Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie - Preview
Preview by Jack Foley
ONE of the most popular and successful wargame universes of all time, Warhammer 40,000 is explosively brought to life in this dazzling, blood-soaked CG animated movie featuring the vocal talents of Terence Stamp, John Hurt and Sean Pertwee.
To celebrate the arrival of Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie (Anchor Bay), arriving on Blu-ray and DVD on June 17, 2013, we have a copy on Blu-ray to give away to one lucky winner (see below)!
Synopsis
It is the 41st Millennium, and the only force that stands between humanity and alien hordes are the Space Marines. Genetically enhanced, clad in power armour and knowing no fear, they are the angels of death. And the greatest of them are the Ultramarines.
But when a select squad of scarred veterans and raw recruits responds to a distant planet’s distress beacon, they discover that a horrific evil has been unleashed. Amidst a living nightmare of chaos, carnage, and daemonic fury, these steel battle-brothers must now survive the ultimate enemy: themselves.
Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie features voice actors Terence Stamp (Smallville; Wanted), John Hurt (Merlin; Immortals; Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows; Doctor Who) and Sean Pertwee (Camelot; Devil’s Playground; Dog Soldiers) and screenwriter Dan Abnett (Games Workshop’s Black Library; Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy; 2000 AD).
Win Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie on Blu-ray
To celebrate the release of Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday, June 17, 2013, IndieLondon is offering readers the chance to win a copy on Blu-ray. Simply answer the following question…
Q. In which Millennium is Ultramarines set?
Simply send the answer to Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie competition and include your name, address, telephone number and email
Warm Bodies - DVD Review
Review by Rob Carnevale
HAVING tamed vampires and werewolves, zombies are the latest to be given feelings in Jonathan Levine’s unconvincing Warm Bodies.
Adapted from the acclaimed novel by Isaac Marion, the film also puts an un-dead spin on Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet while desperately trying to evolve the zombie genre. It’s only intermittently successful.
To be fair, things start out well. R (played by Nicholas Hoult) is a zombie who laments his new existence via an extremely amusing voiceover.
But while out on a hunting trip with his colleagues, including best friend M (Rob Corddry) he runs into human resistance fighter Julie (Teresa Palmer) and instantly falls in love, thereby awakening long dormant feelings within him.
Alas, the path to true romance is far from simple. R can only really form new memories by eating the brains of Julie’s ex-boyfriend (Dave Franco) and ‘borrowing his’, while convincing the rest of humanity – including Julie’s resistance leader dad (John Malkovich) and her best friend (Analeigh Tipton) – that he is curing himself.
What’s more, the zombies themselves are threatened by a more primal, skeletal form of un-dead creature that isn’t afraid to feed on anything in its path.
To be fair, Levine’s movie has moments that bring something fresh and hip to the genre, which recalls the director’s previous good work on films such as 50/50 and The Wackness.
It also boasts a genuinely cool soundtrack and two nice central performances from Hoult and Palmer.
But overall Warm Bodies seems to be as much at odds with itself as it is the genre. Levine’s tonal shifts are uneven and sometimes feel as if they are pandering desperately to its target audience – the dreaded 12A, post-Twilight brigade who love this kind of monster deconstruction.
Hence, one minute R is feeding on brains and the next he is struggling to make himself sensitive and taking polaroids with Julie. The film also abandons zombie convention whenever it sees fit, often from one scene to the next.
Any goodwill that more discerning viewers may bring towards it quickly evaporates as the need to play to formula overtakes some of the film’s more edgy/innovative ideas.
By the time the film reaches its predictably over-cooked finale, you may well be feeling distinctly underwhelmed.
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 97mins
UK Blu-ray & DVD Release: June 17, 2013
Hitchcock - DVD Review
Review by Rob Carnevale
SOMEHERE within the multiple elements that make up Hitchcock there’s a great little movie about the making of Psycho. Sadly, this isn’t it.
That’s not to say that Sacha Gervasi’s movie doesn’t possess curiosity value; more that it’s a patchwork quilt of events that needed more of Hitchcock’s own sharpness behind the lens.
At its heart, the film offers a fascinating chronicle of how Psycho only just made it to the screen in the face of studio scepticism and censorship wrangling, while simultaneously offering insight into Hitchcock’s relationships with his wife, Alma Reville, and borderline obsessive pursuit of his leading ladies (in this case, both Janet Leigh and Vera Miles).
Anthony Hopkins plays the iconic director, Helen Mirren his wife and Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel his starlets.
But as good as some performances are, they also suffer from the film’s uneven direction, a lot of which stems from some of the curious creative decisions that Gervasi makes along the way.
Scenes involving Hitchcock’s imagined conversations with the serial killer Ed Gein (the inspiration for Norman Bates) are particularly distracting and unnecessary, while leaving a somewhat unpleasant taste given the unsuccessful attempts to couch them in humour.
It also detracts from Hopkins’ performance as he often can’t seem to resist the temptation to delve into his own famous back catalogue, bringing some unwanted nods towards Hannibal Lecter into his portrayal.
Such moments also come at the expense of Johansson and Biel, both of whose relationships with their eccentric director feel under-developed.
Nevertheless, behind-the-scenes insights into the actual shooting of Psycho are fun (James D’Arcy does a great Anthony Perkins, albeit under-used again), as are the wrangles with both the studio and censor.
And better still is Mirren, whose portrayal of Hitchcock’s long-suffering wife lends the film its true heart and soul. Her scenes with Hopkins are great, while she wears her quiet anguish over her husband’s shortcomings with tremendous grace. Hers is the film’s performance to savour and, arguably, it’s biggest reason for seeing it.
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 98mins
UK Release Blu-ray & DVD Release: June 17, 2013
No (Gael Garcia Bernal) - DVD Review
Review by Louise Carleton
NO is the culmination of Chilean director Pablo Larrain’s trilogy examining the dark rule of one of South America’s most feared dictators; General Pinochet.
It started in 2008 with Tony Manero, Larrain’s exploration of the dictatorship at its most ‘violent moment.’ Next came Post Mortem with Larrain looking back to the origins and beginnings of Pinochet’s rise to power and finally it finishes with No, a film that focuses on the final days of Pinochet and the advertising campaign that helped topple his regime of brutality.
The year is 1988 and with increasing pressure from the United States and the rest of the world, Pinochet is forced to call a referendum on his presidency, a rule which has lasted 15 years and has been laced with brutal acts of murder, torture, exile and false imprisonment.
Each party is granted the chance to create an advertising campaign to be shown for 15 minutes in order to convince the country to vote either ‘yes’ (to keep Pinochet in) or ‘no’ (to re-elect a new party) come election day.
The opposition party, led by Urrutia (Luis Gnecco), knows who they want to lead their campaign; the young, brash advertising executive recently returned from exile in Mexico, René Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal), a man who oozes charm and charisma.
Saavedra agrees to help Urrutia’s campaign, despite the huge rift it will create between himself and his boss (played by Alfredo Castro); a staunch Pinochet supporter who is lending his own advertising experience to Pinochet’s corner.
Saavedra is more apt at producing American-style commercials, full of fun, hype and with a big emphasis on getting the consumer to part with their cash; so when Saavedra is pitched the opposition campaign’s original idea he’s horrified to find it’s entirely made up of disturbing clips and unsettling statistics that highlight the horrors of Pinochet’s rule.
Saavedra argues the aggressive footage will do nothing but serve as a reminder to the Chilean people just how much they have suffered. Despite his own intimate knowledge of just how violent the state can be (his estranged wife is a political demonstrator and is often beaten and detained by the police during protests), he argues the campaign needs to focus on the future.
He believes that reminding voters of the horrors of the past will do nothing but scare them away; instead the campaign needs to instil hope and happiness for the future.
With this in mind Saavedra creates a bold campaign that employs a series of commercials full of joy, optimism and promise of better times ahead.
Familiar Hollywood faces lend their support to the cause and a catchy jingle consisting of the lines ‘Chile, happiness is coming’ runs throughout the adverts until it becomes firmly ingrained in the voters’ (and audience’s) psyche.
Yet as the campaign progresses the pressure increases for Saavedra and his team; they find themselves being watched, then followed, and finally Saavedra himself is the victim of a frightening break-in that threatens the safety and security of his young son.
Despite these concerns and the dangers ahead Saavedra and his team refuse to be intimidated; instead they rally together in their fight to help their fellow Chilean’s vote freely without fear.
As usual Bernal gives an award-winning performance. With expert craft he shows the inner turmoil of Saavedra who experiences something of a political awakening as his work progresses. The result is a believable and sympathetic character of substance.
