the traveler's resource guide to festivals & films
a FestivalTravelNetwork.com site
part of Insider Media llc.

Connect with us:
FacebookTwitterYouTubeRSS

Film and the Arts

Josh Hartnett

With Bunraku, an archly stylized swordplay fantasy, 33-year-old actor Josh Hartnett josh-hartnett-30-days-2returns to the genre spotlight playing an enigmatic drifter appropriately called "The Drifter."

This computer-enhanced tale revolves around Hartnett’s character, a "Man with No Name," and draws heavily on Samurai and Western tropes in an alternate-world dystopia where guns are banned and the sword is king (as it was in Japan until the end of the 19th century).

The film’s title is based on bunraku, the 400-year-old form of Japanese puppet theater. The puppets are four feet tall with highly detailed heads, operated by several puppeteers who wear black robes and hoods so as to not distract the audience.

In Guy Moshe's uncharacteristic follow-up to Holly (his controversial film on child trafficking shot in Cambodia's brothels), a classic retribution-and-redemption tale is re-imagined in a skewed reality blended with arch characters and shadowy fantasy.

A crime boss who rules with an iron fist and nine assassins, Nicola the Woodcutter (Ron Perlman) is the most powerful man east of the Atlantic. His associates include the murderous, cold-hearted-yet-smooth-talking right-hand man, Killer #2 (Kevin McKidd), and lover Alexandra (Demi Moore), a femme fatale with a secret past. The citizens live in fear and hope for a hero who can take the gang out.

In comes the Drifter to the Headless Horseman Saloon, who tells the bartender (Woody Harrelson) that he wants two things -- a shot of whisky and to kill Nicola.

Then enters a samurai, Yoshi (Gackt Camu), who wants to avenge his father by recovering a talisman stolen from his clan by Nicola. Guided by the bartender's wisdom, the two mavericks eventually join forces to bring down Nicola's corrupt reign, chopping heads and limbs along the way.

The California-born Hartnett had developed a steady career appearing in such Hollywood films as The Faculty, Black Hawk Down, Lucky Number Slevin and Pearl Harbor. In 2002, he starred in O -- an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello set in an American high school -- as Hugo, the film's version of Iago.

He then starred in Brian DePalma's true-crime mystery, The Black Dahlia (based on James Ellroy's book), as a detective investigating the real-life murder of actress Elizabeth Short.

Next, he tackled two other genres -- the classic boxing drama, Resurrecting the Champ, with Samuel L. Jackson, and the graphic novel-based horror thriller, 30 Days of Night, in which he played a small-town sheriff battling vampires.

Hartnett’s turn-downs have been as notable as some of the films he made. He passed on an opportunity to play Clark Kent/Superman in the film that was going to be directed by Brett Ratner, and was going to play trumpeter Chet Baker in The Prince of Cool, but didn't agree with the producer's ideas.

In 2007, he took time out from filming to support the green lifestyle campaign of Global Cool.

But more recently he opted for Bunraku, which premiered as a selection of the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival Midnight Madness section. A theatrical and VOD release is slated for this weekend.

As Hartnett renews his cinematic presence -- he has a quartet of films up-coming, including Singularity and Stuck Between Stations -- he is again giving interviews such as this exclusive Q&A.

Q: You had a string of exciting, interesting films and then slowed down a bit. What went on between those films and this one?

JH: I've been working, just not necessarily acting. I took some time off from acting.

I started a production company, directing a little bit and writing a lot. Right before this, I did a movie, I Come with the Rain, which didn't really get a release because it was so dark.

And then I did this, and now I've got Singularity with [director] Roland Joffé that will come out soon, I believe.

Q: It's supposed to be science fiction?

JH: Well, it's set in the late 1700s in India.

Q: I thought it had a time travel theme to it.

JH: It's set in 2020 as well. There's no time travel, but it's about the possibility of reincarnation.

Q: When you do offbeat and off-kilter dark things along the lines of Bunraku, it forces you to figure out how to give life to an unusual character. What was it that you did to make your character into an archetype?

JH: A film like this requires making up an entire backstory because there is no backstory to speak of. You don't know anything about him. I came up with a world that he might have existed in and then gave him some pathos.

