Upcoming Reel Talk screenings with film critic Stephen Farber and special guests: THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA; LILLY; and V13.
Since 2022 Laemmle Theatres has been the proud host of veteran film critic Stephen Farber’s popular REEL TALK WITH STEPHEN FARBER screening series at the LAEMMLE ROYAL! See a variety of outstanding films from the U.S. and around the world, including many top awards contenders. Then meet the filmmakers for provocative and revealing discussions led by Stephen.
Recent guests and titles have included Josh Margolin, writer-director of THELMA; Keith Kupferer, Katherine Mallen Kupferer, Tara Mallen, Kelly O’Sullivan & Alex Thompson, stars and filmmakers of GHOSTLIGHT; Eric Bana and Robert Connolly, star and writer-director of FORCE OF NATURE: THE DRY 2; Ian McShane, star and producer of AMERICAN STAR; Matteo Garrone, Seydou Sarr, and Moustapha Fall, director and stars of the Oscar-nominated IO CAPITANO; Maggie Contreras, director of MAESTRA.
Upcoming screenings:
THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA on April 21: A couple facing serious financial trouble finally finds a buyer for their stylish London home. At their final dinner party, they are thrown into an outrageous and darkly comic situation with the shocking behavior of an uninvited guest. Knives are out and best-kept secrets are revealed in this laugh-out-loud black comedy featuring a starry ensemble cast of phenomenal U.K. talent. Q&A with co-writer James Handel.
LILLY on April 28: Starring Patricia Clarkson, John Benjamin Hickey and Thomas Sadoski and directed by Rachel Feldman, Lilly is based on the remarkable story of Lilly Ledbetter, whose fight against pay discrimination in an Alabama tire factory took her all the way to the Supreme Court, all while facing powerful opposition. Following the transformation of an ordinary citizen into the face of an issue, Lilly illuminates the impact a single courageous person can have. Q&A with director Rachel Feldman.
V13 on May 5: In Vienna in 1913, when Europe is on the brink of WWI, two young men from different backgrounds, Hugo and Adolf, become friends. One, a musician from a privileged background, chooses to undergo psychoanalysis with Sigmund Freud (Alan Cumming), while the other, a struggling artist, takes up the cause of German nationalism. Q&A with director/co-writer Richard Ledes.
“This is lived reality. It’s not a period drama.” Powerful West Bank-set THE TEACHER opens Friday in Glendale.
Claude Lelouch retrospective featuring cinephiles’ ultimate date-night movie, A MAN AND A WOMAN.
Next week we’ll begin a Claude Lelouch retrospective at the Royal with a week-long engagement of his 1966 double Oscar and Palme d’Or winner A Man and a Woman, newly restored by Rialto Pictures. April 26 through April 30 we’ll also screen his films Les Miserables, And Now My Love, Rendezvous, Cat and Mouse, La Bonne Année, and Bolero (Les Uns et les Autres).
“A tender, visually stirring film of rejuvenating love between a widow and a widower: Trintignant and Aimée share a candid romance while balancing the demands of career and parenthood. It’s a touching, realistic look at a burgeoning adult romance, with each participant encumbered by a past tragedy, causing them to proceed delicately. Also famous for Francis Lai’s gorgeous, swooning score…Quite possibly one of the sweetest love stories ever captured on screen.” – Wilson Chapman, IndieWire
“How to resist a pairing as photogenic as Aimée and Trintignant? I couldn’t take my eyes off either of them.” – Anthony Quinn, The Independent
“The final scene should go down in history as one of the most romantic ever put to film.” – Far Out Magazine (U.K.)
“Beautiful… breathtaking.” – The New York Times
“Probably the most efficacious make-out movie of the swinging ’60s.” – Pauline Kael
“Claude Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman is a film as simple and complicated as its title implies. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film and Best Original Screenplay, it chronicles the tentative, tender romance between a widow and a widower, irresistibly drawn to one another despite the heavy weight of past tragedies. Newly restored in 4K, the film features two of the most iconic and attractive stars of French cinema photographed in a beautiful mix of color and black-and-white—the kind of thing the big screen was made for, never mind that the story is much more intimate than epic.
