This week sees Aussie rocker Sarah McLeod not only release her brand new album Rocky’s Diner but also embark on her national tour. Dave Griffiths caught up with Sarah to chat about the inspirations behind the new album and also the new challenges she has set herself with the tour.
You can listen to or download our Sarah McLeod interview right here.
Over the years Christopher Nolan has made a name for himself as one of the finest directors of the modern era. He has been nominated for three Oscars over the years and has been the man at the helm of critically acclaimed movies such as Memento, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception and Interstellar.
Now Nolan’s work returns to the big screen in a way that we haven’t seen before. Dunkirk is a movie that critics are saying is not just a film – it’s an experience unto itself – a work of art if you like. Somehow Nolan has taken veteran actors like Tom Hardy and Mark Rylance and mixed them with newcomers like Harry Styles and Fionn Whitehead and the end result is one of the most visually spectacular war films you are ever likely to see.
It doesn’t take long listening to Nolan talk about Dunkirk to realise that this is a film that he was passionate about, due to the subject matter, from the very beginning. “Well as for most British people the story of Dunkirk is something that we grow up with,” he explains. “I can’t even remember the time I was first told about the events of Dunkirk. As a storyteller you are always looking for gaps in the culture or in the cultural record – stories that should have been made into modern films and haven’t been and Dunkirk is certainly one of those. I think it is one of the great stories of human history and it hasn’t been addressed in modern films until now. People of Britain talk about the Dunkirk spirit and I think the residence of the story is different for different people but at the heart is community heroism in the face of adversity. It is not so much a story about individual heroics as it is a story about a community effort. It’s about how as a society, as a group of people we can achieve so much more than we can individually.”
One of the aspects that has wowed critics about Dunkirk is how Nolan has managed to weave the stories of the land, air and sea at Dunkirk together so brilliantly well and he says that he wanted to do that but keep an intensity throughout the film. “I wanted to do that but to have an intensity,” he says. “Dunkirk is a survival story and it is a story about 400,000 men trapped on a beach with the enemy moving in on them from all sides. It is a story about a desperate time, they had to get these guys back home, and I wanted to put the audience on the beach with these guys, and put the audience in the cockpit of a Spitfire battling the enemy in the air and I wanted to put them in a small boat heading over to help these guys. So to do that I decided to tell the story with intensity but with subjectivity and from three different points of view. Over the course of the story they all braid together and you get a more coherent look at the bigger picture of Dunkirk.”
Nolan also goes in depth into how he achieved the feat of shooting this film with very limited CGI. “What we did was try to shoot in camera as much as possible,” he says. “That way we could do as much for real as we could. We want the film to feel tactile and physical and authentic. We want it to play in the present tense so the audience feels like they are there and there is no screen between them and the events of the past. To do that I felt very strongly that we shouldn’t use too much special effects so we tried to do as much in camera as possible by sourcing real planes from the era, real boats and putting the actors into as much closeness of the reality as possible. At least in a way that we could do it that was still safe.”
Part of the idea for making Dunkirk was planted in Nolan’s mind when he made a crossing of the channel himself. “I made the crossing with Emma (Thomas – the producer of Dunkirk) and a friend of mine who owned a small boat,” he explains. “We made the crossing to Dunkirk at about the same time of year that the evacuation had taken place and it was far more difficult than any of us had expected. The channel really did not co-operate, the seas were very rough and it took a very long time, something like nineteen hours, for us to get over there, so the difficulty and the fear of that without people dropping bombs on us, and the feat of that without there being a war zone at the end of the journey, that experience really cemented to me an admiration for the people that took part in the real evacuation. That really was the driving force behind why I wanted to make this film.”
During the filming of Dunkirk there were leaked reports of weather creating havoc for the crew while they filmed at Dunkirk and Nolan was only too happy to tell us all about that. “Filming at the actual location seemed like the best way to get close to the truth,” Nolan says. “When you walk that beach , we walked it a lot, you feel the history there. We had to re-build huge sections of The Mole, which is this big structure that spans out into the sea. There were men essentially trapped on it, and that re-creation of history poses a lot of logistical challenges but ultimately to be able to re-stage these events with historical accuracy felt like an important part of what we were trying to do and gave us a good basis to the making of the film.”
Dunkirk is in Australian cinemas right now.
