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Culture Vulture Returns! Tickets Now on Sale.

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Nature is healing and Culture Vulture is back! We will restart the weekly series this month with Monday evening (7:30 PM) and Tuesday matinee (1:00 PM) screenings at our Claremont, Glendale, Newhall, Playhouse and Royal venues. We have something for everyone, including fine art, musical theatre, legitimate theatre, ballet and much more. The schedule, starting with something from London’s West End:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LcGGBrqhS4

09/20 & 09/21 – SKYLIGHT – On a bitterly cold London evening, schoolteacher (Carey Mulligan) receives an unexpected visit from her former lover (Bill Nighy), a successful and charismatic restaurateur whose wife has recently died. David Hare’s highly-anticipated production, directed by Stephen Daldry (The Audience), was recorded live on the West End by National Theatre Live.

https://vimeo.com/580755653/5679f08d86

09/27 & 09/22 – LIVE AT MR. KELLY’S – A look back at the legendary Chicago club Mister Kelly’s, which launched talent like Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Bette Midler, and Richard Pryor. Its visionary owners George and Oscar Marienthal smashed color and gender barriers to put fresh, irreverent voices in the spotlight and transform entertainment in the 50s, 60s, and ’70s.

https://vimeo.com/583451750

10/04 & 10/11 – ALGREN – A journey through the gritty world, brilliant mind, and noble heart of Nelson Algren, the writer who defined post-war American urban fiction. Featuring John Sayles, William Friedkin, Philip Kaufman, Billy Corgan and more, the film paints an intimate, witty portrait.

https://vimeo.com/thefaithful/trailer

10/11 & 10/12 – THE FAITHFUL – This documentary powerfully explores fandom, memorabilia and the magnetic appeal of three of the most influential cultural icons of our time: Elvis Presley, Princess Diana, and Pope John Paul II.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwnUJmFBhs4

10/18 & 10/19 – RAPHAEL REVEALED – Marking the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death, the greatest exhibition ever held of his works took place in Rome. This film provides beautifully-filmed access to this once-in-a-lifetime show featuring over two hundred masterpieces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st6F5QZWJSY

10/25 & 10/25 – FOLLIES – New York, 1971. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs and lie about themselves. After a sold-out run in 2017, the winner of the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival returned for a strictly limited season in 2019. Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical includes such classic songs as Broadway Baby, I’m Still Here and Losing My Mind.

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/putinswitnes/585517424

11/01 & 11/02 – PUTIN’S WITNESSES serves as a fascinating look at Putin in the earliest days of his presidency, when the seeds of his authoritarianism were already being sown, filmed by a former friend and colleague, now living in exile, who had intimate access.

https://vimeo.com/582143536

11/08 & 11/09 – PRISM – Filmmakers Eléonore Yameogo of Burkina Faso, An van. Dienderen of Belgium, and Rosine Mbakam of Cameroon examine biases and racism in the cinematic technology, deconstructing the camera’s objectivity, exposing its inherent power imbalance. At the same time, they work together collaboratively to construct and reconstruct. Like a chain letter, PRISM brings interviews, monologues, and images on the racism of cinematic technology into emotional, aesthetic, and intellectual dialogue.

https://vimeo.com/545187506

11/15 & 11/16 – DELPHINE’S PRAYERS – A portrait of a Cameroonian immigrant to Belgium. Quick-witted, engaging, passionate, and intense, she shares her incredible survival story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6I-r4oLHIY

11/22 & 11/23 – M.C. ESCHER: JOURNEY TO INFINITY – Equal parts history, psychology, and psychedelia, Robin Lutz’s entertaining, eye-opening portrait gives us the famous Dutch graphic artist through his own words and images: diary musings, excerpts from lectures, correspondence and more are voiced by British actor Stephen Fry, while Escher’s woodcuts, lithographs, and other print works appear in both original and playfully altered form.

11/29 & 11/30 – SPARTACUS – Huge in scale and spectacular in effect, SPARTACUS is a true tour de force of a ballet, set to Aram Khachaturian’s superb score. With an incredible display of might from the four leading dancers to the entire corps de ballet and its passionate pas de deux, it is the ultimate spectacle of virtuosity and lyricism born at the Bolshoi Theatre.

