
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
It’s fair to say that Abbey Road Studios is the most documented recording facility in the world, but only if you count the crosswalk outside. Otherwise, the nine-bedroom mansion turned studio hasn’t really had its day in the cinematic sun, the way that more modest studios like L.A.’s Sound City and Alabama’s Muscle Shoals have. Making up for that with an A-lister-filled movie treatment is “If These Walls Could Sing,” the first feature-length documentary from Mary McCartney, who has a hell of a shared Rolodex to draw upon in gathering the firsthand rock ‘n’ roll anecdotes you expect and want in a film like this. She’s also savvy enough to know that the guy working in the back gluing irreplaceable mid-century microphones back together deserves a few seconds of screen time, too.
McCartney starts her film off by showing a baby picture of herself at the studio,...
McCartney starts her film off by showing a baby picture of herself at the studio,...
- 9/4/2022
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
The star of Little Women on her role in the BBC’s Little Women, why binge TV is good for female actors – and the virtues of Arsène Wenger
For Emily Watson, 2017 has been bookended in starkly contrasting styles. She started the year having wild sex in a House Of Commons broom cupboard in BBC One’s hit psychological thriller Apple Tree Yard. She finishes it in a much more wholesome role as much-loved matriarch Margaret “Marmee” March in a three-part Christmas TV adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. In between all the steamy scenes and bonnet-wearing, Watson also turned 50.
The Shakespearean stage actress came relatively late to the screen, making her film debut aged 29 in Lars von Trier’s 1996 drama Breaking the Waves (when Helena Bonham Carter pulled out at the last minute). She won an Oscar nomination for that film and was nominated again two years later...
For Emily Watson, 2017 has been bookended in starkly contrasting styles. She started the year having wild sex in a House Of Commons broom cupboard in BBC One’s hit psychological thriller Apple Tree Yard. She finishes it in a much more wholesome role as much-loved matriarch Margaret “Marmee” March in a three-part Christmas TV adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. In between all the steamy scenes and bonnet-wearing, Watson also turned 50.
The Shakespearean stage actress came relatively late to the screen, making her film debut aged 29 in Lars von Trier’s 1996 drama Breaking the Waves (when Helena Bonham Carter pulled out at the last minute). She won an Oscar nomination for that film and was nominated again two years later...
- 12/24/2017
- by Interview by Michael Hogan
- The Guardian - Film News
A talented cellist wants to celebrate her new gig solitarily, but she and her cat discover they are not home alone in Travis Zariwny’s Intruder. With IFC Midnight releasing Intruder in New York and La theaters and on VOD this Friday, we caught up with lead actress Louise Linton for our latest Q&A feature to discuss collaborating with Zariwny and Moby, the comic relief of her co-star cat named “Dirty”, encountering poison ivy on set, and much more.
Louise, thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for us. Intruder marks your third feature film collaboration with writer/director Travis Zariwny. What do you enjoy the most about working with Travis?
Louise Linton: I enjoy working with Travis because we’re both humble and hardworking. Nothing in this industry came easy for either of us, so we share a similar grit, drive, and determination as a result.
Louise, thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for us. Intruder marks your third feature film collaboration with writer/director Travis Zariwny. What do you enjoy the most about working with Travis?
Louise Linton: I enjoy working with Travis because we’re both humble and hardworking. Nothing in this industry came easy for either of us, so we share a similar grit, drive, and determination as a result.
- 6/23/2016
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Emily Watson's raw performances have made her one of Britain's most spellbinding actors. Now she's playing a woman running for prime minister – against her husband. She talks to Carole Cadwalladr about marriage, sexuality and the joy of viscose blouses
The plots of TV dramas are often so preposterous and far-fetched. And then sometimes they're not. The latest three-parter from the BBC, The Politician's Husband, stars David Tennant and Emily Watson as two senior politicians who are married to one another and whose domestic life starts to unravel when the husband's career begins to be eclipsed by that of his more talented wife. If this is a fantasy (and none too flattering) version of Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper's lives, then at least they can be happy with the cast.
It's a mark of how much the star of TV drama has risen that an actor of Emily Watson's stature is involved.
The plots of TV dramas are often so preposterous and far-fetched. And then sometimes they're not. The latest three-parter from the BBC, The Politician's Husband, stars David Tennant and Emily Watson as two senior politicians who are married to one another and whose domestic life starts to unravel when the husband's career begins to be eclipsed by that of his more talented wife. If this is a fantasy (and none too flattering) version of Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper's lives, then at least they can be happy with the cast.