Alfredo Castro also makes a good appearance whose far right character works well in opposition to Bernal’s liberal Saavedra.
But in spite of the well-crafted characters the film takes a while to find its footing and convey its message. Despite being littered with some great moments of cinematography there are unfortunately a few weak links.
This aside, the film remains highly entertaining throughout and also gets our recommendation as an important lesson in history.
In Spanish, with subtitles
Certificate: 15
Running time: 118mins
UK Blu-ray & DVD Release: June 17, 2013
Win an indoor skydiving experience with Body Flight and Flight
Preview by Jack Foley
To celebrate the release of Flight, starring Denzel Washington on DVD and Blu-ray (out now), Paramount Home Media Distribution is giving one lucky reader and a friend the chance to experience wind speeds of up to 180mph with UK’s indoor skydiving team, Body Flight.
The package includes one solo flight each + 2 flights together with instructors and a free digital copy of the experience.
About Flight
Washington stars as Whip Whitaker, a seasoned airline pilot, who miraculously crash- lands his plane after a mid-air catastrophe, saving nearly every soul on board.
After the crash, Whip is hailed as a hero, but as more is learned, more questions than answers arise as to who or what was really at fault and what really happened on that plane?
Flight presents the first pairing of Academy Award® winners Washington and director Robert Zemeckis (Castaway), who marks his return to live-action dramatic storytelling after years of success on the forefront of directing and producing movies utilizing motion capture technology.
Buckle up for one of the most spectacular action sequences seen in film in this powerful action drama with an all-star cast. Flight is an intense action packed thrill ride, not for the faint hearted.
Win an indoor skydiving experience with Bodyflight and Flight
To celebrate the release of Flight, starring Denzel Washington on DVD and Blu-ray (out now), Paramount Home Media Distribution is giving one lucky reader and a friend the chance to experience wind speeds of up to 180mph with UK’s indoor skydiving team, Body Flight.
The package includes one solo flight each + 2 flights together with instructors and a free digital copy of the experience. Simply answer the following question…
Q. What wind speeds will you experience at your Body Flight event?
Simply send the answer to Body Flight competition and include your name, address, telephone number and email
Hitchcock - Dame Helen Mirren DVD interview
Compiled by Jack Foley
ACADEMY-award winning actress Dame Helen Mirren has enjoyed a rich and varied career over five decades and shows no signs of slowing down. In Hitchcock she works for the first time with fellow British screen legend Sir Anthony Hopkins, who plays Sir Alfred Hitchcock. She is Alma Reville – Hitchcock’s wife and, it turns out, crucial collaborator on his classic works, including the seminal shocker Psycho.
Helen Mirren spoke to us from London, to discuss great advice, playing a real person and bringing to light the woman who was crucial to the “Hitchcock touch”…
Q. What was your first reaction when you were approached about the film?
Dame Helen Mirren: When I was very first approached about the film, it was interesting but I was not quite sure the script really worked. Anyway, it wasn’t financed. A lot of scripts fly around like that and you never know, or can be sure, if this film is ever actually going to be made. They say: “We’re working on it can we come back with another draft?” And you say: “Yes. that’s fine, of course you can.”
I went through a couple of drafts like that over, possibly, a couple of years. I can’t remember how long it was. Then Sacha [Gervasi, the director] came onboard and I met with him and he said: “I just want to hear what you feel about the script.” I thought: “Oh God – this is going to be a complete waste of time!” Because it so often is. Not because I didn’t have faith in Sacha, but because you don’t know whether the film is going to be greenlighted and you feel your brain is being picked, it’s all going to probably come to nothing. But I met with Sacha and he was absolutely delightful. He said: “Tell me where you feel the script should be worked on, developed on, what are your problems with it.” I sort of, very inarticulately, mumbled about a couple of things. Then Sacha went away and a few months later he just came back with this fabulous script that he had worked on and developed and just pulled all of the elements that were in the film already, pulled them together in a way that just made the script work and be cohesive and somehow make sense. At that point me, my agent and my husband all looked at each other and went: “Whoa! This is really good. We should say yes to this.”
Q. People don’t know how important Alma Reville was to Hitchcock – she tells him the truth, no matter how successful he becomes…
Dame Helen Mirren: Yes, telling you the truth but also being pro-active in the editing and the creation of the script and the writing of the script. It wasn’t just that she was a woman who said, “No, that doesn’t work Alfred.” She was someone who was absolutely proactive in the creation of the work, I think. Not to take the ultimate ownership away from Hitchcock, but Hitchcock himself said, and many other people said, “There are four hands on making a Hitchcock movie and two of them were Alma’s.”
Q. She’s a creative force in her own right…
Dame Helen Mirren: Absolutely. It’s very interesting, I read the book written by her daughter [Patricia Hitchcock O’Connell, whose book – co-written with Laurent Bouzereau – is called Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind The Man] and that was my number one source material for the character. The daughter wrote the book about her mother, not about her father. Although she adored her father – it was a very close, little family, really very close and really suburban in a funny sort of way.
She chose to write a book about her mother, because she did want to give her mother the credit that she felt she deserved. Alma herself was very content. I think she saw it as a partnership, as a true partnership, and she knew her role in that partnership. In knowing and being confident in the truth of that, she didn’t particularly feel the need to publicise it. She knew part of the attraction of the brand, if you like, of Hitchcock’s films, was this Hitchcock character himself. That only accrued to the value of the movies anyway, if you know what I mean. She was a part of the brand, a part of the firm.
Q. Is there a moment playing a real person, where you feel: “That’s it, I’ve got it…”?
Dame Helen Mirren: In some roles yes. I’m so physically not like Alma. She was tiny. She was a little bird. She was really, really small. I could never be physically like her. I’m just too big. I’m not a particularly big woman but I’m big in comparison to Alma. I kind of replicated her hair to an extent, but I couldn’t do an impersonation of her. And also there is very little film of her. There are photographs but very little film of her. So I didn’t really think about that too much, quite honestly. I felt, just to give her the credit that was due to her, the authority that she had obviously, the personality… I couldn’t remotely impersonate her.
Q. It was a very relaxed, fun set. Did you do much ad-libbing with Anthony Hopkins?
Dame Helen Mirren: We had a wonderful tight, beautiful script. I mean really beautiful. It didn’t need any improvisation, it was a beautiful thing. Obviously we were free to improvise to some extent, but we did very little of that, because the actual material was so good.
Q. And working with Anthony Hopkins was a good experience?
Dame Helen Mirren: Oh, yes. Somewhat intimidating and I feel it’s been a long time coming because, obviously we’ve been actors over a similar period of time and yet never managed to work together and I’ve always felt that he and I would be a good fit in a play or in a film and so finally I had the opportunity to work with him. Yes, a truly great actor.
Q. So, you still get intimidated and nervous?
Dame Helen Mirren: I’m always a bit intimidated working with big stars. But they’re ordinary human beings and you get used to it if you’re working with someone and finally you relax. The first few days I’m always terribly intimidated. But I don’t know about nervous as such. Some projects, yes, you’re nervous about, because maybe you think it’s going to be very challenging or maybe you’re not quite sure it’s going to work or not.
Q. It was Sacha’s first narrative feature, but he seemed very confident on set…
Dame Helen Mirren: Yes, wonderfully so. Obviously Sacha has been around, he directed the documentary [Anvil! The Story Of Anvil] and has been involved as a writer on some fairly big, Hollywood-type projects. But not overly confident. Not a “I know everything” kind of attitude – far from it: very sort of, “I know that I’m learning.” That is so much healthier than overly compensating for your inexperience by pretending to be incredibly overly experienced. So a great natural acceptance of where he’s at as a film director. There’s an ease about him. He was enjoying it, that’s what made it so fun: he was enjoying it. He wasn’t angst-ridden, he wasn’t tortured by the process, he was just having a ball. That’s not an easy attitude to have. Filmmaking is just so, so difficult. I’m amazed that any movie gets made at all. All the pressures you have of time and money and weather and location and actors and everything the directors have to deal with. So I absolutely took my hat off to him.
Q. Do you remember the first time you saw Psycho?
Dame Helen Mirren: No, but I remember my dad coming home and telling me about it and describing it to me and saying: “I’ve just seen the most frightening film I’ve ever seen.” And describing the scene when the character goes down the stairs and the light is swinging. I remember him describing that scene to me and it was like I was seeing it. I didn’t see it myself until many years later. I do remember my dad’s description of it.