12/06 & 12/07 – THE DANISH COLLECTOR: DELACROIX TO GAUGUIN – Denmark’s Ordrupgaard Collection is a treasure trove featuring some of the finest Impressionist works ever painted. Includes Realist paintings by Corot, Delacroix and Courbet; landscapes of Monet, Pissarro, Cézanne and Sisley; and beautifully observed portraits by Degas, Manet, Morisot, and Gonzalès.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJdet3cdKro&feature=emb_title

12/13 & 12/14 – LOUIS VAN BEETHOVEN – This lavish historical drama illuminates the story of the world-famous composer from different perspectives.

THE LOST LEONARDO, the Whole Story of the Most Talked About Painting of the Century.

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THE LOST LEONARDO is the inside story behind the Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting ever sold at $450 million. From the moment the painting is bought for $1175 at a shady New Orleans auction house, and the restorer discovers masterful Renaissance brush strokes under the heavy varnish of its cheap restoration, the Salvator Mundi’s fate is determined by an insatiable quest for fame, money and power. As its price soars, so do questions about its authenticity: is this painting really by Leonardo da Vinci?

Unravelling the hidden agendas of the richest men and most powerful art institutions in the world, THE LOST LEONARDO reveals how vested interests in the Salvator Mundi are of such tremendous power that truth becomes secondary.

Now playing at our Encino and Pasadena theaters, this Friday we are expanding this fabulous documentary to our Claremont, Glendale, Santa Monica, Newhall, and North Hollywood venues as well.

DIRECTOR’S NOTES by Andreas Koefoed:

This is a film about the incredible journey of a painting, the Salvator Mundi, the Saviour of the World, possibly by Leonardo da Vinci. It is a true story, yet a fairytale worthy of H.C. Andersen: A damaged painting, neglected for centuries, is fortuitously rediscovered and soon after praised as a long-lost masterpiece of divine beauty. At its peak in the spotlight, it is decried as a fake, but what is revealed most of all is that the world around it is fake, driven by cynical powers and money.

The story lays bare the mechanisms of the human psyche, our longing for the divine, and our post-factual capitalist societies in which money and power override the truth. The painting becomes a prism through which we can understand ourselves and the world we live in. To this day there is no conclusive proof that the painting is – or is not – a da Vinci and as long as there is a doubt, people, institutions, and states can use it for the purpose that serves them the most.

Making this film has been a huge team effort. The producers, writers, editor, and DOP have worked side-by-side and devoted so much of themselves to the project. For that I am deeply grateful. It has been a fantastic voyage into secret worlds that are otherwise entirely inaccessible. Worlds in which anything can be bought and sold, where prestige, power, and money play out beneath the beautiful surface of the art world.

The main character is the painting. Brooding over it is its restorer, Dianne Modestini, who began working on it just after losing her husband, Mario, a world-famous restorer himself. For Modestini the restoration becomes a symbiotic process of mourning in which the painting and Mario at times become one. After she lets go of the painting, it is locked away in a freeport somewhere, leaving Dianne feeling alone, and criticized for her work. Did her restoration go as far as to transform a damaged painting into a Leonardo? She is forced to defend herself and her integrity, and seek closure on the painting and her grief.

What fascinates — and disillusions — me is that art is being used for economic speculation and as a token in political games. Art is a beautiful manifestation of human feelings and expressions throughout history. In my view, art belongs to humanity. Instead of being publicly accessible, it is hidden away in freeports and used for cynical and speculative purposes.

None of the prominent institutions involved in the story – The National Gallery, Christie’s, the Louvre, or states of France and Saudi Arabia – wanted to talk, perhaps unsurprisingly. The supposedly independent scientific and scholarly approach to the painting is under enormous political pressure. In the end, not only the painting is lost, but also the truth itself. The painting, a product of the very Renaissance that valued freedom of science and art, ultimately becomes a victim of vested interests and power games. As Jerry Saltz says in the film, the story is “a telling fable of our time.”

