Ever since he borrowed the other worldy footage of underwater Antarctica to make The Wild Blue Yonder (2005), Werner Herzog has wanted to make a film there himself. The National Science Foundation invited him to come. As, Herzog narrates in the introduction to Encounters at the End of the World, “I told them I would not make a movie about cute, fluffy penguins.”

Herzog wants exploration, not a story. Among the questions he wants to explore is why do chimpanzees–clearly superior primates–not domesticate lesser animals? “A chimpanzee could climb on the back of a goat and ride into the sunset. But it doesn’t. Why?” Herzog asks in his dry, german accented monotone. Of course, he’s not studying chimpanzees in Antarctica, but he sets the tongue-in-cheek tone for the film. He’s a funny narrator, not nearly so severe as in Grizzly Man. But it is Werner Herzog. So, although he’s funny, he’s constantly reminding us we’re all doomed.

The beauty of Antarctica is so monumental, its study is so fascinating. Herzog’s ambivalence is obvious toward the explorers breaking new ground in studying the origins of life while simultaneously making every spot they touch turn ugly. (McMurdo–a base of 1,000 inhabitants–looks worse than a makeshift coal mining town.) His ambivalence constantly upends the easy agenda. Herzog isn’t asking people to reduce their carbon footprint. He went to Antarctica to see a new world, show it to us in all its splendor and, perhaps, risk death a little. Antarctica is a stark slab of ice so vast and so loaded with dangers it serves as an exclamation point at the bottom of the globe warning us our species is just another one on an ancient planet. The planet can swallow us up and, someday for some reason, it will.

Herzog in Encounters at the End of the World has fun in Alaska, but he’s kind of like the funny guy at a funeral. Everyone’s laughing, but nobody is forgetting the situation we’re in. Herzog makes uncomfortable ideas, like we’re not invincible or as dominant as we like to believe, a little easier to swallow. Maybe with a little more humility we will develop more reverence for a place containing the last remnants of mystery on our planet.

It took a lot of persistence (more on that in this week’s FilmCouch), but I managed to get an interview with Sean Penn. Penn is here with Into the Wild, which he directed. Based on a book of the same name, the film follows the real life story of a young man’s journey into the heart of the Alaskan wilderness. We chatted about what it took to get the film made (Penn spent 10 years securing the rights), and what a relief it is to be behind the camera rather than playing extremely tortured individuals.

 

 Sean Penn interview [2:50m]: Play Now | Download

Sean Penn Interview

Into the Wild

I got five minutes to talk to Werner Herzog (it felt like an hour at the time). He’s here with his new documentary on Antarctica, Encounters at the End of the World. But when you get five minutes with a living legend, you don’t want to spend it on a movie synopsis you can read online. So, we talk about life, risk and how his mom quit smoking.

Note: I reference Dieter Dengler of Herzog’s Rescue Dawn and Little Dieter Needs to Fly as well as a panel discussion he was on regarding Sean Penn’s Into the Wild.

Werner Herzog interview

John Krakauer, Sean Penn, Werner Herzog and moderator on a TFF 2007 panel discussion

Werner Herzog, Encounters at the End of the World

When a short student film described by the director as “an exercise for school” wins the Palme d’Or at Cannes, you can be sure this is someone to watch. Elisa Miller’s Ver Llover (translated Watching it Rain) was featured with a host of other shorts by Mexican directors in this year’s Great Expectations program. The lineup was dominated by hard-hitting dramas with more than their share of gritty sex and death (taking a cue from Iñárritu?). In contrast, Miller’s ode to young love reads like a deceptively simple haiku.

She told me how the true drama is often in the little things, and we talked about the exciting new crop of young Mexican directors, supported by the more established “Tres Amigos” (Iñárritu, Cuarón and Del Toro).

 

 Elisa Miller Interview [3:02m]: Play Now | Download

Elisa Miller Interview

Ver Llover

Kevin talks with Iranian director Marjane Satrapi about her new film Persepolis, an animated feature which she co-directed with her friend Vincent Paronnaud. The film is based on the graphic novel that Satrapi wrote and illistrated.

