Film and Profile

Paul Brannigan, star of Ken Loach's The Angels' Share - profile

The actor is also set to appear with Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin

23 May 2012

Born 1987, Glasgow, Scotland Background After working as a football coach in the Barrowfield community in Glasgow and helping to tackle knife crime as part of a Strathclyde Police initiative, Paul Brannigan was spotted by screenwriter Paul Laverty…

Ralph Fiennes, star and director of Coriolanus - profile

Man behind the modernised Shakespeare adap has Bardic pedigree

5 Jan 2012

Name Ralph Fiennes Born Ipswich, Suffolk, 22 December, 1962 Background Initially a star onstage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Fiennes gained international film recognition for his Oscar-nominated performance as Nazi Commander Amon Göth in…

Interview - Rob Brydon

The comic actor answers our questions ahead of the release of his autobiography, Small Man in a Book

17 Oct 2011

First record you ever bought Apart from Rupert Bear, Propaganda by Sparks. Last extravagant purchase you made A cashmere scarf. First film you saw that really moved you Barney’s Version. Last lie you told I never lie. First movie you…

Profile - Sebastian Koch

German star of coming-of-age Brit comedy Albatross

13 Sep 2011

Name Sebastian Koch Born Karlsruhe, Germany, May 31 1962 Background Koch has worked solidly in European films and TV for over 25 years, but it was his terrific performance in The Lives of Others (2006) that made him recognisable to cinema…

Profile: Andre Ovredal

Writer and director of Troll Hunter

24 Aug 2011

Born 1973, Norway Background After studying at Santa Barbara’s Brooks Institute, where he made his first film, Future Murder (2001), Ovredal established himself as a successful director of commercials in Norway. What’s he up to now? He’s written and…

Profile: Chris Weitz, director of A Better Life

Director known for American Pie, About a Boy and The Golden Compass

18 Jul 2011

Name Chris Weitz Born 30 November 1969, New York City Background Weitz began his career co-directing the hit teen comedy American Pie (1999) with his brother Paul. After another successful collaboration, 2002’s About A Boy, Weitz’s first solo…

Profile: Philip Seymour Hoffman, director and star of Jack Goes Boating

The much-respected actor screens his directorial debut at the EIFF

27 May 2011

Born Fairport, New York, 23 July 1967. Background Known as the ‘character actor’s character actor’, Hoffman has been a jobbing actor since the early 1990s. After playing bit parts in television shows, shorts and features, Hoffman got his breakthrough…

Profile: Jim Mickle, director of vampire horror Stake Land

Director turnes hometown into a post-apocalyptic wasteland

23 May 2011

Name Jim Mickle Born Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1977 Background After graduating from New York University’s filmmaking programme, Mickle worked in the camera department for features Transamerica, Shortbus and Pride and Glory. The experience gave him…

Profile: Gregg Araki - director of Kaboom

A wild, sex-filled ride heavily influenced by the B-movie genre

23 May 2011

Name Gregg Araki Born 17 December 1959, Los Angeles Background Araki came to prominence in the 1990s as one of the leading figures in what was labelled New Queer Cinema (a collection of films by directors including Derek Jarman and Todd Haynes…

Profile: Simon Hynd, director of horror thriller Senseless

Jason Behr plays US businessman who is kidnapped

24 Mar 2011

Born 20 January, 1974, Edinburgh Background Hynd studied Film & Television at Napier, making a few shorts that got him noticed by the Scottish film industry, going on to win a Scottish BAFTA for his short Tumshie Mcfadgen’s Bid for Ultimate…

Profile: Ken Wardrop, director of documentary His & Hers

Irish director paints collective picture of woman in Irish Midlands

10 Mar 2011

Wardrop grew up in a farming community in rural Ireland. After a stint working in London he enrolled at the National Film School, Dublin where he graduated in 2004 specialising in creative documentary making. His graduating short film, Undressing My…

Profile: Richard Ayoade

Boosh, IT Crowd and Darkplace star directs Joe Dunthorne adap Submarine

2 Mar 2011

Name Richard Ayoade Born 12 June 1977, Whipp’s Cross, London Background Best known for playing Moss in Graham Linehan ’s hit TV comedy The IT Crowd, Ayoade first came to the notice of cult comedy fans as writer, director and co-star of spoof…