Motorkite Dreaming is a new documentary charting the adventures of Aidan Glasby and Daryl Clarke, two amateur pilots who flew microlight planes, powered by little more than lawnmower engines, across Australia in a 8 week, 4000km journey. Their journey gives insights into the traditional lore and culture of a number of indigenous tribes they encounter along the way as they pass through their native lands. The director was Charlie Hill-Smith, and the producer was John Cherry. Greg spoke to John Cherry and Dave to Charlie Hill-Smith to find out some of the challenges in bringing the project to the screen over the course of six years.
You can listen to or download our Charlie Hill-Smith interview right here.
You can listen to or download our John Cherry interview right here.
Move over Evelyn Salt and James Bond because Charlize Theron is crashing through the spy pack with her brilliant portrayal of Lorraine Broughton in one of the films that is promising to be one of the big box office winners of 2017 – Atomic Blonde.
Based on a popular graphic novel Atomic Blonde sees Theron play a spy who gets involved in a little Cold War action when she is sent by MI6 to investigate rumours of a list that contains the names and identities of some of the world’s top spies falling into the wrong hands in Berlin alongside another operative, played by James McAvoy. Added to the mix is the fact that the film is directed by David Leitch, the man who co-directed James Wick.
For Theron though this really was a passion project as she was one of the brains behind the film as well. “I didn’t choose it,” she explains. “I saw potential in this graphic novel and I think I wanted to develop something that had a protagonist in it that was very close to what Lorraine was in that graphic novel. Somebody that could be a female protagonist that lives and breathes in a world that is mostly dominated by males and live in an environment where she can play by all the same rules that the boys do in that world. So, somebody unapologetic, interesting, layered, conflicted and you know somebody struggling with her own humanity. I think they were all the things that made me want to develop a character like that. I read a couple of the pages of the graphic novel that were sent to us, it was an unpublished graphic novel at the time and that’s what sparked the interest in wanting to buy the rights and develop Atomic Blonde.”
When asked to explain the character of Lorraine a little more deeply Theron laughs. “Well she works for MI6, she is very good at her job. She has made peace with the fact that she chose to live in this world, and it is a tough world to live in, especially for a woman, but she is good at it but she likes doing it and she carries the consequences of all of that… and I think there is something very empowering about her.”
With every critic talking about how intense the espionage storyline of Atomic Blonde it wasn’t much of a surprise to learn that Theron is a very big fan of espionage and spy movies in general. “I like the spy-thriller aspect of it,” she says. “I think I’m also fascinated about how you can take those stories and turn them on their heads a little bit because I think we’ve seen a lot of the spy thriller genre and we’ve seen how they go from act to the next act and I think I was interested in how you could take that, not only in the story but in the look and feel of what those movies normally look like and then turn that on its head and make it something super energetic and fun.”
Theron also admits there was a little bit of pre-planning that went into playing Lorraine as well. “I didn’t do any research into how they walked or silly things like that,” she says. “But I was really interested in finding out what kinds of people do that job, it takes a certain personality to do that job and I guess even to want to do that job. There were some interesting things once I started reading about things, especially during this time period when operatives would go into areas where their agencies would just abandon them and a lot of them at the time were more prompted to take the job if they were having issues in their family life or if they were dealing with alcoholism or something that would almost make them self combust – that was a really interesting idea. And once we started shooting it I was very interested in the ‘why’ because it is a tough, cold world to be in.”
Anyone that has seen John Wick knows that director David Leitch likes to make his fight scenes as realistic as possible so there is very little surprise to learn that he really put Theron and the rest of the Atomic Blonde cast through their paces and it sounds like she wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. “I wanted to do this in a way that was believable,” she explains. “I knew that is was going to take a lot of work to fight like that, but I never wanted anybody to say that a woman couldn’t do that so that was important and I think that was what drove me to want to be as capable as I ended up being as physical as I could be. I trained for two and a half months and then I kind of continued that as we made the film.”
Theron is quick to admit that working with Leitch who has previously been a stunt man himself had both positives and negatives. “There was a bit of both,” she says with a smile. “The positive was that he knew where to put a camera, he knew how to shoot stunts and do action. He is so comfortable in that world, that he as eye for it and he definitely has a passion for it, but yeah I think that in other hands I probably wouldn’t have been pushed as hard, but I wanted that… I wanted somebody to expect more from me and push me more, and he was amazing at that.”