“Every Sunday, script supervisor Anne (Anouk Aimée) travels north from Paris to Deauville to visit her young daughter, Francoise, at boarding school; racecar driver Jean-Louis (Jean-Louis Trintignant) does the same to visit his young son, Antoine. One wintery Sunday, Anne misses the last train back to Paris and gets a ride home with Jean-Louis, and sparks fly each time they lock eyes across the car. Both say they are married and still wear their rings, but they eventually reveal to each other that their respective partners have passed away—though, for Anne in particular, the memory of her stuntman husband, Pierre (Pierre Barouh), feels very much alive.
“Upon arriving in Paris, Jean-Louis asks Anne if she would like to drive up to Deauville together the next weekend. What follows is a delicate dance between the two as they grow closer while still keeping a small, safe distance—enough room for the ghosts of their partners to hover between them. It’s an undeniably adult yet no less swoon-worthy depiction of two people falling in love, in which seemingly small gestures like Jean-Louis gripping the back of Anne’s chair during lunch—wanting to be closer to her but resisting the urge to put his arm around her—say more about their growing connection than all the flowery dialogue in the world ever could.
“There is a lot that makes A Man and a Woman one of the most timeless romantic dramas ever committed to celluloid, but it would be a lie to say that the film’s two lovely stars don’t top the list. Not only are they almost unbelievably nice to look at, but they also have a natural chemistry that makes it impossible not to be invested in their characters’ love story. The film thrives on them and their emotions; every time they glance at each other and smile, as though they seemingly can’t believe their good luck in finding one another, you can feel that warmth in your own heart.
“Aimée’s performance as Anne, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, is deeply poignant; her struggle to reconcile her burgeoning love for Jean-Louis with her ongoing love for Pierre, and the feeling that she is somehow betraying him by falling for another, is complex and moving. Meanwhile, Trintignant makes Jean-Louis a figure of irresistible magnetism who nonetheless has insecurities about his new romance that the film brings to amusing, affecting life via voiceover. After all, how does one win the affection of a woman when your competition is dead and cannot do anything more to hurt his chances? Perhaps if Pierre had lived and their relationship had time to sour, instead of being cut short in such an idealized state, it would have been easier, Jean-Louis muses.
“A Man and a Woman also utilizes flashbacks that are effective in telling us how our protagonists’ partners died as well as in showing us how powerful their love was in life, and why it’s so difficult for them to resign such love to the past and move on. The film is strongest when it relies on images like these and the aforementioned small glances and gestures between Anne and Jean-Louis—a shared moment of laughter on a boat with their children, a spinning embrace on a deserted Deauville beach, a surprise moment of eye contact across a busy train platform—yet the script, co-written by Lelouch with Pierre Uytterhoeven, is nonetheless intelligent when it chooses to speak out loud.
“Lelouch, who also served as the film’s cinematographer and supervised this new restoration, shot A Man and a Woman partially in color and partially in black-and-white simply because of budget constraints, yet the result fits the film’s story so well you’d assume it was a more purposeful stylistic choice. (If a film shot on a shoestring budget is capable of looking this good, why does the industry bother spending millions of dollars on films that look a million times worse? Though, to be fair, they don’t have stars like Aimée and Trintignant to photograph.) And just when you thought the film couldn’t possibly be any more stylish in that quintessentially twentieth-century French cinema way, Francis Lai’s enchanting musical score arrives on the scene and uplifts everything.
“A Man and a Woman is quite possibly the cinephile’s ultimate date night movie and most definitely a romance that will win you over.” ~ Lee Jutton, Film Inquiry
Lisa Cholodenko on her newly restored HIGH ART: “I wanted it to be deep and real and as dangerous as it should be.”
Beautifully restored by the Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in conjunction with the Sundance Institute, Lisa Cholodenko’s 1998 lesbian romantic drama High Art is now considered a queer classic, and it is ten times more potent on the big screen. The protagonist is Syd (Radha Mitchell), whose life changes after a chance meeting with her upstairs neighbor, Lucy Berliner (Ally Sheedy). Lucy, a once-celebrated photographer, lives an enthralling life with her drug-addicted German girlfriend, (Patricia Clarkson), that draws Syd in. Before she can catch her breath, Syd discovers dark truths of life on the edge, is forced to confront the price of her professional ambition. We are proud to open the film April 18 at the NoHo.
Cholodenko recently sat for an interview with Gay City News:
Q: The magazine in High Art is called “Frame,” and what I admire about your film is how you frame your characters and your scenes.
A: I was amused by “Frame” as the title for a magazine — the double entendre of the obvious connection to a photography and she is “framing” Lucy and is being “framed” by the artworld.