William Fichtner stars in new horror Drive Angry - profile

The US actor on playing the accountant from Hell

17 Feb 2011

Name William Fichtner Born 27 November, 1956, Long Island, New York. Background ‘I’ve got a Bachelors degree in Criminal Justice but I had to take one arts course as part of my core requirements,’ explains Fichtner, ‘so I took an improv…

Brighton Rock remake actress Andrea Riseborough - Profile

From Made in Dagenham to starring opposite Guy Pearce

17 Feb 2011

Name Andrea Riseborough Born 27 October 1981, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Background She was Sally Hawkins’ mate in Happy-Go-Lucky, Margaret Thatcher in The Long Walk to Finchley, English Civil War-era crumpet in The Devil’s Whore and busty Brenda…

An exploration of Hong Sang-soo's films ahead of Edinburgh Filmhouse season

Tony McKibbin examines the relationship dynamic in Korean filmmaker's celebrated films

28 Oct 2010

Hong Sangsoo films often focus on characters so in crisis that they cannot help but generate crises in the very situations they find themselves in. They are not only crisis-ridden; they create a mise-en-scene of misery out of their own inability to…

Police, Adjective - Corneliu Porumboiu profile

Romanian filmmaker leading movement committed to realism and use of black humour

6 Oct 2010

Name Corneliu Porumboiu Born Vaslui, Romania, 1974. Background Porumboiu studied film at the National University of Drama and Film in Bucharest. He first received acclaim for his short film A Trip to the City (2003). This was followed by…

Profile: Abbas Kiarostami

Certified Copy's director's film history

20 Aug 2010

Name? Abbas Kiarostami. Born? Teheran, Iran, 1940. Background? Kiarostami worked as a graphic designer before joining the Centre for Intellectual Development Of Children And Young Adults where he started a film section. His first film The Bread And…

Profile: Anne Consigny of Wild Grass

7 Jul 2010

Born 25 May 1963 in Alençon, Orne, France Background One of five children, Consigny grew up in the French capital, where he father was a high-ranking civil servant. She attended Paris’ National Conservatory for Drama aged 16 and two years later…

Paradis Regained: Heartbreaker

16 Jun 2010

Matching up diminutive Gallic songstress Vanessa Paradis with hunky acting heavyweight Roman Duris may not have been an obvious fit, but the combination has proved electric. Richard Mowe talks to both actors ahead of the EIFF screening of their film…

The Illusionist opens EIFF 2010 - Sylvain Chomet interview

9 Jun 2010

The year after French animator Sylvain Chomet knocked out cinema-goers at the 2003 Edinburgh International Film Festival with his wildly eccentric and utterly charming double-Oscar nominated debut feature, Belleville Rendez-vous (aka The Triplets of…

Michael Winterbottom on The Killer Inside Me

28 May 2010

Born 29 March 1961 Background Born in Blackburn the director has become known for his ability to churn out films and work across genres. He made his first feature film Butterfly Kiss in 1995. What’s he up to now? Winterbottom has adapted…

Profile: Martin Compston

29 Apr 2010

Name Martin Compston Born 8 May 1984, Greenock, Scotland Background The son of a welder father and office manager mother, aged 16, Compston signed as a professional footballer with his home town club Morton FC. Whilst still at school however, he had…

Profile: Nicolas Winding Refn

28 Apr 2010

Born 1970 Copenhagen, Denmark Background After coming to prominence by re-sculpting his 1996 hit Pusher into an accomplished drug-trilogy, Danish writer/director Winding Refn’s controversial Bronson won him plaudits for coaxing a remarkable…

Interview: Mark Cousins - The First Movie

Documentary on experiment introducing the children of Iraq to cinema

22 Apr 2010

Mark Cousins most recent adventure took him to Kurdistan on a mission to spread his love of cinema. Miles Fielder catches up with him Belfast-born, Edinburgh-resident Mark Cousins has been involved with cinema in many ways. He’s hosted the BBC’s cult…

Profile: Ian Hart

22 Apr 2010

Name Ian Hart Born Liverpool, 1964 Background Ian Hart’s role as Professor Quirninus Quirrell in the ongoing Harry Potter saga is only a footnote in a role-call of strong supporting performances. Hart started out with a Play for Today…