Q: Enlighten me about the world that lies behind him, which we don't necessarily see outlined in the film.  

JH: I thought it would be interesting because the world was kind of a circus-oriented film. If he was part of something like that, he was a drifter of some sort.

His father was killed, sohartnett-Bunraku-poster obviously he didn't really know his father. His mother was gone, so he was raised by somebody else.

He's called "the Drifter." So who drifts? We came up with traveling gypsies, and that was the way that he was raised.

He didn't know any home, really, and he didn't really know who he was and he was never given a name. We spent some time figuring out who he was and decided that it almost doesn't matter what his backstory is. What's more interesting is why he's here and why it's taken him so long to get back.

My idea is that he wasn't really told about this situation, like about his father being killed, until he was old enough and he'd been living in this gypsy world for a long time.

And then he had to spend some time figuring out how he was going to take revenge. No guns, so he had to learn to fight. He's just a brawler, a natural brawler.

Q: How much did this bring out your inner brawler? Did it take a lot of work for you to put aside your pacifist elements and get the brawler out of you?

JH: There were some pretty physical things in this film to do, so I had to work pretty hard to get my body in shape for this. But I've got a little brawler in me.

Q: Were there any famous brawls in your past that you engaged in or defused that you can tell me about?

JH: I haven't been in a physical fight since I was 14. I broke up a fight in New York a few years ago, and then the people who were in it tried to sue me, saying I was in the fight. That's just some bad behavior on some idiot's part. But no, no, I don't.

Q: To bone up on Japanese culture, did you read books about its puppet theater or look at samurai films? Do you know about the wandering samurai, the ronin?

JH: There were a lot of different references for this film, one of them being something like a ronin, but having to do with [director Akira] Kurosawa usually -- and it was film references, mostly.

Kurosawa was used in creating this. There was [Sergio Leone], of course, and then Jean-Pierre Melville -- French New Wave stuff. This is such a film-centric film, I had to do a lot of watching of films to figure out what [the] references [were].

Q: Name some films that you saw as Bunraku prep that will stay with you for the rest of your life.

JH: I've watched a lot of French New Wave films, but they were mostly the Truffauts and the Louis Malles, those kind of guys. And then Guy, the director, introduced me to Jean-Pierre Melville, and he's one of my favorite directors now.

Q: Did you have any particular Kurosawa film or other samurai movies you watched to prep for this?

JH: Hidden Fortress. I've seen everything of Kurosawa's over the years; I don't know what I watched specifically for this. This is three-and-a-half years ago that we started filming this.

Q: When you were filming, did you know about the digital side of it? How much did that help or hurt you in making the film, knowing that it was going to be altered technologically?

JH: It was no different for me. I saw the landscape drawings that were sitting in the production office and I knew what he was going for as far as the feel of the world. But we were on physical sets the whole time.

So for me it was like making any other film, except there were a lot of physical requirements that I had never had to use before. It doesn't matter to me what the sky is going to look like.

Q: How was it seeing the finished product?

JH: Guy really pulled it off. The reason I was drawn to this film was because of Guy's vision. Before I even read the script, he came in and spoke to me in New York about being in it.

He didn't want me to read the script; he wanted to explain it to me visually. He wanted to have a discussion about his reference points as far as other films go for the film. And then I went and read the [script].

I was intrigued by Guy's thorough understanding of what he was trying to create, even though most people wouldn't understand it just by reading the film or by looking at the title, of course.

But he pulled off what he was going for, and that's brave and takes a lot of guts and intelligence.

Q: What did you think about the cast he selected for this movie? Were they people you had worked with, or wanted to work with?

JH: I love the guys that worked on this film. We spent a lot of time hanging out. We were in Bucharest, Romania. There wasn't a lot else to do except hang out with each other, so we got to know each other very well.

I've been a fan of a lot of their work for a long time, so it was unsurprising that they were great fun to work with on set.

Q: Did you see his previous film Holly? What did you think of it?

JH: I hadn't seen Holly when Guy came out to New York. He came out with a completely clean slate.