Q. It’s still quite shocking…
Dame Helen Mirren: Well Hitchcock was shocking. He was out-there. His attitude to things is still sort of shocking – maybe it’s because it’s so weird and slightly eccentric and very British. And very black. I agree there is still something shocking and really disturbing about Hitch’s work and the slightly heightened quality of everything, the slight fake-ness of everything. He’s not a neo-realist, is he? It’s always slightly heightened, it heightens that feeling of disturbance about it.
Q. Do you have any particular favourite Hitchcock films?
Dame Helen Mirren: I think Notorious is great and Vertigo. I love Vertigo.
Q. You’ve had a long and successful career – what’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Dame Helen Mirren: Bob Balaban, who is an actor and a producer, gave me an incredible piece of advice about film acting. I was doing a film many years ago with him called 2010, in America [released in 1984]. I was sitting there watching all these American actors, who just seemed to be all so brilliant to me and just so natural I couldn’t see how they were doing it. But Bob said, “With film acting you have to let it go. It’s like shooting with a bow and arrow: from the moment the arrow has left your bow you can’t bring it back, it’s going to land wherever it lands. You cannot bring it back. You can aim it as well as you can but the minute it’s gone, it’s gone. So just do what you do on the take in the moment and then let it go. Never go home at night and think ‘Why didn’t I do that? I should have done it like this’.” – as one tends to do sometimes, you re-rehearse the scene and you go home and kick yourself for having not done this that and the other.
That was brilliant, brilliant advice and ever since I’ve tried to follow through with that. I do it. I aim it. The take is letting the arrow go, if you like. The audience, you can’t really control what the audience think – especially after the music and the editing and the rest of it. It’s transformed into something else. You can think, “I hope they get the fact that I’m angry but secretly pleased” or something, but if they don’t and they get something else there’s nothing I can do about that. I just have to let it go.
Read our interview with Anthony Hopkins
Hitchcock is released on Blu-ray and DVD on Monday, June 17, 2013
Hitchcock - Anthony Hopkins DVD interview
Compiled by Jack Foley
IN Hitchcock Sir Anthony Hopkins takes on Sir Alfred Hitchcock. With a blend of expertly applied prosthetics – from the Oscar-winning make-up artist Howard Berger – and his own well-honed acting skills, Hopkins transforms into the iconic director of such classics as North By Northwest and Psycho.
It’s the shocks and struggles of making Psycho that form the basis for this film, directed by fellow Brit Sacha Gervasi and co-starring Dame Helen Mirren as Hitchcock’s wife, Alma Reville. He opens up about insecurity, the Master of Suspense and how he rarely watches his work…
Q. What was your first reaction when you were asked to play Hitchcock?
Anthony Hopkins: That was nine years ago. Two producers came up to me, Tom Thayer and Alan Barnette, and they got in touch with my agent and I read a version of the script and I said, “Yeah, okay.” There was a director who seemed to be interested and I met that director and it all drifted away. Then it kept coming back. Early last year, I think it was, I met this director called Sacha Gervasi and he seemed to have a lot of enthusiasm about it and then Tom Pollock [former head of Universal Studios] said, “Would you be interested?” and I said: “Yeah, okay.” Sacha Gervasi seemed to have a lot of passion and enthusiasm for it and so I said: “Count me in.” It’s been a long time coming.
Q. Sacha is an interesting bloke…
Anthony Hopkins: Extraordinary, isn’t he? Quite an extraordinary man. Never done a feature. Prior to this movie he’d done Anvil! [the award-winning documentary about the Canadian heavy metal band]. I’m stunned by the way he did this – he’s obviously a very bright, clever young guy.
Q. He seems so assured…
Anthony Hopkins: He has an endless passion and enthusiasm and a sense of sheer enjoyment, I think, and that’s why I really enjoyed working with him. I had one of the best times in a long time. And it’s a great cast: Dame Helen Mirren; Danny Huston is an incredible actor; James D’Arcy, who plays Anthony Perkins. And another actor, Michael Wincott, who plays Ed Gein, the dark nemesis, the inspiration for Psycho. A wonderful actor, Michael Wincott, he’s terrific in it. I really enjoyed it.
Q. How did you find working with Helen?
Anthony Hopkins: She was wonderful to work with. I’m doing another movie with her right now called Red 2. I saw her this afternoon. She’s wonderful to work with. I’d met her a couple of times, as actors do, I said “Hello” and that was it. But we met last year, this year – My God, it’s all run into one long continuum – and that was it. Really enjoyed it: really, really enjoyed. She was just terrific as Alma Hitchcock. Really terrific.
Q. Sacha said he saw a parallel between this and Anvil! as both films are about a couple who drive each other mad but can’t live without each other…
Anthony Hopkins: I never thought of that. That was an incredible movie, wasn’t it? I haven’t seen Hitchcock, I’ve only seen bits and pieces of it in looping and all that. I was afraid to look at it. But I hear it’s quite good.
Q. Do you watch your work?
Anthony Hopkins: They’ve got these playback monitors onset and I wouldn’t look at them because I don’t want to see, because I don’t want to hear, I didn’t want to examine too closely. I just want the courage to jump in and do it. I haven’t seen it but I hear it’s good.
Q. Does the character being a real, famous person make it more intimidating to play?
Anthony Hopkins: It’s scary. It’s a balance. I’m a good mimic, but… Stanislavski [the legendary Russian theatre director/actor/teacher] said you can’t become a character. You have to indicate and give an impression of it, I guess, and it’s all a balance. It was a little unnerving. But there’s nothing you can do about it to overcome it. You just use those insecurities and those drives.
Q. What do you make of Hitchcock?
Anthony Hopkins: I’ve only really become totally appreciative of him now, although as a kid I saw Rear Window and then North by Northwest and Vertigo, which I thought was a phenomenal film. And I saw Psycho in 1960. I was in Manchester. I’ve started to watch them all over again. In fact I watched two yesterday: Vertigo, just for the sheer enjoyment of it, and Rear Window. And I thought what an extraordinary man he was. There’s a word bandied around in Hollywood and in the acting profession about artists, but I think he was a true artist in the broadest sense: as a writer and a philosopher. The wittiness of Rear Window and the romance of Vertigo and the terror and darkness of Psycho. He was quite an extraordinary man. A man who was deeply insecure and frightened.
Q. We all get scared, it seems…
Anthony Hopkins: I was talking about insecurities with this producer, who seems very assured, but we were talking about insecurities and, “If we didn’t have them, where would we be?” I mentioned to him a certain very famous director who seems to have such a great life. I was talking to this friend of this director many years ago and I said, “He seems to be so happy.” And he said, “Have you looked at his fingernails? He’s terrified. He’s anxious all the time!” And I said, “Really? That makes me feel so much better.” We live in our own self-centred world thinking we’re the only ones who are nervous. Everyone is scared I guess. Everyone is. If we were so sure of ourselves we’d be boring.
Q. Hitchcock famously said, “Actors are cattle…”
Anthony Hopkins: I saw that interview. He said: “I didn’t say actors were cattle. I said they should be treated like cattle.” He had a great sense of humour. He said to one actress, Madeleine Carroll, they were lighting and she said: “This is my best side.” And he said: “My dear, you’re sitting on your best side.” He would say to actors who’d ask what they should do: “I don’t know: you’re the actor, you sort it out.” Apparently he left actors alone. He really liked Perkins. He really respected Anthony Perkins. Janet Leigh, he was enchanted by her, very much left them alone. Perkins came up with this idea to be always eating candy as Norman Bates and Hitchcock said: “That’s fine. Do it.” He trusted actors to do what they could do. Didn’t want them to overdo it. He didn’t like method actors at all, couldn’t stand them. He said to two actors, “I just point the camera. You just walk from left to right – that’s all you need to do.” And he was right, I think. He didn’t mess about.
Q. It seems that you’d enjoy that approach…
Anthony Hopkins: “Where do you want me to stand? Where do you want me to go?” I worked with Ken Branagh two years ago on Thor. He was very good like that. “Where do you want me to stand?” “There. Now walk there.” “Alright.” I don’t mind that. Because Ken knows his stuff. He’s been a director and an actor and a wonderful actor and a wonderful director. Very simple. We don’t have to discuss it and talk about the motivation and all that stuff. Just do it.
Q. On set, you seemed to have a good time working with Scarlett…
Anthony Hopkins: Yeah. We were having a bit of fun with it. It’s not brain surgery.
Q. She’s well-cast in this…
Anthony Hopkins: Yeah. Very peculiar because she would suddenly be Scarlett Johansson with her hair on and all that and then they’d say “Action!” and her face would just change and she’d become Janet Leigh. Maybe it was a smile or something. Quite remarkable. It was a wonderful cast, with Toni Collette and Danny Huston and everyone. I thought it was quite something. I really enjoyed working with them. It was a short period. It wasn’t a long, long shoot. It wasn’t a big budget movie, but I really enjoyed it.
