Film
Massimo Bottura is one of the world's greatest chefs, but there's more to him than just his delicious creations: he believes recipes can change lives.
Shot by David May
Edited by Marc Fennell
Happy Game of Thrones day. Still one of my all time favourite moments in an interview. Back in 2013 I sat down with the creator of the megahit Game of Thrones and discovered that when George R. R. Martin started writing the books back in 1991 he had no idea what a cult phenomenon it would become both on the page and in the HBO TV series.
He also talks about Piracy and why he actually NEEDS fans to help write the books.
Iron Man director Jon Favreau talks fighting for Robert Downey Jr in Iron Man, the late Garry Shandling and his new film The Jungle Book.
She's the woman behind the highest-grossing rom-com of all time: Nia Vardalos talks love, motherhood and immigration.
The screen and science legend talks fame, mental illness and masturbation.
Melissa McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone chat about their new film The Boss, feminism, her goth stage, comedy and welp, a whole lotta things.
Theoretical physicist Doctor Brain Greene talks his love of science and his mission to spread it around the world.
She turned her real-life prison story into one of the most watched shows on television: Orange Is The New Black's Piper Kerman talks serving time, institutionalised racism and the power of women's stories.
Blue Steel himself Ben Stiller sits down with me to chat Zoolander 2 and the tragedy that held back the sequel for 15 years.
Just how do you make an episode of South Park in six days? And what happens when you drop acid at the Oscars? Matt Stone and Trey Parker are getting set to bring the excellent blockbuster musical The Book of Mormon to Australia. For the first time ever they let Australian cameras into their studios to see how it's done.
RIP Alan Rickman. I was very lucky to sit down and chat with the man last year and the first story in the interview about his drama teacher hating his (now iconic) voice still astounds me. They said it was “like a drain pipe”. Remember him well because - by Grapthar’s hammer - he was bloody good.
You’ll never get an easier job as an interviewer than Quentin Tarantino. He is a total pleasure. He responds to pirates uploading his movie, he talks about his steepest learning curve and, of course, his brand new film The Hateful 8. Enjoy, share:)
Harrison Ford is the living embodiment of the phrase "zero fucks given". In our interaction he's totally polite, considerate & militantly non-plussed. Also he can't remember partying with Monty Python and the Rolling Stones while making Empire Strikes Back. Which, I assume, means it was a truly epic gathering.
Harrison Ford - The FeedMr Marc Fennell (That Movie Guy) has done it again folks: Harrison Ford tells him to "shut up" before forgetting that he and Carrie Fisher partied with The Rolling Stones AND the Monty Python squad that one time. Also, Harrison Ford smiles. You guys, he SMILES.#TheFeedSBS #StarWars #TheForceAwakens
Posted by SBS 2 on Thursday, December 10, 2015
Sherlock's creators on sending him back to the Victorian era for their upcoming special, and why Matt Smith was a perfect Doctor Who.
Steven Moffat & Mark Gatiss - The FeedSherlock, Doctor Who, and Moffat's most important show. PRESS GANG 4LYF. #TheFeedSBS
Posted by SBS 2 on Wednesday, November 25, 2015
The Australian accent is, evidently, one of the easiest to conceal. That’s why the Hemsworth brothers are anchoring every major blockbuster film from now to 2032. Virtually every Australian actor seems to lose theirs the minute they hit the international circuit. Well, except Sam Worthington. But for an accent that is so easy to lose it seems to be an impossible one to acquire. Most Americans seem to think we are basically British but drunk. ‘Cobber’ is not a thing that we say. At least not since Queen Victoria was on the throne.
Every time the accent is attempted on the big screen we all cower into a ball, rock back and forth and ask the gods of the cinema to just make them stop. There have been marvellous performances of faux Australians over the years. Jane Campion’s outback drama Holy Smoke!, a criminally overlooked movie driven by an amazing performance from Kate Winslet playing a cult member being deprogrammed. She worked under the tutelage of vocal coach Victoria Mielewska whose CV is a who’s-who of who didn’t fuck it up: Mental, The Dressmaker. But every once in a while you will encounter an Australian accent that makes you want to bash an actor in the face with an angry rabies-infested lobster. Case in point: Pacific Rim. The global robots vs sea monsters apocalypse tornado of bullshit masquerading as a film is loved by many. But despite the enormously fun action and the presence of Idris Elba, the film was basically dead to me the moment they introduced the two Australian characters with those noted Australian names ‘Hercules’ and ‘Chuck’ Hansen. One of the actors was American, the other was English — both sounded like they had suffered a stroke. So, in descending order: here are the screen’s Australian accents from Good to Bad to ‘Why are my ears bleeding now?’.
