Podcast appearances and mentions of Lenny Abrahamson

Irish film director and screenwriter

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Best podcasts about Lenny Abrahamson

Latest podcast episodes about Lenny Abrahamson

Documentary on Newstalk
In the Swastika's Shadow: Ireland and the Holocaust

Documentary on Newstalk

Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2025 48:20


Producer James Wilson looks at the darkest chapter in European history - the murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany. But what impact did this genocide have on Ireland?In the Swastika's Shadow: Ireland and the Holocaust explores how the Irish State dealt with Hitler, the Jewish community's fight for survival and the heroism of the Irish people who resisted the Nazis. Containing interviews with three Holocaust survivors, film director Lenny Abrahamson and former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, In the Swastika's Shadow casts new light on this harrowing chapter in Irish history.Music provided by celloist Patrick Dexter and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta orchestra. This documentary contains conversations that some listeners may find upsetting.

The Anton Savage Show
In conversation with Lenny Abrahamson

The Anton Savage Show

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 25, 2024 21:20


Anton is joined in conversation with film and television director, Lenny Abrahamson.Together they discuss the Dublin International Film Festival taking place this week, the rude health of Irish filmmaking in general, and more.

Double Feature Movie Club
DFMC #51: Frank & The Killer

Double Feature Movie Club

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 20, 2023 94:26


Cade and Diane discuss two Michael Fassbender films: Frank (2014) and The Killer (2023). Watch the video version at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube.com/@CadeThomas/streams⁠⁠⁠⁠ Double Feature Movie Club is a weekly movie review show with a retro vibe. Two movies. Two hosts. One rambling conversation. Each film is our first time watching them. We often go off-topic. Frank is a 2014 independent black comedy film directed by Lenny Abrahamson, produced by David Barron, Ed Guiney and Stevie Lee and written by Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan. It stars Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scoot McNairy, and François Civil. The Killer is a 2023 American action thriller film directed by David Fincher from a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker. It is based on the French graphic novel series The Killer written by Alexis "Matz" Nolent and illustrated by Luc Jacamon. The film stars Michael Fassbender in the title role, alongside Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, Kerry O'Malley, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte, and Tilda Swinton in supporting roles.

Fabulous destinies
The Natascha Kampusch case: the child held captive for 3,096 days

Fabulous destinies

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 23, 2023 13:49


Welcome to Fabulous Destinies. In this episode, we will delve into a dark tale, that of a young Austrian girl who disappeared for many years. This case made headlines and even served as inspiration for Lenny Abrahamson's 2015 film "Room." Her name: The Natascha Kampusch Case. From the young girl's abduction to its lasting impact on her life, you'll discover her harrowing journey. In Vienna, on March 2, 1998, a 10-year-old girl stands in front of her house's door. Today is a big day for her, as for the first time in her life, her parents allow her to go to school on her own. She makes her way through the apartment buildings, continuing toward her school, passing through a residential neighborhood. Her attention is drawn to a white delivery van, which stands out in this landscape. A man stands near the vehicle, lost in thought. An inner voice whispers for her to move away, change the sidewalk, flee. But it's already too late... Production : Bababam Voice : Fabrice Muracciole Translation of the French script of Clémence Setti. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Contrarians
187 - Pt. 1 - Frank (CC)

The Contrarians

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 11, 2023 58:03


A quirky comedy about mental health and music - that's how you get an easy pat on the back from critics. FRANK doesn't offer much insight into whatever illness afflicts its protagonist and the music ain't great either, but the Tomatometer rewarded it with a 92% score, and you don't even get to see Michael Fassbender's face until the very end! Listen to Alex & Julio pick apart Lenny Abrahamson's musical joint, especially its ridiculous the depiction of the city of Austin.TIMELINE00:01:16 Frank00:12:40 Contrarians Corner- Wanna know how we really feel about FRANK? Check out the Real Talk (RT) episode, on your feed RIGHT NOW!- Interested in more Contrarians goodness? Join THE CONTRARIANS SUPPLEMENTS on our Patreon Page! Deleted clips, extended plugs, bonus episodes free from the Tomatometer shackles… It's everything a Contrarians devotee would want!- Our YouTube page is live! Get some visual Contrarians delight with our Contrarians Warm-Ups and other fun videos!- Contrarians Merch is finally here! Check out our RED BUBBLE MERCH PAGE and buy yourself something nice that's emblazoned with one of our four different designs!- THE FESTIVE YEARS have been letting us use their music for years now and they are amazing. You can check out their work on Spotify, on Facebook or on their very own website.- Our buddy Cory Ahre is being kind enough to lend a hand with the editing of some of our videos. If you like his style, wait until you see what he does over on his YouTube Channel.- THE LATE NIGHT GRIN isn't just a show about wrestling: it's a brand, a lifestyle. And they're very supportive of our Contrarian endeavors, so we'd like to return the favor. Check out their YouTube Channel! You might even spot Alex there from time to time.- Hans Rothgiesser, the man behind our logo, can be reached at @mildemonios on Twitter or you can email him at mildemonios@hotmail.com in case you ever need a logo (or comics) produced. And you can listen to him talk about Peruvian politics on his own podcast, NACION COMBI and Peruvian economics on his other podcast, MARGINAL! Aaaaand you can also check out all the stuff he's written on his own website. He has a new book: a fake Peruvian History Textbook called HIZTORIA DEL PERÚ. Ask him about it!

True Story
L'affaire Natascha Kampusch, l'enfant séquestrée pendant 3 096 jours

True Story

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 5, 2023 12:52


Bienvenue dans Les Fabuleux Destins. Dans cet épisode,nous allons vous parler d'une sombre histoire. D'une jeune Autrichienne qui a disparu pendant de nombreuses années. Cette affaire a défrayé la chronique, et a même inspiré le film Room de Lenny Abrahamson, sorti en 2015. Son nom : L'affaire Natascha Kampusch. De l'enlèvement de la jeune fille à ses conséquences sur sa vie présente, découvrez son terrible destin. À Vienne, le 2 mars 1998, une jeune fille de 10 ans se tient devant la porte de sa maison. Aujourd'hui est un grand jour pour elle, car pour la première fois de sa vie, ses parents la laissent aller seule à l'école. Elle se fraye un chemin à travers les blocs d'immeubles. Elle continue son chemin vers son école, et passe dans un quartier pavillonnaire. Son regard est attiré par une voiture de livraison blanche, qui dénote dans ce paysage. Un homme se tient près du véhicule, le regard perdu. Une voix intérieure lui murmure de s'éloigner, de changer de trottoir, de fuir. Mais il est déjà trop tard... Pour découvrir d'autres récits passionnants, cliquez ci-dessous : RuPaul, la drag queen la plus influente du monde Brooklyn Beckham, l'enfant de stars qui construit son propre empire Harry Styles, le phénomène planétaire de la pop culture Un podcast Bababam Originals Voix : Andréa Brusque Ecriture : Clémence Setti Production : Bababam (montage Gilles Bawulak, Antoine Berry Roger) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who Does A Podcast?
Ep. 31: Frank

Who Does A Podcast?

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 26, 2023 80:22


Joe, Kyle and Rick watch a favorite of Kyle and Joe's, "Frank" directed by Lenny Abrahamson and starring, Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Scoot McNairy. We cobbled together 11 of the songs on the eclectic soundtrack. We then pick our favorite line, performers, characters and scenes. And we figure out whether we like this movie or not. Enjoy!

The 80s Movies Podcast
Miramax Films - Part Two

The 80s Movies Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 14, 2023 32:38