Q. And you filmed it in what is now your home city, Los Angeles…
Anthony Hopkins: Everything seems to be going to other countries to make films now. I did say, when they were thinking of going to Canada or somewhere, “No Los Angeles – no me.” They said, “Do you mean that?” I said, “Yeah. Here we are in the perfect place: where the movie takes place. If you want to go to New Orleans, get another actor.”
Q. Was there a moment when playing Hitchcock that you thought, “I’ve got him”?
Anthony Hopkins: That really comes and goes. It’s like when you’re working in the theatre, rehearsing on a play and you can’t get it. And then suddenly you pick something up: a prop or something or some odd thing. Then something gets you and, “That’s it. That’s it.” With Hitchcock I’d just sort of hope for the best. Some mornings would feel good and some mornings wouldn’t feel so good. Just strive to make it work. Or not strive, just let go. Stanislavski said the same thing: “Some days you make it, some days you don’t.” But you can’t stop the show and say: “I’m sorry I don’t feel it today.” You just get on with it. Pure technique.
Q. How useful or distracting are the prosthetics?
Anthony Hopkins: I thought Howard Berger did a phenomenal job. He wanted to get the right balance, so we kept it as minimal as possible, down from the chin. Otherwise you disappear with it, become a waxwork museum. You have to make the choices and we did a number of tests, to get right the skin tone, the eyes and this, that and the other. All I did was shave my head and dye the remainder of my hair round the side, which was pretty ugly. I couldn’t go to the monitors and watch it. I just do the best I can and not worry about it. Reports came back that they were happy with it – so good!
Read our interview with Helen Mirren
Hitchcock is released on Blu-ray and DVD on Monday, June 17, 2013
Win Wrestlemania 29 on Blu-ray
Preview by Jack Foley
It only happens once a year, and in 2013, The Showcase of the Immortals comes to the greater New York City area for WrestleMania XXIX! From MetLife Stadium, the biggest stars in WWE and several returning legends compete on sports entertainment’s grandest stage.
Last year, fans witnessed The Rock defeat John Cena in one of the most epic matches of all time. Will the People’s Champ bring it to WrestleMania for the second year in a row?
Plus, John Cena, CM Punk, Big Show, Triple H, Sheamus, and several major Superstars strive to cement their legacies and create moments that will own a permanent place in WWE lore.
Special Features include several key moments from Raw and SmackDown as well as the 2013 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.
At the Show of Shows, John Cena has one chance to redeem himself for the loss that has been tormenting him for a year when he challenges the man who dealt him that agonizing defeat, The Rock. And this time, the WWE Championship is on the line.
A brash, remorseless CM Punk seeks the ultimate claim to immortality by attempting to do what no one has done before him – defeat the Undertaker at WrestleMania, ending his double decade-long Streak. Brock Lesnar and Triple H collide in a No Holds Barred showdown where The Game’s illustrious career is on the line. This is the place where legends are made. This is WrestleMania.
Win Wrestlemania 29 on Blu-ray
To celebrate the arrival of the biggest event in the WWE calendar, Wrestlemania 29 (FremantleMedia), arriving on Blu-ray and DVD on June 10, 2013, we have a copy on Blu-ray to give away to one lucky winner. Simply answer the following question…
Q. Who is the People’s Champ?
Simply send the answer to Wrestlemania 29 competition and include your name, address, telephone number and email
Zero Dark Thirty - DVD Review
Review by Rob Carnevale
KATHRYN Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty may be one of the most controversial movies of the year but it’s also one of the best and most unmissable.
The story of how America hunted down and killed Osama bin Laden is a tour-de-force piece of filmmaking that refuses to pull its punches in depicting the tireless efforts and often brutal tactics of those involved.
Opening with blacked out sound recordings of the final messages of those trapped inside the Twin Towers on 9/11, the film then chronicles the key moments in the ensuing hunt for bin Laden, focusing in particular on the efforts of CIA analyst Maya (Jessica Chastain).
It does show how torture was used to inform the early years of the hunt and is unflinching in its depiction of it. But it doesn’t glorify or condone its use and subsequent criticisms of it by certain US senators (and now actors) seems reactionary and knee-jerk.
The film does state that this is a fictionalised account but one that has been informed by the extensive research of former journalist turned screenwriter Mark Boal and one that has been put together with the benefit of the CIA’s co-operation (now the subject of a US investigation).
It heightens the authenticity of the piece, elevating it to almost documentary-style levels at times. But Bigelow also keeps things filmic so that it demands to be seen on the big screen.
As a result there are several key moments that are incredibly tense, as well as those quieter, more intimate asides where the cost – both emotional and ethical – is etched across each character’s face.
Performance-wise, Chastain is great (enhancing her fast growing reputation), imbuing her Maya with early uncertainty but gritty determination and truly growing into her role as bin Laden’s chief pursuer… a fiercely resolute woman amongst men who had to fight her corner at almost every turn and whose singular vision became obsessive.
But there’s excellent support, too, from a quality ensemble that includes Jason Clarke (superb as both a chilling interrogator and charismatic colleague), Mark Strong, Jennifer Ehle, James Gandolfini and Kyle Chandler as officials and colleagues.
Boal’s dialogue is astute and to the point but never dumbed down (so stay alert) or gung-ho or jingoistic. And Bigelow’s depiction of the actual assault on bin Laden’s complex in Pakistan is done with cold, ruthless efficiency. It is a virtuoso sequence that chills by virtue of its calculated cold-bloodedness (an act which, in itself, flies in the face of the democratic freedoms the US extols but which is very much a by-product of the post 9/11 world and the evolution of the war against terror).
Bigelow, to her immense credit, conveys all of this without having to hammer her point home.
This is a film that is refreshingly complex and utterly compelling… intelligent filmmaking at its very best and essential for anyone who has their finger on the pulse of current world events.
Certificate: 15
Running time: 157mins
UK Blu-ray & DVD Release: June 10, 2013
Lincoln - DVD Review
Review by Rob Carnevale
STEVEN Spielberg’s Lincoln offers a worthy, often interesting but sometimes arduous account of the battle to abolish slavery.
It features another astonishing central performance from Daniel Day-Lewis (which looks all but guaranteed Oscar success), plenty of showy support from the likes of Tommy Lee Jones (excellent), Sally Field (suitably put upon) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (great, as always), and succeeds in underlining just how difficult a period in history it was.
But Spielberg’s direction sometimes feels laboured and is unnecessarily reverential and lacks the ability to consistently grip as it should.
If Lincoln himself had a reputation for taking things slowly, then Spielberg seems to be taking his cues from him. Hence, the film ambles in places when it should really be cutting to the chase.
The story itself concentrates on the crucial period when newly re-elected President Lincoln took it upon himself to force through a 13th Amendment to the Constitution that would abolish slavery completely.
In order to do so, he not only required every one of his fellow Republicans to vote in favour of it but also 20 Democrats.
But with rumours of a Southern peace delegation bound for Washington intended on bringing to an end four years of bloody Civil War, Lincoln had to balance a country’s desire for peace at any cost with his own need to push through the Bill at the only time he could rely on a majority support in its favour.
An end to the war without the Bill in place could end any possibility of bringing about change as vested interests looked to ensure that black Americans could never have a chance to be seen as equal to White Americans.
Spielberg, for his part, doesn’t shy away from exploring some of the political brinkmanship required in securing Lincoln his votes (including the pay-offs and tactical manoeuvring), while also examining the conflict this brought to Lincoln himself.
He also delves into the president’s family life, offering insights into the increasingly strained relationships he had with his wife, a woman still struggling to cope with the death of one of their sons and her own injuries sustained in an accident, and with his eldest son (Gordon-Levitt), who wants to enlist against the wishes of both parents.
Some of this is compelling and affords a strong ensemble cast plenty of opportunity to shine.
But it also deprives the film of any real tautness while also preventing it from delving into some of the morals and ethics at play more sharply. Only brief lip service is paid to how even the North treated its own black soldiers with lower wages and poorer conditions, for instance.
Spielberg, though, is too enamoured of his main character, often indulging his propensity to convey key thoughts with stories of past experiences and therefore bogging the film down in self-indulgent rhetoric.
That said, Lincoln remains an important and even fascinating piece of work that demands to be seen by anyone with a keen interest in pivotal moments in history.
It also offers an acting masterclass from Day-Lewis, who all but underlines his position as one of the greatest actors of all-time.
