sat 30/09/2023

Interviews with leading figures from the arts

Warhol, Velázquez, and leaving things out: an interview with Lynne Tillman

Alice Brewer

Motion Sickness (1991) is the second novel published by the writer, art collector and cultural critic Lynne Tillman. It is difficult, to her credit, to say what it is really about – what makes Tillman a formative figure for much contemporary fiction is a capacity for formalised evasion, for writing a sparse language that nonetheless feels strangely interior to itself.

'We wanted to make a record we really love': The Rolling Stones at Hackney Empire

Tim Cumming

One day, someone will compile a full illustrated history of Rolling Stones press conferences, going right back to Mick and Keith in 1964 buying a couple of pints in a pub in Denmark Street for journalists from the NME and Melody Maker – both now in the dustbin of history – and telling them, “here’s our album, have a listen” and leaving them to it.

Composer and conductor Carl Davis, 1936-2023

Graham Rickson

May 2021 should have seen the appearance on Netflix of a new restoration of Abel Gance’s silent epic Napoleon, lasting nearly seven hours and timed...

Isabelle Huppert and director Jean-Paul Salomé...

Nick Hasted

Isabelle Huppert is French cinema’s icon of icy transgression, from Bertrand Blier’s outrageous Les Valseuses (1974) to Paul Verhhoeven’s Elle (2017...

theartsdesk Q&A: musician Susanne Sundfør - ‘...

Kieron Tyler

With the release this week of Blómi, her sixth studio album, Norway’s Susanne Sundfør discloses more about herself than she previously has through...

Filmmaker Tarik Saleh: ‘A director is at heart an immigrant’

Nick Hasted

Cairo Conspiracy's director talks power, Egypt, Islam and Le Carré

'I let it emerge': an interview with Fiona Benson on the cusp of the TS Eliot Prize announcement

Jack Barron

The poet discusses her new book, mayflies, motherhood, and memory

'Corsage' director Marie Kreutzer: 'Being beautiful is her only currency'

Nick Hasted

The Austrian director on Vicky Krieps, a rotting empire's rebel royal and corsetry as control

theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Mike Hodges

David Thompson

The British writer-director reflects on the making and meaning of his thriller 'Black Rainbow'

10 Questions for writer and translator Saskia Vogel

Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou

Translation as inhabiting in a book with a witchy love of things

10 Questions for comedian Alex Edelman

Veronica Lee

US comic talks about bringing 'Just For Us' to the Menier Chocolate Factory

10 Questions for Bruce Lindsay, biographer of Ivor Cutler

Sebastian Scotney

How the teacher-poet became like a Zelig figure across so many swathes of UK culture

Directors the Dardenne brothers: 'To be living means to be fragile'

Nick Hasted

The Belgian masters discuss 'Tori and Lokita', and finding humanity on film

Wilko Johnson (1947-2022): The Bard of Canvey Island

Nick Hasted

Snug-bar confessions in an epic Canvey Island encounter with the late Essex great

Q&A: Bianca Stigter, director of 'Three Minutes: A Lengthening'

Graham Fuller

The historian and filmmaker discusses her haunting documentary about a Polish shtetl filmed on the brink of the abyss in 1938

Leslie Phillips: 'I can be recognised by my voice alone'

Jasper Rees

Saying goodbye to the actor famous for saying hello

‘Stripping naked the process of making theatre’: Martin Crimp talks about his latest play

Aleks Sierz

The playwright talks about 'Not One of These People', which he is performing himself, digital creativity and constraints on authorship

'The first thing I do when I wake up is write.' Hilary Mantel, 1952-2022

Jasper Rees

An interview with the novelist the morning after she won the Man Booker Prize for the first time

theartsdesk Q&A: Abel Selaocoe

Tim Cumming

The South African cellist and rising star of World and Classical on the music, life and history embedded in his debut album 'Where Is Home'

theartsdesk Q&A: Horn player Sarah Willis on returning to Cuba

Graham Rickson

Guaguancós, cha-cha-chas and crickets as the horn player commissions a new work in Havana

theartsdesk Q&A: bass-baritone Christopher Purves on communicating everything from Handel to George Benjamin

David Nice

The great singing actor on his best experiences - including Zurich Opera's new Ring

10 Questions for art historian and fiction writer Chloë Ashby

Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou

On sights, acts of seeing and book 'Wet paint', inspired by Manet’s 'A Bar at the Folies-Bergère'

theartsdesk Q&A: Marc Almond of Soft Cell

Harry Thorfinn-George

The Eighties icon tells how Andy Warhol, Chernobyl, nostalgia and the colour purple inspired the first Soft Cell album in 20 years

10 Questions for Musician Jarboe

Guy Oddy

'skin blood women roses', collaboration and the secret to excellent hearing

William Hurt, great Hollywood contrarian, has died at 71

Jasper Rees

A string of brilliant performances cemented his place as a great face of 1980s cinema

The unexpurgated Clement Crisp - in memoriam

Ismene Brown

The titan of ballet critics, who has died at 95, once agreed to be grilled - with scorching results

10 Questions for filmmaker Romola Garai

Graham Fuller

The star’s macabre directorial debut 'Amulet' is fuelled by anger

10 Questions for musician and DJ Pete Tong

India Lewis

On his latest EP and his musical life thus far

theartsdesk Q&A: jazz musician Charles Lloyd

Nick Hasted

Jazz Zelig’s long, strange trip from Howlin’ Wolf to Norah Jones

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Falstaff, Opera North review - going green and having fun

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The Old Oak review - a searing ode to solidarity

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Unbelievable, Criterion Theatre review - Derren Brown-direct...

Unbelievable is a strange title for a slightly strange show, the brainchild of Derren Brown, Andrew O’Connor and Andy Nyman, a...

Black Sabbath: The Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingh...

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Album: Jorja Smith - Falling or Flying

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