Q: But you immerse viewers in their world, which frames them. Your gaze frames the characters — shots of Syd in the bathtub, or Lucy behind her camera.
A: In my mind, what was interesting was that it was sexy, and the allure of coming into this world that was forbidden and kind of dangerous but sort of elite. At that time, that heroin chic moment was really glamorized in art and fashion photography. Selling things was commodified. I wanted it to feel you were walking in there and there was something sexy about it.
Q: There is a line in the film when Syd and Lucy are driving upstate — the light “lures you, then it’s gone.” Syd is lured by the bright light that is Lucy. Can you talk about creating the dynamic between these characters?
A: I always like the magic hour, that moment when it is really liminal and in-between. You are right there, and it’s going to go in an instant. I like that reference to the light, and as a filmmaker, that’s kind of obvious. I saw Lucy as someone who is intense and detached, and that is partly because of who she is and the power dynamic between them. She’s unattainable, and she talks about that in her career — that she slipped out and couldn’t go the distance. She went underground. Drug addicts and particularly heroin addicts are like that — intense and they slip out.
Q: Syd is empowered by her relationship with Lucy. Can you discuss that aspect of the film?
A: I see sexuality as fluid, so who one is attracted to can be affected by who you are connecting to intellectually or emotionally or by a power dynamic of what are you going to do for me, or what am I going to do for you? Or you are enamored by that human. It can be unexpected. I never saw Syd’s sexuality as definitive. I didn’t see it as a coming out story. Here is this charismatic, mysterious, talented, sexy, dangerous woman [Lucy] who is fixated on her and that was alluring to Syd. In terms of the contrast with her boyfriend, James, Gabriel Mann is sweet and has effete qualities, and Ally has swagger—I wouldn’t call her butch. But it was who is wearing the pants in a way.
Q: Your films feature themes of a stranger infiltrating a group and finding their identity through interactions and power struggles with others. Why does that cuckoo-in-the-nest theme resonate with you?
A: The disrupter story — isn’t that the fun comedy of manners? I think there is something about the allure of people you don’t know and what you can project onto them. As you get older you probably see more clearly who they are, but people can have a magic when you don’t know them, and they are projecting onto you what you want to see. There’s a dynamic — not necessarily the real deal — but it moves us towards something else we need to be responsive to.
Q: What can you say about the emphasis on and depiction of female pleasure in High Art in particular and your work in general? There were so few films that depicted female pleasure so I’m glad High Art did.
A: It was something I wrote. It was in my mind and own experiences. I wasn’t consciously comparing it to or thinking about where I placed in the chronology of lesbian films. I wanted it to be deep and real and as dangerous as it should be. There weren’t that many films depicting lesbian sex and relationships, and they seemed dated, and were about queerness and coming out. I am not telling that story, per se. I wanted to go into a world that I understand and that I am attracted to.
Q: High Art is a queer classic. What observations do you have about your film being so beloved?
A: It is interesting to watch it. I can see where the culture changed. There is so much cigarette smoking, which is unbelievable to me! We screened a few years ago at Sundance, and during the Q&A, younger women said it doesn’t feel dated to us, but it feels relevant to our lives now. I like that. Whatever it was in the design, acting, casting, or subject that it has a transcendent quality. I worked really hard. It holds up as a human story, and that is what I am most proud of. And if it is a gay classic, that is awesome!
Q: What reflections do you have about the film after all these years? Do you see flaws you want to fix, or marvel at how you got it made?
A: I was joyful to make the film. It was really hard. Were we going to be able to do it at the final hour because of the money? We pulled it together. There are very few scenes that look like we didn’t have enough time, or money, or lighting equipment. That’s not to pat myself on the back. It was restricted what we could do in a low-budget film. Looking at it now, I like how it is scrappy or flawed — that I used non-actors, or the ashtrays were overflowing. I was a student when I made that film. Tami [the cinematographer] could put the camera on her shoulder and we could run down into subway and steal a shot. It was a really different time.
Q: How do you think this film’s critical and commercial success helped your career as a filmmaker?
A: Obviously, you make a film, and it gets distribution and notice, then people notice you. When people asked would I do episodic TV, I raised my hand. I did episodes of “Homicide” and “Six Feet Under.” Meanwhile, Jeff, one of the producers on High Art paid me to keep writing. He produced “Laurel Canyon.” I read [other people’s] scripts, but nothing was compelling. I had it in my head to write my own thing. I was writing it for myself; what do I want to watch? If there is something I want to say, I’d rather do that and write my own script than try to make something fit that is coming my way.