I hope the film will engage, surprise and intrigue the viewers who themselves become detectives in the story, leaving them with a question: What do I believe to be the truth?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS4NJgdPITk

ON BROADWAY, Featuring interviews with Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, Hal Prince, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Tommy Tune, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen, Opens Friday.

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As theater goers prepare for the return of Broadway after an unprecedented absence of eighteen months, Kino Lorber is proud to release Academy-Award nominee Oren Jacoby’s documentary ON BROADWAY, an enlightening and moving tribute to one of the most vibrant legacies of New York City, and the inside story of Broadway’s last self-reinvention as told by an all-star cast including Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, Hal Prince, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Tommy Tune, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen.
ON BROADWAY opens August 27 at the Laemmle Royal, Laemmle Claremont, Laemmle Town Center 5, and Laemmle Playhouse 7 theaters as well as September 3 at the Laemmle Newhall.
Helen Mirren
Broadway was on the verge of bankruptcy in the 70s with talk of tearing down theaters and replacing them with parking lots; the plays were considered obsolete and audiences severely declining. The documentary explores how, thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inclusion and the sometimes-uneasy balance between art and commerce, an industry on the verge of extinction not only avoided collapse, but managed to reinvent itself and come back stronger.
James Corden
Legends of the stage and screen take us behind the scenes of Broadway’s most groundbreaking and beloved shows, from “A Chorus Line” to “Angels in America” and “Hamilton,” offering a hurly-burly ride through Times Square, once again the main street of American show business.

 

Ian McKellen
Also featured are interviews with some of today’s most influential playwrights, directors, choreographers, performers and producers such as Alexandra Billings, David Henry Hwang, Oskar Eustis, Nicholas Hytner, Jack O’Brien, George C. Wolfe, Daniel Sullivan, Trevor Nunn, Julie Taymor, Sonia Friedman, Jeffrey Seller and Tony Kushner. They tell the stories of the remarkable changes they helped initiate or witnessed over the past 50 years, the devastating impact of the AIDS epidemic on the theater community, and track the breakthrough works and artists which made Broadway into a venue where one can find everything—from the experimental and iconoclastic to the mainstream and commercial.
Hugh Jackman

“A sunset view of the New York City skyline, speckled with lights, while George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” plays. Old Broadway marquees. Moving snapshots from a Broadway of more recent past — a flight of Hogwarts wizards, the swinging and snapping Temptations, the triumphant gaze of a brown-skinned Alexander Hamilton. ON BROADWAY sure knows how to work a theater-lover’s heart.” (Maya Phillips, New York Times)

Christine Baranski

“Enhanced by a wealth of archival footage and clips from notable productions, the theatrical history lesson flows smoothly and proves consistently entertaining.” (Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp7gOGR-mHY

 

Bogie & Bacall: THE BIG SLEEP 75th Anniversary Screenings at the Royal, Playhouse & Newhall.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present the classic 1946 detective mystery THE BIG SLEEP starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in a series of three screenings at different locations: August 31 (Royal in West Los Angeles), September 1 (Playhouse in Pasadena), and September 2 (Newhall in Santa Clarita).

THE BIG SLEEP is an engrossing mystery thriller that has defied classification since its premiere in 1946. Although it is now considered a cornerstone of film noir, critics and journalists through the years have also described it as a black comedy and even a “screwball love story.” Deftly directed by Howard Hawks and written by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman adapting Raymond Chandler’s first novel, it is the second teaming of Bogart with his wife Lauren Bacall, after the two created a screen sensation in Hawk’s To Have and Have Not in 1944. The film is noted for its convoluted plot (just try to follow it), partially because several scenes were re-written and re-shot for the second, final release in 1946. (A 1945 version was shown to U.S. troops overseas at the end of WWII.) The 1946 official release was added to the National Film Registry in 1997, and it is this version that we will present.

Bogart’s turn as shrewd shamus Philip Marlowe solidified his reputation, and Chandler praised him as “so much better than any other tough-guy actor.” His verbal interplay with Bacall flirted with contemporary screen censorship, as the duo wove the mystique of “Bogie and Bacall.” Critics of the day were as baffled by the plot as audiences, but as Leonard Maltin has pointed out, the movie is “so incredibly entertaining that no one has ever cared.” That high entertainment quotient stems from Hawk’s sharp direction, the biting and witty script, actors at the top of their game (Dorothy Malone, Martha Vickers, and Elisha Cook Jr. among them), atmospheric black-and-white cinematography by Sid Hickox, and a noteworthy music score by Steiner.