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 150mins
UK Blu-ray & DVD Release: June 10, 2013
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Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie - Preview · 2 days ago by
ONE of the most popular and successful wargame universes of all time, Warhammer 40,000 is explosively brought to life in this dazzling, blood-soaked CG animated movie featuring the vocal talents of Terence Stamp, John Hurt and Sean Pertwee.
To celebrate the arrival of Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie (Anchor Bay), arriving on Blu-ray and DVD on June 17, 2013, we have a copy on Blu-ray to give away to one lucky winner (see below)!
Synopsis
It is the 41st Millennium, and the only force that stands between humanity and alien hordes are the Space Marines. Genetically enhanced, clad in power armour and knowing no fear, they are the angels of death. And the greatest of them are the Ultramarines.
But when a select squad of scarred veterans and raw recruits responds to a distant planet’s distress beacon, they discover that a horrific evil has been unleashed. Amidst a living nightmare of chaos, carnage, and daemonic fury, these steel battle-brothers must now survive the ultimate enemy: themselves.
Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie features voice actors Terence Stamp (Smallville; Wanted), John Hurt (Merlin; Immortals; Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows; Doctor Who) and Sean Pertwee (Camelot; Devil’s Playground; Dog Soldiers) and screenwriter Dan Abnett (Games Workshop’s Black Library; Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy; 2000 AD).
Win Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie on Blu-ray
To celebrate the release of Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday, June 17, 2013, IndieLondon is offering readers the chance to win a copy on Blu-ray. Simply answer the following question…
Q. In which Millennium is Ultramarines set?
Simply send the answer to Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie competition and include your name, address, telephone number and email
Warm Bodies - DVD Review · 4 days ago by
HAVING tamed vampires and werewolves, zombies are the latest to be given feelings in Jonathan Levine’s unconvincing Warm Bodies.
Adapted from the acclaimed novel by Isaac Marion, the film also puts an un-dead spin on Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet while desperately trying to evolve the zombie genre. It’s only intermittently successful.
To be fair, things start out well. R (played by Nicholas Hoult) is a zombie who laments his new existence via an extremely amusing voiceover.
But while out on a hunting trip with his colleagues, including best friend M (Rob Corddry) he runs into human resistance fighter Julie (Teresa Palmer) and instantly falls in love, thereby awakening long dormant feelings within him.
Alas, the path to true romance is far from simple. R can only really form new memories by eating the brains of Julie’s ex-boyfriend (Dave Franco) and ‘borrowing his’, while convincing the rest of humanity – including Julie’s resistance leader dad (John Malkovich) and her best friend (Analeigh Tipton) – that he is curing himself.
What’s more, the zombies themselves are threatened by a more primal, skeletal form of un-dead creature that isn’t afraid to feed on anything in its path.
To be fair, Levine’s movie has moments that bring something fresh and hip to the genre, which recalls the director’s previous good work on films such as 50/50 and The Wackness.
It also boasts a genuinely cool soundtrack and two nice central performances from Hoult and Palmer.
But overall Warm Bodies seems to be as much at odds with itself as it is the genre. Levine’s tonal shifts are uneven and sometimes feel as if they are pandering desperately to its target audience – the dreaded 12A, post-Twilight brigade who love this kind of monster deconstruction.
Hence, one minute R is feeding on brains and the next he is struggling to make himself sensitive and taking polaroids with Julie. The film also abandons zombie convention whenever it sees fit, often from one scene to the next.
Any goodwill that more discerning viewers may bring towards it quickly evaporates as the need to play to formula overtakes some of the film’s more edgy/innovative ideas.
By the time the film reaches its predictably over-cooked finale, you may well be feeling distinctly underwhelmed.
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 97mins
UK Blu-ray & DVD Release: June 17, 2013
Hitchcock - DVD Review · 4 days ago by
SOMEHERE within the multiple elements that make up Hitchcock there’s a great little movie about the making of Psycho. Sadly, this isn’t it.
That’s not to say that Sacha Gervasi’s movie doesn’t possess curiosity value; more that it’s a patchwork quilt of events that needed more of Hitchcock’s own sharpness behind the lens.
At its heart, the film offers a fascinating chronicle of how Psycho only just made it to the screen in the face of studio scepticism and censorship wrangling, while simultaneously offering insight into Hitchcock’s relationships with his wife, Alma Reville, and borderline obsessive pursuit of his leading ladies (in this case, both Janet Leigh and Vera Miles).
Anthony Hopkins plays the iconic director, Helen Mirren his wife and Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel his starlets.
But as good as some performances are, they also suffer from the film’s uneven direction, a lot of which stems from some of the curious creative decisions that Gervasi makes along the way.
Scenes involving Hitchcock’s imagined conversations with the serial killer Ed Gein (the inspiration for Norman Bates) are particularly distracting and unnecessary, while leaving a somewhat unpleasant taste given the unsuccessful attempts to couch them in humour.
It also detracts from Hopkins’ performance as he often can’t seem to resist the temptation to delve into his own famous back catalogue, bringing some unwanted nods towards Hannibal Lecter into his portrayal.
Such moments also come at the expense of Johansson and Biel, both of whose relationships with their eccentric director feel under-developed.
Nevertheless, behind-the-scenes insights into the actual shooting of Psycho are fun (James D’Arcy does a great Anthony Perkins, albeit under-used again), as are the wrangles with both the studio and censor.
And better still is Mirren, whose portrayal of Hitchcock’s long-suffering wife lends the film its true heart and soul. Her scenes with Hopkins are great, while she wears her quiet anguish over her husband’s shortcomings with tremendous grace. Hers is the film’s performance to savour and, arguably, it’s biggest reason for seeing it.
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 98mins
UK Release Blu-ray & DVD Release: June 17, 2013
No (Gael Garcia Bernal) - DVD Review · 6 days ago by
NO is the culmination of Chilean director Pablo Larrain’s trilogy examining the dark rule of one of South America’s most feared dictators; General Pinochet.
It started in 2008 with Tony Manero, Larrain’s exploration of the dictatorship at its most ‘violent moment.’ Next came Post Mortem with Larrain looking back to the origins and beginnings of Pinochet’s rise to power and finally it finishes with No, a film that focuses on the final days of Pinochet and the advertising campaign that helped topple his regime of brutality.
The year is 1988 and with increasing pressure from the United States and the rest of the world, Pinochet is forced to call a referendum on his presidency, a rule which has lasted 15 years and has been laced with brutal acts of murder, torture, exile and false imprisonment.
Each party is granted the chance to create an advertising campaign to be shown for 15 minutes in order to convince the country to vote either ‘yes’ (to keep Pinochet in) or ‘no’ (to re-elect a new party) come election day.
The opposition party, led by Urrutia (Luis Gnecco), knows who they want to lead their campaign; the young, brash advertising executive recently returned from exile in Mexico, René Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal), a man who oozes charm and charisma.
Saavedra agrees to help Urrutia’s campaign, despite the huge rift it will create between himself and his boss (played by Alfredo Castro); a staunch Pinochet supporter who is lending his own advertising experience to Pinochet’s corner.
Saavedra is more apt at producing American-style commercials, full of fun, hype and with a big emphasis on getting the consumer to part with their cash; so when Saavedra is pitched the opposition campaign’s original idea he’s horrified to find it’s entirely made up of disturbing clips and unsettling statistics that highlight the horrors of Pinochet’s rule.
Saavedra argues the aggressive footage will do nothing but serve as a reminder to the Chilean people just how much they have suffered. Despite his own intimate knowledge of just how violent the state can be (his estranged wife is a political demonstrator and is often beaten and detained by the police during protests), he argues the campaign needs to focus on the future.
He believes that reminding voters of the horrors of the past will do nothing but scare them away; instead the campaign needs to instil hope and happiness for the future.
With this in mind Saavedra creates a bold campaign that employs a series of commercials full of joy, optimism and promise of better times ahead.
Familiar Hollywood faces lend their support to the cause and a catchy jingle consisting of the lines ‘Chile, happiness is coming’ runs throughout the adverts until it becomes firmly ingrained in the voters’ (and audience’s) psyche.
Yet as the campaign progresses the pressure increases for Saavedra and his team; they find themselves being watched, then followed, and finally Saavedra himself is the victim of a frightening break-in that threatens the safety and security of his young son.
Despite these concerns and the dangers ahead Saavedra and his team refuse to be intimidated; instead they rally together in their fight to help their fellow Chilean’s vote freely without fear.
As usual Bernal gives an award-winning performance. With expert craft he shows the inner turmoil of Saavedra who experiences something of a political awakening as his work progresses. The result is a believable and sympathetic character of substance.