Culture Vulture Q2: Beethoven, Chekhov, Tennessee Williams, and more.
Our long-running Culture Vulture series continues every Saturday and Sunday morning and Monday evening at our Claremont, Glendale, Newhall, Encino, and Santa Monica theaters.
April 5-7: Far Out: Life on and After the Commune ~ In 1968, a group of radical journalists leave the city and politics to live communally as organic farmers. The film examines their lives and return to the political world and how the commune became a community.
April 12-14: In Search of Beethoven ~ The makers of In Search of Mozart return with a new feature-length bio-doc about Beethoven. Director Phil Grabsky brings together the world’s leading performers and experts on Beethoven to reveal new insights into the legendary composer.
April 19-21: Art for Everybody ~ Thomas Kinkade’s pastoral landscapes made him the most collected painter of all time — and the most despised. Following his shocking death, his family discovers a vault of never-before-seen paintings that upend his entire image, revealing a complex, multifaceted American artist.
April 26-28: Escape to Life: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story ~ Narrated by Corin Redgrave and Vanessa Redgrave as the voices of Klaus Mann and Erika Mann, Escape to Life: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story is the result of a remarkable pairing between fiction and nonfiction filmmakers Wieland Speck and Andrea Weiss. It depicts another remarkable relationship, that of Erika and Klaus Mann, the brilliant eldest children of German author Thomas Mann.
May 3-5: Vanya ~ Andrew Scott (Sherlock, Fleabag) brings multiple characters to life in Simon Stephens’ radical new version of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. Hopes, dreams, and regrets are thrust into sharp focus in this one-man adaptation which explores the complexities of human emotions, directed by Sam Yates. Filmed live during its sold-out run in London’s West End.
May 10-12: Marcella ~ Marcella Hazan didn’t just teach Italian cooking—she changed the way America eats. Fearless, passionate, and exacting, she introduced authentic recipes to millions. Julia Child called Marcella “my mentor in all things Italian.” Featuring Jacques Pépin, Danny Meyer, April Bloomfield, and Lidia Bastianich, this intimate portrait reveals the bold woman who forever shaped home kitchens.
May 17-19: ADA: My Mother the Architect ~ Ada Karmi-Melamede is one of the most accomplished architects in the world, yet her work remains largely unrecognized beyond architectural circles. In the 1970s, she moved to New York from Israel, following her husband’s rising career, and spent the next 15 years balancing academia, large-scale public projects, and motherhood. In the early ’80s, after being denied tenure at Columbia, Ada left New York and her family for Israel where she designed landmarks such as the Supreme Court Building, the Open University, the Israel Institute for Democracy, and Ben Gurion University, among many others.
May 31-June 2: Michelangelo: Love and Death ~ Spanning his 89 years, Michelangelo: Love and Death takes a cinematic journey from the print and drawing rooms of Europe, through the great chapels and museums of Florence, Rome and the Vatican to explore the tempestuous life of Michelangelo. We go in search of a greater understanding of this most charismatic figure, his relationship with his contemporaries and his valuable artistic legacy.
June 7-9: A Streetcar Named Desire ~ Gillian Anderson (The X-Files, The Crown), Vanessa Kirby (The Crown), and Ben Foster (Lone Survivor) lead the cast in Tennessee Williams’ timeless masterpiece, returning to cinemas. As Blanche’s fragile world crumbles, she turns to her sister Stella for solace – but her downward spiral brings her face to face with the brutal, unforgiving Stanley Kowalski. From visionary director Benedict Andrews, this acclaimed production was filmed live during a sold-out run at the Young Vic Theatre in 2014.
June 14-16: A Photographic Memory ~ How well can we know someone through the things they leave behind? Director Rachel Elizabeth Seed was only 18 months old when her mother, the world-travelling journalist Sheila Turner-Seed, died suddenly. Thirty years later, after she discovers more than 50 hours of audio interviews conducted by her mother, Seed hears her mother’s voice for the first time. Through a wealth of audio recordings, photographs and films, the filmmaker sets out to connect with her late mother while at the same time unveiling an invaluable archive of conversations with some of the most renowned photographers of the 20th century.
