Photo by © Stephane Cardinale, courtesy of the Marrakech International Film Festival

Can't get better than this! Robert Redford at the Marrakech International Film Festival

E. Nina Rothe October 24, 2019

There is one actor who has been able to give me goosebumps throughout my life and his career — it’s Robert Redford. And the love I have for his work doesn’t stop at him as screen star either. As a not-quite-yet teenager in Florence, Italy I went to watch ‘Ordinary People’ 14 times at the movies. I remember because my parents thought it had been enough on number 13 but I didn’t want that number looming over my viewing and threw a tantrum until they finally drove me to watch it the 14th time. I dragged a few of my friends, and each drew the line at the second viewing. But to me, that film represents part of the cinematic soundtrack of my youth.

Dissecting the movies: Ethan Coen at the Rome Film Festival

E. Nina Rothe October 20, 2019

It was all hush hush. Rome Film Festival artistic director Antonio Monda came to greet us at the press screening of the opening film, Edward Norton’s ‘Motherless Brooklyn’ where he told us Ethan Coen didn’t want to give a press conference prior to his encounter with the public. Why? Because the subject and theme of his conversation was a secret worthy of, it seemed, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI.

So, I waited. I wondered and imagined that Coen, one half of the wondrous brother duo that makes those incredible films full of humor and human tragedy — I’m talking about Ethan and Joel Coen of course — would make the wait worth while and introduce us, the audience, to something utterly wild. And when it came time for his public talk, he did.

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

E. Nina Rothe October 26, 2018

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

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

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

E. Nina Rothe October 1, 2018

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

But more on that a bit later…

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

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

E. Nina Rothe September 26, 2018

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

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

Photo of Bruno Dumont by Locarno Festival/Samuel Golay

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

E. Nina Rothe August 8, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

E. Nina Rothe August 7, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

E. Nina Rothe August 7, 2018

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

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

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

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

E. Nina Rothe July 13, 2018

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

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

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

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

E. Nina Rothe July 4, 2018

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

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

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

Five Perfect Lessons I Learned from Lee Daniels in Dubai

E. Nina Rothe June 15, 2018

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

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

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

E. Nina Rothe May 20, 2018

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

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

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

E. Nina Rothe May 9, 2018

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

Jeffrey Wright with Luke Hemsworth on the Dubai International Film Festival red carpet in 2016Photo courtesy of DIFF — Jeffrey Wright with Luke Hemsworth on the Dubai International Film Festival red carpet in 2016
Photo courtesy of DIFF

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

E. Nina Rothe April 21, 2018

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

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

Nadine Labaki photographed by Ammar Abd Rabbo

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

E. Nina Rothe April 15, 2018

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

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

Photo courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia

“Being a woman I see as a great advantage”: Lucrecia Martel on ‘Zama’, Quentin Tarantino and Avoiding Gender Violence in Films

E. Nina Rothe April 7, 2018

While I interview Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel in Venice I can’t help but feel incredibly vulnerable. For one, I started writing about cinema and attending film festivals after her previous film ‘The Headless Woman’ was presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. And I never had a chance to watch either ‘The Holy Girl’ or ‘La Ciénaga’ before that. So I’m a Martel virgin going into her latest ‘Zama’.

But mostly, I feel unguarded, bare in the presence of this quietly powerful woman. She is a filmmaker, an artist, an undeniable trendsetter — Martel smokes a cigar during our interview and of course, there are those trademark cool glasses she wears — but she is first and foremost a formidable woman. I gush constantly and I’ll admit hearing myself on tape to transcribe our interview afterwards is painful.

A still from ‘Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!’

“I think movies can be revolutionary”: Morgan Spurlock Talks ‘Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!’

E. Nina Rothe March 3, 2018

Morgan Spurlock’s latest film ‘Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!’ is quite simply a perfectly truthful, wonderfully watchable, life-changing and good habit forming example of why movies will always show us the way forward.

Following is the interview I conducted with Spurlock in Dubai, where he talked about the mafia of “Big Chicken”, how poultry farmers get the short end of the nugget in the U.S. and how to vote for better food practices using the power of our wallets.

A still from 'Ryuichi Sakamoto CODA' by Stephen Nomura Schible

The Reluctant Radical: An Interview with Ryuichi Sakamoto

E. Nina Rothe February 13, 2018

At this year's Berlinale, the iconically sophisticated Ryuichi Sakamoto serves double duty.

He is part of the official 2018 Competition Jury, and is the subject of Stephen Nomura Schible’s 'RYUICHI SAKAMOTO: async AT THE PARK AVENUE ARMORY', the companion piece, the B side if you will, to 'RYUICHI SAKAMOTO: CODA', a film which screened at the Venice Film Festival in 2017.

When I met Sakamoto in person, inside the Casinò in Venice, I was awe struck. His shiny, perfectly straight silver hair, those tortoise shell eyeglasses and the stylish black suit all made for an image that is so naturally fashionable, hard to forget. Yet Sakamoto is so much more profound than just how he looks, his meticulously styled, outward persona.

COURTESY OF THE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL ASAC

James Toback Gets Me, He Truly Gets Me? In ‘The Private Life of a Modern Woman’

E. Nina Rothe February 8, 2018

For me, James Toback’s ‘The Private Life of a Modern Woman’ — which he shot in just nine days and is only 70 minutes long — is the perfect film. Because it not only combines the talent of actress Sienna Miller with the filmmaker’s wonderful visual sense, but it also offers a view into what it’s like to be a woman in today’s America, and even more specifically in NYC. Those smug stares and taunting looks men bestow upon us on a daily basis to undo us from within, and the subtle violence we face in everyday life, coming at us from all directions, no male reviewer has caught it in their writing. But we women, we know. We feel it and now Toback filmed it, for all to see. If cinema is a way to decode the world around us, perhaps this is a step towards the genuine emancipation of the modern woman — because trust me, we still got a long long way to go to be truly free, to be exactly who we want to be. Even in our good ol’ U.S. of A.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL/ASAC

‘Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond’ in Venice: Will the real Jim Carrey please stand up

E. Nina Rothe February 7, 2018

On a recent sunny afternoon in Venice, I sat in the company of Jim Carrey in a corner of a shaded garden and found before me a human being who is both wise and charming, as well as a handsome fifty-something man who captured my imagination and filled my thoughts for days thereafter. Part spiritual guru, part Saint Francis — yes, there was a bee buzzing around him the entire time, the animal clearly enamored with his scent and the actor unaffected by the imminent danger — Carrey appeared like the romantic hero with a sense of humor I had come across so many years ago. In ‘Once Bitten’ what is probably one of his first and most forgettable films, when I was in my teens and he, well, super young too.

But a few days after our tranquil interview, when we talked to Carrey about his latest project ‘Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond’, a Vice production premiering at the Venice Film Festival, the actor pulled a red carpet prank at NY Fashion Week and all was hilariously-Jim-Carrey-right-with-the-world once more. I imagined Carrey giggling to himself after our talk, thinking “I got that journalist, I really got her good, now she thinks I’m a smooth, great looking mystic and will write the most beautiful piece about me.”

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