It's a mark of how much the star of TV drama has risen that an actor of Emily Watson's stature is involved.
- 4/13/2013
- by Carole Cadwalladr
- The Guardian - Film News
Photographer celebrated for his informal portraits of artists, actors and musicians
David Farrell, who has died aged 93, was known primarily for his photographic portraits of the most prominent artists, actors, authors and, particularly, musicians of his time. These ranged from classical performers such as Yehudi Menuhin, Ravi Shankar and Jacqueline du Pré to Louis Armstrong, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He would take his portable darkroom with him to filming locations, where he photographed Albert Finney, Julie Christie, Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson, among others. His main body of work dates from the mid-1950s to the 1980s, by which time he was working primarily in cinema, but he continued with his photography well into the digital age.
Taking Henri Cartier-Bresson's "humanitarian" photography as his model, Farrell specialised in taking portraits in informal situations – he preferred to photograph artists at home or in the studio, rather than in...
David Farrell, who has died aged 93, was known primarily for his photographic portraits of the most prominent artists, actors, authors and, particularly, musicians of his time. These ranged from classical performers such as Yehudi Menuhin, Ravi Shankar and Jacqueline du Pré to Louis Armstrong, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He would take his portable darkroom with him to filming locations, where he photographed Albert Finney, Julie Christie, Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson, among others. His main body of work dates from the mid-1950s to the 1980s, by which time he was working primarily in cinema, but he continued with his photography well into the digital age.
Taking Henri Cartier-Bresson's "humanitarian" photography as his model, Farrell specialised in taking portraits in informal situations – he preferred to photograph artists at home or in the studio, rather than in...
- 2/11/2013
- by Amanda Hopkinson
- The Guardian - Film News
Sad stories of artists overshadowed by relatives or lovers are common enough, and after films about Ts Eliot's wife, Rodin's lover and Jacqueline du Pré's sister, we now have Mozart's gifted sibling, Nannerl, being sidelined by her conventional father in favour of little Wolfgang, five years her junior. A French film, mostly set in France when the Mozart family were close to members of Louis Xv's court, it's a well-designed, tasteful affair. But as none of Nannerl's music exists, judgments on her talent, as opposed to the cruel way contemporary mores insisted on her being treated, remain moot.
DramaWorld cinemaWolfgang Amadeus MozartPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
DramaWorld cinemaWolfgang Amadeus MozartPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 4/14/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
If you know anything about British actors, you know they are made, not born. So you won't be surprised to learn that Emily Watson, one of Britain's most respected actors, started her career at the Royal Shakespeare Company as a spear carrier and understudy. And as she recalls, "In that company, the male understudies got to go on, at the time, but the female parts were very jealously guarded." No wonder she moved into film.Watson made her first big mark onscreen with Lars von Trier's 1996 "Breaking the Waves." Thereafter followed roles opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in "The Boxer," as cellist Jacqueline du Pré in "Hilary and Jackie," opposite Adam Sandler in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch-Drunk Love," with Geoffrey Rush in "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers," as Beatrix Potter's chum in "Miss Potter," and dozens more.Now, she takes on a relatively unknown real-life figure to recount a sadly shameful.
- 10/28/2011
- by help@backstage.com (Dany Margolies)
- backstage.com
In her latest film, Emily Watson plays a social worker who battled to reunite British families with children forcibly sent to Australia, a role made more poignant by losing her mother as filming began
I can't believe I haven't met Emily Watson before. But I know why she seems familiar: it is because of her performance in the tremendous new film Oranges and Sunshine, directed by Ken Loach's son, Jim Loach. It is Watson's outstanding gift as an actress that she appears not to "put on" an act at all. She rejects ornament. She pares roles down. She gets to the heart of things and the result is as close to a personal encounter as you can get on screen. The film is based on Empty Cradles, a memoir by Nottingham social worker Margaret Humphreys, about the scandal of the 130,000 unaccompanied children sent to Australia between the 1920s and 1960s.
I can't believe I haven't met Emily Watson before. But I know why she seems familiar: it is because of her performance in the tremendous new film Oranges and Sunshine, directed by Ken Loach's son, Jim Loach. It is Watson's outstanding gift as an actress that she appears not to "put on" an act at all. She rejects ornament. She pares roles down. She gets to the heart of things and the result is as close to a personal encounter as you can get on screen. The film is based on Empty Cradles, a memoir by Nottingham social worker Margaret Humphreys, about the scandal of the 130,000 unaccompanied children sent to Australia between the 1920s and 1960s.
- 3/20/2011
- by Kate Kellaway
- The Guardian - Film News
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