On this episode, we are continuing our miniseries on the movies released by Miramax Films in the 1980s, specifically looking at the films they released between 1984 and 1986. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT   From Los Angeles, California. The Entertainment Capital of the World. It's the 80s Movie Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   On this episode, we are continuing our miniseries on the movies released by Miramax Films in the 1980s.   And, in case you did not listen to Part 1 yet, let me reiterate that the focus here will be on the films and the creatives, not the Weinsteins. The Weinsteins did not have a hand in the production of any of the movies Miramax released in the 1980s, and that Miramax logo and the names associated with it should not stop anyone from enjoying some very well made movies because they now have an unfortunate association with two spineless chucklenuts who proclivities would not be known by the outside world for decades to come.   Well, there is one movie this episode where we must talk about the Weinsteins as the creatives, but when talking about that film, “creatives” is a derisive pejorative.    We ended our previous episode at the end of 1983. Miramax had one minor hit film in The Secret Policeman's Other Ball, thanks in large part to the film's association with members of the still beloved Monty Python comedy troupe, who hadn't released any material since The Life of Brian in 1979.   1984 would be the start of year five of the company, and they were still in need of something to make their name. Being a truly independent film company in 1984 was not easy. There were fewer than 20,000 movie screens in the entire country back then, compared to nearly 40,000 today. National video store chains like Blockbuster did not exist, and the few cable channels that did exist played mostly Hollywood films. There was no social media for images and clips to go viral.   For comparison's sake, in A24's first five years, from its founding in August 2012 to July 2017, the company would have a number of hit films, including The Bling Ring, The Lobster, Spring Breakers, and The Witch, release movies from some of indie cinema's most respected names, including Andrea Arnold, Robert Eggers, Atom Egoyan, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Lynn Shelton, Trey Edward Shults, Gus Van Sant, and Denis Villeneuve, and released several Academy Award winning movies, including the Amy Winehouse documentary Amy, Alex Garland's Ex Machina, Lenny Abrahamson's Room and Barry Jenkins' Moonlight, which would upset front runner La La Land for the Best Picture of 2016.   But instead of leaning into the American independent cinema world the way Cinecom and Island were doing with the likes of Jonathan Demme and John Sayles, Miramax would dip their toes further into the world of international cinema.   Their first release for 1984 would be Ruy Guerra's Eréndira. The screenplay by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez was based on his 1972 novella The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother, which itself was based off a screenplay Márquez had written in the early 1960s, which, when he couldn't get it made at the time, he reduced down to a page and a half for a sequence in his 1967 magnum opus One Hundred Years of Solitude. Between the early 1960s and the early 1980s, Márquez would lose the original draft of Eréndira, and would write a new script based off what he remembered writing twenty years earlier.    In the story, a young woman named Eréndira lives in a near mansion situation in an otherwise empty desert with her grandmother, who had collected a number of paper flowers and assorted tchotchkes over the years. One night, Eréndira forgets to put out some candles used to illuminate the house, and the house and all of its contents burn to the ground. With everything lost, Eréndira's grandmother forces her into a life of prostitution. The young woman quickly becomes the courtesan of choice in the region. With every new journey, an ever growing caravan starts to follow them, until it becomes for all intents and purposes a carnival, with food vendors, snake charmers, musicians and games of chance.   Márquez's writing style, known as “magic realism,” was very cinematic on the page, and it's little wonder that many of his stories have been made into movies and television miniseries around the globe for more than a half century. Yet no movie came as close to capturing that Marquezian prose quite the way Guerra did with Eréndira. Featuring Greek goddess Irene Papas as the Grandmother, Brazilian actress Cláudia Ohana, who happened to be married to Guerra at the time, as the titular character, and former Bond villain Michael Lonsdale in a small but important role as a Senator who tries to help Eréndira get out of her life as a slave, the movie would be Mexico's entry into the 1983 Academy Award race for Best Foreign Language Film.   After acquiring the film for American distribution, Miramax would score a coup by getting the film accepted to that year's New York Film Festival, alongside such films as Robert Altman's Streamers, Jean Lucy Godard's Passion, Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill, Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish, and Andrzej Wajda's Danton.   But despite some stellar reviews from many of the New York City film critics, Eréndira would not get nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, and Miramax would wait until April 27th, 1984, to open the film at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, one of the most important theatres in New York City at the time to launch a foreign film. A quarter page ad in the New York Times included quotes from the Village Voice, New York Magazine, Vincent Canby of the Times and Roger Ebert, the movie would gross an impressive $25,500 in its first three days. Word of mouth in the city would be strong, with its second weekend gross actually increasing nearly 20% to $30,500. Its third weekend would fall slightly, but with $27k in the till would still be better than its first weekend.   It wouldn't be until Week 5 that Eréndira would expand into Los Angeles and Chicago, where it would continue to gross nearly $20k per screen for several more weeks. The film would continue to play across the nation for more than half a year, and despite never making more than four prints of the film, Eréndira would gross more than $600k in America, one of the best non-English language releases for all of 1984.   In their quickest turnaround from one film to another to date, Miramax would release Claude Lelouch's Edith and Marcel not five weeks after Eréndira.   If you're not familiar with the name Claude Chabrol, I would highly suggest becoming so. Chabrol was a part of the French New Wave filmmakers alongside Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Éric Rohmer, and François Truffaut who came up as film critics for the influential French magazine Cahiers [ka-yay] du Cinéma in the 1950s, who would go on to change the direction of French Cinema and how film fans appreciated films and filmmakers through the concept of The Auteur Theory, although the theory itself would be given a name by American film critic Andrew Sarris in 1962.   Of these five critics turned filmmakers, Chabrol would be considered the most prolific and commercial. Chabrol would be the first of them to make a film, Le Beau Serge, and between 1957 and his death in 2010, he would make 58 movies. That's more than one new movie every year on average, not counting shorts and television projects he also made on the side.   American audiences knew him best for his 1966 global hit A Man and a Woman, which would sell more than $14m in tickets in the US and would be one of the few foreign language films to earn Academy Award nominations outside of the Best Foreign Language Film race. Lead actress Anouk Aimee would get a nod, and Chabrol would earn two on the film, for Best Director, which he would lose to Fred Zimmerman and A Man for All Seasons, and Best Original Screenplay, which he would win alongside his co-writer Pierre Uytterhoeven.   Edith and Marcel would tell the story of the love affair between the iconic French singer Edith Piaf and Marcel Cerdan, the French boxer who was the Middleweight Champion of the World during their affair in 1948 and 1949. Both were famous in their own right, but together, they were the Brangelina of post-World War II France. Despite the fact that Cerdan was married with three kids, their affair helped lift the spirits of the French people, until his death in October 1949, while he was flying from Paris to New York to see Piaf.   Fans of Raging Bull are somewhat familiar with Marcel Cerdan already, as Cerdan's last fight before his death would find Cerdan losing his middleweight title to Jake LaMotta.   In a weird twist of fate, Patrick Dewaere, the actor Chabrol cast as Cerdan, committed suicide just after the start of production, and while Chabrol considered shutting down the film in respect, it would be none other than Marcel Cerdan, Jr. who would step in to the role of his own father, despite never having acted before, and being six years older than his father was when he died.   When it was released in France in April 1983, it was an immediate hit, become the second highest French film of the year, and the sixth highest grosser of all films released in the country that year. However, it would not be the film France submitted to that year's Academy Award race. That would be Diane Kurys' Entre Nous, which wasn't as big a hit in France but was considered a stronger contender for the nomination, in part because of Isabelle Hupert's amazing performance but also because Entre Nous, as 110 minutes, was 50 minutes shorter than Edith and Marcel.   Harvey Weinstein would cut twenty minutes out of the film without Chabrol's consent or assistance, and when the film was released at the 57th Street Playhouse in New York City on Sunday, June 3rd, the gushing reviews in the New York Times ad would actually be for Chabrol's original cut, and they would help the film gross $15,300 in its first five days. But once the other New York critics who didn't get to see the original cut of the film saw this new cut, the critical consensus started to fall. Things felt off to them, and they would be, as a number of short trims made by Weinstein would remove important context for the film for the sake of streamlining the film. Audiences would pick up on the changes, and in its first full weekend of release, the film would only gross $12k. After two more weeks of grosses of under $4k each week, the film would close in New York City. Edith and Marcel would never play in another theatre in the United States.   And then there would be another year plus long gap before their next release, but we'll get into the reason why in a few moments.   Many people today know Rubén Blades as Daniel Salazar in Fear the Walking Dead, or from his appearances in The Milagro Beanfield War, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, or Predator 2, amongst his 40 plus acting appearances over the years, but in the early 1980s, he was a salsa and Latin Jazz musician and singer who had yet to break out of the New Yorican market. With an idea for a movie about a singer and musician not unlike himself trying to attempt a crossover success into mainstream music, he would approach his friend, director Leon Icasho, about teaming up to get the idea fleshed out into a real movie. Although Blades was at best a cult music star, and Icasho had only made one movie before, they were able to raise $6m from a series of local investors including Jack Rollins, who produced every Woody Allen movie from 1969's Take the Money and Run to 2015's Irrational Man, to make their movie, which they would start shooting in the Spanish Harlem section of New York City in December 1982.   Despite the luxury of a large budget for an independent Latino production, the shooting schedule was very tight, less than five weeks. There would be a number of large musical segments to show Blades' character Rudy's talents as a musician and singer, with hundreds of extras on hand in each scene. Icasho would stick to his 28 day schedule, and the film would wrap up shortly after the New Year.   Even though the director would have his final cut of the movie ready by the start of summer 1983, it would take nearly a year and a half for any distributor to nibble. It wasn't that the film was tedious. Quite the opposite. Many distributors enjoyed the film, but worried about, ironically, the ability of the film to crossover out of the Latino market into the mainstream. So when Miramax came along with a lower than hoped for offer to release the film, the filmmakers took the deal, because they just wanted the film out there.   Things would start to pick up for the film when Miramax submitted the film to be entered into the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, and it would be submitted to run in the prestigious Directors Fortnight program, alongside Mike Newell's breakthrough film, Dance with a Stranger, Victor Nunez's breakthrough film, A Flash of Green, and Wayne Wang's breakthrough film Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart. While they were waiting for Cannes to get back to them, they would also learn the film had been selected to be a part of The Lincoln Center's New Directors/New Films program, where the film would earn raves from local critics and audiences, especially for Blades, who many felt was a screen natural. After more praise from critics and audiences on the French Riviera, Miramax would open Crossover Dreams at the Cinema Studio theatre in midtown Manhattan on August 23rd, 1985. Originally booked into the smaller 180 seat auditorium, since John Huston's Prizzi's Honor was still doing good business in the 300 seat house in its fourth week, the theatre would swap houses for the films when it became clear early on Crossover Dreams' first day that it would be the more popular title that weekend. And it would. While Prizzi would gross a still solid $10k that weekend, Crossover Dreams would gross $35k. In its second weekend, the film would again gross $35k. And in its third weekend, another $35k. They were basically selling out every seat at every show those first three weeks. Clearly, the film was indeed doing some crossover business.   But, strangely, Miramax would wait seven weeks after opening the film in New York to open it in Los Angeles. With a new ad campaign that de-emphasized Blades and played up the dreamer dreaming big aspect of the film, Miramax would open the movie at two of the more upscale theatres in the area, the Cineplex Beverly Center on the outskirts of Beverly Hills, and the Cineplex Brentwood Twin, on the west side where many of Hollywood's tastemakers called home. Even with a plethora of good reviews from the local press, and playing at two theatres with a capacity of more than double the one theatre playing the film in New York, Crossover Dreams could only manage a neat $13k opening weekend.   Slowly but surely, Miramax would add a few more prints in additional major markets, but never really gave the film the chance to score with Latino audiences who may have been craving a salsa-infused musical/drama, even if it was entirely in English. Looking back, thirty-eight years later, that seems to have been a mistake, but it seems that the film's final gross of just $250k after just ten weeks of release was leaving a lot of money on the table. At awards time, Blades would be nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor, but otherwise, the film would be shut out of any further consideration.   But for all intents and purposes, the film did kinda complete its mission of turning Blades into a star. He continues to be one of the busiest Latino actors in Hollywood over the last forty years, and it would help get one of his co-stars, Elizabeth Peña, a major job in a major Hollywood film the following year, as the live-in maid at Richard Dreyfuss and Bette Midler's house in Paul Mazursky's Down and Out in Beverly Hills, which would give her a steady career until her passing in 2014. And Icasho himself would have a successful directing career both on movie screens and on television, working on such projects as Miami Vice, Crime Story, The Equalizer, Criminal Minds, and Queen of the South, until his passing this past May.   I'm going to briefly mention a Canadian drama called The Dog Who Stopped the War that Miramax released on three screens in their home town of Buffalo on October 25th, 1985. A children's film about two groups of children in a small town in Quebec during their winter break who get involved in an ever-escalating snowball fight. It would be the highest grossing local film in Canada in 1984, and would become the first in a series of 25 family films under a Tales For All banner made by a company called Party Productions, which will be releasing their newest film in the series later this year. The film may have huge in Canada, but in Buffalo in the late fall, the film would only gross $15k in its first, and only, week in theatres. The film would eventually develop a cult following thanks to repeated cable screenings during the holidays every year.   We'll also give a brief mention to an Australian action movie called Cool Change, directed by George Miller. No, not the George Miller who created the Mad Max series, but the other Australian director named George Miller, who had to start going by George T. Miller to differentiate himself from the other George Miller, even though this George Miller was directing before the other George Miller, and even had a bigger local and global hit in 1982 with The Man From Snowy River than the other George Miller had with Mad Max II, aka The Road Warrior. It would also be the second movie released by Miramax in a year starring a young Australian ingenue named Deborra-Lee Furness, who was also featured in Crossover Dreams. Today, most people know her as Mrs. Hugh Jackman.   The internet and several book sources say the movie opened in America on March 14th, 1986, but damn if I can find any playdate anywhere in the country, period. Not even in the Weinsteins' home territory of Buffalo. A critic from the Sydney Morning Herald would call the film, which opened in Australia four weeks after it allegedly opened in America, a spectacularly simplistic propaganda piece for the cattle farmers of the Victorian high plains,” and in its home country, it would barely gross 2% of its $3.5m budget.   And sticking with brief mentions of Australian movies Miramax allegedly released in American in the spring of 1986, we move over to one of three movies directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith that would be released during that year. In Australia, it was titled Frog Dreaming, but for America, the title was changed to The Quest. The film stars Henry Thomas from E.T. as an American boy who has moved to Australia to be with his guardian after his parents die, who finds himself caught up in the magic of a local Aboriginal myth that might be more real than anyone realizes.   And like Cool Change, I cannot find any American playdates for the film anywhere near its alleged May 1st, 1986 release date. I even contacted Mr. Trenchard-Smith asking him if he remembers anything about the American release of his film, knowing full well it's 37 years later, but while being very polite in his response, he was unable to help.       Finally, we get back to the movies we actually can talk about with some certainty. I know our next movie was actually released in American theatres, because I saw it in America at a cinema.   Twist and Shout tells the story of two best friends, Bjørn and Erik, growing up in suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark in 1963. The music of The Beatles, who are just exploding in Europe, help provide a welcome respite from the harsh realities of their lives.   Directed by Billie August, Twist and Shout would become the first of several August films to be released by Miramax over the next decade, including his follow-up, which would end up become Miramax's first Oscar-winning release, but we'll be talking about that movie on our next episode.   August was often seen as a spiritual successor to Ingmar Bergman within Scandinavian cinema, so much so that Bergman would handpick August to direct a semi-autobiographical screenplay of his, The Best Intentions, in the early 1990s, when it became clear to Bergman that he would not be able to make it himself. Bergman's only stipulation was that August would need to cast one of his actresses from Fanny and Alexander, Pernilla Wallgren, as his stand-in character's mother. August and Wallgren had never met until they started filming. By the end of shooting, Pernilla Wallgren would be Pernilla August, but that's another story for another time.   In a rare twist, Twist and Shout would open in Los Angeles before New York City, at the Cineplex Beverly Center August 22nd, 1986, more than two years after it opened across Denmark. Loaded with accolades including a Best Picture Award from the European Film Festival and positive reviews from the likes of Gene Siskel and Michael Wilmington, the movie would gross, according to Variety, a “crisp” $14k in its first three days. In its second weekend, the Beverly Center would add a second screen for the film, and the gross would increase to $17k. And by week four, one of those prints at the Beverly Center would move to the Laemmle Monica 4, so those on the West Side who didn't want to go east of the 405 could watch it. But the combined $13k gross would not be as good as the previous week's $14k from the two screens at the Beverly Center.   It wouldn't be until Twist and Shout's sixth week of release they would finally add a screen in New York City, the 68th Street Playhouse, where it would gross $25k in its first weekend there. But after nine weeks, never playing in more than five theatres in any given weekend, Twist and Shout was down and out, with only $204k in ticket sales. But it was good enough for Miramax to acquire August's next movie, and actually get it into American theatres within a year of its release in Denmark and Sweden. Join us next episode for that story.   Earlier, I teased about why Miramax took more than a year off from releasing movies in 1984 and 1985. And we've reached that point in the timeline to tell that story.   After writing and producing The Burning in 1981, Bob and Harvey had decided what they really wanted to do was direct. But it would take years for them to come up with an idea and flesh that story out to a full length screenplay. They'd return to their roots as rock show promoters, borrowing heavily from one of Harvey's first forays into that field, when he and a partner, Corky Burger, purchased an aging movie theatre in Buffalo in 1974 and turned it into a rock and roll hall for a few years, until they gutted and demolished the theatre, so they could sell the land, with Harvey's half of the proceeds becoming much of the seed money to start Miramax up.   After graduating high school, three best friends from New York get the opportunity of a lifetime when they inherit an old run down hotel upstate, with dreams of turning it into a rock and roll hotel. But when they get to the hotel, they realize the place is going to need a lot more work than they initially realized, and they realize they are not going to get any help from any of the locals, who don't want them or their silly rock and roll hotel in their quaint and quiet town.   With a budget of only $5m, and a story that would need to be filmed entirely on location, the cast would not include very many well known actors.   For the lead role of Danny, the young man who inherits the hotel, they would cast Daniel Jordano, whose previous acting work had been nameless characters in movies like Death Wish 3 and Streetwalkin'. This would be his first leading role.   Danny's two best friends, Silk and Spikes, would be played by Leon W. Grant and Matthew Penn, respectively. Like Jordano, both Grant and Penn had also worked in small supporting roles, although Grant would actually play characters with actual names like Boo Boo and Chollie. Penn, the son of Bonnie and Clyde director Arthur Penn, would ironically have his first acting role in a 1983 musical called Rock and Roll Hotel, about a young trio of musicians who enter a Battle of the Bands at an old hotel called The Rock and Roll Hotel. This would also be their first leading roles.   Today, there are two reasons to watch Playing For Keeps.   One of them is to see just how truly awful Bob and Harvey Weinstein were as directors. 80% of the movie is master shots without any kind of coverage, 15% is wannabe MTV music video if those videos were directed by space aliens handed video cameras and not told what to do with them, and 5% Jordano mimicking Kevin Bacon in Footloose but with the heaviest New Yawk accent this side of Bensonhurst.   The other reason is to watch a young actress in her first major screen role, who is still mesmerizing and hypnotic despite the crapfest she is surrounded by. Nineteen year old Marisa Tomei wouldn't become a star because of this movie, but it was clear very early on she was going to become one, someday.   Mostly shot in and around the grounds of the Bethany Colony Resort in Bethany PA, the film would spend six weeks in production during June and July of 1984, and they would spend more than a year and a half putting the film together. As music men, they knew a movie about a rock and roll hotel for younger people who need to have a lot of hip, cool, teen-friendly music on the soundtrack. So, naturally, the Weinsteins would recruit such hip, cool, teen-friendly musicians like Pete Townshend of The Who, Phil Collins, Peter Frampton, Sister Sledge, already defunct Duran Duran side project Arcadia, and Hinton Battle, who had originated the role of The Scarecrow in the Broadway production of The Wiz. They would spend nearly $500k to acquire B-sides and tossed away songs that weren't good enough to appear on the artists' regular albums.   Once again light on money, Miramax would sent the completed film out to the major studios to see if they'd be willing to release the movie. A sale would bring some much needed capital back into the company immediately, and creating a working relationship with a major studio could be advantageous in the long run. Universal Pictures would buy the movie from Miramax for an undisclosed sum, and set an October 3rd release.   Playing For Keeps would open on 1148 screens that day, including 56 screens in the greater Los Angeles region and 80 in the New York City metropolitan area. But it wasn't the best week to open this film. Crocodile Dundee had opened the week before and was a surprise hit, spending a second week firmly atop the box office charts with $8.2m in ticket sales. Its nearest competitor, the Burt Lancaster/Kirk Douglas comedy Tough Guys, would be the week's highest grossing new film, with $4.6m. Number three was Top Gun, earning $2.405m in its 21st week in theatres, and Stand By Me was in fourth in its ninth week with $2.396m. In fifth place, playing in only 215 theatres, would be another new opener, Children of a Lesser God, with $1.9m. And all the way down in sixth place, with only $1.4m in ticket sales, was Playing for Keeps.   The reviews were fairly brutal, and by that, I mean they were fair in their brutality, although you'll have to do some work to find those reviews. No one has ever bothered to link their reviews for Playing For Keeps at Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic. After a second weekend, where the film would lose a quarter of its screens and 61% of its opening weekend business, Universal would cut its losses and dump the film into dollar houses. The final reported box office gross on the film would be $2.67m.   Bob Weinstein would never write or direct another film, and Harvey Weinstein would only have one other directing credit to his name, an animated movie called The Gnomes' Great Adventure, which wasn't really a directing effort so much as buying the American rights to a 1985 Spanish animated series called The World of David the Gnome, creating new English language dubs with actors like Tom Bosley, Frank Gorshin, Christopher Plummer, and Tony Randall, and selling the new versions to Nickelodeon.   Sadly, we would learn in October 2017 that one of the earliest known episodes of sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein happened during the pre-production of Playing for Keeps.   In 1984, a twenty year old college junior Tomi-Ann Roberts was waiting tables in New York City, hoping to start an acting career. Weinstein, who one of her customers at this restaurant, urged Ms. Roberts to audition for a movie that he and his brother were planning to direct. He sent her the script and asked her to meet him where he was staying so they could discuss the film. When she arrived at his hotel room, the door was left slightly ajar, and he called on her to come in and close the door behind her.  She would find Weinstein nude in the bathtub,  where he told her she would give a much better audition if she were comfortable getting naked in front of him too, because the character she might play would have a topless scene. If she could not bare her breasts in private, she would not be able to do it on film. She was horrified and rushed out of the room, after telling Weinstein that she was too prudish to go along. She felt he had manipulated her by feigning professional interest in her, and doubted she had ever been under serious consideration. That incident would send her life in a different direction. In 2017, Roberts was a psychology professor at Colorado College, researching sexual objectification, an interest she traces back in part to that long-ago encounter.   And on that sad note, we're going to take our leave.   Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again next week, when we continue with story of Miramax Films, from 1987.   Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