Alfredo Castro also makes a good appearance whose far right character works well in opposition to Bernal’s liberal Saavedra.
But in spite of the well-crafted characters the film takes a while to find its footing and convey its message. Despite being littered with some great moments of cinematography there are unfortunately a few weak links.
This aside, the film remains highly entertaining throughout and also gets our recommendation as an important lesson in history.
In Spanish, with subtitles
Certificate: 15
Running time: 118mins
UK Blu-ray & DVD Release: June 17, 2013
Win an indoor skydiving experience with Body Flight and Flight · 6 days ago by
To celebrate the release of Flight, starring Denzel Washington on DVD and Blu-ray (out now), Paramount Home Media Distribution is giving one lucky reader and a friend the chance to experience wind speeds of up to 180mph with UK’s indoor skydiving team, Body Flight.
The package includes one solo flight each + 2 flights together with instructors and a free digital copy of the experience.
About Flight
Washington stars as Whip Whitaker, a seasoned airline pilot, who miraculously crash- lands his plane after a mid-air catastrophe, saving nearly every soul on board.
After the crash, Whip is hailed as a hero, but as more is learned, more questions than answers arise as to who or what was really at fault and what really happened on that plane?
Flight presents the first pairing of Academy Award® winners Washington and director Robert Zemeckis (Castaway), who marks his return to live-action dramatic storytelling after years of success on the forefront of directing and producing movies utilizing motion capture technology.
Buckle up for one of the most spectacular action sequences seen in film in this powerful action drama with an all-star cast. Flight is an intense action packed thrill ride, not for the faint hearted.
Win an indoor skydiving experience with Bodyflight and Flight
To celebrate the release of Flight, starring Denzel Washington on DVD and Blu-ray (out now), Paramount Home Media Distribution is giving one lucky reader and a friend the chance to experience wind speeds of up to 180mph with UK’s indoor skydiving team, Body Flight.
The package includes one solo flight each + 2 flights together with instructors and a free digital copy of the experience. Simply answer the following question…
Q. What wind speeds will you experience at your Body Flight event?
Simply send the answer to Body Flight competition and include your name, address, telephone number and email
Hitchcock - Dame Helen Mirren DVD interview · 6 days ago by
ACADEMY-award winning actress Dame Helen Mirren has enjoyed a rich and varied career over five decades and shows no signs of slowing down. In Hitchcock she works for the first time with fellow British screen legend Sir Anthony Hopkins, who plays Sir Alfred Hitchcock. She is Alma Reville – Hitchcock’s wife and, it turns out, crucial collaborator on his classic works, including the seminal shocker Psycho.
Helen Mirren spoke to us from London, to discuss great advice, playing a real person and bringing to light the woman who was crucial to the “Hitchcock touch”…
Q. What was your first reaction when you were approached about the film?
Dame Helen Mirren: When I was very first approached about the film, it was interesting but I was not quite sure the script really worked. Anyway, it wasn’t financed. A lot of scripts fly around like that and you never know, or can be sure, if this film is ever actually going to be made. They say: “We’re working on it can we come back with another draft?” And you say: “Yes. that’s fine, of course you can.”
I went through a couple of drafts like that over, possibly, a couple of years. I can’t remember how long it was. Then Sacha [Gervasi, the director] came onboard and I met with him and he said: “I just want to hear what you feel about the script.” I thought: “Oh God – this is going to be a complete waste of time!” Because it so often is. Not because I didn’t have faith in Sacha, but because you don’t know whether the film is going to be greenlighted and you feel your brain is being picked, it’s all going to probably come to nothing. But I met with Sacha and he was absolutely delightful. He said: “Tell me where you feel the script should be worked on, developed on, what are your problems with it.” I sort of, very inarticulately, mumbled about a couple of things. Then Sacha went away and a few months later he just came back with this fabulous script that he had worked on and developed and just pulled all of the elements that were in the film already, pulled them together in a way that just made the script work and be cohesive and somehow make sense. At that point me, my agent and my husband all looked at each other and went: “Whoa! This is really good. We should say yes to this.”
Q. People don’t know how important Alma Reville was to Hitchcock – she tells him the truth, no matter how successful he becomes…
Dame Helen Mirren: Yes, telling you the truth but also being pro-active in the editing and the creation of the script and the writing of the script. It wasn’t just that she was a woman who said, “No, that doesn’t work Alfred.” She was someone who was absolutely proactive in the creation of the work, I think. Not to take the ultimate ownership away from Hitchcock, but Hitchcock himself said, and many other people said, “There are four hands on making a Hitchcock movie and two of them were Alma’s.”
Q. She’s a creative force in her own right…
Dame Helen Mirren: Absolutely. It’s very interesting, I read the book written by her daughter [Patricia Hitchcock O’Connell, whose book – co-written with Laurent Bouzereau – is called Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind The Man] and that was my number one source material for the character. The daughter wrote the book about her mother, not about her father. Although she adored her father – it was a very close, little family, really very close and really suburban in a funny sort of way.
She chose to write a book about her mother, because she did want to give her mother the credit that she felt she deserved. Alma herself was very content. I think she saw it as a partnership, as a true partnership, and she knew her role in that partnership. In knowing and being confident in the truth of that, she didn’t particularly feel the need to publicise it. She knew part of the attraction of the brand, if you like, of Hitchcock’s films, was this Hitchcock character himself. That only accrued to the value of the movies anyway, if you know what I mean. She was a part of the brand, a part of the firm.
Q. Is there a moment playing a real person, where you feel: “That’s it, I’ve got it…”?
Dame Helen Mirren: In some roles yes. I’m so physically not like Alma. She was tiny. She was a little bird. She was really, really small. I could never be physically like her. I’m just too big. I’m not a particularly big woman but I’m big in comparison to Alma. I kind of replicated her hair to an extent, but I couldn’t do an impersonation of her. And also there is very little film of her. There are photographs but very little film of her. So I didn’t really think about that too much, quite honestly. I felt, just to give her the credit that was due to her, the authority that she had obviously, the personality… I couldn’t remotely impersonate her.
Q. It was a very relaxed, fun set. Did you do much ad-libbing with Anthony Hopkins?
Dame Helen Mirren: We had a wonderful tight, beautiful script. I mean really beautiful. It didn’t need any improvisation, it was a beautiful thing. Obviously we were free to improvise to some extent, but we did very little of that, because the actual material was so good.
Q. And working with Anthony Hopkins was a good experience?
Dame Helen Mirren: Oh, yes. Somewhat intimidating and I feel it’s been a long time coming because, obviously we’ve been actors over a similar period of time and yet never managed to work together and I’ve always felt that he and I would be a good fit in a play or in a film and so finally I had the opportunity to work with him. Yes, a truly great actor.
Q. So, you still get intimidated and nervous?
Dame Helen Mirren: I’m always a bit intimidated working with big stars. But they’re ordinary human beings and you get used to it if you’re working with someone and finally you relax. The first few days I’m always terribly intimidated. But I don’t know about nervous as such. Some projects, yes, you’re nervous about, because maybe you think it’s going to be very challenging or maybe you’re not quite sure it’s going to work or not.
Q. It was Sacha’s first narrative feature, but he seemed very confident on set…
Dame Helen Mirren: Yes, wonderfully so. Obviously Sacha has been around, he directed the documentary [Anvil! The Story Of Anvil] and has been involved as a writer on some fairly big, Hollywood-type projects. But not overly confident. Not a “I know everything” kind of attitude – far from it: very sort of, “I know that I’m learning.” That is so much healthier than overly compensating for your inexperience by pretending to be incredibly overly experienced. So a great natural acceptance of where he’s at as a film director. There’s an ease about him. He was enjoying it, that’s what made it so fun: he was enjoying it. He wasn’t angst-ridden, he wasn’t tortured by the process, he was just having a ball. That’s not an easy attitude to have. Filmmaking is just so, so difficult. I’m amazed that any movie gets made at all. All the pressures you have of time and money and weather and location and actors and everything the directors have to deal with. So I absolutely took my hat off to him.
Q. Do you remember the first time you saw Psycho?
Dame Helen Mirren: No, but I remember my dad coming home and telling me about it and describing it to me and saying: “I’ve just seen the most frightening film I’ve ever seen.” And describing the scene when the character goes down the stairs and the light is swinging. I remember him describing that scene to me and it was like I was seeing it. I didn’t see it myself until many years later. I do remember my dad’s description of it.