When trying to perfect the Australian accent, it probably helps to be partnered with an Australian. Liev Schreiber is married to Naomi Watts and in this P.J. Hogan film he’s the exceptional non-local. The Moochmoore family live in the sleepy coastal town of Dolphin Heads. There’s mum Shirley (Rebecca Gibney), dad Barry (Anthony Lapaglia), who is also a local politician, and their five daughters who are all convinced they have various mental illnesses. Shirley is also suffering an extended period of mental ill-health and often retreats into the fantasy world of her favourite musical, The Sound of Music. When she’s not doing that she’s busy ordering huge amounts of furniture. She tells neighbours her husband won on a game show. Barry can cope with the fictional Sound of Music world, but the furniture is a step too far and Shirley is packed off to a mental institution. Barry convinces the kids that everything is fine and mum is just on holidays in Wollongong. At the same time he makes a particularly dubious decision to hire a hitchhiker called Shaz (Toni Collette) to look after the family and from there everything really kicks off. Because the film does not yet feature a sufficient number of Australian stereotypes, there’s also an eccentric shark hunter named Trevor Blundell (Liev Schreiber). His accent is perfect. Terrifyingly perfect. Honestly, it took me fifteen minutes to work out that it was Liev Schreiber in the role. Most critics hated the film, but it actually captures the madcap insanity it seeks to showcase. While the script may seem utterly fanciful, director P.J. Hogan has said he based it on his mother’s mental breakdown when he was twelve. His father was also a politician who refused to tell anyone about his wife’s illness in case it hurt his electoral chances. And yes, as in the film, Hogan’s father really did recruit a hitchhiker to babysit the family.
Actor Benedict Cumberbatch specialises in playing nerds. Not your average nerd but nerds who are charismatic and, judging by the number of Cumbersnatch fans the world over, nerds who are a little bit hot. He perfected the type in Sherlock Holmes, received an Oscar nomination for it in 2014’s The Imitation Game and gave it an Australian twist as Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate. The film begins in 2010 with Wikileaks’ release of the Afghan war logs and then flashes back to 2007, when Assange is just a young hacker with big ideas. But the focus is on the relationship between Assange and journalist Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl), who met the Wikileaks founder in Berlin in 2007 and began working with him. Like all biopics, this film is ‘based on a true story’ with a whole lot of emphasis on that ‘based on’ qualification. It’s been adapted from a book by Domscheit-Berg who later fell out with Assange, allegedly because Julian refused to redact the personal details of sources in the document thus placing them at huge personal risk. Assange has disputed key events in the film and argued that the biggest mistake he made was hiring DomscheitBerg in the first place. The facts may be in dispute but the quality of the Australian accent from Cumberbatch is not. He nails it. And it’s not just the Australian accent: Assange himself has his own wonky accent to begin with. It’s nasal but also has a strong baritone element. He has a tendency to mumble in truncated sentences and Cumberbatch pulls it off admirably. Not that Assange agrees. I spoke to him in the Ecuadorian embassy during the 2013 Australian Federal Election campaign and he described Cumberbatch’s accent as ‘grating’. It’s worth pointing out that ‘grating’ and ‘entirely accurate to Assange’s accent’ are not mutually exclusive terms. Unfortunately though, the film is a mess. It should be a great story of intrigue and espionage, but it all falls flat. And the key obstacle, I suppose, is that it takes real skill to make hacking and computer-related activity look exciting on film. Films have made it work in the past: The Social Network based on the origin of Facebook is a good example. But that film had a great script where this one leans on ham-fisted visual metaphors and a godawful over the top musical score where the director seemed to be reaching for the sounds of a bush-doof rave without ever having been to one. And while Benedict Cumberbatch may have nailed the accent, the same can’t be said for the filmmaker’s knowledge of South America. When Assange appears at the Ecuadorian embassy at the end of the film, the flag in the background is actually Colombian.