Glasgow International - Mark Cousins meets Douglas Gordon

15 Apr 2010

Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art returns this fortnight with a mouth-watering programme of work by over 50 artists in venues across the city, based around the theme ‘past, present, future’. Opening the festival, internationally renowned…

Brendan Gleeson has roles in both Perrier’s Bounty and Green Zone

31 Mar 2010

Name Brendan Gleeson Born 29 March, 1955, Dublin, Ireland Background The lazy line to take on this scene-stealing character actor is he was a maths teacher for ten years before he decided to become and actor, and got his big break playing…

Profile: Luca Guadagnino on his role in I am Love

29 Mar 2010

Name Luca Guadagnino Born 1971, Palermo, Sicily. Background Guadagnino actually spent the early years of his life in Ethiopia, before moving back with his family to Sicily aged seven. Having studied cinema at university in Rome, where he…

Warwick Thornton's role in Samson and Delilah

29 Mar 2010

Name Warwick Thornton Born Alice Springs, Australia Background Thornton left school unable to read and write, and started working as a radio DJ. He soon graduated to having his own show called Green Room. His infatuation with images led…

Profile: Emma Thompson

19 Mar 2010

Name Emma Thompson Born 15 April 1959, London. Background Her mum Phyllida Law is a respected Scottish actress who has appeared alongside her wee lassie in The Winter Guest and Peter’s Friends while her dad Eric only went and created The Magic…

Profile: John Hurt

20 Jan 2010

Name: John Hurt Born: 22 June 1940, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, UK Background: The third child of a vicar and an actress (yes, really), Hurt followed a strict Catholic education at a local prep school with an escape to London to study art at St…

Profile: Gabourey Sidibe from Precious

13 Jan 2010

Born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, where Do The Right Thing was filmed, she grew up in Harlem. Her mother is an R&B and gospel singer and her father a taxi driver. Sidibe’s life changed when a friend encouraged her to go to an open…

Déborah François

4 Dec 2009

While still at school in her Belgian hometown, 16-year-old François attended an open casting held by the Dardenne brothers. She was chosen ahead of 150 other hopefuls in the role of a teenage mother, whose new baby is sold by her boyfriend, and the film…

Jean Eustache

16 Nov 2009

In an interview given on the eve of the 26th Cannes Film Festival in May 1973, Jean Eustache voiced his frustration at the reception of his work and his troubled relationship with the film industry in France. ‘Although my films have always been…

Profile of Amelia director Mira Nair

13 Nov 2009

Name: Mira Nair Born: 15 October 1957, Bhubaneshwar (India) Background: After starting her career as an actress, Nair turned to directing award-winning documentaries, including So Far From India. She made her feature film debut in 1988 with the…

Profile: Demetri Martin

30 Oct 2009

Name Demetri Martin Born 25 May 1973, New York City Background A stand-up comic by trade, Martin’s 2003 show If I won the Perrier award at the Edinburgh Fringe. He’s written for such US staples as Late Night With Conan O’Brien and The…

Profile: Dylan Duffus from 1 Day

29 Oct 2009

Name Dylan Duffus Background For his first acting gig, Birmingham barber Duffus started his career at the top, playing the central role in Penny Woolcock’s hip-hop musical drama about gang-life in the Handsworth area. Despite a lack of formal…

Profile: Cristian Mungiu

A look at the award winning director before his latest work, Tales From the Golden Age

22 Oct 2009

Name Cristian Mungiu Born 27 April 1968 Background The graduate of the Bucharest Film School became the first Romanian director to win the Palme d’Or with his abortion drama 4 months 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Before becoming a full-time director…

Africa in Motion: Jean-Stéphanie Sauvaire

The French director on Johnny Mad Dog - his take on Liberia's recent civil war

16 Oct 2009

The use of child soldiers is given a realistic and at times horrifying platform in French director Jean-Stéphanie Sauvaire’s depiction of the civil war that ravaged Liberia for over a decade until peace was declared in 2003. Sauvaire was familiar with…

Profile: Donnie Yen

The martial arts expert on playing Bruce Lee's mentor

16 Oct 2009

Name Donnie Yen Born 27 July 1963, Canton, China Background Born to a newspaper editor and a martial arts master, Yen began practising tai chi and wushu at the age of four. At 16 he was sent to the Beijing Wushu Academy, where he studied under…

Profile: Ramin Bahrani

The film-making son of Iranian immigrants

16 Oct 2009

Name Ramin Bahrani Born 20 March 1975, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Background The son of Iranian immigrants to America, Bahrani grew up in North Carolina and studied film at Columbia University in New York, where he made several short films.

