Interviews

Interview - Zatorski

8 May 2008

David Pollock Why do you both refer to yourselves just as Zatorski, and not speak about your relationship? Zatorski We like the anonymity of it, really. There’s a pair of us, we work together, but otherwise we like the sexlessness and impersonality…

Azur and Asmar: The Prince’s Quest - interview with Michel Ocelot

31 Jan 2008

Name Michel Ocelot Born Villefranche-sur-Mer, France in 1943 Background While Ocelot spent much of his childhood in Guinea, West Africa and his teenager years in Anjou, he now lives in Paris. He made his name by writing and directing the Kirikou…

In England - interview with Don McCullin

1 Nov 2007

Don McCullin might seem like some kind of anachronistic beast among the top photographers today. Not for him the simpering vanities of celebrityhood; he has always been far more interested in the real problems that face ordinary people on a daily basis.

Rufus Wainright interview

4 Oct 2007

Late last month, Rufus Wainwright was in Los Angeles, treading the hallowed boards of the Hollywood Bowl, whooping it up as only Rufus can whoop it up. He had brought his acclaimed Judy Garland Live At Carnegie Hall show to town. Just him, an orchestra…

Kate Nash interview

4 Oct 2007

‘It’s a total headfuck.’ Kate Nash is not playing it cool. The 20-year-old pop songstress has had such a sudden rise to fame, she’s still coming to terms with her newfound celebrity status. The paparazzi followed her all summer, while Prince has…

The Decemberists interview

4 Oct 2007

Any band who name themselves after the Russian uprising of 1825 are, you feel, coming from a different place to most other heralded groups for whom the tune’s the thing. The Decemberists’ architect and songwriter Colin Meloy is not so much a tunesmith…

Interview with By George author Wesley Stace

4 Oct 2007

Ventriloquism is creepy. From traditional vaudeville acts and their scary wooden schoolboy dummies through to Keith Harris with his hand up Orville’s jacksie, there’s something distinctly unsettling about this mostly defunct form of entertainment. So…

Alasdair Gray Interview

20 Sep 2007

Claire Sawers meets Alasdair Gray at his Glasgow home and finds that he has created yet another iconic, naïve and semi-tragic anti-hero.

King Creosote and Emma Pollock interview

20 Sep 2007

We meet in Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery Café in the middle of the day. Not because Emma Pollock and King Creosote (AKA Kenny Anderson) are living the rock’n’roll lifestyle and couldn’t get out of bed because of terrible hangovers, but to give both…

Johanna Billing

20 Sep 2007

Modern life often forces us into strange and awkward social situations, something Swedish artist Johanna Billing seems painfully aware of. Somewhere between document and fiction, her films record moments that she breezily calls ‘on the surface, quiet…

Xavier Giannoli

20 Sep 2007

The French director Xavier Giannoli can pinpoint the moment cinema entered his life. He was five years old and asleep in his parents’ flat in Paris, when he woke up to the sound of tanks and machine guns. It turned out that the noise was coming from the…

KT Tunstall interview

6 Sep 2007

Looking around the room gives a clear indication of the reason behind KT Tunstall’s remarkable success. Crammed into the boardroom at XFM Scotland’s headquarters in Glasgow are two dozen competition winners being treated to an intimate acoustic show…

Small Engine Repair - interview with Iain Glen

6 Sep 2007

It’s the eyes. I’m sitting in an Edinburgh member’s club, and I’m looking at the 46-year-old Edinburgh born actor Iain Glen. I’m trying to work out what has compelled me to follow his career since his remarkable turn as poet, artist and Barlinnie inmate…

Kirsteen Macdonald

23 Aug 2007

AK : Can you tell me about the tenth anniversary show? KM : We decided that one very unique thing to celebrate about The Changing Room was its staff, so we invited them back to show their work. Around 30 artists/volunteers are taking part, including…

JR Ewen

16 Aug 2007

AK Can you tell me about the work you’ll be exhibiting? JRE My work will include a small video piece and fabric compositions based on women’s costume. Bodices, boned supports for gowns, modern BDSM clothing lend a structure for the designs. The…

Bernadette Lafont

9 Aug 2007

The veteran French actress Bernadette Lafont is casting her mind back 50 years and recalling her first ever film role. It was in a short called Les Mistons (The Brats), made by a tyro filmmaker called François Truffaut. Shot in her hometown of Nimes…

Answer Machine

Shantha Roberts

1 Aug 2007

She’s the face of BBC Scotland’s music programmes, who puts her success down to imagining the camera is a friendly robot. But Shantha Roberts would love nothing more than to be part of a gang of talking wildlife, even if she can’t make up her mind about…

Happy as a Sandbag

Interview

1 Aug 2007

A decade ago when La Vie de Jésus premiered at Cannes French filmmaker Dumont was hailed as the second-coming – the bastard love child of Robert Bresson or Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Prime Movers

The Dead 60s

1 Aug 2007

They’re on their way to conquering America, but The Dead 60s are still the unsung heroes on Deltasonic. Claire Sawers finds out why that’s about to change

Top Gere

1 Aug 2007

Outside the Hotel de Russie in Rome there’s an army of screaming women interspersed with Roman youths feigning curiosity. Film star Richard Gere appears mildly astonished at the state of siege. You suspect that all this attention could not fail to…

William H Macy

Interview

2 Jul 2007

Let’s call it the GooGoo Gaga Syndrome. It’s what happens when edgy actors have children and then want to start appearing in films that their younglings can relate to. The result is usually a line of liquid excrement leading from their trailers to the…

Chloë Sevigny

8 May 2007

Britney and Madonna, you may want to take note. That young kook Chloë Sevigny shaved her head while she was still in high school and had a contract with H&M before she was out of her teens. It seems there is not much that this remarkable young actress…

A Bridge Too Far

7 May 2007

A Bridge Too Far

George Low - Commando

7 May 2007

War games

Justin Timberlake

He’s lovin it

24 Apr 2007

Justin Timberlake is all over the place. He’s traversing the world with the nine-month-long FutureSex/LoveShow tour, an in-the-round extravaganza of singing, dancing, panto sex moves, human beatboxing and tequila-drinking (in the course of the show…