Q. It’s still quite shocking…
Dame Helen Mirren: Well Hitchcock was shocking. He was out-there. His attitude to things is still sort of shocking – maybe it’s because it’s so weird and slightly eccentric and very British. And very black. I agree there is still something shocking and really disturbing about Hitch’s work and the slightly heightened quality of everything, the slight fake-ness of everything. He’s not a neo-realist, is he? It’s always slightly heightened, it heightens that feeling of disturbance about it.
Q. Do you have any particular favourite Hitchcock films?
Dame Helen Mirren: I think Notorious is great and Vertigo. I love Vertigo.
Q. You’ve had a long and successful career – what’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Dame Helen Mirren: Bob Balaban, who is an actor and a producer, gave me an incredible piece of advice about film acting. I was doing a film many years ago with him called 2010, in America [released in 1984]. I was sitting there watching all these American actors, who just seemed to be all so brilliant to me and just so natural I couldn’t see how they were doing it. But Bob said, “With film acting you have to let it go. It’s like shooting with a bow and arrow: from the moment the arrow has left your bow you can’t bring it back, it’s going to land wherever it lands. You cannot bring it back. You can aim it as well as you can but the minute it’s gone, it’s gone. So just do what you do on the take in the moment and then let it go. Never go home at night and think ‘Why didn’t I do that? I should have done it like this’.” – as one tends to do sometimes, you re-rehearse the scene and you go home and kick yourself for having not done this that and the other.
That was brilliant, brilliant advice and ever since I’ve tried to follow through with that. I do it. I aim it. The take is letting the arrow go, if you like. The audience, you can’t really control what the audience think – especially after the music and the editing and the rest of it. It’s transformed into something else. You can think, “I hope they get the fact that I’m angry but secretly pleased” or something, but if they don’t and they get something else there’s nothing I can do about that. I just have to let it go.
Read our interview with Anthony Hopkins
Hitchcock is released on Blu-ray and DVD on Monday, June 17, 2013
Hitchcock - Anthony Hopkins DVD interview · 6 days ago by
IN Hitchcock Sir Anthony Hopkins takes on Sir Alfred Hitchcock. With a blend of expertly applied prosthetics – from the Oscar-winning make-up artist Howard Berger – and his own well-honed acting skills, Hopkins transforms into the iconic director of such classics as North By Northwest and Psycho.
It’s the shocks and struggles of making Psycho that form the basis for this film, directed by fellow Brit Sacha Gervasi and co-starring Dame Helen Mirren as Hitchcock’s wife, Alma Reville. He opens up about insecurity, the Master of Suspense and how he rarely watches his work…
Q. What was your first reaction when you were asked to play Hitchcock?
Anthony Hopkins: That was nine years ago. Two producers came up to me, Tom Thayer and Alan Barnette, and they got in touch with my agent and I read a version of the script and I said, “Yeah, okay.” There was a director who seemed to be interested and I met that director and it all drifted away. Then it kept coming back. Early last year, I think it was, I met this director called Sacha Gervasi and he seemed to have a lot of enthusiasm about it and then Tom Pollock [former head of Universal Studios] said, “Would you be interested?” and I said: “Yeah, okay.” Sacha Gervasi seemed to have a lot of passion and enthusiasm for it and so I said: “Count me in.” It’s been a long time coming.
Q. Sacha is an interesting bloke…
Anthony Hopkins: Extraordinary, isn’t he? Quite an extraordinary man. Never done a feature. Prior to this movie he’d done Anvil! [the award-winning documentary about the Canadian heavy metal band]. I’m stunned by the way he did this – he’s obviously a very bright, clever young guy.
Q. He seems so assured…
Anthony Hopkins: He has an endless passion and enthusiasm and a sense of sheer enjoyment, I think, and that’s why I really enjoyed working with him. I had one of the best times in a long time. And it’s a great cast: Dame Helen Mirren; Danny Huston is an incredible actor; James D’Arcy, who plays Anthony Perkins. And another actor, Michael Wincott, who plays Ed Gein, the dark nemesis, the inspiration for Psycho. A wonderful actor, Michael Wincott, he’s terrific in it. I really enjoyed it.
Q. How did you find working with Helen?
Anthony Hopkins: She was wonderful to work with. I’m doing another movie with her right now called Red 2. I saw her this afternoon. She’s wonderful to work with. I’d met her a couple of times, as actors do, I said “Hello” and that was it. But we met last year, this year – My God, it’s all run into one long continuum – and that was it. Really enjoyed it: really, really enjoyed. She was just terrific as Alma Hitchcock. Really terrific.
Q. Sacha said he saw a parallel between this and Anvil! as both films are about a couple who drive each other mad but can’t live without each other…
Anthony Hopkins: I never thought of that. That was an incredible movie, wasn’t it? I haven’t seen Hitchcock, I’ve only seen bits and pieces of it in looping and all that. I was afraid to look at it. But I hear it’s quite good.
Q. Do you watch your work?
Anthony Hopkins: They’ve got these playback monitors onset and I wouldn’t look at them because I don’t want to see, because I don’t want to hear, I didn’t want to examine too closely. I just want the courage to jump in and do it. I haven’t seen it but I hear it’s good.
Q. Does the character being a real, famous person make it more intimidating to play?
Anthony Hopkins: It’s scary. It’s a balance. I’m a good mimic, but… Stanislavski [the legendary Russian theatre director/actor/teacher] said you can’t become a character. You have to indicate and give an impression of it, I guess, and it’s all a balance. It was a little unnerving. But there’s nothing you can do about it to overcome it. You just use those insecurities and those drives.
Q. What do you make of Hitchcock?
Anthony Hopkins: I’ve only really become totally appreciative of him now, although as a kid I saw Rear Window and then North by Northwest and Vertigo, which I thought was a phenomenal film. And I saw Psycho in 1960. I was in Manchester. I’ve started to watch them all over again. In fact I watched two yesterday: Vertigo, just for the sheer enjoyment of it, and Rear Window. And I thought what an extraordinary man he was. There’s a word bandied around in Hollywood and in the acting profession about artists, but I think he was a true artist in the broadest sense: as a writer and a philosopher. The wittiness of Rear Window and the romance of Vertigo and the terror and darkness of Psycho. He was quite an extraordinary man. A man who was deeply insecure and frightened.
Q. We all get scared, it seems…
Anthony Hopkins: I was talking about insecurities with this producer, who seems very assured, but we were talking about insecurities and, “If we didn’t have them, where would we be?” I mentioned to him a certain very famous director who seems to have such a great life. I was talking to this friend of this director many years ago and I said, “He seems to be so happy.” And he said, “Have you looked at his fingernails? He’s terrified. He’s anxious all the time!” And I said, “Really? That makes me feel so much better.” We live in our own self-centred world thinking we’re the only ones who are nervous. Everyone is scared I guess. Everyone is. If we were so sure of ourselves we’d be boring.
Q. Hitchcock famously said, “Actors are cattle…”
Anthony Hopkins: I saw that interview. He said: “I didn’t say actors were cattle. I said they should be treated like cattle.” He had a great sense of humour. He said to one actress, Madeleine Carroll, they were lighting and she said: “This is my best side.” And he said: “My dear, you’re sitting on your best side.” He would say to actors who’d ask what they should do: “I don’t know: you’re the actor, you sort it out.” Apparently he left actors alone. He really liked Perkins. He really respected Anthony Perkins. Janet Leigh, he was enchanted by her, very much left them alone. Perkins came up with this idea to be always eating candy as Norman Bates and Hitchcock said: “That’s fine. Do it.” He trusted actors to do what they could do. Didn’t want them to overdo it. He didn’t like method actors at all, couldn’t stand them. He said to two actors, “I just point the camera. You just walk from left to right – that’s all you need to do.” And he was right, I think. He didn’t mess about.
Q. It seems that you’d enjoy that approach…
Anthony Hopkins: “Where do you want me to stand? Where do you want me to go?” I worked with Ken Branagh two years ago on Thor. He was very good like that. “Where do you want me to stand?” “There. Now walk there.” “Alright.” I don’t mind that. Because Ken knows his stuff. He’s been a director and an actor and a wonderful actor and a wonderful director. Very simple. We don’t have to discuss it and talk about the motivation and all that stuff. Just do it.
Q. On set, you seemed to have a good time working with Scarlett…
Anthony Hopkins: Yeah. We were having a bit of fun with it. It’s not brain surgery.
Q. She’s well-cast in this…
Anthony Hopkins: Yeah. Very peculiar because she would suddenly be Scarlett Johansson with her hair on and all that and then they’d say “Action!” and her face would just change and she’d become Janet Leigh. Maybe it was a smile or something. Quite remarkable. It was a wonderful cast, with Toni Collette and Danny Huston and everyone. I thought it was quite something. I really enjoyed working with them. It was a short period. It wasn’t a long, long shoot. It wasn’t a big budget movie, but I really enjoyed it.
