Category: Filmmakers

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Jason Schwartzman Interview from Cannes


We’re a little late to post this one, but don’t let its 6-day age turn you off. Jason Schwartzman, interviewed by Jada Yuan for New York Magazine, is at his best. He talks about his childhood experiences, working with Bill Murray, and his friendship with Wes:

So, when Wes calls, do you just drop everything you’re doing to be in his movies? Do you have a say in what you play?

First of all, let me say this: This is one of my best friends in the whole world and I am very, very lucky for that. There are very few people I could say that are my close people that I really, really care about. And I would say that there are an even smaller amount of them that I could say I actually work with, too. And it’s just very lucky. I met Wes on Rushmore. We made a movie together. We stayed in touch through the years. And then this weird thing happens to you personally and you talk about it and then you keep talking, and then all of a sudden it’s twelve years older and you’re like, “Wow, this is my best friend.”

Read the rest of the interview over at The Vulture.
(image via GQ)

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Friday News Round-Up 6/1/12

 

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Wes Anderson’s Fresh Air Interview

Wes Anderson sat down with Terri Gross to discuss his inspiration of the movie, the casting process, visual design, and his own childhood.

The 38-minute interview is full of great details, like the revelation below:

ANDERSON: Well, I remember – you know, someone asked me in the past week, in Cannes – I don’t – I can’t even remember who it was that asked me this, a reporter. I wish I had noted him, because he asked me something that made me kind of realize what I had wanted to do. He asked if the movie was a memory of a fantasy.

And I thought – at first I wasn’t quite sure what that meant. Then I realized that that is sort of exactly what the movie is. It’s – I remember the emotion of feeling like I was falling in love at that age, 12 years old, and how powerful it was and sudden, and kind of inexplicable. And yet in this – you know, I – nothing happened in my case.
[…]
GROSS: Who did you fall in love with?

ANDERSON: Well, I – I don’t – I don’t know if I want to even say the name, because it’s a, you know, a real person who very likely won’t be listening to this, but maybe would be. You know, a girl two rows over and three seats up who was in my class for years, and I never really had much of a conversation with her.

Listen to (or read the transcript of) the interview at NPR.

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Friday News Round-Up 5/25/12


It’s here, it’s finally here! It’s opening day! Buy your tickets early and often to support Wes and luxuriate in his newest cinematic masterpiece (and confidentially, as few of our editors have already seen the film, we can confirm it’s as wonderful as you had hoped.)

With that said, it’s time to get down to brass tacks, here’s your Friday Round-up:

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Peter Travers’ Rolling Stone review of Moonrise Kingdom

From Peter Travers’ 4.5/5-star review for Moonrise Kingdom:

In the immaculately designed, emotionally charged bubble filmmaker Wes Anderson builds around the 1965 New England summer, first love blooms. Sam (Jared Gilman) is an orphan at the mercy of foster parents and his Scout troop. Suzy (Kara Hayward) lives in a lighthouse with three younger brothers, two lawyer parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand) and an urge to bust free. Sam, she decides, is her man. No one understands their attraction. Hell, they’re both 12. He’s a string bean in thick glasses, and she’s cool enough to wear eyeliner. But Anderson, who wrote the resonant script with Roman Coppola, knows their secret hearts. So when the kids run away to an island they call Moonrise Kingdom, Anderson is right there with them. And thanks to this enchanted ride of a movie, so are we…

As the hurricane whips up a perhaps too busy climax, Anderson links the everyday and the extraordinary with virtuoso artistry. Shot with a poet’s eye by Robert Yeoman and lifted by an Alexandre Desplat score that samples Mozart, Hank Williams and Benjamin Britten, the hilarious and heartfelt Moonrise Kingdomis a consistent pleasure. By evoking the joys and terrors of childhood, it reminds us how to be alive.

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How Wes Anderson Soundtracks His Films



If you’ve ever enjoyed Wes Anderson’s keen sense of pairing just the right song with justthe right scene, you have Randall Poster to thank. NPR has a wonderful interview with Poster that focuses on his work with Wes. Poster has worked on all of Wes’s films post-Bottle Rocket, after meeting through a mutual friend.

While walking around a farmer’s market, Anderson told Poster about a piece of music that he wanted to use for Bottle Rocket but couldn’t because of a rights issue.

“I was so smitten with the film that I basically promised to get any piece of music that he ever wanted to use in a movie,” Poster says. “And that kicked us off.”

Randall Poster’s interview with NPR is a real gem and offers a very different perspective of working on an Anderson film. To learn even more about Poster’s work, a 2007 interview with the Guardian has some great blurbs about working on WA films and others.


Image of Poster on the set of The Darjeeling Limited from moviefone.

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W Magazine on the Moonrise Kingdom Set



W Magazine just released a slideshow of behind-the-scenes images shot during the filming of Moonrise Kingdom. The pictures offer a peek into the filming process and the captions, provided by Wes, exemplify his dry wit. See the brief article and the rest of the slideshow over at W Magazine.

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Sam and Suzy Shine in the Spotlight

Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward sat down with USA Today to discuss their experience on set including their hobbies, family lives, and their shared first on-screen (and real-life) kiss. The pair seem to be as precious in reality as onscreen:

When Jared mentions a recent film obsession — the 2010 superhero spoof Kick-Ass— he feels obligated to politely mouth the second half of the title.

The video of the stars only increases their appeal:

Read more about Kara and Jared at USA Today.

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The Guardian’s Interview of Wes

The Guardian has a nice interview with Wes regarding his style, his critical reception, working with children, and his frequent collaborators. Regarding the last, he says:

“I don’t think any of us are considered ‘normal’ people,” he says. “It’s probably more a family of crazy uncles. But there’s an energy that comes from people who are friends. Whatever chemistry is on set is going to be there in the movie, and you want some electricity that you don’t really control.”

The rest of the interview can be read over at The Guardian.

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Wes and Owen together again?

According to Dallas News movie writer Chris Vognar, Wes Anderson will “reunite” with Owen Wilson for his next film:

Just got off the phone with Wes Anderson, unwinding from the Cannes Film Festival with some friends in Italy. (Tough life). Moonrise Kingdom, his strongest film in years, is set to open June 1 in Dallas. He feels good about it, but acknowledges something (or someone) is missing. That would be Dallas’ Owen Wilson, an Anderson staple as an actor and a co-writer.

“This is the first movie I’ve made that he hasn’t been directly involved with, although he was around as a friend,” says Anderson, above at Cannes, who became good buddies with Wilson at the University of Texas shortly before they made their first feature, Bottle Rocket. “We started out doing this stuff together in the first place. It’s a family dynamic.”

The good news: Anderson’s current script in progress, a large ensemble piece, has a part for his old friend, and Wilson says he’s in.