Movie Review Roundup: SEARCHING FOR MR. RUGOFF, THE MEANING OF HITLER, THE MACALUSO SISTERS, EMA.

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Our fine local daily could not cover some excellent recent films so we are mandating a quick recap of film critics’ assessments in other outlets to get these titles get a booster shot of attention:

SEARCHING FOR MR. RUGOFF: Owen Gleiberman of Variety called the film “an enthralling documentary that movie buffs everywhere will want to see… as essential as any chapter of “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.” Dean of American film critics Leonard Maltin wrote, “It’s rare that a documentary affects me on a personal level but this evoked a flood of memories. The film captures a time and place when movies really mattered to a whole generation. I’m not saying it was better or worse than it is today–just different.” Nicolas Rapold of the New York Times admitted he “got the warm-and-fuzzies from seeing the love here for moviegoing and exhibition, which [Rugoff] goosed with gonzo showmanship.”

THE MEANING OF HITLER: Variety’s Owen Gleiberman wrote, “we go into THE MEANING OF HITLER craving that millimeter of insight, of intrigue and revelation. And the film provides it. It ruminates on Hitler and the Third Reich in ways that churn up your platitudes.” “Myth-busting at its most vital,” wrote Sheri Linden of the Hollywood Reporter. Eric Kohn of Indiewire was forceful: “The movie isn’t just another cautionary tale; it’s a jagged intellectual wake-up call that cuts deep, and America can’t hear it enough.”
THE MACALUSO SISTERS: As of this writing, the new Italian film The Macaluso Sisters still boasts a rare “100% Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with praise such as: “Haunting and powerful.” (New York Times); “In just her second feature after the taut street-stand-off drama A Street In Palermo seven years ago, Dante sets a firm seal upon her cross-disciplinary emergence as a director of unusually vivid empathy.” (Variety); “Dante’s film, beautifully done, is never more resonant than when reminding us of the lingering impact of childhood drama and the devastating nature of childhood trauma.” (Times [U.K.]).

The L.A. Times did review the combustible new Chilean film EMA. Katie Walsh called Pablo Larraín’s (Jackie, Neruda) latest “a darkly sensual fable of motherhood and the modern family.” Hannah Strong of Hyperallergic wrote, “In an age of sanitized mainstream cinema, it’s thrilling to watch a film that revels in carnal pleasures.” Writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, Paul Byrnes called the film “mesmerising,” adding, “With a pulsing, angular reggaeton soundtrack from Chilean-American composer Nicolas Jaar, the film throbs and leaps rather than walks.” Check out EMA‘s red band trailer.

Fifty-Fifth Anniversary Screenings of Agnès Varda’s LE BONHEUR (HAPPINESS) August 25 in Glendale, Newhall, Pasadena & West L.A.