White Lightnin' or just white trash?

The creators of the controversial revenge tale explain all

17 Sep 2009

Watching White Lightnin’ you wonder where its makers came up with the idea for their gloriously demented film. At once a biopic about a hillbilly dancer and a tale of revenge that plays like a seventies American horror movie, it’s the story of Jesco…

Agnès Varda

The considerable career of the ‘grandmother’ of Le Nouvelle Vague

17 Sep 2009

There are rumours that Agnès Varda’s 2008 cinematic autobiography The Beaches of Agnès is her last film. For any octogenarian filmmaker, this might seem like the logical conclusion to a prolific career, but Varda is no ordinary artist. When she…

Sweden's No Mind Festival - Three Miles North of Molkom

10 Sep 2009

It’s 5pm on a Monday afternoon and I’m crying. I’m sat on the grass mat floor of a big tent and I’m weeping on the shoulder of Carine, a beautiful Swedish lady I have known for only a few days. She’s crying too and our waterborne grief and guilt is…

Profile: John Krasinski from Away We Go

3 Sep 2009

Name John Krasinski Born 20 October 1979, Newton, Massachusetts Background After a series of bit parts in films and TV shows, Krasinski landed a key role in the American version of The Office alongside Steve Carrell, and has been a US…

Profile: Katie Jarvis of Fish Tank

3 Sep 2009

Name Katie Jarvis Born 22 June 1991, Dagenham, Essex Background You won’t recognise the star of Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, but you won’t soon forget her. Cast with no acting experience after being spotted arguing with her boyfriend at…

Profile: RJ Cutler

All you need to know about the director of The September Issue.

3 Sep 2009

Name RJ Cutler Born 1962, USA Background Cutler graduated from Harvard in 1983. He has a producing credit on The War Room (1993), a landmark documentary that follows Clinton’s 1992 US presidential campaign through his notorious spin doctors James…

Nagisa Oshima retrospective at Edinburgh Filmhouse

The Pensive Provocateur

2 Sep 2009

A complex figure making sense of a complex, still defeated post-war Japanese society, Nagisa Oshima’s career coincided with the French Nouvelle Vague, and he has proved over the years as provocative a filmmaker as any that came out of France at the end…

Profile: Jean-François Richet

The French film-maker behind Mesrine: Public Enemy Number One

21 Aug 2009

Name Jean-François Richet Born 2 July, 1966, Paris Background Having grown up in the satellite town of Meaux, east of Paris, Jean-François Richet made his feature debut in 1995 with the Cesar-nominated Inner City (Etat des lieux). He went on to…

Profile: Aly Michalka

Bandslam

12 Aug 2009

Name Aly Michalka Born 1989 Torrance, California Background Having already had top 20 singles in the UK and UK with her sister Amanda as AJ and Aly, and opened for Hannah Montana/Miles Cyrus, rising star Michalka has got the right qualifications…

Profile: Gianni Di Gregorio

12 Aug 2009

Name Gianni Di Gregorio Born 1949, Rome Background Having grown up in the Trastevere district of Rome, di Gregorio studied acting and directing in the Italian capital, before becoming a screenwriter. From 1996 he began collaborating with the…

Profile - Stuart Staples (Tindersticks)

9 Jul 2009

Born Stuart Ashton Staples, 14 November 1965. Background Staples is the lead singer of Tindersticks, an originally Nottingham-based band formed in late 1991. Initially called Asphalt Ribbons, the band changed their name after Staples found a box of…

Crying with Laughter

25 Jun 2009

The hot ticket among the Scottish films screening at the 2009 Edinburgh International Film Festival is Justin Molotnikov’s Crying with Laughter, a thriller starring Scotland’s Stephen McCole. Familiar from roles in Wes Anderson’s high school comedy…