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The 80s Movie Podcast
Miramax Films - Part Two

The 80s Movie Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 14, 2023 32:38


On this episode, we are continuing our miniseries on the movies released by Miramax Films in the 1980s, specifically looking at the films they released between 1984 and 1986. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT   From Los Angeles, California. The Entertainment Capital of the World. It's the 80s Movie Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   On this episode, we are continuing our miniseries on the movies released by Miramax Films in the 1980s.   And, in case you did not listen to Part 1 yet, let me reiterate that the focus here will be on the films and the creatives, not the Weinsteins. The Weinsteins did not have a hand in the production of any of the movies Miramax released in the 1980s, and that Miramax logo and the names associated with it should not stop anyone from enjoying some very well made movies because they now have an unfortunate association with two spineless chucklenuts who proclivities would not be known by the outside world for decades to come.   Well, there is one movie this episode where we must talk about the Weinsteins as the creatives, but when talking about that film, “creatives” is a derisive pejorative.    We ended our previous episode at the end of 1983. Miramax had one minor hit film in The Secret Policeman's Other Ball, thanks in large part to the film's association with members of the still beloved Monty Python comedy troupe, who hadn't released any material since The Life of Brian in 1979.   1984 would be the start of year five of the company, and they were still in need of something to make their name. Being a truly independent film company in 1984 was not easy. There were fewer than 20,000 movie screens in the entire country back then, compared to nearly 40,000 today. National video store chains like Blockbuster did not exist, and the few cable channels that did exist played mostly Hollywood films. There was no social media for images and clips to go viral.   For comparison's sake, in A24's first five years, from its founding in August 2012 to July 2017, the company would have a number of hit films, including The Bling Ring, The Lobster, Spring Breakers, and The Witch, release movies from some of indie cinema's most respected names, including Andrea Arnold, Robert Eggers, Atom Egoyan, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Lynn Shelton, Trey Edward Shults, Gus Van Sant, and Denis Villeneuve, and released several Academy Award winning movies, including the Amy Winehouse documentary Amy, Alex Garland's Ex Machina, Lenny Abrahamson's Room and Barry Jenkins' Moonlight, which would upset front runner La La Land for the Best Picture of 2016.   But instead of leaning into the American independent cinema world the way Cinecom and Island were doing with the likes of Jonathan Demme and John Sayles, Miramax would dip their toes further into the world of international cinema.   Their first release for 1984 would be Ruy Guerra's Eréndira. The screenplay by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez was based on his 1972 novella The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother, which itself was based off a screenplay Márquez had written in the early 1960s, which, when he couldn't get it made at the time, he reduced down to a page and a half for a sequence in his 1967 magnum opus One Hundred Years of Solitude. Between the early 1960s and the early 1980s, Márquez would lose the original draft of Eréndira, and would write a new script based off what he remembered writing twenty years earlier.    In the story, a young woman named Eréndira lives in a near mansion situation in an otherwise empty desert with her grandmother, who had collected a number of paper flowers and assorted tchotchkes over the years. One night, Eréndira forgets to put out some candles used to illuminate the house, and the house and all of its contents burn to the ground. With everything lost, Eréndira's grandmother forces her into a life of prostitution. The young woman quickly becomes the courtesan of choice in the region. With every new journey, an ever growing caravan starts to follow them, until it becomes for all intents and purposes a carnival, with food vendors, snake charmers, musicians and games of chance.   Márquez's writing style, known as “magic realism,” was very cinematic on the page, and it's little wonder that many of his stories have been made into movies and television miniseries around the globe for more than a half century. Yet no movie came as close to capturing that Marquezian prose quite the way Guerra did with Eréndira. Featuring Greek goddess Irene Papas as the Grandmother, Brazilian actress Cláudia Ohana, who happened to be married to Guerra at the time, as the titular character, and former Bond villain Michael Lonsdale in a small but important role as a Senator who tries to help Eréndira get out of her life as a slave, the movie would be Mexico's entry into the 1983 Academy Award race for Best Foreign Language Film.   After acquiring the film for American distribution, Miramax would score a coup by getting the film accepted to that year's New York Film Festival, alongside such films as Robert Altman's Streamers, Jean Lucy Godard's Passion, Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill, Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish, and Andrzej Wajda's Danton.   But despite some stellar reviews from many of the New York City film critics, Eréndira would not get nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, and Miramax would wait until April 27th, 1984, to open the film at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, one of the most important theatres in New York City at the time to launch a foreign film. A quarter page ad in the New York Times included quotes from the Village Voice, New York Magazine, Vincent Canby of the Times and Roger Ebert, the movie would gross an impressive $25,500 in its first three days. Word of mouth in the city would be strong, with its second weekend gross actually increasing nearly 20% to $30,500. Its third weekend would fall slightly, but with $27k in the till would still be better than its first weekend.   It wouldn't be until Week 5 that Eréndira would expand into Los Angeles and Chicago, where it would continue to gross nearly $20k per screen for several more weeks. The film would continue to play across the nation for more than half a year, and despite never making more than four prints of the film, Eréndira would gross more than $600k in America, one of the best non-English language releases for all of 1984.   In their quickest turnaround from one film to another to date, Miramax would release Claude Lelouch's Edith and Marcel not five weeks after Eréndira.   If you're not familiar with the name Claude Chabrol, I would highly suggest becoming so. Chabrol was a part of the French New Wave filmmakers alongside Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Éric Rohmer, and François Truffaut who came up as film critics for the influential French magazine Cahiers [ka-yay] du Cinéma in the 1950s, who would go on to change the direction of French Cinema and how film fans appreciated films and filmmakers through the concept of The Auteur Theory, although the theory itself would be given a name by American film critic Andrew Sarris in 1962.   Of these five critics turned filmmakers, Chabrol would be considered the most prolific and commercial. Chabrol would be the first of them to make a film, Le Beau Serge, and between 1957 and his death in 2010, he would make 58 movies. That's more than one new movie every year on average, not counting shorts and television projects he also made on the side.   American audiences knew him best for his 1966 global hit A Man and a Woman, which would sell more than $14m in tickets in the US and would be one of the few foreign language films to earn Academy Award nominations outside of the Best Foreign Language Film race. Lead actress Anouk Aimee would get a nod, and Chabrol would earn two on the film, for Best Director, which he would lose to Fred Zimmerman and A Man for All Seasons, and Best Original Screenplay, which he would win alongside his co-writer Pierre Uytterhoeven.   Edith and Marcel would tell the story of the love affair between the iconic French singer Edith Piaf and Marcel Cerdan, the French boxer who was the Middleweight Champion of the World during their affair in 1948 and 1949. Both were famous in their own right, but together, they were the Brangelina of post-World War II France. Despite the fact that Cerdan was married with three kids, their affair helped lift the spirits of the French people, until his death in October 1949, while he was flying from Paris to New York to see Piaf.   Fans of Raging Bull are somewhat familiar with Marcel Cerdan already, as Cerdan's last fight before his death would find Cerdan losing his middleweight title to Jake LaMotta.   In a weird twist of fate, Patrick Dewaere, the actor Chabrol cast as Cerdan, committed suicide just after the start of production, and while Chabrol considered shutting down the film in respect, it would be none other than Marcel Cerdan, Jr. who would step in to the role of his own father, despite never having acted before, and being six years older than his father was when he died.   When it was released in France in April 1983, it was an immediate hit, become the second highest French film of the year, and the sixth highest grosser of all films released in the country that year. However, it would not be the film France submitted to that year's Academy Award race. That would be Diane Kurys' Entre Nous, which wasn't as big a hit in France but was considered a stronger contender for the nomination, in part because of Isabelle Hupert's amazing performance but also because Entre Nous, as 110 minutes, was 50 minutes shorter than Edith and Marcel.   Harvey Weinstein would cut twenty minutes out of the film without Chabrol's consent or assistance, and when the film was released at the 57th Street Playhouse in New York City on Sunday, June 3rd, the gushing reviews in the New York Times ad would actually be for Chabrol's original cut, and they would help the film gross $15,300 in its first five days. But once the other New York critics who didn't get to see the original cut of the film saw this new cut, the critical consensus started to fall. Things felt off to them, and they would be, as a number of short trims made by Weinstein would remove important context for the film for the sake of streamlining the film. Audiences would pick up on the changes, and in its first full weekend of release, the film would only gross $12k. After two more weeks of grosses of under $4k each week, the film would close in New York City. Edith and Marcel would never play in another theatre in the United States.   And then there would be another year plus long gap before their next release, but we'll get into the reason why in a few moments.   Many people today know Rubén Blades as Daniel Salazar in Fear the Walking Dead, or from his appearances in The Milagro Beanfield War, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, or Predator 2, amongst his 40 plus acting appearances over the years, but in the early 1980s, he was a salsa and Latin Jazz musician and singer who had yet to break out of the New Yorican market. With an idea for a movie about a singer and musician not unlike himself trying to attempt a crossover success into mainstream music, he would approach his friend, director Leon Icasho, about teaming up to get the idea fleshed out into a real movie. Although Blades was at best a cult music star, and Icasho had only made one movie before, they were able to raise $6m from a series of local investors including Jack Rollins, who produced every Woody Allen movie from 1969's Take the Money and Run to 2015's Irrational Man, to make their movie, which they would start shooting in the Spanish Harlem section of New York City in December 1982.   Despite the luxury of a large budget for an independent Latino production, the shooting schedule was very tight, less than five weeks. There would be a number of large musical segments to show Blades' character Rudy's talents as a musician and singer, with hundreds of extras on hand in each scene. Icasho would stick to his 28 day schedule, and the film would wrap up shortly after the New Year.   Even though the director would have his final cut of the movie ready by the start of summer 1983, it would take nearly a year and a half for any distributor to nibble. It wasn't that the film was tedious. Quite the opposite. Many distributors enjoyed the film, but worried about, ironically, the ability of the film to crossover out of the Latino market into the mainstream. So when Miramax came along with a lower than hoped for offer to release the film, the filmmakers took the deal, because they just wanted the film out there.   Things would start to pick up for the film when Miramax submitted the film to be entered into the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, and it would be submitted to run in the prestigious Directors Fortnight program, alongside Mike Newell's breakthrough film, Dance with a Stranger, Victor Nunez's breakthrough film, A Flash of Green, and Wayne Wang's breakthrough film Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart. While they were waiting for Cannes to get back to them, they would also learn the film had been selected to be a part of The Lincoln Center's New Directors/New Films program, where the film would earn raves from local critics and audiences, especially for Blades, who many felt was a screen natural. After more praise from critics and audiences on the French Riviera, Miramax would open Crossover Dreams at the Cinema Studio theatre in midtown Manhattan on August 23rd, 1985. Originally booked into the smaller 180 seat auditorium, since John Huston's Prizzi's Honor was still doing good business in the 300 seat house in its fourth week, the theatre would swap houses for the films when it became clear early on Crossover Dreams' first day that it would be the more popular title that weekend. And it would. While Prizzi would gross a still solid $10k that weekend, Crossover Dreams would gross $35k. In its second weekend, the film would again gross $35k. And in its third weekend, another $35k. They were basically selling out every seat at every show those first three weeks. Clearly, the film was indeed doing some crossover business.   But, strangely, Miramax would wait seven weeks after opening the film in New York to open it in Los Angeles. With a new ad campaign that de-emphasized Blades and played up the dreamer dreaming big aspect of the film, Miramax would open the movie at two of the more upscale theatres in the area, the Cineplex Beverly Center on the outskirts of Beverly Hills, and the Cineplex Brentwood Twin, on the west side where many of Hollywood's tastemakers called home. Even with a plethora of good reviews from the local press, and playing at two theatres with a capacity of more than double the one theatre playing the film in New York, Crossover Dreams could only manage a neat $13k opening weekend.   Slowly but surely, Miramax would add a few more prints in additional major markets, but never really gave the film the chance to score with Latino audiences who may have been craving a salsa-infused musical/drama, even if it was entirely in English. Looking back, thirty-eight years later, that seems to have been a mistake, but it seems that the film's final gross of just $250k after just ten weeks of release was leaving a lot of money on the table. At awards time, Blades would be nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor, but otherwise, the film would be shut out of any further consideration.   But for all intents and purposes, the film did kinda complete its mission of turning Blades into a star. He continues to be one of the busiest Latino actors in Hollywood over the last forty years, and it would help get one of his co-stars, Elizabeth Peña, a major job in a major Hollywood film the following year, as the live-in maid at Richard Dreyfuss and Bette Midler's house in Paul Mazursky's Down and Out in Beverly Hills, which would give her a steady career until her passing in 2014. And Icasho himself would have a successful directing career both on movie screens and on television, working on such projects as Miami Vice, Crime Story, The Equalizer, Criminal Minds, and Queen of the South, until his passing this past May.   