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Our Anniversary Classics Abroad Series continues with LE BONHEUR, a provocative and controversial film from one of the pioneering female filmmakers of international cinema, Agnès Varda. Varda was the only woman director who was part of the French New Wave that tantalized and excited audiences during the 1960s. Her breakthrough film, Cleo from 5 to 7, was released in 1962, and she followed that with a very different but equally bracing domestic drama centering on a romantic triangle. LE BONHEUR won two awards at the Berlin Film Festival in 1965 before its American release in 1966.
Unlike the black-and-white Cleo, LE BONHEUR is filmed in warm, bright colors that enhance the film’s themes, an apparently sunny romantic drama with dark undertones. Shot in the suburbs of Paris, the film opens with an idyllic scene showing the main character, Francois (Jean-Claude Drouot), a carpenter, celebrating a summer outing with his wife (Claire Drouot) and their two children. Sunflowers deck the screen while Mozart on the soundtrack adds to the celebratory mood. Francois seems blissfully happy with his family, but when he later meets an attractive postal worker (Marie-France Boyer), he begins a lusty affair with her, convinced that it will not jeopardize his marriage. When he finally confesses to his wife that he is in love with two women, however, everything in his placid world changes.
Varda had worked in documentaries as well as narrative features, and that background shows in her decision to cast Drouot’s real wife and children as his wife and children in the film. Those three people never acted in another film, but Varda felt that the fact Drouot was working with his real family members would add to the naturalism of the movie and the comfort of the players, particularly during the tender love scenes.
Critics praised the striking cinematography, reminiscent of French Impressionist paintings, along with the performances. The New Yorker’s Richard Brody wrote, “Varda fills her frames with riots of nature and color, like Bonnard paintings come to life and with an erotic intimacy to match.” Given the sumptuous visuals and the joyous intimacy of the love scenes, the climax of the story was startling to viewers at the time and remains deeply disturbing. In a discussion of the film sponsored by the Criterion Channel many years after the movie’s release, British film professor Jenny Chamarette called LE BONHEUR “a horror movie wrapped up in sunflowers” and added that it was “one of the most terrifying films I’ve ever seen.” To join the debate about this stimulating film, catch one of our screenings a 7 o’clock on Wednesday, August 25, at your favorite Laemmle theater.
Agnès Varda went on to have a wonderful career for the next 50 years. Her later films include Lions Love, One Sings the Other Doesn’t, Vagabond, The Gleaners and I, The Beaches of Agnes, and Faces Places. She was given an honorary Academy Award for her diverse and brilliant body of work in 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQpJ-2GWnOA

The Beautiful, Universally Acclaimed Italian Film THE MACALUSO SISTERS Opens Friday.

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We open the beautiful new Italian film The Macaluso Sisters this Friday at the Newhall, Playhouse, Royal and Town Center, as well as August 20 at the Claremont. As of this writing, Emma Dante’s movie, about how a tragedy changes the lives of five sisters in Palermo, boasts a rare “100% Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with praise such as:

“Haunting and powerful.” (New York Times);

“In just her second feature after the taut street-stand-off drama A Street In Palermo seven years ago, Dante sets a firm seal upon her cross-disciplinary emergence as a director of unusually vivid empathy.” (Variety);

“Dante’s film, beautifully done, is never more resonant than when reminding us of the lingering impact of childhood drama and the devastating nature of childhood trauma.” (Times [U.K.]).

Unfortunately, our usually excellent hometown daily erred and did not assign a film critic to publish a review. To make up for it, here’s the entirety of Beatrice Loayza’s full New York Times Critic’s Pick review:

“No mere sun-kissed coming-of-age film, The Macaluso Sisters opens on a blissful day filled with young love and beachside longing that is tragically upended by an accident that has everlasting reverberations.

“The Italian filmmaker Emma Dante, best known as a director of avant-garde theater and opera, adapted the film based on her acclaimed play of the same name. Here, she imagines the ripple effects of a sister’s death across generations with metaphysical grace and hints of fantasy, straying from the plot-reliant mold of most human dramas toward something more haunting and powerful.

“Five orphaned sisters — Katia, Lia, Pinuccia, Maria, and Antonella — live alone in a lively apartment in Palermo, Sicily, where they sustain themselves by loaning out pigeons for ceremonies and events. On their day off, they head to the beach, passing through a field peppered with enormous dinosaur figurines and initiating a pop music-scored dance party upon their arrival. These magical moments are grounded by the cinematographer Gherardo Gossi’s tactile photography, which accentuates the youthful vitality of the sisters’ bodies and the playful chaos of their movements.

“Following the death of a sister, Dante skips ahead to a future in which the group — now played by a different group of actresses — are middle-aged and broken, each in their own particular way. They remain in the same apartment, while ghostly manifestations of their missing sister create a stark contrast between their aging bodies and those of their brimming younger selves.

“A third act shows three sisters in old age and in mourning. Yet the apartment and its white cabinet — adorned with an etching of a beach — looks the same. By the end, Dante stages a transcendent confrontation with the impermanence of the body, destined to degrade, yet sustained by the memories and relationships that have come to define it.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZHR_7GwV6o

“Musicals give cinema another dimension…You can be grotesque and profound at the same time.” Leos Carax, Marion Cotillard & Adam Driver on their new musical ANNETTE.