I knew he was a new director, but he knew exactly what he was going for. He was very conscious of the fact that it was something new for him as well. He's an incredibly intelligent guy.

I believed that he could make something unique, something interesting, something different from the cookie-cutter films that come out every week. This is obviously not right down the middle, so I was really pleased with the final product.

Q: Did Guy's Israeli background enhance your appreciation of each other and did it add to the dialogue between you two?

JH: Guy comes from a world where there's a lot of fighting, obviously, and so the theme of the film made sense to me knowing that he was Israeli. But he's a remarkably easy guy to get along with.

It doesn't matter where he's from. I trusted his judgment on this film. We had our share of talks about what I wanted to do with the character, and we came to a conclusion and I'm proud of the outcome.

I always like to work with people who have a real sense of what they're going for. If you're working with someone who's just accommodating all the time, then you never know where you stand.

Guy definitely has opinions and he definitely knows what he wants, and that's reassuring for me as an actor. So this was a good experience.

Mighty Movie Podcast: Tsui Hark on Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom FlameCause for celebration, indeed: Hong Kong director Tsui Hark is back, and if anything, his vision has gotten more crazily energetic and eye-dazzling in his latest effort. In Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Andy Lau plays actual historical figure Dee Renjie, a disgraced judge who’s compelled to confront the undeniably fantastic when he’s sprung from prison by embattled Empress Wu to find out who is exterminating her entourage by having them burst spontaneously into flame. As can be expected from Hark, the film is a treasure trove of dizzyingly exquisite fight sequences, backed up by a witty and intelligent story line that has Dee on the one hand deploying science against the forces of superstition and on the other sees him in conflict with an empress ruthlessly determined to maintain her power. It’s got action, it’s got spectacle, it’s got a deer who can kick ass. What else could you ask for?

Click on the player to hear my interview with Hark.

{mp3remote}http://media.blubrry.com/mightymoviepodcast/p/m.podshow.com/download_media/26081/episodes/294257/mightymovie-294257-09-02-2011.mp3{/mp3remote}

Entertainment Earth

In "Don't Afraid of The Dark," Actress Katie Holmes Deals with Dread

Though she won early approval as Joey Potter in the teen TV drama Dawson's Creek (which ran from 1998 to 2003), the Ohio-born Kate Holmes started to achieve fame as a character actor in such art house hits as The Ice Storm and in her fine star turn in 2003's indie hit Pieces of April -- a gritty comedy about a dysfunctional family duringkatie-holmes-afraid-dark Thanksgiving.

Other high-profile roles including the blockbuster Batman Begins, thrillers such as Abandon and comedies such as Mad Money and First Daughter didn't win her many fans, but nudged her along and landed her in a Broadway production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons.

Then, in June 2005, after Holmes began a highly publicized relationship with actor Tom Cruise, they got engaged. It subjected her to inordinate, mostly negative, media attention including speculation that the relationship was a stunt to promote their films.

Brought up as a Roman Catholic, Holmes joined the controversial Church of Scientology shortly after they began dating. And in April 2006, Holmes gave birth to daughter Suri. In November 2006, she and Cruise finally married in Italy.

Having become more famous for being Mrs. Cruise than for her early successes, Holmes weathered a withering assault on her and her family and has dealt with it with as much dignity as it allows.

Dread provides a major component to horror films, and horror jefe Guillermo del Toro is a master of it. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, a remake of the 1973 made-for-television film of the same name, which he produced and co-wrote (with Matthew Robbins), is the most recent example.

Holmes has experienced a different kind of dread. Despite taking a lower-keyed turn in recent years, the 32-year-old willowy beauty has lived the horror story of being in the crosshairs of incessant paparazzi and celeb/gossip press.

In taking on this ensemble remake -- a respectable genre turn -- Holmes has had a chance to work her chops and get before audiences and press without all the pressure of carrying the film.

Directed by comic book artist Troy Nixey, the film stars Guy Pearce, Katie Holmes and Bailee Madison as a man, his girlfriend and his daughter who have moved into a 19th-century Rhode Island mansion that is being restored to showcase his architectural skills.

His daughter -- feeling dejected by her parents' divorce -- starts seeing malevolent goblin creatures who emerge from a sealed fireplace in the basement in order to possess their discoverer.