I'm going to briefly mention a Canadian drama called The Dog Who Stopped the War that Miramax released on three screens in their home town of Buffalo on October 25th, 1985. A children's film about two groups of children in a small town in Quebec during their winter break who get involved in an ever-escalating snowball fight. It would be the highest grossing local film in Canada in 1984, and would become the first in a series of 25 family films under a Tales For All banner made by a company called Party Productions, which will be releasing their newest film in the series later this year. The film may have huge in Canada, but in Buffalo in the late fall, the film would only gross $15k in its first, and only, week in theatres. The film would eventually develop a cult following thanks to repeated cable screenings during the holidays every year.   We'll also give a brief mention to an Australian action movie called Cool Change, directed by George Miller. No, not the George Miller who created the Mad Max series, but the other Australian director named George Miller, who had to start going by George T. Miller to differentiate himself from the other George Miller, even though this George Miller was directing before the other George Miller, and even had a bigger local and global hit in 1982 with The Man From Snowy River than the other George Miller had with Mad Max II, aka The Road Warrior. It would also be the second movie released by Miramax in a year starring a young Australian ingenue named Deborra-Lee Furness, who was also featured in Crossover Dreams. Today, most people know her as Mrs. Hugh Jackman.   The internet and several book sources say the movie opened in America on March 14th, 1986, but damn if I can find any playdate anywhere in the country, period. Not even in the Weinsteins' home territory of Buffalo. A critic from the Sydney Morning Herald would call the film, which opened in Australia four weeks after it allegedly opened in America, a spectacularly simplistic propaganda piece for the cattle farmers of the Victorian high plains,” and in its home country, it would barely gross 2% of its $3.5m budget.   And sticking with brief mentions of Australian movies Miramax allegedly released in American in the spring of 1986, we move over to one of three movies directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith that would be released during that year. In Australia, it was titled Frog Dreaming, but for America, the title was changed to The Quest. The film stars Henry Thomas from E.T. as an American boy who has moved to Australia to be with his guardian after his parents die, who finds himself caught up in the magic of a local Aboriginal myth that might be more real than anyone realizes.   And like Cool Change, I cannot find any American playdates for the film anywhere near its alleged May 1st, 1986 release date. I even contacted Mr. Trenchard-Smith asking him if he remembers anything about the American release of his film, knowing full well it's 37 years later, but while being very polite in his response, he was unable to help.       Finally, we get back to the movies we actually can talk about with some certainty. I know our next movie was actually released in American theatres, because I saw it in America at a cinema.   Twist and Shout tells the story of two best friends, Bjørn and Erik, growing up in suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark in 1963. The music of The Beatles, who are just exploding in Europe, help provide a welcome respite from the harsh realities of their lives.   Directed by Billie August, Twist and Shout would become the first of several August films to be released by Miramax over the next decade, including his follow-up, which would end up become Miramax's first Oscar-winning release, but we'll be talking about that movie on our next episode.   August was often seen as a spiritual successor to Ingmar Bergman within Scandinavian cinema, so much so that Bergman would handpick August to direct a semi-autobiographical screenplay of his, The Best Intentions, in the early 1990s, when it became clear to Bergman that he would not be able to make it himself. Bergman's only stipulation was that August would need to cast one of his actresses from Fanny and Alexander, Pernilla Wallgren, as his stand-in character's mother. August and Wallgren had never met until they started filming. By the end of shooting, Pernilla Wallgren would be Pernilla August, but that's another story for another time.   In a rare twist, Twist and Shout would open in Los Angeles before New York City, at the Cineplex Beverly Center August 22nd, 1986, more than two years after it opened across Denmark. Loaded with accolades including a Best Picture Award from the European Film Festival and positive reviews from the likes of Gene Siskel and Michael Wilmington, the movie would gross, according to Variety, a “crisp” $14k in its first three days. In its second weekend, the Beverly Center would add a second screen for the film, and the gross would increase to $17k. And by week four, one of those prints at the Beverly Center would move to the Laemmle Monica 4, so those on the West Side who didn't want to go east of the 405 could watch it. But the combined $13k gross would not be as good as the previous week's $14k from the two screens at the Beverly Center.   It wouldn't be until Twist and Shout's sixth week of release they would finally add a screen in New York City, the 68th Street Playhouse, where it would gross $25k in its first weekend there. But after nine weeks, never playing in more than five theatres in any given weekend, Twist and Shout was down and out, with only $204k in ticket sales. But it was good enough for Miramax to acquire August's next movie, and actually get it into American theatres within a year of its release in Denmark and Sweden. Join us next episode for that story.   Earlier, I teased about why Miramax took more than a year off from releasing movies in 1984 and 1985. And we've reached that point in the timeline to tell that story.   After writing and producing The Burning in 1981, Bob and Harvey had decided what they really wanted to do was direct. But it would take years for them to come up with an idea and flesh that story out to a full length screenplay. They'd return to their roots as rock show promoters, borrowing heavily from one of Harvey's first forays into that field, when he and a partner, Corky Burger, purchased an aging movie theatre in Buffalo in 1974 and turned it into a rock and roll hall for a few years, until they gutted and demolished the theatre, so they could sell the land, with Harvey's half of the proceeds becoming much of the seed money to start Miramax up.   After graduating high school, three best friends from New York get the opportunity of a lifetime when they inherit an old run down hotel upstate, with dreams of turning it into a rock and roll hotel. But when they get to the hotel, they realize the place is going to need a lot more work than they initially realized, and they realize they are not going to get any help from any of the locals, who don't want them or their silly rock and roll hotel in their quaint and quiet town.   With a budget of only $5m, and a story that would need to be filmed entirely on location, the cast would not include very many well known actors.   For the lead role of Danny, the young man who inherits the hotel, they would cast Daniel Jordano, whose previous acting work had been nameless characters in movies like Death Wish 3 and Streetwalkin'. This would be his first leading role.   Danny's two best friends, Silk and Spikes, would be played by Leon W. Grant and Matthew Penn, respectively. Like Jordano, both Grant and Penn had also worked in small supporting roles, although Grant would actually play characters with actual names like Boo Boo and Chollie. Penn, the son of Bonnie and Clyde director Arthur Penn, would ironically have his first acting role in a 1983 musical called Rock and Roll Hotel, about a young trio of musicians who enter a Battle of the Bands at an old hotel called The Rock and Roll Hotel. This would also be their first leading roles.   Today, there are two reasons to watch Playing For Keeps.   One of them is to see just how truly awful Bob and Harvey Weinstein were as directors. 80% of the movie is master shots without any kind of coverage, 15% is wannabe MTV music video if those videos were directed by space aliens handed video cameras and not told what to do with them, and 5% Jordano mimicking Kevin Bacon in Footloose but with the heaviest New Yawk accent this side of Bensonhurst.   The other reason is to watch a young actress in her first major screen role, who is still mesmerizing and hypnotic despite the crapfest she is surrounded by. Nineteen year old Marisa Tomei wouldn't become a star because of this movie, but it was clear very early on she was going to become one, someday.   Mostly shot in and around the grounds of the Bethany Colony Resort in Bethany PA, the film would spend six weeks in production during June and July of 1984, and they would spend more than a year and a half putting the film together. As music men, they knew a movie about a rock and roll hotel for younger people who need to have a lot of hip, cool, teen-friendly music on the soundtrack. So, naturally, the Weinsteins would recruit such hip, cool, teen-friendly musicians like Pete Townshend of The Who, Phil Collins, Peter Frampton, Sister Sledge, already defunct Duran Duran side project Arcadia, and Hinton Battle, who had originated the role of The Scarecrow in the Broadway production of The Wiz. They would spend nearly $500k to acquire B-sides and tossed away songs that weren't good enough to appear on the artists' regular albums.   Once again light on money, Miramax would sent the completed film out to the major studios to see if they'd be willing to release the movie. A sale would bring some much needed capital back into the company immediately, and creating a working relationship with a major studio could be advantageous in the long run. Universal Pictures would buy the movie from Miramax for an undisclosed sum, and set an October 3rd release.   Playing For Keeps would open on 1148 screens that day, including 56 screens in the greater Los Angeles region and 80 in the New York City metropolitan area. But it wasn't the best week to open this film. Crocodile Dundee had opened the week before and was a surprise hit, spending a second week firmly atop the box office charts with $8.2m in ticket sales. Its nearest competitor, the Burt Lancaster/Kirk Douglas comedy Tough Guys, would be the week's highest grossing new film, with $4.6m. Number three was Top Gun, earning $2.405m in its 21st week in theatres, and Stand By Me was in fourth in its ninth week with $2.396m. In fifth place, playing in only 215 theatres, would be another new opener, Children of a Lesser God, with $1.9m. And all the way down in sixth place, with only $1.4m in ticket sales, was Playing for Keeps.   The reviews were fairly brutal, and by that, I mean they were fair in their brutality, although you'll have to do some work to find those reviews. No one has ever bothered to link their reviews for Playing For Keeps at Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic. After a second weekend, where the film would lose a quarter of its screens and 61% of its opening weekend business, Universal would cut its losses and dump the film into dollar houses. The final reported box office gross on the film would be $2.67m.   Bob Weinstein would never write or direct another film, and Harvey Weinstein would only have one other directing credit to his name, an animated movie called The Gnomes' Great Adventure, which wasn't really a directing effort so much as buying the American rights to a 1985 Spanish animated series called The World of David the Gnome, creating new English language dubs with actors like Tom Bosley, Frank Gorshin, Christopher Plummer, and Tony Randall, and selling the new versions to Nickelodeon.   Sadly, we would learn in October 2017 that one of the earliest known episodes of sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein happened during the pre-production of Playing for Keeps.   In 1984, a twenty year old college junior Tomi-Ann Roberts was waiting tables in New York City, hoping to start an acting career. Weinstein, who one of her customers at this restaurant, urged Ms. Roberts to audition for a movie that he and his brother were planning to direct. He sent her the script and asked her to meet him where he was staying so they could discuss the film. When she arrived at his hotel room, the door was left slightly ajar, and he called on her to come in and close the door behind her.  She would find Weinstein nude in the bathtub,  where he told her she would give a much better audition if she were comfortable getting naked in front of him too, because the character she might play would have a topless scene. If she could not bare her breasts in private, she would not be able to do it on film. She was horrified and rushed out of the room, after telling Weinstein that she was too prudish to go along. She felt he had manipulated her by feigning professional interest in her, and doubted she had ever been under serious consideration. That incident would send her life in a different direction. In 2017, Roberts was a psychology professor at Colorado College, researching sexual objectification, an interest she traces back in part to that long-ago encounter.   And on that sad note, we're going to take our leave.   Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again next week, when we continue with story of Miramax Films, from 1987.   Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

united states america american new york time new year california money canada world children new york city chicago australia europe english hollywood man los angeles france battle woman mexico passion french canadian new york times war ms green heart australian playing spanish dance er national south island witches quest broadway run sweden manhattan beatles buffalo universal bond flash burning incredible mtv academy awards denmark brazilian rock and roll senators stranger bj latino guerra roberts predator twist victorian nickelodeon top gun blockbuster variety bands solitude quebec beverly hills cannes nobel prize mad max grandmothers copenhagen penn harvey weinstein rub best picture moonlight hugh jackman loaded westside rotten tomatoes monty python lobster la la land audiences woody allen scandinavian aboriginal weinstein kevin bacon silk a24 blades francis ford coppola phil collins denis villeneuve amy winehouse new york magazine nineteen cin equalizer ex machina scarecrows robert eggers cannes film festival arcadia bergman duran duran wiz bette midler alex garland best actor lincoln center streamers spikes george miller gnome footloose criminal minds best director roger ebert miami vice death wish universal pictures gabriel garc movie podcast sydney morning herald stand by me gnomes fear the walking dead village voice ingmar bergman road warrior ohana christopher plummer metacritic robert altman richard dreyfuss raging bull jean luc godard boo boo tough guys barry jenkins peter frampton marisa tomei jonathan demme john huston spring breakers crime stories crocodile dundee edith piaf truffaut gus van sant cahiers great adventure colorado college miramax pete townshend big chill french riviera bling ring one hundred years french new wave piaf independent spirit awards best original screenplay brangelina all seasons sister sledge lawrence kasdan latin jazz henry thomas new york film festival daniel scheinert john sayles daniel kwan spanish harlem movies podcast danton best intentions best foreign language film lynn shelton lenny abrahamson claude lelouch andrea arnold french cinema rohmer playing for keeps gene siskel jake lamotta trey edward shults rumble fish atom egoyan mike newell arthur penn claude chabrol tony randall brian trenchard smith weinsteins bensonhurst jordano lesser god middleweight champion chabrol frank gorshin tom bosley michael lonsdale wayne wang miramax films andrzej wajda jacques rivette paul mazursky auteur theory irrational man entertainment capital beverly center prizzi new yawk patrick dewaere pernilla august cool change daniel salazar wallgren marcel cerdan secret policeman world war ii france diane kurys andrew sarris jack rollins best picture award hinton battle tomi ann roberts street playhouse vincent canby
Choose Film: A Reel Retrospective
EP88 ROOM (DIR Lenny Abrahamson) w Boaz Dicks

