Just what makes a great actor? Some will say it’s about possessing a combination of beauty and talent, some will point to acting skills and the ability to embody different characters, while others yet will mention that elusive word, “charisma” which can transform a performance into a work of art.
Meet Ali Suliman.
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These days, there is much talk about Abel Ferrara and his collaboration with Saint Laurent. The American filmmaker’s latest is produced by the Maison and will world premiere Out of Competition at the 77th Venice Film Festival. There Ferrara will also receive the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker 2020 prize, an award “dedicated to a personality who has made a particularly original contribution to innovation in contemporary cinema.”
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Luca Marinelli, photo courtesy of the Venice International Film Festival, La Biennale del cinema
From the first shot of Luca Marinelli in the Venice Film Festival competition title 'Martin Eden' it's obvious that the camera loves him. In person, Marinelli is humble and kind, with the same magnetically beautiful blue eyes that make watching his latest performance so pleasing. He is also a man who doesn't miss an opportunity to use his platform, in this case winning the best actor prize in Venice, to highlight the issues of our great big world.
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Around the world at the moment, there are around 70 countries where it is still illegal to be gay, transgender or transexual. That’s the haunting statement that kicks off Tom Shepard’s enlightening documentary ‘Unsettled’ which features the stories of four individuals from three such countries in Africa and the Middle East.
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Earlier this month, I was asked to write a short piece on Shirien Damra, the Palestinian American artist whose haunting, beautiful images of George Floyd you’ve undoubtably seen shared on social media. I wrote a short enough intro for Cosmopolitan Middle East, which turned into an even shorter piece, after edits. I’d like to share the original piece, as well as Damra’s generous answers to my questions with you.
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Nanni Moretti, left, in a scene from ‘We Have a Pope’
A couple of days ago I revisited my profile of Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti from 2012. Today I want to share the interview that took flying across the oceans and organizing with patience and care to secure.
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Back in 2012, I met Nanni Moretti in his office, and the meeting changed my life. Forever. Moretti has that power, to change the course of things with his cinema. I’d watched ‘We Have a Pope’ in Abu Dhabi and not long after, I decided I needed to meet him face to face. In person, he was what he is in the movies. Nothing more, nothing less. Cranky, at times mean, and then, once I’d slammed my fist onto his desk because he wasn’t paying attention to my questions, he became a talkative, kind and attentive interview.
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Do you believe in magic? I do, because I have experienced it inside the home of master illustrator Eduard Erlikh.
On a particularly chilly NYC afternoon, I step into his building after the chaos of downtown, and then out of his private elevator. I'm instantaneously transported to another world: a minimalistic, fairy-tale land where things harmoniously sit where they belong, objects in different shades of pigment blend in creative and complimentary combinations and space does not appear to be at the typical premium it is in the Big Apple.
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Abel founder Frances Shoemack
At the moment, most of us find ourselves observing “Social Distancing”. But even at a yard from each other, don’t we wish to be remembered for how delicious we smelled, not how poorly?
So I’m revisiting this interview from 2017 with Frances Shoemack of Abel, a beautiful brand with a selection of delicious scents, you can find online here.
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Photo by Donald Sorrie
It takes a lot to make New Yorkers come out on a chilly, rainy February school night. Yet the Secret Room, a cool, copper piped themed club in a basement on Eighth Avenue, just steps away from Times Square, was jam packed this past Monday night. Everyone was buzzing with excitement as we waited to watch and listen to the talents that would assemble on stage to perform “Love and Other Feelings at the Hidden Cabaret”.
I was there to watch Stephen Miller’s return to the stage, after 20 years spent on the producing side and in academia. Miller is a wondrous man with a taste of sequin jackets that highlight his tall frame. His boyish smile and confident stance complete the magic of this performer who was clearly born to be on a stage. The Hidden Cabaret proved that.
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Sitting down with Stanley Tucci naturally turned into a highlight of my 2017 Berlinale festival experience but I have to say his beautifully shot and sublimely acted film ‘Final Portrait’ keeps finding new nooks and crannies inside my thoughts and now, even a permanent place in my heart.