What starts as a tentative relationship between daughter and possible stepmother-to-be transforms into a strong bond as Kim believes Sally is telling the truth and they join forces to defeat the demons.

To promote this film, Holmes joined Del Toro at two roundtables -- this Q&A is excerpted from those sessions.

Q: This film seems to be a departure for you having recently done more indie fare like The Romantics. What was your attraction to it?

KH: I was really excited to work with Guillermo. I loved the script, even though I was scared reading it, and I love these characters.

[I loved] Kim’s journey from resisting a relationship with Sally and then getting to the point where she could identify with Sally, and I loved that emotional tension and turning into a great emotional arc.

It’s nice to do something about something that scares you rather than just run from it and hope that someone saves you. It’s great to see on film, and it was really fun to portray.

Q: Kim seems to be frustrated with her relationship at first, and then she becomes the fierce protector.

KH: That's what I really loved about her. One of my favorite scenes is at the end of the movie, when Kim is hurt and she wakes up and realizes that Sally's in danger. Then you see her use all of her strength to do what she has to do.

I think that's very real. I like seeing strong female characters, and somebody who doesn't run away screaming when she's scared but confronts the monsters. So I really enjoyed it.

Q: She begins the movie fearBB-delToro-Holmesful that's she's going to be the unloved stepmother, but she becomes more of a parent to Sally than her actual parents.

KH: Right. It's really about two human beings that recognize something of themselves in each other, and that shared a relationship that turns into something very special and powerful.

Kim has to learn not only to listen, but how to bring this little girl into her life and make her feel safe and then do the ultimate act of generosity. I love the relationship between Kim and Sally, and I love the bonding that occurs.

Q: How did you make that work?

KH: Fortunately, we had a lot of time prior to shooting. Guillermo is very generous with his time and insight, and helpful. I have to sit down and make sure I am doing it right.

Q: What was it like playing against a hoard of little creatures that aren't actually there?

KH: What was great is that I wasn’t playing a character that was running from them. I was fighting them and taking control over them.

It was challenging, because there were things like squashing them and punching them, and you wanted to make sure you were doing it at the right time. But it was also one of the things that was fun and creative about this movie.

It was fun to see what they looked like and what they were creating and go ‘Wow!" That doesn’t happen to everybody.

A lot of times, I’m not as a sophisticated as to what the movie becomes. And [then] "oh, I thought it was going to be something else" and it’s so much better. This was really, really scary.

Q: How exhausting were the stunts?

KH: Not bad at all. Fun.

Q: What did it feel like to be sucked down that shaft, to be pulled by burly Australians playing what would become digitally created creatures?

KH: That was a very intense scene. It was a challenge to make sure that everything that needed to be seen and heard was in that performance.

There was a lot going on -- in the cutting of the rope, and then telling Sally to run, and making sure that that was just the right timing, and then thrusting back and being pulled.

A lot of times it takes a couple of takes just for everybody to get comfortable. They want to know how much to pull. It's an organizational thing. But it was fun, and it was definitely an example of teamwork because there were a lot of elements.

Q: Does it take more preparation doing something more choreographed like this film?

KH: It's simpler in some ways to sit and talk for a scene. But every scene is its own thing. There's a lot that goes into something that looks simple, and there's just as much that goes into something that looks difficult. It's our job to make it all look effortless and to communicate that story.

Q: How was it working with a talented young actress like Bailee Madison?

KH: She is quite something. She's an incredible actress. She's so poised. Age really had nothing to do with it, because she was so prepared and had so many ideas.

She has already a great dedication to her craft and she wants to do well. She wants to service the story, and things have to make sense. She's smart.

Bailee is a very strong human being, and so good at what she does, we are going to see many of her films over time. She helped all of us [laughed], she was very concerned about how we were doing. She’s very lovely in that way.

It was a pleasure working with Bailee, and getting to know her mom, Patty, and all of her siblings -- so lovely, such a nice family. It was such a great pleasure to work with her.

I think it’s really fun to work on movies because everyone’s families get to know each other. I know Guillermo‛s family and he knows mine and we all stay in touch. We’re all raising children in a very creative environment and it’s great fun.