Choose Film: A Reel Retrospective

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 11, 2023 73:04


It's time to make some eggshell snakes, tell the lamp good morning and get the hell out of 'Room'. We are discussing Lenny Abrahamson's 2015 adaptation ROOM. SynopsisHeld captive for years in an enclosed space, a woman (Brie Larson) and her young son (Jacob Tremblay) finally gain their freedom, allowing the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.LINKS IN CONVERSATIONTwitter - @fvf_podcast Insta - filmvsfilmpodcasthttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/film-vs-film-podcast/id1540448632Creative Recommendations Susan Simshttps://www.mandy.com/uk/a/susan-sims-1John Wick 4John Wick: Chapter 4, TrailerArcane https://www.netflix.com/watch/81446667?trackId=255824129

Red Carpet Rookies
#36 - Ed Guiney, 'Normal People' Producer on Finding Your People, Hollywood Moguls and Childhood with Lenny Abrahamson

Red Carpet Rookies

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2023 22:30 Transcription Available


Today's guest is one of Ireland's most notable film producers.Beginning his life in the Irish capital, he pursued his passion into movie production during his time at Trinity College Dublin where he set up a film society with a certain Lenny Abrahamson.Today, he and his company Element Pictures have come a long way from those days though, having produced the likes of Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite, and Lenny's very own movie Room, both of which our guest picked up Oscar nominations for (and a BAFTA win for The Favourite).He's also the man behind the international phenomenon of Normal People that exploded recent best actor nominee Paul Mescal onto our screens.I reached out to him after watching the amazing Calm with Horses that he produced with our mutual friend Kate and I'm very happy to have him here today. My guest is Mr Ed Guiney

BEYOND BARRIERS
Episode 257: Fearless Success: Harnessing Opportunities with Maha Dakhil, CAA Board Member and Film Industry Leader

BEYOND BARRIERS

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 29, 2023 50:22


Maha Dakhil, the powerhouse behind Hollywood's beloved talents like Tom Cruise, Reese Witherspoon, and Natalie Portman, knows the secret to striking game-changing deals. Her journey began when she courageously chose the entertainment industry over law school, despite her immigrant parents' concerns. Maha's determination to succeed in Hollywood proved fruitful, paving her way to triumph. Raised with sisters, Maha learned early on the power of female leadership. She carved her unique path in the entertainment world, undeterred by the lack of diversity she encountered. Embracing every opportunity, Maha's passion for empowering storytellers and productions has driven her to excel as an agent. In this insightful podcast, Maha reveals how her fearless nature and unwavering resilience allow her to thrive. She candidly discusses embracing confrontation, standing up for clients, and balancing victories with setbacks. Maha shares the importance of remaining composed amid challenges, and imparts invaluable wisdom from her transformative journey. Visit www.gobeyondbarriers.com where you will find show notes and links to all the resources referenced in this episode, including the best way to get in touch with Maha. Highlights: [02:49] Maha's story and her pursuit of the entertainment business [07:27] Finding mentors and finding her role in the industry [18:42] Standing up for what she believes in [23:07] Receiving feedback [26:25] Promoting tolerance of diverse cultures and background in Hollywood [30:18] Celebrating her accomplishments [33:56] Having courageous conversations and negotiating for her clients [40:59] Bouncing back from a setback [43:21] Maha's proudest achievement [46:13] Lightning Round Questions Quotes: “It's important to keep our eyes open and our minds flexible to see what we can offer and what is resonating.” – Maha Dakhil “It's really important to be aware of how you're being perceived in a team culture.” – Maha Dakhil “You can't live too long in victory, and you also don't have to live too long in any defeat.” – Maha Dakhil Lightning Round Questions: What book has greatly influenced you? - “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho What is your favorite inspiring quote or saying? - (Paraphrased) You don't have to be aggressive to be strong What is one word or moniker you would use to describe yourself? - Empathetic troublemaker What is one change you've implemented that made your life better? - Being on time What power song would you want playing as you walk out onto a stage? - Anything by Beyoncé About Maha Dakhil: Co-Head of the Motion Picture Group and Co-Head of the agency's International Film Group, Maha Dakhil also serves on the CAA board that is responsible for the day-to-day management of the agency. Additionally, she represents some of the world's most successful actors and actresses, moving seamlessly between such talent and literary clients as Tom Cruise, Ava DuVernay, Reese Witherspoon, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Mindy Kaling, Madonna, Sam Mendes, Natalie Portman, Lena Dunham, Melina Matsoukas, Juan Antonio Bayona, Yorgos Lanthimos, Olivia Wilde, Aaron Sorkin, Denis Villeneuve, Steve McQueen, Lenny Abrahamson, Danny Strong, Johan Renck, H.E.R., Anne Hathaway, Jeymes Samuel, Hwang Dong-hyu, and Higher Ground, among others. An 18-year veteran of the agency, Dakhil has long been at the forefront of cultivating opportunities for diverse talent and championing underserved voices and their stories. Gina Prince-Bythewood's action epic THE WOMAN KING, made its world premiere earlier this month at the Toronto Film Festival and went on to open #1 at the box office. Lena Dunham's CATHERINE CALLED BIRDY, which also had its world premiere at Toronto, opens in theaters September 23. She most recently signed Higher Ground, Obama's media company. In addition, Dakhil brokered a bevy of deals for client Olivia Wilde of late (BOOKSMART), including a female-led comedy for Universal, which Wilde will produce and direct; DON'T WORRY DARLING, in which Wilde stars in and directed; and a new Marvel movie. Dakhil has also guided client Reese Witherspoon on building out her production company, Hello Sunshine, which focuses on female-driven content across multiple platforms. Hello Sunshine, which was sold to a venture backed by private- equity giant Blackstone Group in August 2021, has produced such films as WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, GONE GIRL, and WILD, as well as the Emmy-winning television series THE MORNING SHOW with Jennifer Aniston for Apple TV+, which has been renewed for a third season, BIG LITTLE LIES for HBO, and the original thriller SURFACE for Apple TV+. It also has the popular Reese's Book Club. In addition to co-leading the successful integration of CAA and ICM's motion picture departments, Dakhil has positioned her clients at the forefront of the biggest moments in pop culture this past year. Client highlights include the record breaking success of Tom Cruise's TOP GUN: MAVERICK, which has earned more than $1.4 billion at the worldwide box office; Natalie Portman's starring role in THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER; a deal for Mindy Kaling to co-write LEGALLY BLONDE 3, with Witherspoon set to reprise her iconic role as “Elle Woods” and Hello Sunshine producing; Denis Villeneuve directing a sequel to the six-time Oscar-winning DUNE; and Danny Strong serving as the creator, showrunner, and director of the seven-time Emmy nominated DOPESICK, which marks his first limited series. Dakhil also orchestrated a deal for Madonna to co-write an original screenplay based on her life, which the iconic artist will direct. As Co-Head of CAA's International Film Group, Dakhil plays an integral role in building the Motion Picture department's global footprint, opening doors for talent regardless of geographic location. Her roster of global filmmakers continues to grow, signing SQUID GAME creator Hwang Dong-Hyuk; Jasmila Žbanić, whose film QUO VADIS, AIDA? was nominated for the Best International Feature at the 93rd Academy Awards; Kornél Mundruczó, director of the acclaimed film PIECES OF A WOMAN, which premiered at the 77th Venice International Film Festival; Mohamad Diab,whose film AMIRA received strong critical praise at the 2021 Venice International Film Festival;Ali Abbasi, winner of the Un Certain Regard prize for BORDER at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival; Justin Kurzel, director of NITRAM, which premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival; Lukas Dhont, director of GIRL, which won the Caméra d'Or at Cannes for best first feature film, along with the Queer Palm, awarded for best LGBT-themed film; and Rungano Nyoni, whose film I AM NOT A WITCH won a 2018 BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. In her role on the CAA Board, Dakhil focuses on the agency's diversity and inclusion initiatives.She also plays a leadership role in CAA Amplify, an annual invitation-only summit convening diverse leading artists and executives from the most impactful organizations in entertainment, sports, media, brands, technology, and social justice. In addition, Dakhil is a founding member of Time's Up, an initiative that addresses systemic inequality and injustice in the workplace. She is a champion for underrepresented storytellers, creating opportunities for them to transition into the global marketplace. Dakhil also serves on the boards of Baby2Baby and the UCLA Lab School. Dakhil began her career at Genesis, a literary agency. She joined CAA in 2004. Dakhil graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a degree in sociology. Links: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secretagentm/

Girls On Film
Ep 139: The Wonder: Sebastián Lelio & Emma Donoghue on collaboration and working with Florence Pugh

Girls On Film

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2023 25:01


Novelist Emma Donoghue joins writer-director and male ally Sebastián Lelio to talk with Anna Smith about his new film based on Emma's book, co-written by Alice Birch. The Wonder, which has earned a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding British Film (and Girls On Film Award nominations for Best Feature Film sponsored by EON Productions, The Girls On Film Ally Award sponsored by IMDb for Sebastián Lelio, Best Cinematographer for Ari Wegner, and Best Female Orgasm sponsored by Intimacy on Set for Florence Pugh) is available to watch on Netflix now. This powerful film stars Florence Pugh as Lib, an English nurse who in 1862, following the Great Famine, is called to Ireland and asked to watch over an 11-year-old girl called Anna, who claims not to have eaten for four months, played by brilliant newcomer Kila Lord Cassidy. In this episode, Emma Donoghue, whose previous novel Room was made into an Oscar-winning film, talks about the thrill of becoming a fan of her own work as brilliant and expert collaborators create films of her stories, and why Sebastián Lelio is a true ally. Also, Sebastián Lelio discusses with Anna the brutality of filmmaking and why creating a precise and delicate set is so important. He also talks about casting the “warrior-like” Florence Pugh, with her unique connection with the audience, and discovering the astonishing Kila Lord Cassidy to star opposite Pugh. UK listeners can watch The Wonder on Netflix now. Information and advice on eating disorders can be found on the NHS website: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/feelings-symptoms-behaviours/behaviours/eating-disorders/overview/ Other films mentioned in this episode include: A Fantastic Woman, Sebastián Lelio, 2017 Gloria Bell, Sebastián Lelio, 2018 Disobedience, Sebastián Lelio, 2017 Room, Lenny Abrahamson, 2015 Lady Macbeth, William Oldroyd, 2016 Television series mentioned in this episode include: Station Eleven, 2021-2022 Normal People, 2020 Become a patron of Girls On Film on Patreon here: www.patreon.com/girlsonfilmpodcast Follow us on socials: www.instagram.com/girlsonfilm_podcast/ www.facebook.com/girlsonfilmpodcast www.twitter.com/GirlsOnFilm_Pod www.twitter.com/annasmithjourno Watch Girls On Film on the BFI's YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX…L89QKZsN5Tgr3vn7z Girls On Film is an HLA production. Host: Anna Smith. Executive Producer: Hedda Archbold Producer: Lydia Scott Audio Producer: Nic Wassell Intern: Eleanor Hardy House band: MX Tyrants This episode is in partnership with Netflix.

Highlights from The Hard Shoulder
Oscar nomination 'hasn't fully sunk in' for 'An Cailín Ciúin' producer

Highlights from The Hard Shoulder

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 24, 2023 10:20


'An Cailín Ciúin' has been nominated for Best International Picture at this year's Academy Awards. Cleona Ní Chrualaoí, producer of 'An Cailín Ciúin' joined Kieran on The Hard Shoulder. She was joined alongside Irish director, Lenny Abrahamson to discuss the success of Irish film in this year's nominations...

Borris House Festival of Writing & Ideas Podcast
Sharon Horgan & Lenny Abrahamson: Unusual People (with Patrick Freyne).

Borris House Festival of Writing & Ideas Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 17, 2023 58:17


The multi-talented Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters) & director Lenny Abrahamson (Ordinary People) talk to author Patrick Freyne about the ins and outs of television production in the age of streaming.   https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/

Girls On Film
Ep 138: Intimacy On Set – Ita O'Brien on sex & consent with Hedda Archbold at Latitude Festival

Girls On Film

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 10, 2023 40:22


Intimacy coordinator Ita O'Brien talked with Girls On Film co-founder Hedda Archbold at last summer's Latitude Festival about the work of her company, Intimacy On Set. She explains the way their work is transforming on-set working practices, and the kind of intimate scenes we see on screen – as well as how we think about consent in our everyday lives. In this episode we announce that on 23 February 2023, the second Girls On Film Awards will be held at the Garden Cinema in Covent Garden, co-hosted once again by Girls On Film host Anna Smith, and co-founder and exec producer Hedda Archbold. We are delighted to champion the amazing work done by women in film over the past year. We'll be joined by some brilliant female filmmakers, and Ita O'Brien will be a special guest at the event, giving industry context to our Best Female Orgasm Award. In this episode of Girls On Film you can hear all about Ita O'Brien's approach to the portrayal of sexuality on screen. Films and television series mentioned in this episode include: Normal People, Directed by Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald, written by Alice Birch, Mark O'Rowe and Sally Rooney (based on the novel by Sally Rooney) I May Destroy You, written, directed, produced by and starring Michaela Coel It's a Sin, created by Russell T Davies, starring Olly Alexander and Lydia West Lady Chatterley's Lover, directed by Laure Clermont de Tonnere, screenplay by David Magee based on the novel by DH Lawrence, starring Emma Corrin and Jack O'Connell Become a patron of Girls On Film on Patreon here: www.patreon.com/girlsonfilmpodcast Follow us on socials: www.instagram.com/girlsonfilm_podcast/ www.facebook.com/girlsonfilmpodcast www.twitter.com/GirlsOnFilm_Pod www.twitter.com/annasmithjourno Watch Girls On Film on the BFI's YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX…L89QKZsN5Tgr3vn7z Girls On Film is an HLA production. Host: Anna Smith. Executive Producer: Hedda Archbold Audio Producer: Benjamin Cook Intern: Eleanor Hardy House band: MX Tyrants

Borris House Festival of Writing & Ideas Podcast
Ruth Wilson & Lenny Abrahamson. My Grandmother: Mrs Wilson.