Oh yes, we’re getting to the bottom of the barrel now. The film, which went by the name A Cry in the Dark outside of Australia, tells the story of Lindy Chamberlain (Meryl Streep). Based on a hugely controversial true story, here are the facts. The Chamberlains, Michael and Lindy, were camping at Uluru and woke up to find their newborn daughter, Azaria, was missing. A huge hunt ensued with the couple insisting that a dingo took their baby. While there was initial sympathy for the pair, suspicion soon fell on them, with a key part of the evidence being that Lindy didn’t act like a ‘normal’ mum who has just lost a child. She didn’t look sufficiently distraught for one thing. Public opinion swung against her, a trial found her guilty and jail time soon followed. It took three-and-a-half years for the murder case to be quashed and this film was released shortly after. Streep’s performance has been much debated over the years, but while her accent seems strained and never quite believable, it works as a Lindy Chamberlain accent as opposed to an Australian accent. The real Lindy has a New Zealand twang and perhaps where Meryl’s performance falls apart is that it’s more of an impression than an interpretation. Which is odd for an actor who made a career out of nailing accents. The film itself is a courtroom drama, setting up the case against Lindy Chamberlain and then tearing it apart. It is a compelling story and accent aside, Streep’s performance makes it all work. It was a hard role — she had to appear as the cold and aloof Lindy that the public judged yet likeable so we sympathise. Fred Schepisi, who co-wrote and directed the film, intercut the courtroom drama with scenes where broad cross-sections of people discuss the case at dinner parties and on tennis courts. It’s a technique that works really well, showing you just how much the case was run by public opinion, wild rumours and gossip.
Natural Born Killers was a film designed to shock and titillate — it was set up as a critique of the emerging 24/7 media and of celebrity criminals. The story concerns lovers and serial killers Mickey and Mallory (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis) and the tabloid news storm they create (led by Robert Downey Jr as a mulleted Australian TV host). Oliver Stone has long been intent on documenting every incremental stumble in the downfall of the American empire and this was his ‘1990s TV violence, media, tabloid TV, won’t someone please think of the children industrial military complex film’ designed to appeal to those who felt that exposure to violent games and junk had the potential to turn a child into a gleeful murderer. In this period of the 90s you had Marilyn Manson singing ballads to Beelzebub, Doom was allegedly teaching kids how to kill, and then came Natural Born Killers. Stone knew it had the power to offend. Indeed, that was his intent. In the DVD liner notes he wrote with typical subtlety, ‘Didn’t Kubrick and A Clockwork Orange offend the perceived borders of violence? Did not, years before, Buñuel and Dali, with an eyeball and a razor, shock and offend?’ He’s right, they did. And yes, Natural Born Killers was a film that co-opted media violence to tell a story about media violence, but the only thing that remains shocking about this film today is Robert Downey Jr’s attempt at an Australian accent. Apparently Downey Jr. had been hanging out with controversial TV host Steve Dunleavy, an Australian columnist and journalist of the Rupert Murdoch stable that helped launch Tabloid TV in the US with the American version of A Current Affair. RDJ decided he wanted to channel Dunleavy’s accent into the role. More likely he channelled the cocktail of drugs he was said to be on at the time. The result is a fucking awful accent. But while Downey Jr’s Australian accent was a bit off it was in fact a good impression of Dunleavy. Where Downey Jr overdoes the vowels he absolutely nails Dunleavy’s on-camera faux self-righteousness. The film perhaps lacks some of the potency it once had. In the wake of Columbine and 9/11, this kind of violence pales into insignificance. There are now entire TV channels dedicated to crime, courts and celebrities. Even the scatter-gun MTV aesthetic of jerky handheld camerawork feels painfully dated. But that accent. It remains the single most shocking element of this film. So broad. So weird. So cockney, so nothing like what we sound like. In RDJ’s defence he did make up for his accent decades later with Tropic Thunder wherein he played a deadly serious Australian actor concerned with awards — let’s call him Crussel Rowe — who adopts blackface to play an African American.
Excerpt from The Planet According to the Movies - a Travel Guide around the world based on movies.
Australian filmmaker Anna Broinowski wanted to learn how to make a propaganda film about coal seam gas. So she flew to the agitprop capital of the world, North Korea, to learn from the best.
