Loading
Scroll through the latest selection of our interviews and articles all about film.
To celebrate the May 27th theatrical release of the all action blockbuster 12 Rounds, weve teamed up with 20th Century Fox to offer you the opportunity to win an ace selection of exclusive film merchandise including a 12 Rounds T-Shirt, Dog Tags and Baseball Cap!When New Orleans Police Detective Danny Baxter (John Cena) stops a brilliant thief from getting away with a multi-million-dollar heist, the thiefs girlfriend is accidentally killed. After escaping from prison, the criminal mastermind (played by The Wires Aiden Gillen) enacts his revenge, taunting the cop with a series of near-impossible...
Read More...
Fermat's Room, the feature film debut of Luis Piedrahita, Rodrigo Sopea, is a tense thriller in which four mathematical geniuses are lured into a room on the pretext of a conference to solve one of the greatest enigmas ever. However on their arrival they find out that they are no longer looking to find the answer to abstract problems, and are forced to think for their lives as they move closer to their deaths with each passing moment.Following in the tradition of Saw, Fermat's Room will keep you on the edge of your seat as you try to work out the reasons behind their predicament and how they can escape.To...
Read More...
If not, here's your chance to get it.Academy Award winner Sean Penn gives an outstanding performance as he transforms himself into the inspirational Harvey Milk under the direction of Gus Van Sant. MILK is a compelling, moving and inspiring biopic which charts the last eight years of Harvey Milks life and will be a must own film when it is released on Blu-ray and DVD on 8 June 2009, by Momentum Pictures. Winning 22 awards so far including the Critics Choice Award for Best Actor, The Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role and the Writers Guild...
Read More...
Writer, Star and Director of retro 70s sexploitation flick Anna Biller has joined Movie Vortex to talk about the series side of her film, the nature of female sexuality and why her characters talk like an advert...MV: How did the initial idea for the film come about?AB Ive always been interested in doing films about female desires, I thought it would be interesting to do a sexy women about what women want, female fantasies. I did a lot of things that were not politically correct in the film but honest.MV: How long from the inception to completion did the film take?AB - At least 3 years maybe 4, it was much...
Read More...
Taking on the early life of Dali as a cinematic subject is no mean feat, but add to that the complexities of his relationship with filmmaker Luis Bunuel and Federico Lorca and you have a huge task. But this is the task director Paul Morrison took on in Little Ashes, and we just had to find out how he coped... MV: The whole biopic is a big undertaking, covering one artistic is big enough but three must have been a daunting task!PM: Well I started with a great screenplay and that helps a lot. But I suppose we weren't aiming for a biopic, this was supposed to be a kind of snapshot of these three people's...
Read More...
Lost in the Vortex Episode 2: Its the end of the world as we know it!Cinema loves showing us what will happen at the end of world from the nuclear classics On the Beach and Dr Strangelove, to weird alternative universes in Planet of the Apes and The Time Machine. But this months Movie Vortex turns its scientific eye towards films that show the end of the world from a very human perspective without all the bells and whistles of huge budgets and CGI trickery, the end of the world from the experiences of the common man and woman and of how they cope with the approaching apocalypse.So hunch over your...
Read More...
Hot on the heels of the release of quirky comedy O'Horten, Movie Vortex has tracked down director Bent Hamer to discuss trends in his work, the state of the film industry and what he'd do if he wasn't a director...MV: O'Horten is a massive shift from you last film, Factotum. You seem to have gone from somebody who's very anarchic and free-spirited to a restrained man at the end of a very ordered and simple career. What sparked this change?BH: In America it was even called 'Factotum: A man who performs many jobs', so you're right! But I didn't even think of that. It's so close that I didn't even...
Read More...
With the impending release of the best documentary of the year so far Sounds Like Teen Spirit, we have used our gravitational pull to draw in director Jamie J. Johnson for a chat about Eurovision, Georgian politics and promiscuous animals. Enjoy!MV: What first drew you to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest?JJ: I think I was watching the adult Eurovision when the Finnish metal band Lordi won and I thought to myself 'Wow, this has gone beyond pantomime now, somebody should do a comic documentary about this' and then I pitched it to BBC films and they said they already had like four Eurovision projects...