Q: Assuming that's your voice at the end of the movie, was there any difficulty in doing that final scene?

KH: I did those voices at an ADR studio with Guillermo and Troy. Luckily, I had people around me who were helping me just find that right creepiness. It’s almost like hitting a note when you are singing. Sometimes it really is just a sound. Instead of thinking, "fear," it’s like, "Well, take it up an octave."

Q: Are you reconciled about coming back as a CG creature in the sequel?

KH: Absolutely [laughed]. I would like to be a little larger, and I’m going to wear a nude suit. And I'd better have Jimmy Choos.

Q: How did you spend time in Australia where the movie was made?

KH: We loved Melbourne, Australia, and the people we met in town were so lovely. They have the best donuts and meringue -- what was that dessert that we loved? Pavlova. Oh yeah. It was amazing.

Q: You shot near Hanging Rock, the famous paranormal, girl-disappearing zone in Australia.

KH: That [area] is so creepy.

Q: Did you feel a presence or a haunting sensation while you were shooting there in the house?

KH: We used the outside of a real house. The grounds of the outside of the house, the exterior location, it didn't feel like something was going to come out and grab you. But it was inspiring because it really did feel like a fairytale.

And then the inside was a set. You could believe that something creepy could happen, but I never got the sense that there was a ghost or anything lurking. It was just like wow, this is the perfect place for this kind of movie. And it was beautiful.

Q: Did you watch any of those horror movies with strong heroines when you did research for this role?

KH: Yes, absolutely. I looked at many of those films [like Rosemary’s Baby], and we watched The Exorcist again.

Not only are these strong female characters, but what I loved about those movies was we were so invested in these women. They were so real, they were so normal. You saw them in the kitchen, you saw them making things.

Like Mia Farrow was moving into her apartment, she was really excited, and you are that person -- and suddenly the weird stuff starts happening. So then you are immediately afraid and your heart is beating, and their heart is beating very fast.

So I looked at this script and wanted to find as many things that were human and normal, every-day stuff.

We had a dinner scene when Alex and I fight, and it was like, "Let’s have our work around us and let’s be doing stuff that families do, and make it a little bit awkward, and just make it [that] they aren’t one big happy family yet."

Q: Did you watch scary movies when were younger?

KH: I did, and was affected by them. When I was reading this script, I was so terrified that I started hearing noises, and I kind of held my daughter closer and looked in the corners of her bedroom a couple times. I did.

I really enjoyed being a part of this because I really think it does take the audience on that thrill ride.

Q: When you were young, what used to scare you in the dark, if anything? Did you go back to that when you were doing this?

KH: I'm the youngest of five, so my brothers and sisters and I would try to scare each other -- hide and jump out, and things like that.

Q: So they could really get to you.

KH: And I could really get to them, because I was so small.

Q: Is it more fun to make a horror movie than something very serious?

KH: I think they're all adventures. I've yet to work on something that was laborious and horrible. Making movies is exciting. It's a challenge to do a horror movie and then create emotional tension within that. I loved it.

Q: Do you want to do more horror movies?

KH: Absolutely. I’d love to work with Guillermo again and again.

For more by Brad Balfour go to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brad-balfour

CFQ's Black Hole Ultra-Lounge: Cashiers du Cinemart's Mike White & 3-Descent

Cashiers du Cinemart’s Mike White hangs out after the Cinefantastique Spotlight to talk to Dan Persons about his magazine, his anthology, Impossibly Funky: A Cashiers du Cinemart Collection, the clouded future of 3D, and, of course, the indelible allure of Black Shampoo.

{mp3remote}http://media.blubrry.com/cinefantastique/p/media.blubrry.com/mightymoviepodcast/p/cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/bhul_2-31-2_Cashiers_du_Cinemart_v01.mp3{/mp3remote}

CLICK TO GET YOU SOME GOOD STUFF:

Impossibly Funky: A Cashiers du Cinemart CollectionBlack Shampoo

Newsletter Sign Up

Upcoming Events

No Calendar Events Found or Calendar not set to Public.

Tweets!