AltWeeklies Wire
Sautéed Chicken Breasts Over Fascism, From the Director of 'The White Ribbon'new

Dogmatic ideologies — religious, political and social — are central to Michael Haneke’s latest film, The White Ribbon, which unfolds in a rural German village during the year preceding the start of World War I.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
01-08-2010 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke
Eastwood on the Pitch: At 79, Clint tackles Mandela in 'Invictus'new

It’s the 24th day of filming on Clint Eastwood’s Invictus, the 30th film he has directed in a career that now spans more than a half-century — and, as usual on an Eastwood set, if you didn’t know they were shooting a major Hollywood movie here, you’d be none the wiser.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
12-11-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Chris Fuller on His Microbudget 'Loren Cass'new
An autodidact whose words tumble out in a slurry stream, Fuller carries himself with such intense conviction that, when he tells you Loren Cass is a project he's been working toward his entire life, you believe him.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
09-11-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Chris Fuller, Loren Cass
'Inglourious Basterds' Brings Late-Career Glory to Christoph Waltznew

It's a familiar part of the Tarantino mythos -- the director plucks a faded star from the brink of obscurity and restores him or her to their former glory. Only, unlike John Travolta, Pam Grier and others before him, Waltz was never that kind of star in the first place.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
08-21-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Battered But Not Broken, Jean-Jacques Beineix Returnsnew
The embattled Parisian director brings a reissue, a retrospective and a project in progress.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
07-10-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Jean-Jacques Beineix, drama films
Woody Allen on Life, Actors, Younger Women and His 40th Filmnew

Allen's Whatever Works marks the realization of a project he first conceived in the 1970s as a vehicle for Zero Mostel, then set aside following the actor's untimely death. The result is a light comic burlesque -- a minor key but eminently pleasurable Allen confection
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
06-12-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Clint Eastwood, America's Directornew
"You've made the first movie of the Obama generation!" exclaimed an audience member, as he rushed up to Clint Eastwood after a recent screening of Gran Torino. "Well," the 78-year-old actor-director replied, without missing a beat, "I was actually born under Hoover."
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
12-19-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino
Catherine Deneuve: Belle De 50 Ansnew
The actress on her new film, A Christmas Tale, and her long, glorious non-career.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
11-21-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
How Lance Hammer Earned His Beautiful New Film 'Ballast'new

It is but one of the many remarkable qualities of Ballast that its characters possess their quiet, unassailable dignity from the start rather than having it revealed (or, worse, bestowed upon them) by the filmmaker.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
11-14-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Oliver Stone on 'W.' and the President Who Would Be John Waynenew

W. attempts to cut through the familiar agitprop from both sides of the political spectrum in order to take the long view on its subject and his impact on the course of American history.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
10-17-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Mickey Rourke Returns as 'The Wrestler'new
However you term it, The Wrestler, at least where Rourke is concerned, almost didn't happen at all. Although Aronofsky and screenwriter Robert D. Siegel developed the project with Rourke in mind, they found it impossible to secure even the modest financing required for a sometimes explicitly violent wrestling movie starring an actor who hadn't headlined a major motion picture since the first George Bush was in office.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
09-26-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Woody Allen's European Vacation: 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'new
He lived the young man's dream in Spain; next, he directs Larry David in NYC and Puccini for L.A. Opera.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
08-18-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
'Step Brothers': Blended Family Valuesnew
Director Adam McKay and Will Ferrell relish working on an absurdist high wire, and the whole point of their movies isn't how any one scene relates to another but rather how much they can chip away at the logic that holds most movies together. Baghead also reviews.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
07-25-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Olivier Assayas on Getting Carried Awaynew
For Boarding Gate, Assayas chose Hong Kong as Sandra's final destination, as a way of shooting in -- and paying homage to -- the city that has influenced his own filmmaking.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
03-21-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Boarding Gate, Olivier Assayas
Michael Haneke Will Be Your Mirrornew
Don't blame him if you don't like what you see.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
03-14-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Funny Games, Michael Haneke