Borris House Festival of Writing & Ideas Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 3, 2023 57:52


Actor Ruth Wilson talks to director Lenny Abrahamson about her quasi-autobiographical BBC drama Mrs Wilson about her Grandparents. Bizarre, emotional and weirdly meta, her tale reads more like a John le Carré novel than a standard family drama. For fans of the TV drama it also brings a fresh postscript to the story in the form of a visit to MI6 HQ.

Brendan O'Connor
Lenny Abrahamson

Brendan O'Connor

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 13, 2022 24:13


Irish Film and TV Director Lenny Abrahamson, tells Dearbhail about Room screening at the NCH with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra .

90 Minutes Or Less Film Fest
Frank with Jon Ronson

90 Minutes Or Less Film Fest

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 12, 2022 50:12


Sam Clements is curating a fictional film festival. He'll accept almost anything, but the movie must not be longer than 90 minutes. This is the 90 Minutes Or Less Film Fest podcast. In episode 86 Sam is joined by Jon Ronson, author of The Men Who Stare At Goats and The Psychopath Test, and the podcaster behind The Butterfly Effect, The Last Days of August, and Things Fell Apart.  Jon has chosen Frank (90 mins) directed by Lenny Abrahamson. Released in 2014 and written by Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan, the film stars Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Scoot McNairy.  Sam and Jon discuss the real-life inspiration behind Frank, the experience of working on a deeply personal project, and what it's like to revisit the film eight years after release.  NEWS! We are doing a LIVE show at the London Podcast Festival at midday, Sunday 18 September. We'll be joined by Dan Schreiber (No Such Thing As A Fish) to screen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze and record a live podcast. Tickets on sale now.  Rate and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/90minfilm If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, rate, review and share with your friends. We're an independent podcast and every recommendation helps - thank you!  You can also show your support for the podcast by buying us a coffee at our Ko-fi page: https://ko-fi.com/90minfilmfest Website: 90minfilmfest.com Tweet: @90MinFilmFest  Instagram: @90MinFilmFest  We are a proud member of the Stripped Media Network. Hosted and produced by @sam_clements. Edited and produced by Louise Owen. Guest star @jonronson. Additional editing and sound mixing by @lukemakestweets. Music by @martinaustwick. Artwork by @samgilbey. Bonus link! Jon Ronson in The Guardian, about his time in the Frank Sidebottom band. The piece that kick-started the making of Frank. 

That Great Business Show
Episode 97 -That Great Business Show - Larry Bass founder Shinawil, Mark Barrett, GM, Harris Group

That Great Business Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 22, 2022 62:57


3.00" Larry Bass founder of Shinawil, the TV production company that gave us 'Dancing with the Stars', 'Last Singer Standing' and 'Home of the Year' explains all you need to know about how to make a fortune from creating a world-winning TV format. Did you know that TV series 'Masterchef' makes its makers €1 billion a year. And that's every year! So listen to Larry and get creating. He explains why Shinawil is funding to go global and he believes that Ireland can be a world centre of excellence in TV production. His hires in a heartbeat? Writer of 'Peaky Blinders' Steven Kinght, Irish author and 'normal person', Sally Rooney and top Irish filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson.39.00" Mark Barrett, GM the Harris Group, talks about the vision of group founder, the late Pino Harris. The rise and rise of electric delivery vans, in particular their Maxus brand. The future of charging, including hydrogen (he reckons we won't see widespread hydrogen adoption for another ten years), the problems of shipping 6,500 vehicles from China to Ireland and the UK, and the rise and rise of Gridserve.His hire in a heartbeat? Comedian Kevin Bridges (TeamGBS would love to have him on board too!) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Creative Principles
Ep353 - Lenny Abrahamson Returns, Director ‘Conversations with Friends'

Creative Principles

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 1, 2022 28:15


“It kind of grew out of Normal People,” said Lenny Abrahamson about his new series Conversations with Friends. Both stories come from Irish author Sally Rooney. “It seemed very obvious having gone through the adaptation in episodic form. We learned how best to work with Sally's material and we all felt like Conversations should be a series.” The series are listed as Normal People premiering in 2020 and Conversations with Friends premiering in 2022, but the process was a little more overlapping for the writer/director. “We were cranking up with breaking the episodes while Normal People was still not out in the world.” Normal People “…follows Marianne and Connell, from different backgrounds but the same small town in Ireland, as they weave in and out of each other's romantic lives.” Conversations with Friends is about “…two Dublin college students, Frances and Bobbi, and the strange and unexpected connection they forge with married couple, Melissa and Nick.” In this interview, the writer-director talks about making limited series instead of films, how he carried on the Normal People style, why he dislikes the Syd Field method, and what he's learned working on adaptations. Listen to my first interview with Lenny back in Episode 229. If it's your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel' which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below… Follow us on Instagram: @brockswinson If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Books for Breakfast
49: Critic at Large: Kevin Power's The Written World

Books for Breakfast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2022 37:30


What's the state of criticism in Ireland? Who needs reviewers and critics and are they even worth reading in any case? Well, one man who is worth reading is Kevin Power, novelist, whose The Written World, just published by The Lilliput Press, gathers some of the reviews and essays he's written over the last decade. I'll be talking to Kevin about his book in this, the last Books for Breakfast of the current season; we hope you've enjoyed the journey so far and hopefully we'll be back with more in the autumn. In the meantime feel free to enjoy the now extensive back catalogue of breakfast bites …Kevin Power established his reputation early, with the publication of Bad Day at Blackrock, which told a fictionalised version of a story that had gripped the country, the death of Brian Murphy  in Dublin in 2000 as a result of a violent assault outside a nightclub. That novel was subsequently made into the award winning film What Richard Did  directed by Lenny Abrahamson in 2012. He was the winner of the 2009 Rooney Prize and last year his much anticipated second novel White City was published and won a lot of attention and praise. A darkly funny book, it revisits the same sort of terrain occupied by Bad Day at Blackrock, set in the word of Celtic Tiger Ireland among the city's privileged and in this case ruthless upper classes, and it's in the voice of the seriously shattered son of a South Dublin banker desperately trying to piece his life together. Praise for The Written World'Kevin Power's glorious collection reveals a writer to depend upon.' Declan Hughes in The Irish IndependentThe elegant and intelligent essays in The Written World will appeal to anyone with an interest in literary criticism.– Nicole Flattery, author of Show Them A Good Time'The Written World is a testament to Power's well-deserved status as one of Ireland's most reliably engaging writers. Oh, and did I mention he's often hilarious, too?'– Totally Dublin'...his book is metropolitan and cosmopolitan in word and spirit, enlightening and amusing, and across its pages art is happening too.;– drb.ieSupport the show

Feito por Elas
Feito por Elas #167 Aconteceu Naquela Noite

Feito por Elas

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 8, 2022 45:32


No nosso 6º especial do Dia dos Namorados, voltamos no tempo para conversar sobre o filme que definiu uma nova cara para as comédias românticas: Aconteceu Naquela Noite (It Happened One Night, 1934), dirigido por Frank Capra e estrelado por Claudette Colbert. Conversamos sobre as suas características que perduram, as qualidades dos protagonistas, as questões de gênero presentes e nossas obras preferidas da atriz. O programa é apresentado por Isabel Wittmann e Rosana Íris. Feedback: contato@feitoporelas.com.br Mais informações: https://feitoporelas.com.br/feito-por-elas-166-pachinko Feedback: contato@feitoporelas.com.br Pesquisa, pauta e roteiro: Isabel Wittmann e Rosana Íris Produção: Isabel Wittmann Edição: Domenica Mendes Arte da capa: Isabel Wittmann Vinheta: Felipe Ayres Locução da vinheta: Deborah Garcia (deh.gbf@gmail.com) Música de encerramento: Bad Ideas - Silent Film Dark de Kevin MacLeod está licenciada sob uma licença Creative Commons Attribution (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Origem: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100489 Artista: http://incompetech.com/ Agradecimento: Carolina Ronconi, Leticia Santinon, Lorena Luz, Isadora Oliveira Prata e Tiago Maia Assine nosso Padrim http://www.padrim.com.br/feitoporelas Assine nosso Patreon http://www.patreon.com/feitoporelas Assine nosso Catarse https://www.catarse.me/feitoporelas Links patrocinados (Como associado da Amazon, recebemos por compras qualificadas): [LIVRO] Cinema Soviético de Mulheres https://amzn.to/3lnC37b [LIVRO] Mulheres Atrás das Câmeras- As cineastas brasileiras de 1930 a 2018 https://amzn.to/3AC6wnl Mencionados: [FILME] Aconteceu Naquela Noite (It Happened One Night, 1934), dir. Frank Capra [FILME] Cleópatra (Cleopatra, 1934), dir. Cecil B. DeMille [FILME] Imitação da Vida (Imitation of Life, 1934), dir. John M. Stahl [FILME] Escravos do Desejo (Of Human Bondage, 1934), dir. John Cromwell [FILME] Mundos Íntimos (Private Worlds, 1935), dir. Gregory La Cava [FILME] A Oitava Esposa do Barba Azul (Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, 1938), dir. Ernst Lubitsch [FILME] Jejum de Amor (His Girl Friday, 1940), dir. Howard Hawks [FILME] Desde que Partistes (Since You Went Away, 1944), dir. John Cromwell [FILME] Harry e Sally: Feitos Um Para o Outro (When Harry Met Sally…, 1989), dir. Rob Reiner [FILME] O Casamento do Meu Melhor Amigo (My Best Friend's Wedding, 1997), dir. P. J. Hogan [FILME] O Diário de Bridget Jones (Bridget Jones's Diary, 2001), dir. Sharon Maguire [FILME] O Lado Bom da Vida (Silver Linings Playbook, 2012), dir. David O. Russel [FILME] Cidade Perdida (The Lost City, 2022), dir. Aaron Nee e Adam Nee [SERIADO] Bridgerton (2020-), criado por Chris Van Dusen [SERIADO] Normal People (2020), dir. Lenny Abrahamson e Hettie Macdonald [TEXTO] Diário de uma filmografia: Julia Roberts, por Isabel Wittmann https://estantedasala.com/diario-de-uma-filmografia-julia-roberts/ [LISTA] Dossiê Julia Roberts no letterboxd https://letterboxd.com/iwittmann/list/dossie-julia-roberts/ [LISTA Dossiê Meg Ryan no letterboxd https://letterboxd.com/iwittmann/list/dossie-mag-ryan/ Relacionados: [PODCAST] Feito por Elas #25 Nora Ephron https://feitoporelas.com.br/feito-por-elas-25-nora-ephron/ [PODCAST] Feito por Elas #52 Nancy Meyers https://feitoporelas.com.br/feito-por-elas-52-nancy-meyers/ [PODCAST] Feito por Elas #75 Sandra Bullock https://feitoporelas.com.br/feito-por-elas-75-sandra-bullock/ [PODCAST] Feito por Elas #111 Julia Roberts https://feitoporelas.com.br/feito-por-elas-111-julia-roberts/ [PODCAST] Feito por Elas #143 Harry & Sally https://feitoporelas.com.br/feito-por-elas-143-harry-sally/ [PODCAST] Feito por Elas #65 Trilogia Bridget Jones https://feitoporelas.com.br/feito-por-elas-65-trilogia-bridget-jones/ [PODCAST] Feito por Elas #163 Bridgerton https://feitoporelas.com.br/feito-por-elas-163-bridgerton/ Completo em: https://feitoporelas.com.br/feito-por-elas-167-aconteceu-naquela-noite

Plus on est de fous, plus on lit!
La série Conversations with Friends, et le roman Mâchoires

Plus on est de fous, plus on lit!

Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2022 105:28


Pascale Renaud-Hébert et Luis Clavis ont vu la série Conversations with Friends, de Lenny Abrahamson et d'Alice Birch, adaptée du roman du même nom de Sally Rooney; Les membres du club de lecture sont encore secoués par Mâchoires, le roman gothique et anxiogène de Mónica Ojeda. L'autrice équatorienne frappe fort avec un récit qui explore les dynamiques de pouvoir entre de jeunes lycéennes, avec comme trame de fond une enseignante qui séquestre son élève.

El Centinela del Misterio
Escalofriantes acontecimientos llevados al cine

El Centinela del Misterio

Play Episode Listen Later May 19, 2022 169:30


Espacio patrocinado por: HBO Max y el lanzamiento de StarCaise: https://youtu.be/MTZVwz7w0CQ ¿Recuerdan la historia de amor clandestino de una joven monja italiana, que mantuvo relaciones sexuales con una compañera novicia de convento, mientras aseguraba sufrir estigmas y visiones demoníacas? Todo ocurrió en la Italia del Siglo XVII y el director de cine Paul Verhoeven, decide a sus 83 años de edad, regresar a la cartelera con esa historia basada en hechos reales… ¿Y qué me dicen de la espeluznante historia de Josef Fritzl? Este incalificable individuo, secuestró, maltrató y violó más de 3.000 veces durante 24 años a su hija Elisabeth, con la que tuvo 7 hijos fruto de esas incestuosas violaciones. ¿Es verdaderamente la película de Lenny Abrahamson “La Habitación” un largometraje basado en los terribles hechos protagonizados en Austria por Josef Fritzl? Esta noche en El Centinela del Misterio, junto al Director de Cine José Manuel Serrano Cueto, saldremos de dudas, y les presentaremos de nuevo ese cine supuestamente basado o inspirado en hechos reales… en este caso, en terribles y escalofriantes hechos reales. Dirección y Presentación. Carlos Bustos Realización. David Castillo Responsable de Producción. Helen Bustos MetRadioTV Ayudante de Dirección. Davinia González ©️ ®️El Centinela del Misterio 19/05/2022 “Las opiniones vertidas en este foro de opinión, son de exclusiva responsabilidad de quien las escriben y publican, y en ningún caso representan el pensamiento ni la conformidad de la empresa propietaria de los derechos de El Centinela del Misterio”. Pueden escuchar y ver nuestros programas en IVOOX ORIGINALS, www.metropolitanradio.es y también en www.youtube.com como Metropolitan Radio España Queda prohibida cualquier reproducción total o parcial de este archivo sonoro, en emisoras de radio, plataformas de podcast, o cualquier otro canal de difusión, sin autorización previa por escrito, de la empresa propietaria de los derechos de El Centinela del Misterio. Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show
Lenny Abrahamson Jokes 'Conversations With Friends' Might End Up On Liveline

The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2022 5:46


We're 2 years on from the rollercoaster that was Normal People, and tonight on RTÉ another Sally Rooney adaptation, Conversations With Friends, comes to the small screen. Back behind the camera is director Lenny Abrahamson, who spoke to The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show this morning ahead of the show's release. [audio mp3="https://media.radiocms.net/uploads/2022/05/18093256/Lenny-Abrahamson-180522-STING.mp3"][/audio] While a pair of O'Neill's shorts may not steal the show this time around, Lenny did say that there's a lot more of Dublin to look forward to in Conversations With Friends. The show stars Taylor Swift's boyfriend Joe Alwyn, and Ian didn't miss an opportunity to ask Lenny whether Taylor had seen the series. Lenny also joked that another Liveline discussion may be on the cards after one episode in particular. Catch Ian's full chat with Lenny by pressing the Play button above.

