Interviews with leading figures from the arts
theartsdesk Q&A: Gary Oldman on playing John Cheever in 'Parthenope' and beating the booze
Thursday, 08 May 2025
Gary Oldman has always lived life to the fullest, on screen and off. Maybe that's why he is often at his best in his pitch-perfect portraits of real-life personae such as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour and Herman J Mankiewicz in Mank. He now stars as the bibulous middle-aged American author John Cheever in Parthenope, Paolo Sorrentino's latest lush homage to Italy's recent past.
theartsdesk Q&A: film director Déa Kulumbegashvili on her startling second feature, 'April'
Sunday, 04 May 2025
One of the most exciting new voices in Eastern European film, Déa Kulumbegashvili is not concerned with conventional shot lengths. She has been described as a director of "slow cinema", which she regards as a compliment.
theartsdesk Q&A: director Leonardo Van Dijl...
Wednesday, 30 April 2025
"Julie's story takes place everywhere", says the writer-director Leonardo Van Dijl, whose psychological drama Julie Keeps Quiet has little to do...
theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Miguel Gomes on...
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
It doesn't take much to get lost in a film by Miguel Gomes. In fact, it's required. Multiple layers, timelines, and perspectives unfold in his cinema...
theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer...
Tuesday, 01 April 2025
Joshua Oppenheimer made his name directing two disturbing documentaries, The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014), that dealt with...
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theartsdesk Q&A: director François Ozon on 'When Autumn Falls'
The modern French master reflects on ageing, useful lies and country secrets in his new slow crime film |
theartsdesk Q&A: Indian star Radhika Apte on 'Sister Midnight'
The actor on her breakout screen performance capturing the frantic pulse of Mumbai, and living and working between London and India |
theartsdesk Q&A: Raoul Peck, director of the documentary 'Ernest Cole: Lost and Found'
Peck analyses his approach to the anti-apartheid photographer's work and to his methods as a political filmmaker |
theartsdesk Q&A: Oscar-winner Adrien Brody on 'The Brutalist'
The much-garlanded actor on what playing the architect László Toth meant to him |
Interview: Polar photographer Sebastian Copeland talks about the dramatic changes in the Arctic
An ominous shift has come with dark patches appearing on the Greenland ice sheet |
theartsdesk Q&A: Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof on 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig' - 'It became a question of self-respect'
The exiled filmmaker on authoritarian minds, reluctant radicalism and Iran's future |
10 Questions for Mark Gatiss, writer-director of 'A Ghost Story for Christmas: Woman of Stone'
Gatiss explains why his eerie tale begins with its original Victorian-Edwardian author Edith Nesbit |
theartsdesk Q&A: filmmakers Guy Maddin, Evan and Galen Johnson on 'Rumours'
Archetype-bending auteur Maddin and co. discuss their new film's starry, absurd G7, autobiography and artifice |
theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Payal Kapadia on 'All We Imagine as Light'
An in-depth conversation with the director of the instant Indian arthouse classic |
Interview: rising star Chloe Savage on the Arctic, outer space, and igniting children's wonder for the unknown
Beautiful books take you to worlds that are intricately imagined and a feast for the eye |
Interview: Roy Haynes, Jazz Drumming Giant (1925-2024)
The jazz legend reminisces, from Satchmo to Metheny |
theartsdesk Q&A: director Jacques Audiard on his Mexican trans gangster musical 'Emilia Pérez'
The French filmmaker concocted an extravagant genre mash-up to confront the tragedy of Mexico's 'disappeared' |
theartsdesk Q&A: Anna Bogutskaya on her new book about the past decade of horror cinema
In time for Halloween, the author discusses 'Feeding the Monster' - and why she thinks horror cinema has entered a new phase |
theartsdesk Q&A: Alice Lowe on 'Timestalker' and what women rue through the ages
The writer, director, and star inserts herself into the history of love |
theartsdesk Q&A: young pianist Ignas Maknickas on appearing at the Roman River Festival and beyond
A rising talent who first performed with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra aged 9 |
The Third Man rides again - 75th anniversary of Carol Reed's noir classic
Script supervisor Angela Allen on Orson Welles and filming in a war-ravaged Vienna |
theartsdesk Q&A: conductor Dalia Stasevska on her new album of contemporary orchestral music
Finnish-Ukrainian conductor looks to bring the music of today to new audiences |
theartsdesk Q&A: David Morrissey on (among other things) the return of 'Sherwood' and 'Daddy Issues'
Liverpool-born actor reflects on a journey from Everyman Theatre to film and TV stardom |
theartsdesk Q&A: violinist Braimah and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, guitarist Plínio Fernandes, on their two Fantasia Proms
String siblings and old friend reunite with Tom Fetherstonhaugh's inspiring orchestra |
10 Questions for DJ-producer Dave Clarke
The techno don talks new music, Brexit, cars, Gustav Holst and much more |
theartsdesk Q&A: Lucie Shorthouse is flying high with 'We Are Lady Parts' and 'Rebus'
An actor's progress from Cambridge Footlights to 'Everybody's Talking About Jamie', a female Muslim punk band and crime-fighting in Edinburgh |
theartsdesk Q&A: Viggo Mortensen on 'The Dead Don't Hurt', Westerns and the dangers of patriotism
The star considers romance in Durango, co-star Vicky Krieps, his outsider childhood and taste for adventure |
theartsdesk Q&A: Matthew Modine on 'Hard Miles', 40 years in showbusiness and safer cycling
An eventful journey from 'Full Metal Jacket' to 'Oppenheimer' and 'Stranger Things' |
'I think of her as a proto-punk': documentarist Svetlana Zill on Anita Pallenberg
The co-director considers her revelatory account of the Stones' muse of mayhem |
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