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A dreamy fantasia, Annette is French auteur Leos Carax’s English-language debut is a musical whose experimental approach to its emotional extremes is an ambitious return for the director. The screenplay is by Ron Mael and Russell Mael of Sparks and Carax from an original story, music and songs by the band. The plot follows a stand-up comedian (Adam Driver) and his opera singer wife (Marion Cotillard) and how their lives are changed when they have their first child. Writing in New York Magazine, critic Bilge Ebiri called Annette “an altogether weirder, more troubling and personal film than one might expect…this astoundingly beautiful picture will stand the test of time.” Laemmle Theatres opens the film this Friday, August 6 at the Claremont, Glendale, Monica Film Center, Newhall, NoHo, Playhouse and Town Center.

Following are excerpts from interviews with Carax, Cotillard and Driver in the film’s the Cannes Film Festival press book:

Interview with Leos Carax

Q: When did you did you first encounter the music of Sparks?

A: When I was 13 or 14, a few years after I discovered Bowie. The first album of theirs I got (stole, actually) was Propaganda. And then, Indiscreet. Those are still two of my favorite pop albums today. But later, for years, I wasn’t really aware of what Sparks was doing, because by the age of 16, I started to focus on cinema.

Q: And when and how did you meet brothers Ron and Russell Mael?

A: A year or two after my previous film, Holy Motors, came out. There’s a scene in which Denis Lavant plays a song from Indiscreet in his car: “How Are You Getting Home?” So they knew I liked their work, and contacted me about a musical project. A fantasy about Ingmar Bergman, trapped in Hollywood and unable to escape the city. But that wasn’t for me: I could never do something that is set in the past, and I wouldn’t make a film with a character called Ingmar Bergman. A few months later they sent me about 20 demos and the idea for Annette.

Q: What has been your relationship to musical films? Even in your older films it feels like at times musicals are itching to break out of them. You often had these incredible set pieces with characters expressing themselves through song and dance. Is the idea of making a musical something you’ve been thinking about for a long time?

A: Ever since I began making films. I had imagined my third film, Lovers on the Bridge, as a musical. The big problem, my big regret, is that I can’t compose music myself. And how do you choose, work with, a composer? That worried me.

I didn’t watch many musicals when I was young. I remember seeing Brian De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise, around the same time I discovered Sparks. I eventually saw American, Russian, and Indian musicals later. And of course, Jacques Demy’s films.

Musicals give cinema another dimension — almost literally: you have time, space, and music. And they bring an amazing freedom. You can direct a scene by following the music’s lead, or by going against the music. You can mix all sorts of contradictory emotions, in a way that is impossible in films where people don’t sing or dance. You can be grotesque and profound at the same time. And silence, silence becomes something new: not just silence in contrast with spoken words and the sounds of the world, but a deeper one.

Interview with Marion Cotillard

Q: How much did you like Leos Carax’s films before you came on board for the Annette adventure?

I’m not sure how old I was exactly when I saw Lovers on the Bridge for the first time, but I know I already wanted to be an actress. I’d loved the film, its gracefulness, its poetry – I was overwhelmed. But then again, there was Juliette Binoche whose character, performance, and radiance swept me off my feet at the time. I fell in love with Leos Carax’s artistry, and I saw all of his films over time, up until his latest, Holy Motors, which I think is a masterpiece.

Q: Annette‘s script is a very peculiar affair, halfway between a traditional narrative and an opera libretto, accompanied by Sparks’ songs. How di you react when you first read it?

A: When I received the script, I already knew the film was entirely sung, and the narrative was only made up of songs. I was already sold, as it were. I felt so lucky to be able to lay my hands on this piece. And then I was totally won over as I read it – I related both to the uplifting element of the operatic musical and the profound darkness of what the film is about.

Q: Did you still hesitate in any way before embarking on the project?