Profile: JJ Feild

25 Jun 2009

Born Boulder, Colorado, US in 1978. Background Although he was born in the US, the handsome young actor’s family relocated to the UK when he was a baby. Growing up in London, he got the acting bug young and before he left school Field and his mates…

Profile - Jamie Johnson

30 Apr 2009

Name Jamie J Johnson Born 14 September 1976, Hammersmith, London Background The son of a painter, Johnson initially followed in his father’s footsteps before deciding that moving pictures were more to his liking, and started creating flick…

Shifty - High times

16 Apr 2009

‘I said God damn, God damn the pusher man.’ From Easy Rider’s doomed wild hogs to Denzel Washington’s Harlem kingpin in American Gangster, I’ve enjoyed every moment I’ve spent with cinema’s dealers and peddlers. I’ve laughed my socks off with Cheech and…

First Word: Chris Addison

16 Apr 2009

First record you ever bought ‘You Can Call Me Al’, Paul Simon. Fall at my feet, ye tastemakers. Last time you were chatted up My wife was very complimentary when asking me to put the kettle on the other day. Is that the sort of thing? First…

Profile - Riz Ahmed

16 Apr 2009

Born 1 December 1982 Background London Riz Ahmed graduated from Oxford with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics before training as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He came to prominence playing Shafiq Rasul, a member…

Larry Charles: Beyond Belief

2 Apr 2009

‘The controversy of people standing in front of a theatre with placards means nothing to me,’ announces Larry Charles. The Borat director and US comedy colossus, famed for his creative input into genre-redefining TV shows Seinfeld and Curb Your…

Profile: Pablo Larrain

2 Apr 2009

Name Pablo Larrain Born 19 August 1976, Santiago, Chile Background Pablo Larrain studied film at the UNIACC university in Chile. After working as an assistant director on several films, he started to direct commercials. His debut film Fuga…

Profile - Natalie Press

2 Apr 2009

Name Natalie Press Born 15 August, 1980, London Background Just three years after the elfin actress made her professional debut in television soap Holby City she hit the big time with Pawel Pawlikowski’s rapturously received 2004 film My Summer…

Profile: Guy Pearce

19 Mar 2009

Name: Guy Pearce Born: 1967, Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK. Background: Raised in Australia, Pearce came through the Ramsay Street acting school on long-running soap Neighbours before The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desertpropelled him towards…

Emily Blunt - Yo majesty!

5 Mar 2009

When people got an eyeful of Emily Blunt’s striking good looks and acting ability in My Summer of Love, winner of the Best New British Feature award following its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2004, the general consensus…

Profile - Laurent Cantet

5 Mar 2009

Name Laurent Cantet Born 5 June, 1961, Melle, France Background A graduate of La Femis film school in Paris, Cantet made his impressive feature debut in 1999 with Human Resources, which used a mainly non-professional cast and married the…

Young Victoria - Giving us the Viccies

5 Mar 2009

Other screen portrayals of Queen Victoria include Judi Dench, Kathy Bates, Michael Palin, Miriam Margoyles, Patricia Routledge, Pauline Collins and Peter Sellers (pictured).

Profile - Nanette Burstein

5 Mar 2009

Name Nanette Burstein Born 23 May, 1970, Buffalo, New York Background Burstein’s graduate film from New York University Tisch School of Arts became her debut feature-length documentary. The Oscar nominated On the Ropes portrayed three young…

Interview: Anvil - The Story of Anvil

19 Feb 2009

You’ve probably never heard of Anvil, but bands like Slayer, Metallica and Anthrax all cite them as an influence. Formed by childhood friends Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow (on vocals and guitar) and drummer Robb Reiner in 1973, they tasted success in the 80s with…

Armando Iannucci - Comedy of Errors

5 Feb 2009

Armando Iannucci has a ringing in his ears. He’s just back from the Sundance Film Festival in the States where his debut feature film as writer and director, In the Loop, had its world premiere. The film’s reception was so overwhelmingly positive that…

Glasgow Film Festival: Audrey Hepburn

5 Feb 2009

The Film Star Allison Gardner co-director of Glasgow Film Festival Although she’s remembered best as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Audrey wasn’t just a ‘fluff’ actress. She has great depth, and always wanted to stretch herself as an…