Q. And you filmed it in what is now your home city, Los Angeles…
Anthony Hopkins: Everything seems to be going to other countries to make films now. I did say, when they were thinking of going to Canada or somewhere, “No Los Angeles – no me.” They said, “Do you mean that?” I said, “Yeah. Here we are in the perfect place: where the movie takes place. If you want to go to New Orleans, get another actor.”
Q. Was there a moment when playing Hitchcock that you thought, “I’ve got him”?
Anthony Hopkins: That really comes and goes. It’s like when you’re working in the theatre, rehearsing on a play and you can’t get it. And then suddenly you pick something up: a prop or something or some odd thing. Then something gets you and, “That’s it. That’s it.” With Hitchcock I’d just sort of hope for the best. Some mornings would feel good and some mornings wouldn’t feel so good. Just strive to make it work. Or not strive, just let go. Stanislavski said the same thing: “Some days you make it, some days you don’t.” But you can’t stop the show and say: “I’m sorry I don’t feel it today.” You just get on with it. Pure technique.
Q. How useful or distracting are the prosthetics?
Anthony Hopkins: I thought Howard Berger did a phenomenal job. He wanted to get the right balance, so we kept it as minimal as possible, down from the chin. Otherwise you disappear with it, become a waxwork museum. You have to make the choices and we did a number of tests, to get right the skin tone, the eyes and this, that and the other. All I did was shave my head and dye the remainder of my hair round the side, which was pretty ugly. I couldn’t go to the monitors and watch it. I just do the best I can and not worry about it. Reports came back that they were happy with it – so good!
Read our interview with Helen Mirren
Hitchcock is released on Blu-ray and DVD on Monday, June 17, 2013
Win Wrestlemania 29 on Blu-ray · 10 days ago by
It only happens once a year, and in 2013, The Showcase of the Immortals comes to the greater New York City area for WrestleMania XXIX! From MetLife Stadium, the biggest stars in WWE and several returning legends compete on sports entertainment’s grandest stage.
Last year, fans witnessed The Rock defeat John Cena in one of the most epic matches of all time. Will the People’s Champ bring it to WrestleMania for the second year in a row?
Plus, John Cena, CM Punk, Big Show, Triple H, Sheamus, and several major Superstars strive to cement their legacies and create moments that will own a permanent place in WWE lore.
Special Features include several key moments from Raw and SmackDown as well as the 2013 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.
At the Show of Shows, John Cena has one chance to redeem himself for the loss that has been tormenting him for a year when he challenges the man who dealt him that agonizing defeat, The Rock. And this time, the WWE Championship is on the line.
A brash, remorseless CM Punk seeks the ultimate claim to immortality by attempting to do what no one has done before him – defeat the Undertaker at WrestleMania, ending his double decade-long Streak. Brock Lesnar and Triple H collide in a No Holds Barred showdown where The Game’s illustrious career is on the line. This is the place where legends are made. This is WrestleMania.
Win Wrestlemania 29 on Blu-ray
To celebrate the arrival of the biggest event in the WWE calendar, Wrestlemania 29 (FremantleMedia), arriving on Blu-ray and DVD on June 10, 2013, we have a copy on Blu-ray to give away to one lucky winner. Simply answer the following question…
Q. Who is the People’s Champ?
Simply send the answer to Wrestlemania 29 competition and include your name, address, telephone number and email
Zero Dark Thirty - DVD Review · 11 days ago by
KATHRYN Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty may be one of the most controversial movies of the year but it’s also one of the best and most unmissable.
The story of how America hunted down and killed Osama bin Laden is a tour-de-force piece of filmmaking that refuses to pull its punches in depicting the tireless efforts and often brutal tactics of those involved.
Opening with blacked out sound recordings of the final messages of those trapped inside the Twin Towers on 9/11, the film then chronicles the key moments in the ensuing hunt for bin Laden, focusing in particular on the efforts of CIA analyst Maya (Jessica Chastain).
It does show how torture was used to inform the early years of the hunt and is unflinching in its depiction of it. But it doesn’t glorify or condone its use and subsequent criticisms of it by certain US senators (and now actors) seems reactionary and knee-jerk.
The film does state that this is a fictionalised account but one that has been informed by the extensive research of former journalist turned screenwriter Mark Boal and one that has been put together with the benefit of the CIA’s co-operation (now the subject of a US investigation).
It heightens the authenticity of the piece, elevating it to almost documentary-style levels at times. But Bigelow also keeps things filmic so that it demands to be seen on the big screen.
As a result there are several key moments that are incredibly tense, as well as those quieter, more intimate asides where the cost – both emotional and ethical – is etched across each character’s face.
Performance-wise, Chastain is great (enhancing her fast growing reputation), imbuing her Maya with early uncertainty but gritty determination and truly growing into her role as bin Laden’s chief pursuer… a fiercely resolute woman amongst men who had to fight her corner at almost every turn and whose singular vision became obsessive.
But there’s excellent support, too, from a quality ensemble that includes Jason Clarke (superb as both a chilling interrogator and charismatic colleague), Mark Strong, Jennifer Ehle, James Gandolfini and Kyle Chandler as officials and colleagues.
Boal’s dialogue is astute and to the point but never dumbed down (so stay alert) or gung-ho or jingoistic. And Bigelow’s depiction of the actual assault on bin Laden’s complex in Pakistan is done with cold, ruthless efficiency. It is a virtuoso sequence that chills by virtue of its calculated cold-bloodedness (an act which, in itself, flies in the face of the democratic freedoms the US extols but which is very much a by-product of the post 9/11 world and the evolution of the war against terror).
Bigelow, to her immense credit, conveys all of this without having to hammer her point home.
This is a film that is refreshingly complex and utterly compelling… intelligent filmmaking at its very best and essential for anyone who has their finger on the pulse of current world events.
Certificate: 15
Running time: 157mins
UK Blu-ray & DVD Release: June 10, 2013
Lincoln - DVD Review · 11 days ago by
STEVEN Spielberg’s Lincoln offers a worthy, often interesting but sometimes arduous account of the battle to abolish slavery.
It features another astonishing central performance from Daniel Day-Lewis (which looks all but guaranteed Oscar success), plenty of showy support from the likes of Tommy Lee Jones (excellent), Sally Field (suitably put upon) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (great, as always), and succeeds in underlining just how difficult a period in history it was.
But Spielberg’s direction sometimes feels laboured and is unnecessarily reverential and lacks the ability to consistently grip as it should.
If Lincoln himself had a reputation for taking things slowly, then Spielberg seems to be taking his cues from him. Hence, the film ambles in places when it should really be cutting to the chase.
The story itself concentrates on the crucial period when newly re-elected President Lincoln took it upon himself to force through a 13th Amendment to the Constitution that would abolish slavery completely.
In order to do so, he not only required every one of his fellow Republicans to vote in favour of it but also 20 Democrats.
But with rumours of a Southern peace delegation bound for Washington intended on bringing to an end four years of bloody Civil War, Lincoln had to balance a country’s desire for peace at any cost with his own need to push through the Bill at the only time he could rely on a majority support in its favour.
An end to the war without the Bill in place could end any possibility of bringing about change as vested interests looked to ensure that black Americans could never have a chance to be seen as equal to White Americans.
Spielberg, for his part, doesn’t shy away from exploring some of the political brinkmanship required in securing Lincoln his votes (including the pay-offs and tactical manoeuvring), while also examining the conflict this brought to Lincoln himself.
He also delves into the president’s family life, offering insights into the increasingly strained relationships he had with his wife, a woman still struggling to cope with the death of one of their sons and her own injuries sustained in an accident, and with his eldest son (Gordon-Levitt), who wants to enlist against the wishes of both parents.
Some of this is compelling and affords a strong ensemble cast plenty of opportunity to shine.
But it also deprives the film of any real tautness while also preventing it from delving into some of the morals and ethics at play more sharply. Only brief lip service is paid to how even the North treated its own black soldiers with lower wages and poorer conditions, for instance.
Spielberg, though, is too enamoured of his main character, often indulging his propensity to convey key thoughts with stories of past experiences and therefore bogging the film down in self-indulgent rhetoric.
That said, Lincoln remains an important and even fascinating piece of work that demands to be seen by anyone with a keen interest in pivotal moments in history.
It also offers an acting masterclass from Day-Lewis, who all but underlines his position as one of the greatest actors of all-time.
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 150mins
UK Blu-ray & DVD Release: June 10, 2013