IFC Entertainment » The Junket

The Forgiveness of Blood

ccostales — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 19:44:08 +0000

Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival, the powerful second feature from Joshua Marston (MARIA FULL OF GRACE) tells the story of an Albanian family caught up in a blood feud. Nik (Tristan Halilaj) is a carefree teenager in a small town with a crush on the school beauty and ambitions to start his own small internet business. His world is suddenly up-ended when his father becomes entangled in a dispute that leaves a fellow villager murdered. According to a centuries-old code of law known as the Kanun, Nik’s family owes a life in return. Nik finds himself the prime target and becomes confined to home while his younger sister Rudina (Sindi Laçej) is forced to leave school and take over their father’s business. Marston transports us into a world rarely seen on screen, where tradition and modernity clash putting young lives in the balance.

Joe Gordon-Levitt on UNCERTAINTY

krkail — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:28:27 +0000

Over at co-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s incredible production tumblr, the star of UNCERTAINTY has shared some candid thoughts on his experiences with the film (as well as a great moment of impromptu music on the set!)

“Working on UNCERTAINTY was a turn on. I get off on unique creative experiences, and the collaborative improvisational process into which Scott and David, the filmmakers, invited Lynn and me was indeed unique. It also turns out to have resulted in a great film. Or I’d say so anyway.

And it’s one of those movies, like BRICK or MYSTERIOUS SKIN, that’s truly, as they say, “independent,” as opposed to 500 DAYS OF SUMMER, for example, which certainly had no blockbuster budget, but was produced by a major studio, Fox Searchlight. UNCERTAINTY’s budget makes 500’s look like GIJOE’s, especially when it comes to marketing. Which brings me to the shameless pitch ;o)

If you like movies that push the envelope of the art, that aren’t made for the business of it all, but are really just made out of recklessly passionate cinephilia… I do recommend you check this one out. We can’t really afford to, you know, advertise and things like that, but we count on other cinephiles like us, like you, to head down to the art house instead of the multiplex.

I’m gonna be at the IFC Center, where it’s playing in NYC, for the evening shows all next weekend. Hope to see you there!

<3

J”

Watch Joe’s rendition of ‘La Bamba’ with the cast and crew here, and be sure to follow the Tumblr for new updates every day!

Those Who Can Laugh At Insanity Aren’t Condemned To Repeat It

Mimi Kennedy — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:00:35 +0000

Working on In The Loop was one of the best things that’s ever happened in my acting career. Armando is a frigging genius in my opinion. The entire cast of (ok, we Americans said “Brits” - is that rude?) was brilliant beyond belief. And Gandolfini - what can I say? The way I was taught to act, he is the epitome. Real. The first day we met, first rehearsal in NY (hey, we heard sirens and wondered what was happening- turned out to be Dick Cheney arriving to give a speech in the hotel ballroom downstairs. Interesting) I was feeling all take-Karen-seriously and said I did not think necessarily that the General and Ihad been lovers, that this was the sort of thing which wasn’t necessary for a good man-woman friendship (my real-life experience.) By the end of the shoot, there I was improvising, “I’ll talk about your balls all you want because I remember when they worked.” Maybe this was because by then I felt so strongly that Karen, being from my generation, still remembered - and perhaps as a younger woman,practiced - Make Love, Not War. Maybe it was because on the day we shot the Georgetown cocktail party, I had to get James’ attention somehow, discreetly, for our tete-a-tete, and he said “goose me or something” and I gave him a polite tap and he said, “you have to really get my attention” and I dove in there deep, which is the take you see in the film.

Like I said. He is the epitome of how I was taught to act (thank you Curt Dempster): real.

I loved the British cast. Peter Capaldi is the nicest, sweetest man.Tom Hollander is a chick magnet and I see why. Humor and a brain. Idon’t think I ever succeeded in keeping a straight facethrough the line where he tells me and the General that he’s a “fakehawk.” Chris Addison is gorgeous and smart and funny and I loved his expressionfor good comedy acting “All killer no filler.” At least I think he was talking about comedy acting. Gina, Olivia, Alex, Jamies Smith, Paul Harris, Steve Coogan, Joanna Scanlon- brilliant. And Enzo, (Bob Adriano) was really British doing brilliant American - I think he’s the only one of us who crossed over.

Anna Chlumsky was sooo bright and pretty and emotionally honest - shebrought back vividly to me how it felt when I was a young temporarysecretary (before I got acting jobs) in the early days of feminism,when women bosses felt they had to be ballsy but also assumed you would pickup their dry cleaning and keep them on their diets. Zak Woods ishilariously deadpan. He and I went out to dinner almost the firstnight we were in London. It was late - we were way off time, and jet-lagged, but hungry — and I wanted to see the Thames, so we ended up bythe window of some expensive high-rise restaurant and I remember being alarmedas he tilted across the table, sort of nodding out while trying to be polite. David Rasche - do you believe the dead-on characterization HE achieved?!!That preening macho….nailed it. And the kid in the White House - I didn’t meetthe actor. But I’ve seen the alarmingly-youthful power brokers he’s based on, in Washington.

Is gud to laff at these events as fiction. The real ones they recall seem — almost — safely past. We are still at war, however. Those that led us into it are mostly gone (disappeared over the cliff?)and our laughter, in my opinion, is the pent-up relief of traumatized lemmings who are alive and snapping out of it.

We could spread the relief by ending war altogether!

Or, at least once we’ve laughed our asses off at this insanity writ large, we can - nexttime it ratchets up a request based on stuff ordinary citizens are too innocent andsheltered to understand — deny it a license to kill.

Yeah. Make love not war -still a good alternative. As long as you, you know, use protection.