Glasgow Film Festival: Richard Jobson and Jim Hickey interview

5 Feb 2009

Film directors Richard Jobson and Jim Hickey both have low-budget genre films appearing as part of Glasgow Film Festival’s Great Scots strand. Jobson’s New Town Killers sees Dougray Scott’s hedge fund manager hunting a teenage boy in a white-knuckle…

Glasgow Film Festival: Jason Edwards interview

5 Feb 2009

It’s hard to pick which event will be best – they’re all going to be pretty epic. We want to attract people who are not necessarily into live gigs but might like going to the cinema, and vice versa. Shhhh! An Evening of Not So Silent Movies is a…

Profile - Jonathan Levine

5 Feb 2009

Name Jonathan Levine Born 1978, New York City Background Given he’s been making movies since he was a prepubescent 12-year-old, NYC born and bred Jonathan Levine was always going to become a film director. Graduating from the Arts/Semiotics…

Profile - Dev Patel

22 Jan 2009

Name Dev Patel Born London. April 1990 Background Raised in Harrow, Dev turned to drama when his exuberance got him into trouble at school. He was a natural, performing in a school production of Twelth Night. Indeed, drama was the only subject…

Frank Miller interview

11 Dec 2008

‘At first I found it too daunting, because Will Eisner had been my mentor. But after three minutes of careful thought I decided that nobody else could touch it. So I went from protecting The Spirit to exploring what I perceived as Will’s intent, which…

Film books round-Up

11 Dec 2008

‘Tis the season to settle down with a good old-fashioned film book. Having a stack of cinema related tomes on your bedside table is essential for any aspiring cineaste at this time of year. So after many hours of sifting through recent releases this is…

Visionless Express - Fernando Meirelles director of Blindness

13 Nov 2008

‘What’s the most challenging thing about making a film about blindness?’ asks Fernando Meirelles, the relentlessly upbeat director of relentlessly downbeat mood-blackeners City of God and The Constant Gardner. ‘Trying to establish relationships between…

Terence Davies

Liverpool echo

30 Oct 2008

Of Time and the City is an idiosyncratic and deeply personal documentary essay, which draws on vivid archival footage and some inspired musical selections (everything from Mahler to Peggy Lee), it's narrated by Terence Davies, who peppers his commentary…

Valerio Zurlini

Italian Stallion

30 Oct 2008

In one of his last-ever interviews, Italian director Valerio Zurlini discussed his life-long passion for Leo Tolstoy. 'What I find extraordinary in his work,' Zurlini observed, 'is the remarkable fusion between public and private history'. Zurlini never…

Profile - Toby Jones

30 Oct 2008

Name Toby Jones Born 7 September 1967, Oxford, England Background In 2001, the diminutive British actor premiered his self-penned monologue – Missing Reels at the Edinburgh Fringe. The show was an entertaining account of how his role as a…

Profile - Tarsem Singh

16 Oct 2008

Name Tarsem Singh Born 6 May 1961 Background Against the wishes of his pilot father, who wanted him to attend Harvard Business School, Singh made his way instead to Los Angeles and won a scholarship to the Art Center College of Design. After…

Profile - Ulrich Seidl

2 Oct 2008

Name Ulrich Seidl Born November 24, 1952, Vienna Background A graduate of the Vienna Film Academy, Seidl spent the first 20 years of his career making a series of controversial ‘documentaries’ for television, including Animal Love (which Werner…

Profile: Saul Dibb

4 Sep 2008

Name: Saul Dibb, Born: London, England, 1968. Background: Dibb started his career working on documentaries. Lifters followed a group of shoplifters and 2003’s Easy Money detailed the life of a couple working in the porn industry. He also worked as a…

Profile - Gurinder Chadha

31 Jul 2008

Name Gurinder Chadha Born Nairobi, 1960 Background Born in Kenya but raised in England, Chadha began her career as a BBC news reporter, breaking into directing with the 1989 documentary I’m British But..., focusing on the life and culture of…

Saturday’s child - Tina Fey - Baby Mama

17 Jul 2008

America’s newest great comedy phenomenon is Tina Fey. Eddie Harrison uncovers the comic genius in her first big screen adventure, Baby Mama

In Which They Serve

17 Jul 2008

The British Film Institute’s re-release of the rarely seen and now beautifully restored David Lean film The Passionate Friends is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the celebration of the centenary of the great British filmmaker’s birth. In…

Profile - Pierre Salvadori

5 Jun 2008

Name Pierre Salvadori Born Tunisia, 1964 Background A former actor and TV sitcom writer, Salvadori made his feature debut with Wild Target in 1993, a deadpan farce concerning a middle-aged hit man (Jean Rochefort) and his young apprentice…

Profile - Gus Van Sant

24 Apr 2008

PROFILE Suzanne Black considers the work of one of Queer cinema’s great auteurs as two of his key films are released on DVD Gus Van Sant is one of a handful of directors to have crossed from arthouse credibility to mainstream pennies and back again.

