Interview (2007)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

This movie reminds me « Chinese coffee » starring Al as it's a closed evening between 2 characters. Here, one great enhancement is Sienna's loft as it's big and spacious so she and Buscemi have a lot of space to breath. Beyond, i feel also like watching a real TV show as it's almost uncut. The big difficulty in that kind of movie is to keep up the rhythm and here, it's almost done. Sure, 80 minutes are enough, sometimes i lost the flow of the dialogs, other time, i look for the time left, but at the end, it was a great evening : Buscemi, who looks like an old Maccauley Culkin, is a cool guy and Sienna is this hard to catch babe whom the movie is all about : part spoiled brat who know she is sexy and plays with men but also a frail, fragile young woman terribly romantic and caring. For Sienna fan, it's a must see all the more than Sienna is the first actress I know to play so much actress in her movies (« factory girl », « 2 jacks », « nous york », « the girl »). It's funny to see pictures of Katja Schuurman in the loft and that she appears at the end, going out of a limousine : During the movie, i really thought that it would finished in a confusion, as Sienna would have been revealed to take the place of Katja but it's not the case. In all cases, this movie is the remake of the dutch movie starring indeed Katja, with who I have already a good connection (see my reviews about « Costa ! »).NB: if her phone ringing with the dog barking was a bit irritating, it made me a bit smile however as it recalled me that i did almost the same thing during a internship: in the office, i chose a miaow for incoming mails and it brought fun in working hours!

"It's interesting because this film is about hurting each other. I believe you can't hurt somebody you don't care about and you can't be hurt by somebody you don't care about." Steve BuscemiThe Dogme 95-esque filming manner of Interview, a remake of a 2003 Dutch film by Theo van Gogh, draws on the bare elements that films require; actors and recording equipment. The film is set majorily in Katya's loft, and as the fly-on-the-wall bystander in the open-plan apartment, leaving the room without knowing a conclusion to the situation is bottom of any voyeur's to-do list.Baring in mind that mainstream films often rely on spectacular scenery, extraordinary events or one-man-can-change-the-world approaches, it is thoroughly encouraging to occasionally spend a close hour and a half with only two character, and not be able to decide who is good or evil. Much like the time we spent with Jeffries in Rear Window, or the sales team in Glengarry Glenn Ross, the characters confide copious amounts of past histories which the audience have no license to be knowledgeable of.A physical scar catalyses the movie into a deep intricate account of their personal inner lives. The war and political journalist shares tales of his compelling past with close relatives; his brother's suicide attempt, his ex-wife's death, and his daughter's heroin overdose. Equally, Katya has a larger than life history, a drug habit, smoking endless cigarettes and an untruthful relationship with her boyfriend. Although the film does take two extraordinary lives, there is no evidence that anything seen or heard is the truth and could quite easily be Pierre's alcoholism and Katya's cocaine snorting resulting in flamboyant imagination.Like in any script; conflict drives the narrative. There are no explicit goals attempting to be won or achieved, but a greater focus on the struggle to maintain supremacy. Katya's role in society – purely being a stunningly beautiful "actress" – lends herself to being celebrity with little reason for success, obliging Pierre to take superiority on the importance scale. While the film twists and turns its way through personal trauma, the erratic audiences' empathetic emotions fluctuate accordingly. Generally one might align themselves with either Pierre or Katya, but the film will bring the imagined character-spectator relationship into question at some point during is running time, and probably subsequently when the DVD player is switched off.In Interview, we find out a hefty amount more about the interviewer rather than the interviewee. If the journalist undertook his customary research and interview preparation, we would be left with the boringness of another Katie Price interview concerning her latest perfume. The ignorance of each other's toil provides opportunity to enquire into irrelevant issues on both parts, and as sexual tension turns into a familial relationship, sparks fly in all directions.

INTERVIEW is a smart little independent film adapted from the 2003 Theo van Gogh film by the same name, a film that drew a lot of attention based on a script by Theodor Holman, which in turn was based on an idea by Hans Teeuwen sparring the famous Dutch actress Katja Schuurman with actor Pierre Bokma. In this adaptation Steve Buscemi reworked the Holman screenplay with the help of David Schechter, changing the female role to a tabloid type bombshell actress (also named Katya, played with razor sharp clarity by Sienna Miller) with a disgruntle political reporter Pierre (Steve Buscemi) whose career is on the skids requiring that he take lousy assignments such as this interview to stay alive.Other than a disastrous opening in a classy restaurant where the two characters realize they are ridiculously mismatched as an interview pair, the entire film takes place in Katya's loft. Katya appears shallow and short of goals and Pierre only acquiesces to complete the interview when he suffers a head injury and is invited for ice and drink to Katya's place. What ensues is a battle of wits in which each of the two characters discovers more about each other than either cares to disclose, and after a 'mating dance' of sorts the two return to their separate corners of the boxing ring - each having a final twist on the other's private life. It is a play within a play and the words make all the difference.Sienna Miller is becoming one of the more important actresses on the screen and in this role she proves her mettle in a superbly nuanced role. Steve Buscemi may not have been the optimal choice to play Pierre, but he is sharp to watch and is never short of intelligence, both as an actor and as a writer/director. Not an action movie and not a film for those who need strong narrative, but for viewers who enjoy the barbs and wit of a sparring match, this is a well-made example of the genre. Grady Harp

Steve Buscemi is known for is comical and sadistic performances as an actor. In Interview not only does he act in it, he directs and co-writes it. The movie is about a journalist(Buscemi) who is sent to interview a young and famous actress(Miller), they end up asking intimate questions about each others personal life's in (millers) house. Soon (Miller) confesses her secret in exchange for (Buscemi's). when their both done telling their secrets to one another, (Buscemi) leaves but not (miller) delivers a surprising revelation to (Buscemi).The performances are very good from (Buscemi) and (Miller). Buscemi is an experienced actor and it shows with this performance, he has been a consistent actor over the years and he doesn't let up in this one. Miller is a young actress, she shows talent with this performance, by the end you'll believe that she is the character she plays, in real life. This movie reminds me of "Hard Candy" because of the sexual tension that goes on through the movie, and the one on one conversations.Now for the not so good part. How is it that millers character becomes so compassionate for Buscemi's character and even takes him to her home after she was being mean and self centered before the accident. Also how does Buscemi's character know how to act? Hes a journalist. other than that i think the movies was very good and after seen it again i liked it more because i understood things that i dint the first time through. I felt that the running time was good at eighty something minutes because if it was longer it would of started to get annoying. I enjoyed this movie, and i hope Buscemi keeps directing movies because they are fun to watch.