• Home
  • Faces
  • Movies
  • The Diaries
  • Midlife Success
  • The Selfies Interviews
  • About
  • contact
Menu

E. Nina Rothe

Film. Fashion. Life.
  • Home
  • Faces
  • Movies
  • The Diaries
  • Midlife Success
  • The Selfies Interviews
  • About
  • contact
×

In-depth interviews and casual chats with the personalities and influencers of today, yesterday and tomorrow.

Roberto Saviano at Zuccotti Park during the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, photo by ©  Umberto Nicoletti

Roberto Saviano at Zuccotti Park during the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, photo by © Umberto Nicoletti

Roberto Saviano, wins Silver Bear at Berlinale, but here he was in an earlier interview

E. Nina Rothe February 19, 2019

Roberto Saviano, to any Italian, is a figure that we constantly re-evaluate. I started out being completely taken by his apparent courage and in fact wrote the piece below after meeting him in secret in NYC. I named it “The Face of Courage” for the Huffington Post.

These days, his police protection magically gone, even though the Camorra is still going strong, he’s written the screenplay for an award winning film at Berlinale, and I am starting to doubt his intentions. Or even his provenance. When I wanted to catch up again with the writer and TV personality, he dismissed me on a couple of occasions. But regardless of my own experiences and thoughts about Saviano, this interview I conducted with him in NYC in 2012 is a great testament to something. I just have to figure out what… My good writing perhaps?

Read More
In Celebrity, Interviews Tags Roberto saviano, La Paranza dei bambini, Berlinale, interview, Italian
Comment
Guillermo Arriaga

Guillermo Arriaga is a Humanist and he'll explain that in Rotterdam

E. Nina Rothe December 7, 2018

Guillermo Arriaga is currently on a book tour promoting ‘El Salvaje’ and follows the route of the book’s latest translations, which, among other locations, so far have taken him to my native Florence and will take him to Holland at the start of 2019. In fact, while in the Netherlands, he’ll participate in what promises to be an engrossing conversation during the International Film Festival Rotterdam, part of their #FeelIFFR series of events.

Read More
In Celebrity, Interviews, Movies Tags Words with Gods, Guillermo Arriaga, IFFR, FeelIFFR, International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Savage, Venice International Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, religion, spirituality, 21 Grams, Babel, Amores Perros, El Salvaje, The Burning Plain, Charlize Theron, Kim Basinger, Rotterdam, Holland, Mexican Cinema, Alfonso Cuaron, Roma, Benicio del Toro, Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Night Buffalo
Comment
Chef Vikas Khanna

He's cooking now! Celebrity chef Vikas Khanna's film 'The Last Color' is food for the soul

E. Nina Rothe November 2, 2018

Ten years ago, I came across a figure of elegance, charm and kindness at a gala at the Rubin Museum. The man turned out to be chef Vikas Khanna, a master in the art of cooking but also a wondrous survivor of events that would destroy most of us. Born with a foot defect, Chef Khanna overcame that, with the help of his courageous mother and went on to become one of the most beloved and known names in the firmament of celebrity chefs today.

Read More
In Celebrity Tags Vikas Khanna, celebrity chef, India, Varanasi, widows, The Last Color, film, food, color, Dalai Lama, Gordon Ramsey
Comment
Ralph Fiennes

Ralph Fiennes to receive Outstanding Achievement Award at this year's Cairo Film Fest

E. Nina Rothe October 26, 2018

Most who know me have heard by now what a big fan I am of the recently elected president of the Cairo International Film Festival, Mohamed Hefzy. To learn more about this great cinematic personality and wonderful supporter of film in and from the Arab region, you can read my interview with Hefzy on The National.

But perhaps not as many people know what a huge fan of Ralph Fiennes I am. I mean, the man redefined acting for anyone who frequented the movies from the 1990s onward. One word, or actually two — ‘Wuthering Heights’ — and with Juliette Binoche. I gotcha right?