Profile - Park Chan-wook

24 Apr 2008

Name Park Chan-wook Born 23 August, 1963, Jecheon, South Korea Background While studying philosophy at Sogang University in Seoul Park started a ‘cine-club’ showing films to the students. Then, one day he played Vertigo and it all fell into…

Profile - Jaume Balagueró

10 Apr 2008

Name Jaume Balagueró Born 2 November 1968, Lleida, Spain Background Having studied media at university in Barcelona, Balagueró worked in radio before cutting his filmmaking teeth on several shorts. His feature film debut came in 1999 with an…

Film Season - Marcello Mastroianni

10 Apr 2008

The son of a carpenter, Mastroianni trained as a draughtsman and served time in a Nazi labour camp during the war. Upon his release, he became involved in amateur dramatics. He made his film début in Riccardo Fredda’s I Miserabili (1948) and, at around…

Profile - Michael Pitt

27 Mar 2008

Name Michael Pitt Born 10 April 1981, West Orange, New Jersey Background Having moved to New York City aged 16, studied drama, appeared on stage, and been talent-spotted for a part in the TV drama Dawson’s Creek, boyishly pretty Pitt wasted no…

Profile - Krisztina Goda

27 Mar 2008

Name Krisztina Goda Born Budapest, 1970 Background Having grown up in Budapest, where both her parents were doctors, Goda studied directing and editing at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, and then won a scholarship to…

Profile - James Schamus

4 Jan 2008

Name James Schamus Born 7 September 1959, Detroit, Michigan, US. Background Almost uniquely in American filmmaking, Schamus is both an Oscar-nominated writer/producer and a movie executive. In 1991 he co-founded the production outfit Good…

Profile - Rigoberto Castaneda

29 Nov 2007

Name Rigoberto Castaneda Born 27 February 1973, Mexico City Background Castaneda was working as a runner in a production house in Mexico City when he was given a book about Alfred Hitchcock and was inspired to take a course in filmmaking. Having…

Michelle Monaghan

4 Oct 2007

Background Monaghan studied journalism for three years at Columbia College in Chicago. To earn pocket money she worked as a model and ditched the typewriter to work as a fashion model when she quit her studies. What’s she up to now? Having…

The Legacy - profile of Géla Babluani

6 Sep 2007

Name Géla Babluani Born Tblisi, Georgia, 1979 Who is he? Babluani comes from a filmmaking family; his father, Temur, started making films back in 1980. With the violent uprisings taking place in Georgia, Temur sent his kids to study abroad. Gela…

Anita Loos Retrospective

16 Aug 2007

Name Anita Loos. Born 26 April, 1888, California. Died 18 August 1981, New York. Who was she? Loos was one of the most celebrated US screenwriters, playwrights and authors of the last century. Over her long life she experienced several…

Taxidermia - profile

György Pálfi

9 Aug 2007

Having started as an actor at the age of 14 in anarchistic 1988 Hungarian drama The Documentator, Pálfi quickly decamped to the other side of the camera realising that ‘acting was not for me’. His taste for the weird and underground stayed true…

Profile - Gerard James Butler

Profile

13 Mar 2007

Name Gerard James Butler Born 13 November 1969, Glasgow, Scotland Background Raised by his divorced mother in her hometown of Paisley, and Canada, Butler studied law at Glasgow University but allegedly gave up on that career after losing his job…

Profile - Edward Norton

PROFILE

27 Feb 2007

Name Edward Norton. Born 18 August 1969, Boston, US. Background Interested in acting from the age of five, by eight Norton was asking his drama teacher about his character’s ‘motivation’. He attended drama schools, but didn’t get serious about…