A: I  immediately  wanted  to  work  with  Leos, but I wasn’t sure I could bring all that the character required. Leos is a rare filmmaker and makes very few films. It necessarily adds to the pressure, to the fear of not being able to match up to him as an artist. So I did hesitate a little. I asked my singing teacher if I could in no time learn how to live up to what was expected of me, even though I obviously couldn’t possibly become an opera singer in just a few weeks. We knew from the outset that we had to come up with a method for the opera singing part – and blend my voice with that of a professional singer. Still, it was a huge challenge. My teacher told me it’d be difficult, it’d take a lot of work, but that we could be confident. I needed his blessing to say “Yes.”

Q: How familiar were you with Sparks’ music before working on this project? How does it inspire you?

A: I wasn’t familiar with their music at all but as a teenager, I just loved Rita Mitsouko’s “Singing in the Shower” and I found out later it was written by Sparks. Then I met with them for this project – and I was overwhelmed by their commitment to and faith in the film. Sparks has always been involved in the project, from its early days. There’s something liberating when you actually get down to work, for artists who have been a part of this project for so long, who fought to bring it to completion. The film was getting made, and they knew it, and we all shared in the joy of working all together for the benefit of a special project and of special artists.

Q: Leos Carax is best known for being a painstaking filmmaker on set and for addressing the actors almost by whispering into their ears. Did you experience that yourself?

A: He’s both very specific on set and very flamboyant. He’s totally in love with his job, with the set, with the filmmaking process, the actors, and he’s highly respectful – as an actor, it’s wonderful to feel watched and cared for by an artist such as him. What struck me on set is how much he keeps track of every detail – how well a piece of clothing fits, how you convey what you intend to portray and so forth. He was so focused, and all the more so as the shoot was particularly challenging because Leos was intent on having all the songs performed live. On most traditional musicals, you record your songs during preproduction and then you lip-sync on set. But on this project, Leos wanted everything to be live. It made the shoot even more challenging – we’d be singing in very awkward positions, like backstroking or faking cunnilingus, which are very challenging postures that technically affect your singing. But this is the kind of effect Leos was looking for – he wanted voices to be altered, thwarted by reality.

Q: Tell us about your approach to singing and music, precisely. How did you work with the singer Catherine Trottmann, whose voice was blended with yours for the opera singing part?

A: We knew from the start that I couldn’t take on the opera singing all by myself. It’s just impossible to reach a soprano’s vibrato in barely three months of training. So we decided to blend my voice with that of a professional singer, but we only found her after we wrapped the shoot, which made things even more difficult. I had a wonderful time with Catherine Trottman as I almost found myself in the position of a film director
– I’d give her directions on how to adjust her voice, on the songs’ meaning etc. It was both complicated to pass on part of my performance to someone else and extremely inspiring.

Interview with Adam Driver

Q: What was it about the project that made want to be a part of it, not only as an actor but as a producer?

A: That  it  was  Leos.  That  it  was  a  musical the Sparks wrote. There were all these big sequences that required rehearsal, big set pieces, a lot of moving parts. All of it sounded like a challenge but that the result could be singular.

Q: What was it about Leos Carax’s previous work that made you interested in collaborating with him? Were there any films of his that you particularly liked or were inspired by?

A: The actors seemed to have such freedom in them. And the shots are incredible. They ask a lot of the people making them. Hard to pick a specific one. There are moments and sequences in all of them that are unforgettable.

Q: What was Leos’ directing style like on set?

A: Hard to summarize but from my perspective he’s living every moment along with his actors and crew; so he’s not leading with a bullhorn, it’s more from a place of focus. He’s doesn’t miss a detail. He’s great at balancing moments of complete spontaneity within heavy choreography. He’s hilarious. He’s one of the great directors of all time.

Q: Much of the dialogue is sung. What did you do to prepare for the musical aspect of the role? What was the rehearsal process like?

A: As far as the music was concerned, I met with Michael Rafter, who I had worked with on Marriage Story. I drilled the songs with him for months. The Sparks and Leos were very clear with what sound they were going for and that the storytelling was the priority. We pre-recorded everything as a back-up but we sung everything live as well. I don’t know what percentage made it in the movie but I think the majority.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSbZjinqI-Q