Read More
In Celebrity, Festivals Tags Ralph Fiennes, Cairo International Film Festival, Egypt, Cairo, CIFF, Mohamed Hefzy, Shakespeare, Kathryn Bigelow, Wes Anderson, Steven Spielberg, The Hurt Locker, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Hamlet, Coriolanus, Wuthering Heights, The English Patient, Game Show, BAFTA Award, Oscar nominated, Juliette Binoche, Arab cinema, Egyptian cinema, Antony & Cleopatra, London, The White Crow, Viggo Mortensen Mahershala Ali, Mahershala Ali
Comment
Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo: So much more than a muse, an artist and a beautiful woman

E. Nina Rothe October 10, 2018

Finally, I made it by the skin of my teeth to the V & A exhibit “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up.” It was an otherworldly experience and I highly recommend a prompt visit to every woman, and the men who love them, to catch the show. It is up in London’s loveliest museum until the 18th of November. After that, you’ll probably have to travel to Mexico, Coyoacán to be exact, to visit her Blue House, La Casa Azul where the Frida Kahlo Museum is located.

Read More
In Celebrity, Fashion Tags Frida Kahlo, Salma Hayek, Frida, Victoria and Albert Museum, La Casa Azul, The Blue House, Mexico, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo Museum, Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, V & A, London, Coyoacan, beauty, MeToo, Nickolas Muray, André Breton
Comment
Robert De Niro

This year's Marrakech International Film Festival pays homage to Robert De Niro

E. Nina Rothe October 1, 2018

International Film Festival is bringing Robert De Niro to the desert city in Morocco. You know, the favorite home of world renowned fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and one of the most beautiful cities on earth, complete with oasis, luxury and camels, is going to host the wondrous movie star himself! Now that got me thinking about this shot I took above.

But more on that a bit later…

Read More
In Celebrity, Festivals Tags Robert De Niro, Spike Lee, Tribeca Film Festival, Tribeca All Access, Tribeca Film Institute, Marrakech International Film Festival, Morocco, Yves Saint Laurent, Arab cinema, Doha Tribeca Film Institute
Comment
Giona A. Nazzaro flanked by the filmmakers of ‘Still Recording’ Ghiath Ayoub and Saeed Al Batal

Giona A. Nazzaro flanked by the filmmakers of ‘Still Recording’ Ghiath Ayoub and Saeed Al Batal

"Would you live in the world of this director?”: Venice Film Critics Week's Giona A. Nazzaro discloses his most personal programming secret

E. Nina Rothe September 26, 2018

Having just closed its thirty-third edition, the Settimana Internazionale della Critica (Venice International Film Critics Week also known as SIC for short) is the Venice festival sidebar that can boast the discovery of such world cinema masters as Olivier Assayas (SIC 1986), Pedro Costa (SIC 1989), Bryan Singer (SIC 1993), Peter Mullan (SIC 1998), Abdellatif Kechiche (SIC 2000), as well as Ronit and Shlomi Elkabets (SIC 2004). Each year, and year after year since the early ‘80s, the Venice International Film Critics Week has been changing cinema and in the process, also reshaping us and making us better. Because I do believe that cinema is undisputedly the fastest and most efficient way to change the world.

For the past three years renowned Italian film journalist and critic Giona A. Nazzaro has been SIC’s General Delegate, a duty he was elected to by a committee and for which the current mandate expires with this edition. Inshallah, as those of us who have spent more than a day or two in the Arab world are used to saying, he will be reelected to another mandate. I’ve grown quite fond of Nazzaro, in a truly professional way. He’s kind and very talented, but he also has an incredible instinct for discovering the unprecedented. And the past three years have been exciting ones at the SIC.