We’re still finalizing the Culture Vulture schedule beyond that, but we do have two other terrific titles locked in for July and September:
July 5-7: Heartworn Highways ~ In the mid 1970s, filmmaker James Szalapski documented the then-nascent country music movement that would become known as “outlaw country.” Inspired, in part, by newly long-haired Willie Nelson’s embrace of hippie attitudes and audiences, a younger generation of artists including Townes Van Zandt, David Allan Coe, Steve Earle and Guy Clark popularized and developed the outlaw sound. It borrowed from rock, folk and bluegrass, with an edge that was missing from mainstream Nashville country. This newly restored documentary includes rarely captured performances of these musicians as they perfected this then-new style and helped change the course of country music history.
September 27-29: Inter Alia ~ Oscar-nominated Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, Saltburn) is Jessica in the much-anticipated next play from the team behind Prima Facie. Jessica Parks is a smart Crown Court Judge at the top of her career. Behind the robe, she is a karaoke fiend, a loving wife and a supportive parent. When an event threatens to throw her life completely off balance, can she hold her family upright? Writer Suzie Miller and director Justin Martin reunite following their global phenomenon Prima Facie, with this searing examination of modern motherhood and masculinity.
The bio-documentary JANIS IAN: BREAKING SILENCE opens tomorrow.
Tomorrow we’ll be opening Janis Ian: Breaking Silence, the new documentary about the singer-songwriter. Filmmaker Varda Bar-Kar will participate in Q&A’s after the 7:00 o’clock shows on Thursday, April 3 at the Laemmle NoHo and April 4 and 5 at the Monica Film Center, as well as after the 1:00 o’clock show at the Laemmle Glendale on April 5. Ms. Ian will join her for the NoHo and Santa Monica screenings. The filmmaker is also featured on the latest episode of Raphael Sbarge and Greg Laemmle’s video podcast Inside the Arthouse.
Director’s Statement: “The pandemic began when I finished my music documentary Fandango at the Wall (HBO/MAX), about a transformative musical convergence at the border between the United States and Mexico. Before Fandango, I had made another music documentary called Big Voice (Netflix) about a high school choir director and his most advanced ensemble. I love experimenting with the alchemy of combining film with music and wanted to continue working in that genre.
“Conversations about identity and how we identify were buzzing at that time. I considered my own identity. How do I identify? Do I feel represented in mainstream media? I resist defining my identity since definitions mainly serve to box us in. I am a free thinker, a bisexual woman, born Jewish, now with a Buddhist bent, and an artist. Like all artists, I am an outsider. I am capable, a roll-up-your-sleeves can-do-it kind of person, and I am an optimist. I don’t see many women like me represented in the media.
“I sat with the question, ‘If I made a film about a female artist with whom I closely identify, who would she be?’ Janis Ian popped into my mind. Her name hit me like a lightning strike. Yet I knew nothing about her outside of a lingering high school memory of listening to her masterful album Between the Lines and crying because her music penetrated my isolation, making me feel seen and heard. Her music assured me that I was not alone. Her music meant the world to me at that time.
“Through research, I discovered that Janis Ian has a significant body of work spanning 60 years. I compiled lengthy playlists of my favorite of her songs – many I had never heard before. I discovered she had written a riveting autobiography called Society’s Child. I could not put the
book down. I learned that not only has Janis made significant contributions to the music world, but she is also a social justice champion and an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. She has endured tremendous hardships and overcome them one after another. Her story of commitment to
artistry and incredible resilience inspired me.
“How could it be that a film had not yet been made about her? This might sound crazy, and maybe it is, but I felt it was my destiny to make a film about Janis.
“I am forever grateful that Janis entrusted me with her magnificent musical story, and I am excited to share it with the world. I am also thankful to my unstoppable producing team and creative collaborators for working with me to overcome a myriad of obstacles and challenges to bring Janis Ian’s story to the screen so that today’s audiences can feel seen and heard just as I did when I listened to Between the Line so many years ago.”
THE PENGUIN LESSONS, the latest film from THE FULL MONTY director Peter Cattaneo.
Starring Oscar nominee Steve Coogan, The Penguin Lessons is a poignant dramedy inspired by a true story, set against the backdrop of Argentina’s political turmoil in 1976.