Of course some of the most intense scenes that Theron had to create in Atomic Blonde was alongside actress Sophia Boutella who most people would recognise from her recent performance in The Mummy. Theron says she is brilliant to work with. “She is great, I absolutely love her,” she says smiling. “We were very lucky in finding her because the role of Lasalle was very tricky, it had to be somebody that had a strength about them but also an incredible vulnerability. In a way she had to be broken but fully functioning because of that story and that is tough to find somebody that has that and she has that in spades. She is so beautiful in this film.”
Atomic Blonde is in Australian cinemas on the 3rd August.
One of the most exciting series to launch in 2017 is going to be the new virtual-reality series Remember. Buzz Magazine’s Dave Griffiths chats to director/creator George Kacevski about the series. In their chat George talks about the differences he faced having to film for virtual-reality and what that means for the audience watching the show.
You can listen to or download our George Kacevski interview right here.
Keeping punk and grunge alive is quite a daunting task, but Animals Hands is there to do it. Hailing from the Melbourne underground, Danielle Whalebone started the project in 2011 and continues to push the limit of sound. We caught up with her to discuss their debut album, Tonic Clonic, and its highly anticipated September 2017 release.
Tonic Clonic is quite a name for an album, it sounds so graceful, but it’s actually a term for a Grand Mal seizure, right?
Yes! It sounds really beautiful, but it’s actually quite a horrific thing. It sounds like it would be a drink or something nice. I feel It represents the album though, some heavy concepts lyrically and the vocals can be quite beautiful at times.
Were you going for any particular sound before you stepped foot in the studio?
Absolutely, a lot of dirt. I really wanted to push the guitars a lot harder, and still maintain the heavy vocals and intoxicating whirling sound. The album came together really well.
How was recording at a legendary space like Birdland Studios with a producer like Lindsay Gravina?
The best way to describe it is feeling like a tiny little mortal being among these immortal giants, but over the course of the album it became like a second home. Just to be in a space that has housed so much creativity, it’s hard to let go of and a little sad that it’s moving.
Would you say you have a favorite part of the album?
Honestly, it’s the space where Lindsay created it, I’ll never get over it, it was beautiful. Never in a million years would I have thought I would have the opportunity to experience a place where so many albums and so many artists that I admire recorded. It’s like a pressure cooker, you go in there and come out a different person.
Not only have you had airplay in Australia, but also all over the world. How does that feel?
It’s funny, we’ve had airplay and reviews and you get all these messages overseas, and you just carry on in your every day life. You don’t really get the chance to sit back and relax, it seems surreal I suppose. It would be really exiting if we could get a chance to start touring overseas, I’d really love it, and it’d be really nice.
What music peaks your interest these days?
I’ve got really eclectic tastes. I really love The Kills, it’s what I listen to going to and from work . I also listen to a lot of classical music, and then I can say a lot of underground bands and Melbourne music because I’m a part of that culture. There are a lot of up and coming bands that I’m listening to, and bands that we’d love to support in that scene. I’m constantly listening to new music coming out.
As our time comes to a close, what one thing would you like listeners to know about Animal Hands?
Oh wow, that’s a really hard one. I guess that it’s born in a place that stays very true to punk and grunge music, a pure place. It’s art, that’s the important part of the project.
Remember to support your local music scene, and be on the lookout for Tonic Clonic in September.
The hilarous new Australian comedy That’s Not My Dog is in cinemas this weekend and Dave Griffiths sat down and had a chat with the director Dean Murphy to find out how the idea came about for the film and how it was put together.
You can listen to our Dean Murphy interview right here.
Listen to “That’s Not My Dog – Dean Murphy Interview” on Spreaker.
U.S. band Little Hurricane is about to release their brand new album Same Sun Same Moon. Dave Griffiths chatted to Tone from the duo to find out what their influences were for this album and how they first met through Craigslist.
You can listen to or download our Little Hurricane interview right here.
Filmmaker Drew Roller chats to Dave Griffiths about his brand new documentary Acoustic Uprising which hits Australian cinemas in October. The documentary looks at an unique style of acoustic guitar playing which is sweeping the world.
You can listen to or download our Drew Roller interview right here.
With so much happening at Monster Pictures over the past few months we decided to do a little catch up with Kier-La Janisse the Festival Director of Monster Fest. Kier-La chats to us about the recent acquisitions that Monster Pictures were able to make at Cannes. She also chats to us a little about what direction Monster Fest will take this year and of course about the release of the brand new docco ‘Eurocrime’ that she is a producer of.
For more information on where you can purchase the special VHS copy of ‘Eurocrime’ just check out www.celluloidapocalypse.com
You can listen to or download our Kier-La Janisse interview right here.