Read More
In Festivals, Interviews, Movies Tags Olivier Assayas, Ghiath Ayoub, Saeed Al Batal, Settimana Internazionale della Critica, Venice International Film Critics Week, Venice International Film Festival, Bryan Singer, Peter Mullan, Pedro Costa, Abdellatif Kechiche, Ronit and Shlomi Elkabets, Giona A. Nazzaro, MENA region, Qumra, Doha, Bertrand Mandico, The Wild Boys, Ala Eddine Slim, Tunisia, Syria, Lotfi Bouchnak, Still Recording, Neorealism, New Deal, Roosevelt, A Kasha, Sudan, Hajooj Kuka, Africa, Anna Eriksson, M, Marilyn Monroe
Comment
Photo of Bruno Dumont by Locarno Festival/Samuel Golay

Photo of Bruno Dumont by Locarno Festival/Samuel Golay

Bruno Dumont in Locarno: "I believe in the power of cinema"

E. Nina Rothe August 8, 2018

Back in 1999, at the Festival de Cannes, Bruno Dumont presented 'Humanity' ('L'humanité') a film that caused an uproar among critics, who initially mocked and then went on to three of the top awards from the Competition jury headed by David Cronenberg.

So, in case you were wondering, Dumont seems to always manage the last laugh. 

Fast forward almost two decades and Dumont is getting quite a lot of laughs indeed, this time from audiences at the Locarno Festival watching the world premiere of the latest installment of the TV series the French filmmaker started for ARTE in 2014. The original installment was 'Li'l Quinquin', now his characters are all four years older and the second season is titled 'CoinCoin and the Extra-Humans'. 

Read More
In Celebrity, Interviews, Festivals Tags Bruno Dumont, Locarno Festival, Locarno 71, Humanity, Festival de Cannes, David Cronenberg, Grand Prix, Li'l Quinquin, ARTE, CoinCoin and the Extra-Humans, Peter Sellers, France, French cinema, Camille Claudel, Juliette Binoche
Comment
Demian Hernandez in Dominga Sotomayor's 'Too Late to Die Young'

Demian Hernandez in Dominga Sotomayor's 'Too Late to Die Young'

Dominga Sotomayor wraps us in colors of nostalgia with 'Too Late to Die Young' in Locarno

E. Nina Rothe August 7, 2018

It was the film I most craved to watch at this year's Locarno Festival, and it happened to be the very first film I watched here. It didn't disappoint me!

Dominga Sotomayor's 'Too Late to Die Young' ('Tarde Para Morir Joven') is a beautiful shot, strangely evocative and perfectly soothing piece of filmmaking. Yet it somehow has stayed with me throughout the festival, a meter by which I have been judging everything else I've watched in Locarno.

Sotomayor’s film tells the simple enough yet unusual tale of a teenager, Sofia (played by Demian Hernandez) coming of age in a commune on the slopes of the Andes just above Santiago, Chile and the surrounding cast of characters that accompany her journey all the way to the final climax of the film. It is accented by this etherial cinematography and cool sounds and you can't help, as an audience member, but become wrapped in nostalgia. In this film's case, unlike a Syrian filmmaker once said to me when I interviewed him for his film, childhood is a geographical place and Sotomayor brings us there to experience it along with her. It's her memories of growing up in a community very much like the one in the film.

I caught up with the cool and self assured Sotomayor in Locarno where the film screens as part of the festival's International Competition. 

Read More
In Festivals, Interviews, Movies Tags Dominga Sotomayor, Doha Film Institute, Qumra, Too Late to Die Young, Tarde Para Morir Joven, DFI, Locarno Festival, Locarno 71, Chile, Latin America, cinema, woman filmmaker, Inti Briones
Comment
Kyle Cooper with his Vision Award Ticinomoda, photo copyright: @ Locarno Festival

Kyle Cooper with his Vision Award Ticinomoda, photo copyright: @ Locarno Festival

Kyle Cooper in Locarno: The magic within each new beginning (titles)

E. Nina Rothe August 7, 2018

Film and TV titles designer Kyle Cooper was at the Locarno Festival this year to be bestowed with the Vision Award Ticinomoda for his career. In fact, if you research Cooper you will be impressed by how much he's done. Guaranteed. Almost every single title sequence for favorite films and beloved TV series have been designed or influenced in some way or another by Cooper.