RTÉ - Arena Podcast
Conversations with Friends - The Innocents - After Beethoven

RTÉ - Arena Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 16, 2022 54:01


Directed by Lenny Abrahamson, Conversations with Friends follows 21-year-old Frances, who becomes involved in the life of a married couple - The Innocents is a psychological horror film about children with mysterious powers - After Beethoven, a series of chamber music concerts at the NCH, with newly commissioned work by five contemporary composers.

Dave Fanning
Interview with Director Lenny Abrahamson

Dave Fanning

Play Episode Listen Later May 15, 2022 17:30


The much-anticipated adaptation of Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends finally comes to our TV screens this week. Dave chats to its Director, Lenny Abrahamson, about what we can expect from the series

The Big Reviewski
CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS SPECIAL with Lenny Abrahamson and cast!

The Big Reviewski

Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2022 28:00


We chatted to Conversations With Friends director Lenny Abrahamson and his cast Alison Oliver, Sasha Lane, Joe Alwyn and Jemima Kirke about the brand new mini-series.

Overdue Rentals
Episode 47- Lenny Abrahamson on Frank and Conversations with Friends

Overdue Rentals

Play Episode Listen Later May 11, 2022 58:31


When Mike and I started work on the Overdue Rentals podcast, we had a list of 10 films we wanted to kick off our show with. Lenny Abrahamson's 2014 film, Frank, was one of those 10. Now, here we are with the man himself discussing this highly underseen classic. After the success of his adaptation of Normal People for Hulu, Lenny is back with an adaptation of Sally Rooney's first book, Conversations with Friends which premieres on Hulu starting this Friday, May 15th. As much as it was a thrill to talk about the show with Lenny, we were beyond thrilled to have some time to chat up the man about Frank and revel in all its glory. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/overduerentals/support

The Film Snobs
Room (2015) (BOMB MOMS #3)

The Film Snobs

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 4, 2022 66:24


SUUUUUUPPPP Snobbies. We are in Film #3 for BOMB MOMS. This week is Eric's pick for Bomb Moms and he picked Lenny Abrahamson's, “Room.” Brie Larson stars in her Oscar Winning performance and Jacob Tremblay stars as the young Jack. This film features the enduring, tested, perseverant, graceful, difficult, loving love that a mother gives her child. This film is complicated in the emotions that it evokes, powerful in the message it gives, lasting in the impact it had on us. Caleb, Ethan, and Eric discuss the many facets of this film, how they would have escaped, what it must have been like to handle this Trauma, Caleb says the word “Druthers,” and everyone is like, “Whaaaaaaat????” It's an incredible film guys, definitely check it out. We had a blast talking about it. Enjoy! Film Discussed: Room (2015) Letterboxd: Eric Peterson: letterboxd.com/EricLPeterson/ Jared Klopfenstein: letterboxd.com/kidchimp/ Ethan Jasso: letterboxd.com/e_unit7/ Caleb Zehr: letterboxd.com/cjzehr/ Ricky Wickham: letterboxd.com/octopuswizard/ Five star reviews left on the pod get read out loud!

Feito por Elas
Feito por Elas #160 A Filha Perdida

Feito por Elas

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 2, 2022 72:32


Neste podcast conversamos sobre A Filha Perdida (The Lost Daughter, 2021), primeiro filme dirigido por Maggie Gyllenhall, que estreou na Netflix e que está indicado ao Oscar de Melhor Roteiro Adaptado (da própria cineasta), Atriz Coadjuvante (Jesse Buckley) e Atriz (Olivia Colman). Nessa transposição do livro de mesmo nome escrito por Elena Ferrante, vemos uma mulher que é mãe e professora, em suas férias, e as lembranças de seu passado relacionadas à infância de suas filhas. Conversamos sobre a relação entre ser mãe e o trabalho acadêmico, as cobranças sociais por uma maternidade romantizada e o trabalho de adaptação do roteiro e a direção. O programa é apresentado por Isabel Wittmann, Rosana Íris e Bianca Zasso. Feedback: contato@feitoporelas.com.br Mais informações: https://feitoporelas.com.br/feito-por-elas-160-a-filha-perdida Feedback: contato@feitoporelas.com.br Pesquisa, pauta e roteiro: Isabel Wittmann, Rosana Íris e Bianca Zasso Produção: Isabel Wittmann Edição: Domenica Mendes Arte da capa: Isabel Wittmann Vinheta: Felipe Ayres Locução da vinheta: Deborah Garcia (deh.gbf@gmail.com) Música de encerramento: Bad Ideas - Silent Film Dark de Kevin MacLeod está licenciada sob uma licença Creative Commons Attribution (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Origem: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100489 Artista: http://incompetech.com/ Agradecimento: Carolina Ronconi, Leticia Santinon, Lorena Luz, Isadora Oliveira Prata e Tiago Maia Assine nosso Padrim http://www.padrim.com.br/feitoporelas Assine nosso Patreon http://www.patreon.com/feitoporelas Assine nosso Catarse https://www.catarse.me/feitoporelas Links patrocinados (Como associado da Amazon, recebemos por compras qualificadas): [LIVRO] Cinema Soviético de Mulheres https://amzn.to/3lnC37b [LIVRO] Mulheres Atrás das Câmeras- As cineastas brasileiras de 1930 a 2018 https://amzn.to/3AC6wnl [LIVRO] Amiga Genial, de Elena Ferrante https://amzn.to/3sxXLZl [LIVRO] Dias de Abandono, de Elena Ferrante https://amzn.to/3IATERD [LIVRO] A Vida Mentirosa dos Adultos, de Elena Ferrante https://amzn.to/3tqcPY2 [LIVRO] A Filha Perdida, de Elena Ferrante https://amzn.to/3psk80s [SITE] Formiga Elétrica https://formigaeletrica.com.br/ [YOUTUBE] Bia na Toca https://www.youtube.com/c/TocaAudiovisual [FILME] Tubarão (Jaws, 1975), dir. Steven Spielberg [FILME] As Virgens Suicidas (The Virgin Suicides, 1999), dir. Sofia Coppola [FILME] Um Verão Escaldante (Un Été Brûlant, 2011), dir. Philippe Garrel [FILME] A Esposa (The Wife, 2017), dir. Björn Runge [FILME] A Favorita (The Favourite, 2018), dir. Yorgos Lanthimos [FILME] Meu Pai (The Father, 2020), dir. Florian Zeller [FILME] Ataque dos Cães (The Power of the Dog, 2021), dir. Jane Campion [FILME] King Richard: Criando Campeãs (King Richard, 2021), dir. Reinaldo Marcus Green [FILME] Belfast (2021), dir. Kenneth Branagh [FILME] Amor, Sublime Amor (West Side Story, 2021), dir. Steven Spielberg [FILME] Mães Paralelas (Madres Paralelas, 2021), dir. Pedro Almodóvar [FILME] Spencer (2021), dir. Pablo Larraín [FILME] Apresentando os Ricardos (Being the Ricardos, 2021), dir. Aaron Sorkin [FILME] Os Olhos de Tammy Faye (The Eyes of Tammy Faye, 2021), dir. Michael Showalter [SERIADO] Broadchurch (2013- 2017), criado por Chris Chibnall [SERIADO] O Gerente da Noite (The Night Manager, 2016), dir. Susanne Bier [SERIADO] Fleabag (2016-2019), criada por Phoebe Waller-Bridge [SERIADO] Normal People (2020), dir. Lenny Abrahamson e Hettie Macdonald [CRÍTICA] Tudo sobre nossas mães, por Bianca Zasso https://claudemirpereira.com.br/2022/01/tudo-sobre-nossas-maes-por-bianca-zasso/ Relacionados: [PODCAST] Feito por Elas #47 Mia Hansen-Løve https://feitoporelas.com.br/feito-por-elas-47-mia-hansen-love/ [PODCAST] Feito por Elas #58 Lynne Ramsay https://feitoporelas.com.br/feito-por-elas-58-lynne-ramsay/ [PODCAST] Feito por Elas #108 A Favorita https://feitoporelas.com.br/feito-por-elas-108-a-favorita/

Best Girl Grip
#100: Rose Garnett, Director of BBC Film

Best Girl Grip

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 18, 2022 32:12


My guest this week is Rose Garnett, the Director of BBC Film. Since joining the BBC in 2017, Rose has commissioned and Executive Produced a wide range of titles including… Joanna Hogg's THE SOUVENIR and THE SOUVENIR: PART II Eliza Hittman's NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS Sean Durkin's THE NEST Steve McQueen's SMALL AXE Jane Campion's THE POWER OF THE DOG Debbie Tucker Green's EAR FOR EYE ...among many others and is passionate about backing new and emerging filmmakers. Rose was also an EP on BBC Three's smash hit adaptation of Sally Rooney's NORMAL PEOPLE, produced by Element Pictures. After graduating from Cambridge University, Rose worked in theatre before freelancing as a script editor and producer. Then she joined Film4 where she would become Head of Creative. Whilst there, Rose developed and executive produced an array of recent successful UK films, including Yorgos Lanthimos's THE FAVOURITE, Martin McDonagh's THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI, Steve McQueen's WIDOWS, Lenny Abrahamson's ROOM, Lynne Ramsay's YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE and Andrea Arnold's AMERICAN HONEY. It was an immense pleasure to talk to Rose about a surfeit of topics, from how theatre prepared her for a career in film, what she learned working at Film4, what it means to be a director of a public funder and the considerations that come into play in making that organisation accountable, accessible, inclusive and supportive to what success look like and how she and the BBC Film team back filmmakers. Unsurprisingly, Rose had a lot of wisdom that she was generous enough to share and I know that this is an interview I will be returning to time and time again.  Please note that this was recorded remotely over Zoom and there are some occasional audio glitches.  This is episode 100 of Best Girl Grip. 

The Irish Itinerary Podcast
29. Lenny Abrahamson in conversation with Lance Pettitt (13 January 2022)

The Irish Itinerary Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 13, 2022 32:40


In his conversation with Lance Pettitt, Visiting Professor in Irish Studies at the University of Wuppertal, Lenny Abrahamson explores the challenges of creating dramatic stories for television, showing how - in his view - the aesthetics, structures and intimacy of  film and TV intersect in the compelling viewing experience that is the  hallmark of a hit show. He talks about the upcoming series Conversations with Friends and about how we can recognize the themes, form and patterns of Normal People, while at the same time Conversations with Friends pushes further and strives to be a more polyphonic story. Lenny discusses working in a creative and generous environment with, among others, writer Alice Birch and director Leanne Welham; trying to render the characters' experiences in a truthful way; giving the audience the feeling of being inside the frame; and thinking of episodes as small films. He also lifts the veil on some of the projects he is currently working on. 

The Policed Podcast
2021 in Review, Part 2 – Plus Your Messages!

The Policed Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 29, 2021 38:11


We're back with part 2 of our review of 2021 and this time we're talking Political Personality of the year, Patron (that's youse) of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, and our Highlights (yes, there were lots of highlights!) You'll also hear from comedian, writer, actor and Roy Keane Stan, Tadhg Hickey, Social Care worker and all-round hero, Anne Marie Quilligan, Sinn Féin Senator, Lynn Boylan, Host of the Irish Times Inside Politics and my on and off rival, Hugh Linehan, Head of Religions at UCC and the best dressed man in Ireland, Amanullah De Sondy, the Irish Examiners award winning duo Aoife Moore and Paul Hosford, Sunday Special sensation and Dublin Inquirer reporter, Shamim Malekmian and filmmaker, director and (former) friend of the shack, Lenny Abrahamson. Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack

Me & my friend, Pete
Just Deserts

Me & my friend, Pete

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 7, 2021 75:29


Lenny Abrahamson once said this about America “The thing about America - it's different everywhere, but visually, it's amazing to shoot in the desert in the New Mexico light. It's really hard to shoot in that desert and make anything look not amazing.” I don't know if he's right, but with Amazing in the title, we're about to find out! We've got the Golden Liability ready for his close-up! We've got the strongest desert denizen this side of the Rio Grande! We've got a grinning green-skinned goblin leading Marvel's greatest gang! We've got tumbleweed tornados in the Tularosa Basin turning tussles into Looney Tune Cartoons And we've got me! We've got you! We've got no further ado, we've got The Amazing Spider-Man #14 The Grotesque Adventure of The Green Goblin   Bonus Episodes can be found @ Patreon.com/HSPP

Hell Is A Musical
023 - Frank ("The Cabana Boy Of The Gap")

Hell Is A Musical

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 2, 2021 64:07


Frank was a 2014 black comedy directed by Lenny Abrahamson, which followed the journey of an aspiring singer-songwriter struggling with his own mediocrity and inability to write good songs, who soon finds himself among a experimental rock band that he hopes to break into America. The film starred Domnhall Gleeson, Maggie Gylenhaal, Scoot McNairy, and Michael Fassbender as the titular character; the eccentric frontman and musical genius of the Soronprfbs, who wears a papier-mache mask over his head at all times.On a new episode of Hell Is A Musical, Lilz and Scott dig into Frank, which technically wasn't a musical, but was peppered with original experimental, psychedelic songs, and remains a mutual favorite of the two hosts. Join them as Lilz waxes nostalgic on her experiences as a local musician, Scott rolls his eyes at hipsters, and the two of them marvel at the storied career of Michael Fassbender putting things on his head....with Lilz & Scott!