Read More...
Here at MovieVortex we like to see a good independent film with a great story behind it, and with East-End gangster documentary 'The End' we got just that. Collins sisters Nicola and Teena made the film themselves with a tiny budget, bringing together an exciting group of East End rascals (including their own father) to create a film that got behind the cinematic stereotypes to show us the real East End of London. So excited were we that we have sought out the sisters to discuss their film in more detail:MV: Was it hard to detach yourselves from your personal ties when you were making the film?...
Read More...
In over 100 years of film there are literally millions of films out there to watch and with all the hundreds of must see books written about nearly always the same titles like Citizen Kane, Gandhi and Stop or My Mom will Shoot!, then add these to all time top 100 lists that magazines and TV stations put out this new feature is going to try and illuminate films that may mot even make a top 500 list but are hopefully astounding, creative, magic, intelligent, thought provoking and even a little kooky!These are the films that have slipped through the cracks of the likes of Empire, Sight & Sound and others....
Read More...
Each week we take sample readings from the pine texts of the Cinema Gods in order to examine their wisdom, so that we might profit from their wise words. Amen.This week we take a reading from the gospel according to Michael Bay. Our first reading is from Robodius chapter I verse VII:And the good robot Optimus didst fall emerge from his domicile and he didst stretch, a clank of metal ensued and it was good. But then he knocked from his feet forthwith, and much crunching ensued: for he was under attack.Lo didst metal collide and rapid blows were exchanged, for good and evil forever their war shall...
Read More...
Each week we take sample readings from the pine texts of the Cinema Gods in order to examine their wisdom, so that we might profit from their wise words. Amen.This week we take a reading from the gospel according to Clint Eastwood. Our first reading is from Walt chapter III verse XVII:And lo Walt didst say unto Thao "Get off my lawn you punk" and he did move, for he was shamed by the damage he had done to the gnome that layeth there. He shuffled forth and he didst say, I will make it up to thee Walt by doing thine chores. But "No", sayest Walt, "I needest not thine clumsy gook hands for I am still...
Read More...
Brutal, intense and frightening are words that don't even come close to describing the impact of French horror Martyrs. It was therefore with a mixture of trepidation and intrigue that we ventured out to meet writer/director Pascal Laugier. ME: The film really stunned me, the change in the middle really turned this away from a conventional horror. What inspired you to do something like this?PL: I really wanted to use the horror genre as a kind of direct expression. I was feeling very dark and very sad for private reasons in my life when I started writing the film, and I saw a good opportunity to put that...
Read More...
As The Wrestler approaches its UK release amid a fanfare of critical acclaim, we at Movie Vortex have been privileged enough to catch up with Mickey Rourke to discuss the nuances of this complex character, whose problems in life bear remarkable similarities that of the star himself. How did he cope? Is he really a wrestling fan? Is he back in Hollywood to stay? Well, Mike did find out, but before the interview technically started there was a brief chat about his dog Loki which I hope Mr. Rourke will not mind us including[As I walk in, I notice a small Chihuahua sleeping next to Mr Rourke] Oh, is that...
Read More...
Prolific novelist and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga is at it again, but this time he also moves into the directors chair to create The Burning Plain - an intricate and moving tale of love, lust and deep-seated family issues. We managed to catch up with Guillermo to find out more.MV: This is another film where you work with a non-traditional narrative. Rather than telling a story on a simple timeline you portray lives as shattered by particular events, and follow the emotional fallout. Is that part of a broader world view or a device you think is effective on the big screen?GA: There is a theory...
Read More...
Waltz with Bashir is one of the greatest films of 2008, and here at Movie Vortex we have been privileged enough to talk to art director David Polonsky to discuss the background of this work of genius, war films, and whether Wall.E is better that Ratatouille...MV: How did you come to be involved in the project?DP: I was doing a project with Ari [Folman] just before the film, a documentary series called 'The Material that Love is Made of' and it had little bits of animation in it. And I guess we just naturally moved along to the big thing!MV: It is a big thing! An animated documentary, was the format...
Read More...