From 'Se7en' to 'Indecent Proposal', from 'The Joy Luck Club' to 'Quiz Show', from 'Mission: Impossible' to 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty', and for TV 'The Walking Dead', 'Feud' and 'American Horror Stories' among much, much more, Cooper has been involved in creating those titles. 

And if you've ever tried to watch a film without titles, to me it's a bit like traveling without buying a ticket first. Yes, it can be done and you will probably get to the destination desired, but the experience you have set yourself up for won't be quite the same. Disorganized, late and without a clue is never a good way to start off. And arrive.

Read More
In Celebrity, Interviews, Festivals Tags Kyle Cooper, Locarno Festival, Locarno 71, Ben Stiller, Se7en, To Kill a Mockingbird, American Horror Story, Feud, The Walking Dead, Netflix, Welcome Back Kotter, The Wild Wild West, Nanny and the Professor, Richard Alan Greenberg, UMass, Vision Award Ticinomoda, Indecent Proposal, Quiz Show, Mission: Impossible
Comment
Mohamed Hefzy

Mohamed Hefzy

Mohamed Hefzy is the new Cairo Film Festival president, and here's why that's great news!

E. Nina Rothe July 13, 2018

Just over a month before the Festival de Cannes kicked off on the Croisette, an announcement rocked the world of Arab cinema: Egyptian producer extraordinaire Mohamed Hefzy would be the new head of the Cairo International Film Festival. There are many reasons why Hefzy is the perfect man for the job, since CIFF has had its share of troubles following the revolutions of the Arab Spring. Among them, that he's long been a great cinematic bridge between the Arab world and the West. Also to keep in mind, the movie business in Egypt has gone through changes that would have shut the industry down in most other countries, and yet out of those ashes it is thanks to a visionary producer like Hefzy that Egyptian films are now seen beyond the Arab world.

I can easily quote the 'Yomeddine' example -- a simple, straight from the heart indie-like film that competed for the Palme d'Or this year in Cannes. Yes, in Competition, in Cannes. Not bad for a debut feature film!

So knowing that Hefzy will be at the helm of the oldest and most prestigious festival in Egypt is great news to this lover of Arab cinema.

Read More
In Celebrity, Interviews, Festivals Tags Mohamed Hefzy, Cairo International Film Festival, CIFF, DIFF, Dubai International Film Festival, Cairo, Egypt, Egyptian films, Yomeddine, Villa 69, Rags and Tatters, Clash, Mohamed Diab, A B Shawky, producers, Ahmad Abdalla, Film Clinic, Arab Spring, Egyptian cinema, Mad Solutions, Cannes film festival, Festival de Cannes, CNN, Inside the Middle East, E. Nina Rothe
Comment
Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick

Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick

The "Youthquaker" and her Mentor: Edie Sedgwick and Andy Warhol finally reunite in a retrospective of their collaboration at FIDMarseille

E. Nina Rothe July 4, 2018

"I'm in love with everyone I've ever met in one way or another. I'm just a crazy, unhinged disaster of a human being." -- Edie Sedgwick

You can have your Kim Kardashians, your Gigi Hadids, your newly transformed princesses and Instagram sensations, I'll take Edie Sedgwick every day over any of them. In fact, nearly fifty years after her death, she remains for this child of the 70s a favorite fashion icon, an "It Girl" like no other and an example whose style and attitude I always keep in my consciousness.

So why has Sedgwick remained such a star, even though she could appear to have done little more than be born a socialite and die at age 28, of an overdose-slash-suicide after several stretches in mental institutions? Because she once met Andy Warhol, whom with his usual flair for discovering the broken yet utterly fascinating -- see Jean-Michel Basquiat and Candy Darling among many many more -- made of Sedgwick the original reality star. She is the predecessor of the Kardashians, only her reality was captured on film, by Warhol, a master artist of creation.