Anna Broinowski interview - The FeedIf you want to know how to make agitprop movies, where do you go? Marc Fennell (That Movie Guy) talks to Australian filmmaker Anna Broinowski about learning from the best.
Posted by SBS 2 on Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Anna's appearance at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas
Rachael Taylor interview - The FeedICYMI: Rachael Taylor on Marvel's Jessica Jones, women in TV, and what we need to do to help women in abusive relationships. #TheFeedSBS
Posted by SBS 2 on Thursday, November 19, 2015
Rachel Taylor has come a long way since Launceston. The Tassie born actress has fought off Transformers, she's been one of Charlie's Angels, she's even starred in Grey's Anatomy. She's also a campaigner against domestic abuse and violence against women, having taken out an AVO on her then-boyfriend, Matthew Newtown. This week Rachel Taylor is entering the Marvel Universe in the new Netflix series Jessica Jones.
Schlamme discusses Mike Myers, a blowjob and the surprise visit to The White House which changed the course of the career from one of the most prolific directors of our time.
Thomas Schlamme interview - The FeedThomas Shlamme teaches Marc Fennell (That Movie Guy) about working for networks, what led him to directing, and the blow job that brought him and Aaron Sorkin together. #TheFeedSBS
Posted by SBS 2 on Thursday, November 12, 2015
The West Wing, ER, Ally McBeal, Sports Night, Friends, Mad About You, The Americans, Manhattan. If you’ve seen any of these shows then there’s a fairly good chance you’ve seen the work of Thomas Schlamme. He has set the tone for the most influential television programmes of the last two decades. And of course he is the architect of those famed ‘walk and talks’ on The West Wing. So, that’s exactly what we do.
The Feed goes on a steady-cam mounted tour through the making of The West Wing.
Marc Fennell walks with Schlamme and discusses Mike Myers, a blowjob and the surprise visit to The White House which changed the course of the career from one of the most prolific directors of our time.
Here's a web extra: Schlamme explains the network battle behind Sports Night's incongruous laugh track
Thomas Schlamme, director of The West Wing & Sports Night, tells Marc Fennell about the network battle over the incongruous laugh track on Sports Night. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SBS2Australia Twitter: https://twitter.com/sbs2 Tumblr: http://sbs2australia.tumblr.com/
"People were calling for my death while I was writing jokes" Meet Egypt's answer to Jon Stewart
Bassem Youssef interview - The FeedSharp-witted, dreamy eyes, badass, makes fun of host's tech geekery. What's not to like?Star of the B+ Bassem Youssef Show, aka 'Egypt's Jon Stewart' tells Marc Fennell (That Movie Guy) about making the show that got him exiled during the Arab Spring. #TheFeedSBS
Posted by SBS 2 on Monday, November 9, 2015
Bassem Youssef has long been called ‘Egypt’s Jon Stewart”. The heart surgeon-turned-comedian has racked up millions of YouTube hits and his seditiously funny TV show Albernameg ridiculed politicians in a land where, well, they don’t often ridicule politicians.
He was drummed out of his show, declared a national security threat and now he lives in exile.
Marc Fennell sits down with Bassem to find out exactly how government pressure works in a nation like Egypt and whether comedy really does have the power to change minds and topple tyrants.
Joel McHale interview - The FeedJoel McHale, dissing Chevy Chase and kissing Dana Scully.
I like to think of The Soup as like, once you watch this you kind of don't need to watch the rest of American reality shows.
That's right, but the problem is if you don't watch the reality shows then there won't be the shows, and we wouldn't have the clips, and then it's an animal that eats it's own tail.
Of all the different shows that you've lovingly made fun of over the years, which do you reckon makes the greatest contribution to popular culture?
The Feed, probably. What is the greatest contribution? It's hard to say because it's been eleven years.
It's a long time.
Yes, I'm 64.
You don't look a day over 61.
Thankyou very much. When Tyra Banks had her talk show that was very helpful to us. Whitney Houston and her crazy reality show with Bobby Brown... that was a remarkably sad.
With big celebrity deaths...
Oh, this will be fun! Yes! Hilarious.
That's what I was going to ask - how soon is too soon for you? What's the window when you can make jokes about it?
It's not like we have a chart where we say, let's go after Judy Garland now, guys! We try to stay away from sad things and scary things. When celebrities are really going crazy with drugs and stuff, we stay away.
Really?