Tom (Coogan), a disillusioned Englishman, arrives in Buenos Aires to teach at a prestigious boarding school, expecting an easy experience. But as the city spirals into crisis, and his students remain unteachable, Tom’s life takes an unexpected turn when he rescues an oil-slicked penguin from a nearby beach. The bird’s surprising loyalty and unique presence forces Tom to confront his own repressed past and awaken to the responsibilities of both personal and political change.
Directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty, Military Wives), this heartwarming film shows how even the most unlikely connections can spark profound change and self-discovery. We open the film at six of our seven theaters this Friday, March 28.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: When I first read Tom Michell’s memoir The Penguin Lessons, I instinctively felt it could make a wonderful film. Tom’s tale of the unexpected bond between man and penguin in the setting of a British private school in 1976 Buenos Aires, captured my imagination and inspired me to tell this unique, original story on the big screen. Just like Tom’s rich source material, Jeff Pope’s adaptation captures the humor, heart, and complexities of the story flawlessly. Through his script, Jeff brilliantly finds the heart of an intriguing lead character.
At the start of the story, Tom is clearly in need of fixing. Yet, somehow, with Steve Coogan in the role, Tom’s grumpiness and cynicism maintains a dry humor that makes him enjoyable and entertaining to watch. As his character forms an emotional bond with the penguin Juan Salvador, Steve swings between heartbreak and warmth seamlessly, showing remarkable range as his character gradually comes back to life.
In his portrayal of Tom’s growing empathy for the pupils and staff of St George’s College, and his awakened political awareness, Steve gives a truly outstanding performance. His work in the film amazes me, and I feel so fortunate that he was the one to bring Tom to life. Working with screen legend Jonathan Pryce was an honor. His natural instinct for balancing humor and gravitas make him the perfect actor to play headmaster Buckle. Collaborating with him and Steve in two-hander scenes were some of the most enjoyable days I have experienced as a director.
At script stage, we decided to expand on the source material, adding elements that reflect the atrocities carried out by the military dictatorship at the time our story unfolds. Our lead character, Tom is somewhat shielded from events unfolding on the streets of Buenos Aires, not only by the school’s walls, but also by his own blinkered outlook. However, we felt we couldn’t tell a story set in 1976 Argentina without addressing the brutal inhumanity that was taking place. The key was to find the right balance, showing the tragic impact of the regime on two of our supporting characters, whilst keeping the story of Tom’s redemption and awakening at the center of the narrative. I hope that through a movie with broad appeal, those in the audience who know little or nothing about Argentina’s history will be made aware and find themselves motivated to find out more.
The Latin American cast including Vivian El Jaber, Alfonsina Carrocio and Ramiro Blass, as well as being terrific actors, were all valuable collaborators when it came to recreating an authentic mood of 1976 Argentina. Although laced with period detail, I aimed to give the film a timeless, fable-like quality.
Juan Salvador, is a small Magellanic penguin. Like all our favorite pets, his charm comes partly from his imperfections. He can be stubborn. He’s quite scruffy, and he stinks of pungent fish. Working to capture him on camera called for an unorthodox, naturalistic approach. I encouraged the cast and crew to stay patient and reactive, embracing the unexpected from the penguin. This way, I found the door was opened to unscripted magic. His little moments of spontaneity brought joy to the cast and crew alike and resulted in some of my favorite scenes in the film. – PETER CATTANEO
WORKING WITH THE PENGUINS: Coogan worked closely with two real penguins, Baba and Richard for most of the film. He spent weeks getting to know them before filming began, visiting their living quarters, talking to them, and holding them to build familiarity. Coogan mentioned, “By the time I was on set, I was comfortable picking them up. When we said goodbye, it was very emotional. They disarm you. Human beings are too inward-looking and preoccupied with things that aren’t important. These birds remind you not to take everything so seriously.”
Peter Cattaneo highlighted that different penguins have slightly different personalities. Some are more active, some are friendly, others more reserved. Initially the team didn’t know what to expect, having only seen penguins in zoos.
While some scenes used a puppet or robot penguin, most featured the real birds, which required Coogan to adapt to their unpredictable behavior and use his improvisation skills to handle unexpected moments on set. Coogan noted, “Fortunately, I’ve done a lot of improvisation in my career, so I know not to freeze when animals aren’t behaving as planned. You lean into it instead of pushing back against it. That can lead to some of the best moments.” Coogan developed a strong bond with the penguins, finding their presence disarming and a reminder not to take life too seriously, making saying goodbye to them an emotional experience.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 267
- Next Page »