Read More
In Celebrity, Fashion, Festivals, Movies Tags Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, FIDMarseille, Youthquaker, it Girl, Kim Kardashian, Gigi Hadid, NYC, Marseille International Film Festival, Marseille, France, Isabelle Huppert, Albert Serra, Roi Soleil, Khaled Abdulwahed, Backyard, FIDLab, Andy Warhol Museum, Museum of the Moving Image, MoMA, David Schwartz, Poor Little Rich Girl, Reality TV
Comment
Green Cedar, the latest fragrance from Abel

Green Cedar, the latest fragrance from Abel

As Abel fragrances launch in the US this summer, I revisit a favorite interview with founder Frances Shoemack

E. Nina Rothe June 28, 2018

Ever since last September, when I ran across Abel Odor, the Amsterdam-based fragrance company of New Zealander Frances Shoemack at Pitti Fragranze, I've been obsessed with these natural smelling olfactory creations. In my own philosophy of life, which includes great cinema, quality food and a generous helping of fashion, I find that perfume plays an integral part. It communicates who you are, in just a split second. And I always want my fragrance to say "intelligent, world-conscious and a bit wild" -- a message which Abel creations convey perfectly. 

So to celebrate the fact that Abel products are now available in the US, both to order online from Abelodor.com and in select specialty stores, I revisit here my own journey through Abel scents and an interview with its founder -- a fragrance and personal favorite. 

Read More
In Fashion, Interviews Tags Abel, Abel Odor, Frances Shoemack, New Zealand, Amsterdam, USA, Pitti Fragranze, Green Cedar, perfume
Comment
James Ivory at the 2017 Oscars

James Ivory at the 2017 Oscars

To Live an Honest Life: Filmmaker James Ivory

E. Nina Rothe June 21, 2018

I can't help but think of this iconic image of James Ivory at the Oscars this year, wearing the Andrew Mania designed shirt featuring the likeness of 'Call Me By Your Name' co-star Timothée Chalamet. It's everything it should be and more and it's the recognition this giant of the indie film world deserves. What Luchino Visconti was to cinema in the 1960s and 70s, James Ivory -- and his partner, the late Ismael Merchant -- have been to it since then. All the way to 2018! A film featuring either of their names means quality, beauty, poetry and most of all, cinematic dreams galore.

So I wanted to revisit this interview with the Grand Maestro himself, from 2016, which I managed to secure on the occasion of the re-release of 'Howards End', a touching beautiful film about human connections. And love, so much love. In between the serious questions, Ivory and I also exchanged some recommendations on current films to watch -- I suggested 'Elvis & Nixon' which has the feel of a Merchant Ivory production, starring Michael Shannon as, yes, Elvis Presley! -- and I shared my love for 'A Room with a View' the first film I bought on VHS tape, to own and cherish until video went away. 

Read More
In Celebrity, Interviews, Movies Tags Howards End, James Ivory, Ismael Merchant, Oscars 2018, Call Me By Your Name, cinema, film, Luchino Visconti, Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins, Julian Sands, Cohen Film Collection
Comment
Lee Daniels at DIFF 2014

Five Perfect Lessons I Learned from Lee Daniels in Dubai

E. Nina Rothe June 15, 2018

Back in 2014, filmmaker and producer Lee Daniels visited the Dubai International Film Festival. What came out of our chat fueled my love for cinema and made me believe in humanity again. It was the age of Obama then, a different America and a different world. 

But I discovered I need to revisit his wisdoms today. They make even more sense now.

Read More
In Festivals, Celebrity, Interviews Tags Lee Daniels, DIFF, Dubai, Life lessons, cinema, Empire, Terrence Howard, FOX, Absolutely Fabulous, Prime Suspect, Idris Elba, Arabic culture, America, Nadine Labaki, Virginia Madsen, The Butler, Burj Al Arab, Getty Images
Comment
Matteo Garrone, photo by Stefano Baroni

Matteo Garrone, photo by Stefano Baroni

Matteo Garrone on 'Dogman' and the man who finally made the film happen, his actor Marcello Fonte

E. Nina Rothe May 20, 2018

The magic of Matteo Garrone's latest 'Dogman' lies in the Italian filmmaker's fantastical vision -- a creativity simply like no other in narrative cinema. There is something about how this Cannes Competition title was shot, almost surrealistic and old timey, and how the story has been told without compromise that left me breathless. 