Oh yeah. We see ourselves as a late night chat show monologue. People will ask, what's the latest gossip? And I'm like, I don't know! [Inexplicably, said in an English accent].
Is your audience exclusively people who work in Buckingham Palace?
That was trying to be my Melbourne accent.
The Melbourne accent is weird. They say Malbourne. We don't understand anything they say.
They think they're better than you guys.
Yeah, they definitely do.
I did also want to talk about Community: the journey behind it is as storied as what goes on in front of the camera.
It should have been a reality show.
Would Chevy Chase have been the villain then? Is he as bad as rumours say?
He did not want to be there. If you go to Variety or Hollywood Reporter there's multiple quotes from him saying he doesn't really like the show and doesn't want to be on it. There were times when it was great to have him, but he didn't like the hours. There was a lot of drama behind the scenes. And we would never know if we were going to get picked up or not, every year.
What does that do to a show, when you're constantly on the edge of coming back or not - does it bother you? Is that why you keep doing The Soup?
I keep The Soup because it's fun, and it's with my friends and we have a great time, and I get to go to Australia and be in a strangely lit room with a piano behind me.
We expect you to play it at some point.
Oh, I will. Believe me. I'm going to be doing 'Rhapsody In Blue' in a second. Community was stressful, but you know, you just kind of give it to God and who knows.
There's also talk about Dan Harmon, the creator, delivering scripts late and eventually he was fired, for lack of a better term...
And then rehired.
What was that year like without Dan?
There's a few shows that come around that are created by one person, and they need to be written by that one person. Community was definitely that way. That came out of his brain, and it could really only come out of his brain and when it wasn't coming out of his brain it was not the same. I said, I'm not going to come back to the show which was completely different. It was not our show.
You've also made this move into dramatic acting; you were in Deliver Us From Evil with Eric Bana -
Yes, I was! Eric Bana - what a son of a bitch.
Arsehole.
Ugly, too.
Yes, the worst.
He's super-racist.
And also the new X-Files. I assume you can just tell us all the secrets?
Yes. Everybody dies.
Because the rumour is that you're the love interest for Scully. Why are you breaking up the greatest couple in television?
We just have a lot of sex.
The X-Files: Tinder edition.
That's right. I play a conservative radio and chat show host, and I believe everything that Mulder believes. Except I made money from it. I would say - how would I say it without getting into trouble? - I am an alien.
Scoop!
I couldn't believe was there. I couldn't believe I was saying their names. I was just like, Scully! Mulder! Wow, I said that out loud. On camera. To the people who are those people!
I'm looking at what Greg Kinnear did, who hosted The Talk Soup before you - have you always wanted to move into dramatic acting?
I took a lot longer to do it. I don't have my Oscar nomination yet.
Give it time...
I always thought Spy Kids 4 was going to be the one.
I thought your cameo in Spider-Man 2 was going to be the one.
Me too. It hs been a career disappointment for me.
I had always wanted to do dramatic and comedic acting, and it was just that comedy was the access point. For whatever reason in Hollywood people go, well that's what you do, you can't do anything else. So Scott Derrickson, the director of Deliver Us From Evil, wrote the role for me and then I had to audition to get it. And that's why the movie was the biggest hit in the history of cinema. We opened against Transformers, which I don't recommend. I don't recommend that. It was great fun andI got to know Eric Bana - he's salt of the earth.
It sounds like a backhanded compliment!
He really is! I mean, for an Australian.
Is there a point at which you will have to say goodbye to The Soup?
I signed a contract in blood, so...
Did Seacrest make you do that?
Yes. He is the devil.
Second scoop!
Not like the arch-devil, though.
I still love doing it and I hope the shows are fresh and different. This week's episode is a fake reuinion episode. We got Hayey Joel Osment and Jon Cryer, Connie Souphanousinphone, and we just fight each other the entire time.
Is it as good as the NASCAR episode?
I'm going to say it's even better. If you thought people drink at the Melbourne Cup, or on Anzac Day, you have not been to Talladega. It's an entire society set up of smoked meats and American beer. It's amazing.
Whoever worded you up on Australia, with Melbourne Cup and Anzac Day, has done an excellent job.
I've been here for both.
You have seen us at our worst. I am sorry.
Or your best? BecauseI think a sober Australian is super boring.
Okay. We're going to go drink now.