Marjane Satrapi
Persepolis

I interviewed Stefan Ruzowitzky about his new film The Counterfeiters. It’s a movie about the massive Nazi counterfeiting operation during WWII. He made because some people “need a punch in the face.”

Stefan Ruzowitzky interview

Stefan Ruzowitzky The Counterfeiters

If Telluride does anything, it changes the experience of movie watching. The real gold of the program is not sneak peaks at the big Oscar contenders starting the fall festival run, but films pulled from the vault of history. On a sunny Sunday morning in the mountains, I walked into a theater of movie-lovers where a live orchestra tuned their instruments. We clapped as the orchestra was introduced, the lights went down, the screen lit up and they began to play.

People on Sunday, for Germany in 1929, was like Coppola, Spielberg, Scorsese, and Lucas in their early 20’s getting together and saying, “Let’s have some fun making a movie.” (People is a silent film created by Billy Wilder, Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer and Fred Zinneman, among others.) A meandering film about twenty-somethings–an actor, a dancer, a model, a mechanic–breaking from their mundane day jobs for some fun on a Sunday. It’s a celebration of leisure and the little moments that make life worth living (like an 88 year old version of Aaron Katz’ Quiet City Kevin reviewed in FilmCouch #35). I also have to share People contains the most seductive first kiss I’ve ever seen on film. No joke. …Read more

Kevin caught up with Kevin Macdonald to have a conversation about My Enemy’s Enemy. This is the second time we’ve been able to chat with him about his films, including last year’s Telluride sensation, The Last King of Scotland.

Kevin Macdonald, My Enemy’s Enemy, The Last King of Scotland

A funny thing happens at film festivals, I call it festival fever. You arrive after hours of bouncing from airport to airport, having barely slept the night before. Dazed but excited, you wander into your first film. And it blows your mind. This is why you’re here! This is why you love movies! But then you see that same movie a few months later on DVD and it’s… uh… why did I like this?

This happened to me at the first film festival I went to. I was at the Denver Film Festival with Spout and we saw the North American premiere of Anthony Minghella’s Breaking and Entering. Somehow, we all loved it. Later, we all agreed that it was lackluster, especially considering the director of The English Patient and Cold Mountain was teaming up with Juliette Binoche.

Festival Fever is hitting me pretty hard this year at Telluride. It’s been exacerbated by very little sleep the night before leaving, a harrowing drive through a mountain pass, and meeting and being denied interviews with some of the best actors in the world (don’t worry, we’re still trying). Needless to say, I was skeptical of my own opinion after seeing my first film of the festival, Todd Haynes‘ Bob Dylan pic, I’m Not There…

…Read more

The first film I saw at Telluride this year was Todd Haynes‘ I’m Not There. The dense and strikingly original Bob Dylan biopic left me speechless. Luckily, I made it to a Q&A event featuring Haynes the next day, which gave me some ammo for a quick interview. A brief word about the film in case you don’t know, Dylan’s varied incarnations are played by different actors, including Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, and Cate Blanchett, among others.

Todd Haynes Interview

I’m Not There

Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly won him the Director award at Cannes this year. After seeing it this morning, I can’t argue with the Cannes’ jury. I was simply blown away. How can somebody tell a gripping story of a man who–resulting from a stroke–can only communicate with one eyelid? All I can say is you will simply be amazed.

I interviewed Julian Schnabel and asked why he continues to orbit around intensely creative but “doomed” men (his previous two films are Basquiat and Before Night Falls, biopics about Jean Michel Basquiat and Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas).

Julian Schnabel interview

Julian Schnabel in his regular attire (pajamas).

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Before Night Falls, Basquiat

Paul caught up with film critic and historian Leonard Maltin, who shared with me what he’s really excited to see at Telluride this year.

Leonard Maltin interview

Leonard Maltin’s Animated Favorites
Leonard Maltin’s Movie Memories

At some point between hearing Leonard Maltin talk about wanting so badly to see The Big Parade and handing me a copy of his newsletter (did anyone know Maltin has a newsletter?), I realized we were kindred spirits.

What gives me even more hope is, in the land of Telluride, a movie geek with a mission can be sexy. Kevin overheard a couple gushing and preening themselves as they worked up the courage to meet Mr. Maltin after me.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, to the right, to the right. Three o’clock… Leonard… Maltin.”