'Dogman' is a true collaboration between two exceptional individuals, Garrone as its director of course and his leading man Marcello Fonte, whom the filmmaker allows to steal the show without any ego or possessiveness to the story he wrote (along with Massimo Gaudioso and Ugo Chiti). In fact, Fonte manages to be even more mesmerizing than the dogs in 'Dogman' and those four legged creatures are plentiful and quite spellbinding themselves. Some would say that by the final image of 'Dogman' Fonte has become one of them, an ownerless dog who just lost his master. 


Read More
In Celebrity, Festivals, Interviews, Movies Tags Matteo Garrone, Dogman, Festival de Cannes, Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, Competition, Gomorrah, Reality, Tale of Tales, The Embalmer, Mid-August Lunch, Marcello Fonte, Buster Keaton, Stefano Baroni, Best Actor prize Cannes, Palme d'Or
Comment
Photo courtesy of Annemarie Jacir

Photo courtesy of Annemarie Jacir

Why Cannes' Un Certain Regard Jury member Annemarie Jacir is a personal favorite

E. Nina Rothe May 9, 2018

I fell in love with her film 'Salt of This Sea' first, captured by its heroine Soraya, who was unapologetically woman and so perfectly angry. Then I got to interview her during the now defunct Abu Dhabi Film Festival and found her to be as wonderfully real as her film characters are. Once again, one of her films 'When I Saw You' made me dream from my cinema seat and I found its omissions from that year's Oscar race a large oversight. 

Read More
In Festivals, Interviews Tags Annemarie Jacir, Un Certain Regard, Jury, Cannes Jury, Benicio del Toro, Cannes, Festival de Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, When I Saw YOu, Salt of This Sea, Wajib, Abu Dhabi Film Festival, MENA region, Saudi Arabia pavilion Cannes, Palestinian, Palestine
Comment
Jeffrey Wright with Luke Hemsworth on the Dubai International Film Festival red carpet in 2016  Photo courtesy of DIFF

Jeffrey Wright with Luke Hemsworth on the Dubai International Film Festival red carpet in 2016

Photo courtesy of DIFF

"We are American, no matter who we are": Jeffrey Wright on 'Westworld', role-playing and trusting "the Other"

E. Nina Rothe April 21, 2018

In early December of 2016, just as the last episode of the first season of the HBO series 'Westworld' aired in the US, I sat down with Jeffrey Wright -- at the Dubai Intentional Film Festival. 

I've always been a fan of Wright's work, from his unforgettable Tony and Emmy award winning performance on Broadway and TV as Belize in 'Angels in America' to his always welcomed appearances in political thrillers such as 'Syriana', 'The Ides of March' and 'The Manchurian Candidate'. Yet the final straw of my enchantment with this understated actor who is also a relentless human rights advocate, was his performance as Jean-Michel Basquiat in the 1996 Julian Schnabel film on the American artist. In one beautiful performance, Wright portrayed all the vulnerability and talent of a man who seemed to live in a world of his own, and yet had his cultural roots deeply planted in the American way.

Read More
In Celebrity, Festivals, Interviews Tags Jeffrey Wright, Dubai International Film Festival, Dubai, Westworld, HBO, Angels in America, Syriana, The Ides of March, The Manchurian Candidate, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel, Basquiat, America, Bernard Lowe, Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, J. J. Abrams
Comment
Nadine Labaki photographed by Ammar Abd Rabbo

Nadine Labaki photographed by Ammar Abd Rabbo

Nadine Labaki on Directing, Freedom and Cinema’s True Power

E. Nina Rothe April 15, 2018

A good forty-four years after Lebanese director Heiny Srour had her film featured in the Official Competition at the Festival de Cannes, Nadine Labaki once again breaks all records, foregoes all the unspoken rules and becomes the second woman filmmaker from the Arab world ever to be chosen to be part of the prestigious lineup. And in fact, we can count the women directors who have been on that list on the tips of our fingers... 