The Mario Rosenstock Podcast
Mark O'Halloran: Cinema Success; Property Failure

The Mario Rosenstock Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 29, 2021 57:27


Mark O'Halloran is a big deal in the Arts world. He wrote and starred in the award-winning film, Adam and Paul; he wrote Garage, the film starring Pat Shortt which debuted at the Cannes film festival; he wrote the hit TV series Prosperity, and he is currently writing the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney's ‘Conversations with Friends'. Mark has worked many times with the great film director Lenny Abrahamson, he is an acclaimed stage actor, and it is fair to say that in the arts and creative world, he would be called a huge success. BUT would you believe that for all of this hard work and achievement and success in one world, Mark is a total failure (by his own admission) in another world – the world of property ownership. Like so many others, Mark cannot get approved for a mortgage and is facing a lifetime of insecure renting. In our chat, Mark talks incredibly eloquently about this issue, his career, behind the scene stories from film sets, and so much more. Comedy: Speaking about the housing crisis, a certain famous Irish businessman has spotted an opportunity to come up with a solution for it, and to make a little bit of a profit at the same time… Drop me a line any time – mariorosenstock@gmail.com Produced by Patrick Haughey, Audiobrand | www.audiobrand.ie See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Stinging Fly Podcast
Niamh Campbell Reads Kevin Power

The Stinging Fly Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2021 55:16


On this month's episode of the podcast, editor Danny Denton is joined by novelist Niamh Campbell, to read and discuss Kevin Power's darkly surreal story 'The Dead Hotel', which first appeared in the Summer 2006 issue of the magazine. Niamh Campbell's debut novel This Happy was published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in 2020, and nominated for the An Post Irish Book Awards, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, and the John McGahern Book Prize. In 2020 she also won the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award for her story 'Love Many'. Her short work can be found in The Dublin Review, 3:AM, Banshee, Tangerine, Five Dials, Granta, and gorse. She has been funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and is 2021 Writer in Residence at University College Dublin. Her second novel We Were Young is forthcoming with Weidenfeld and Nicolson in 2022. She lives and works in Dublin. Kevin Power's first novel, Bad Day in Blackrock, was published by Lilliput Press in 2008 and filmed as What Richard Did, directed by Lenny Abrahamson, in 2012. His second novel, White City, was published earlier this year by Scribner. He won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2009 and the Hennessy XO Award for Emerging Fiction, also in 2009. Kevin is currently Assistant Professor of Literary Practice in the School of English, Trinity College Dublin, and he holds a PhD in American Literature from University College Dublin. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Guardian, Irish Times, The Dublin Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. The Stinging Fly Podcast invites Irish writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast's theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes', by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available for everyone to read during the coronavirus crisis.

The National Gallery of Ireland Podcast
New Perspectives: Donald Teskey and Lenny Abrahamson

The National Gallery of Ireland Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2021 44:57


Episode 1 of a new series of podcasts produced by the National Gallery of Ireland in association with our exhibition New Perspectives. Acquisitions 2011-2020. This series looks at artworks by living artists recently acquired for the national collection. We explore the motivation behind the work, how it came to be in the Gallery, and what it means for an artist to have their work in the national collection. In this episode, Donald Teskey, an internationally renowned painter, perhaps best-known for his rugged and vibrant large-scale landscape paintings, speaks to Lenny Abrahamson, a film and TV director who has been honoured here in Ireland and abroad for his work. His credits include films such as Adam and Paul, Garage, What Richard Did and Room. Most recently he was a director on the hugely successful TV series, Normal People. In 2018, Donald Teskey was awarded a commission to create a portrait of Lenny Abrahamson for the National Portrait Collection. In this podcast, Donald and Lenny discuss the portrait commission, and the process of creating artwork, both on canvas and on film. Download a transcript of this episode here: https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/exhibitions/new-acquisitions-2010-2020/podcasts-new-perspectives Find out more about New Perspectives on the Gallery's website: https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/exhibitions/new-acquisitions-2010-2020 Image: Donald Teskey (b.1956), Lenny Abrahamson (b.1966), filmmaker. 2018. Photo © National Gallery of Ireland. Commissioned by the National Gallery of Ireland, 2018. Music: Old Walls by Colm Mac Con Iomaire

FilmFloggers
47. Adam & Paul (2004)

FilmFloggers

Play Episode Play 37 sec Highlight Listen Later May 31, 2021 63:24


With Fiona being packed and shipped back to the motherland with no real issues... Other than a 24-hour delay due to presenting the wrong Covid test (It sounds like Ireland doesn't want her back; no worries, England and I will take the hit) I insisted before attempting to board that aborted flight we squeezed in an Irish themed episode so the show and listeners can mourn our collective two-week loss. 'Insert celebratory GIF'!  Upon reflection, I'm unsure if watching two homeless blokes addicted to heroin (Adam & Paul) mooch around the streets of Dublin was the correct tone-setter for the prodigal daughter's big return? Something abit more fun and feel-good like The Wind That Shakes the Barley, perhaps?... If you've ever had the misfortune of listening to 5 seconds of any Ben and Fiona-led episode, then you know that episode is long overdue.  We get into a semi-interesting conversation about our widely different experiences with the homeless - Fiona encountered and helped many through her job. On the other hand, my limited encounters culminate in attempts to give away Maccy D's food (unopened) I didn't need after devouring 40 nuggets and a big mac meal. A learning experience, certainly.  I heard someone say something along the lines of Adam & Paul is "the saddest funniest film you'll see."  I would urge everyone to seek out this "Bleak but beautiful experience".  Social Mediahttps://www.facebook.com/filmfloggershttps://www.instagram.com/filmfloggers/https://twitter.com/FilmFloggersWebsitehttps://filmfloggers.buzzsprout.comHelp Flog the Podcast by Leaving a Review! Apple iTunes Review,https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/filmfloggers/id1530910798Email FilmFlog suggestions to hosts@filmfloggers.comArtwork by @deanbeattieSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/FilmFloggers)

Trinity Long Room Hub
TLRH and the Herzog Centre | Remembering Kristallnacht: Why Talk About The Holocaust?

Trinity Long Room Hub

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 11, 2020 71:30


A public event on the anniversary of Kristallnacht organized by the Herzog Centre at Trinity College Dublin, in association with the Trinity Long Room Hub. "Why Talk About The Holocaust?" will feature Lenny Abrahamson and Oliver Sears in conversation, and the event will be moderated by Sarah Carey. Lenny Abrahamson Lenny is the director of the critically-acclaimed Room. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. His latest TV series, Normal People, adapted by and based on Sally Rooney's Man Booker long-listed novel of the same name, was released in 2020. Other work includes: Garage, Adam And Paul, What Richard Did, Frank and The Little Stranger. He is also in development on a number of projects. Oliver Sears Oliver a London-born Dublin-based art dealer. He is the son of a Holocaust survivor & a former trustee​ of Holocaust Education Trust Ireland. ​He is a frequent contributor to radio and newspapers including RTE and The Irish Times. He gave ​his lecture ​'The Objects of Love' ​for the 2019 annual Kristallnacht lecture at Trinity College Dublin​.​ Sarah Carey Sarah Carey is a writer, broadcaster and communications consultant. She writes a column for the Irish Independent on a Saturday and has previously written for The Sunday Independent, The Sunday Times and The Irish Times. She hosted the award winning and critically acclaimed Talking Point with Sarah Carey on Newstalk for 6 years and continues to contribute to national and international television and radio current affairs programmes.

Notícia no Seu Tempo
Na Quarentena: Globo volta a gravar novelas, Gisele Bündchen festeja seus 40 anos com campanha ecológica

Notícia no Seu Tempo

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 20, 2020 2:59


Confira os destaques do caderno Na Quarentena desta segunda-feira (20/07/20)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Looking Forward Podcast
Ep 63: A Return To Freedom?

The Looking Forward Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 13, 2020 78:51


The government has introduced a three-stage plan to return Australians to some form of normalcy. What are these decisions based off and is the uncertainty over the consequences small enough? (2:07-20:30) Sweden has been the most prominent and controversial example of an alternative lockdown model. How does their response shape the debate between social vs medical outcomes of pandemics? (20:30-40:42) Finally, the panel reflects on the systematic thoughts of the late Sir Roger Scruton, asking what will conservatism look like post COVID-19? (40:42-59:59) Your hosts Scott Hargreaves and Dr Chris Berg are joined by the IPA's Andrew Bushnell to answer these questions as well as share their culture picks. This week's picks include three new TV series: Normal People, The Last Dance and The English Game. (59:59-1:18:12)   Show Notes Consummate Conservative; Andrew Bushnell https://ipa.org.au/ipa-review-articles/consummate-conservative Lockdowns in SIR Models; Benjamin Moll https://benjaminmoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SIR_notes.pdf We Know Everything – And Nothing – About Covid; Matt Ridley http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/we-know-everything-and-nothing/ How Pandemics End; Gina Kolata https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/health/coronavirus-plague-pandemic-history.html No return to the policy status quo: Albanese; Phillip Coorey https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/no-return-to-the-policy-status-quo-albanese-20200510-p54rjj   Culture Picks Normal People; TV series directed by Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9059760/ The Last Dance; TV series directed by Jason Hehir https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8420184/ The English Game; TV series directed by Julian Fellowes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_English_Game  

The State of Us
Episode 54: Coming Of Age

The State of Us

Play Episode Listen Later May 8, 2020 41:35


...Just like the rest of the country, feelings of teenage angst and awkwardness came flooding back as Lenny Abrahamson's adaptation of Sally Rooney's 'Normal People' debuted on RTE. We go right back to our coming-of-age experiences - leaving school, starting college, first loves and first heartbreaks. 

FNI Wrap Chat
#103 | Lenny Abrahamson | Director

FNI Wrap Chat

Play Episode Listen Later May 5, 2020 43:26


On this special episode of FNI Wrapchat is Irish Oscar-nominated  director Lenny Abrahamson. Sponsored by our friends at Film Equipment Store, Wildcard Distribution, brought to you as always by the Headstuff Podcast Network. Mixed by Stephen Bedford and FNI Wrapchat theme tune by Pat 'Connor. Lenny is from Dublin and is an internationally renowned film and Television Director and Screenwriter. He is known for directing such acclaimed independent films as Adam & Paul (2004), Garage (2007), What Richard Did (2012) and Frank (2014) all of which contributed to Abrahamson's six Irish Film and Television Awards. In 2015, he received widespread recognition for directing Room, based on the novel of the same name by Emma Donoghue. The film received four nominations at the 88th Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Abrahamson. Lenny studied physics and philosophy at Trinity College Dublin. While at university he directed short videos with the Trinity Video Society, which he co-founded with Ed Guiney. He graduated in 1991 with first class honours (gold medal). His first short film, 3 Joes, won the Best European Short Film Award at the 1991 Cork Film Festival and the Organiser's Award at the 1992 Oberhausen Short Film Festival. He directed numerous commercials for television in Ireland, the UK and worldwide His latest work 'Normal People' a TV adaptation of Sally Rooney's lauded novel is currently broadcasting on Rte, BBC and Hulu in the United States to critical acclaim. Here we chat about the reaction to Normal People, his process, the LIVELINE call in... His future career ambitions and we ask questions from our community on social media. head over to www.WeAreFni.com to register for our online chats FNI@HOME TOMORROW WED 6th, weekly, with brilliant Film and Tv professionals every Wed evening. Tomorrow we are joined by the Director of Michael Inside, Frank Berry. SIGN UP NOW. Please share with a friend or colleague. Available on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher. #WeAreFni #YouAreFNI #StaySafe #StayInformed #StayPositive   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Curzon Film Podcast
THE LITTLE STRANGER Q&A | feat. Lenny Abrahamson

The Curzon Film Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 27, 2018 23:29


We recently welcomed Academy Award nominated director Lenny Abrahamson ('Frank', 'Room') to Curzon Mayfair for a special Q&A about his new film 'The Little Stranger', where he was joined by the writer of the original novel Sarah Waters ('Fingersmith')WWII has ended and Dr Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. During one hot summer he is called out to attend to a patient at Hundreds Hall. He finds that the scullery maid, Betty (a fantastic performance by Liv Hill, one to watch) has been sensing things and events turn more peculiar after that.Produced by Jake CunninghamEdited by Sam Howlett Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Silver Linings Playlist

It's a weird one this week as we look under the mask of Frank, the enigmatic frontman with the paper-mâché head, from the 2014 film of the same name. With guests Sebastián Chamaca and Alesso Graci, we'll discuss mental illness, the strife of the average musician, and a bunch more.Frank stars Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Domhnall Gleeson, Scoot McNairy, and Tess Harper. Directed by Lenny Abrahamson.If you enjoy what we do, please subscribe to our show. Leave us a rating in the iTunes Store and Stitcher. You can also listen on Spotify, Google Play, or YouTube as well.Like us on Facebook Discuss the film on our subreddit Join us on YouTube Subscribe on Spotify Find us on Stitcher Listen on Google Play Brought to you by HOLY Propaganda

The Business
Oscar Nominees Lenny Abrahamson and Emma Donoghue on 'Room'

The Business

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 16, 2016 30:22


Director Lenny Abrahamson didn't expect author Emma Donoghue would choose him to make a film based on her bestselling novel Room. Abrahamson tells us how he made his pitch to Donoghue -- and she explains why it worked.

The Business
Lenny Abrahamson & Emma Donoghue Bring 'Room' to the Screen

The Business

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 24, 2015 30:07


Director Lenny Abrahamson didn't expect author Emma Donoghue would choose him to make a film based on her bestselling novel Room. Abrahamson tells us how he made his pitch to Donoghue, and she explains why it worked.