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Filmmaker Rithy Panh in Qatar, photo courtesy of the Doha Film Institute
Meeting Cambodian documentary filmmaker Rithy Panh in Doha, during their annual Qumra event, was a real treat for someone who believes in the power of cinema with a conscience. Apart from the Doha Film Institute's wonderful meeting of talents held within the Souq Waqif and inside the Museum of Islamic Art each March and now in its fifth edition, Panh's presence felt historic. He was a Qumra Master in 2017, came back to teach a short documentary lab at the Institute in the summer of 2018, and now is back as a Mentor -- patiently watching works in progress and meeting with filmmakers to share his wisdom.
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Back in 2012, I met Egyptian superstar Khaled El Nabawy at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. He was there with an Arab-American co-production and we sat down with his director and co-star during a sun filled afternoon, in an empty coffee shop inside the Emirates Palace hotel. It was an otherworldly moment that heralded the start of a beautiful friendship.
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Sir Patrick Stewart at the Dubai International Film Festival, photo by Getty Images courtesy of DIFF
It is obvious upon first meeting him that Sir Patrick Stewart is a man of contradictions. The young boy born in Mirfield who grew up in a poor household in Jarrow fraught with domestic violence is now an elegant gentleman at once stoic and kind. His proper Queen’s English is what one notices at once, making all attempts by this journalist to sound intelligent in his presence invalid. And yet Stewart admits that in his youth “you wouldn’t have understood me if you heard me talk, I spoke with not just an accent — we had a dialect, so we used other words as well.” He proceeds to make an example which of course, sounds like he’s speaking a foreign tongue, not even English anymore.
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He is the officially retired Professor X from the Wolverine series, Captain Picard in ‘Star Trek’ and now the CBS spin-off ‘Star Trek: Picard’. He has been a Shakespearean actor as well as Poop Daddy in ‘The Emoji Movie’ — I guess you could call Sir Patrick Stewart versatile.
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In 2016 I caught up with Academy Award winning composer Gabriel Yared. This year, at the Rome Film Festival, I was awed by his background music for ‘Judy’ — the film which might garner Renee Zellweger an Oscar. His notes take us, the audience, through the later part of Judy Garland’s life and into her inner struggles. They are subtly unobtrusive, just as a background score should be. And that’s the genius of Yared’s work. Please read on for the original interview, published in the HuffPost.
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This month, the Criterion Channel is programming ‘Songs My Brothers Taught Me’, the debut feature by wondrous filmmaker Chloé Zhao. I got to interview her in Cannes for her second feature ‘The Rider’ and it was published originally on the HuffPost. Here it is now, a bit shortened and re-edited. And don’t forget to watch ‘Songs My Brothers Taught Me’ on January 15th.
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I find that there is a leitmotif running through three-time Oscar nominated filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb’s work. It’s the idea that peace is fragile, no matter how idyllic the setting of your life, there could always be something threatening to invade it, to destroy the status quo.
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Premiering just the the new year and decade begin next week, BBC’s ‘Dracula’ starring Claes Bang promises to be quite the thrill. It’s from the makers of the cool ‘Sherlock’ which starred Benedict Cumberbatch and turned the English sleuth into a sex symbol for many of us.
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A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I met and got to know TV and movie star Alexander Siddig. Recently, I got to watch him in what is his most terrifying interpretation as Ahmed Suidani in Netflix’ ‘The Spy’. As much as I loved him as the romantic lead and even the wondrous father who loves at all costs — see the interview below — I must admit that Suidani suits Siddig to a “T”. Please watch the series if you haven’t already.
Following is an interview from those many moons ago when Siddig, Sid to his friends, played Miral’s father, in Julian Schnabel’s beautiful film — one I’ll always defend to the victory. One day, maybe, possibly, I’ll tell the whole story of this fascinating human being. But maybe not, as some things are better left unsaid. And unwritten.
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