It's no wonder that the cool, glamorous and utterly fantastic Labaki and her crew (including her composer husband Khaled Mouzanar, who lends the music to all her cinematic masterpieces) celebrated the news of her latest 'Capernaum' being nominated for a Palme d'Or with a video that has gone viral on her social media.

Read More
In Celebrity, Festivals, Interviews Tags Nadine Labaki, Festival de Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, Caramel, Where do we go now?, Ammar Abd Rabbo, cinema, Isabella Rossellini, Tahar Rahim, Haifaa Al Mansour, Panos Koutras, Martin Scorsese, Lebanon, Lebanese cinema, Arab cinema, MeToo, Capharnaum, Official Competition, Khaled Mouzanar, Palme d'Or, Heiny Srour, SAAT EL TAHRIR DAKKAT, BARRA YA ISTI 'MAR, Capernaum
1 Comment
PHOTO COURTESY OF BUNYA PRODUCTIONS  Ewen Leslie in a still from Warwick Thornton’s ‘Sweet Country’

PHOTO COURTESY OF BUNYA PRODUCTIONS

Ewen Leslie in a still from Warwick Thornton’s ‘Sweet Country’

“People clapped when I died in Toronto”: Ewen Leslie on Playing the Perfect Baddie in Warwick Thornton’s ‘Sweet Country’

E. Nina Rothe April 13, 2018

“The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture.” So Alfred Hitchcock once famously said and no one argues with the Master of Suspence.

Recently, I found that for me the triumph of Warwick Thornton’s ‘Sweet Country’ lies in Ewen Leslie’s performance as Harry March. Part dysfunctional sociopath, part shell-shocked soldier and a whole lot of smoldering angst to fill in the shades of grey in between, Leslie’s performance as the racist, sexual abuser March kicks off with a vengeance this poetic Indigenous Outback western with a Tarantino-esque twist.

I had the pleasure to interview Leslie in person a couple of years ago in Dubai, when ‘The Daughter’ played as part of the Dubai International Film Festival 2015 line-up. In person, the handsome Australian exudes a warmth and kindness which only add to his undeniable charm. And yet, here was this perfect gentleman being a complete bastard in ‘Sweet Country’. I mean, he wasn’t the model dad in ‘The Daughter’ either, but at least in Simon Stone’s film he upheld a certain moral standard. Not so in Thornton’s film, not at all, not as far as the eye can see — for the whole of maybe fifteen minutes he’s on the big screen! Leslie is every bit the perfect villain and more.

Read More
In Celebrity, Interviews, Movies Tags Sweet Country, Ewen Leslie, DIFF, Dubai International Film Festival, Harry March, Indigenous cinema, Indigenous western, Warwick Thornton, Venice International Film Festival, La Biennale di Venezia, Toronto, TIFF, TIFF Bell Lightbox
Comment
Older →
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
 

Featured Posts

Featured
Feb 11, 2019
"This is the environment where films flourish": Talking Qumra 2019 with Hanaa Issa in Berlin
Feb 11, 2019
Feb 11, 2019
Nov 23, 2018
The Cairo International Film Festival Diaries: And to think I almost missed this!
Nov 23, 2018
Nov 23, 2018
Sep 17, 2018
City of Fragrances, Part One: Florence at the scent-er of this year's Pitti Fragranze
Sep 17, 2018
Sep 17, 2018
Sep 10, 2018
The Venice Diaries: The mixtape of Venezia 75 is an homage to creativity's soundtrack
Sep 10, 2018
Sep 10, 2018
Sep 5, 2018
The Venice Diaries: Roberto Minervini's 'What You Gonna Do When the World's On Fire?'
Sep 5, 2018
Sep 5, 2018
Sep 3, 2018
The Venice Diaries: Bruce Weber paints a daring portrait of Robert Mitchum in 'Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast'
Sep 3, 2018
Sep 3, 2018

Powered by Squarespace