Interviews with leading figures from the arts
Warhol, Velázquez, and leaving things out: an interview with Lynne Tillman
Friday, 22 September 2023
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
Friday, 08 September 2023
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
Friday, 04 August 2023
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...
Tuesday, 11 July 2023
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 - ‘...
Thursday, 27 April 2023
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’
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
The poet discusses her new book, mayflies, motherhood, and memory |
'Corsage' director Marie Kreutzer: 'Being beautiful is her only currency'
The Austrian director on Vicky Krieps, a rotting empire's rebel royal and corsetry as control |
theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Mike Hodges
The British writer-director reflects on the making and meaning of his thriller 'Black Rainbow' |
10 Questions for writer and translator Saskia Vogel
Translation as inhabiting in a book with a witchy love of things |
10 Questions for comedian Alex Edelman
US comic talks about bringing 'Just For Us' to the Menier Chocolate Factory |
10 Questions for Bruce Lindsay, biographer of Ivor Cutler
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'
The Belgian masters discuss 'Tori and Lokita', and finding humanity on film |
Wilko Johnson (1947-2022): The Bard of Canvey Island
Snug-bar confessions in an epic Canvey Island encounter with the late Essex great |
Q&A: Bianca Stigter, director of 'Three Minutes: A Lengthening'
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'
Saying goodbye to the actor famous for saying hello |
‘Stripping naked the process of making theatre’: Martin Crimp talks about his latest play
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
An interview with the novelist the morning after she won the Man Booker Prize for the first time |
theartsdesk Q&A: Abel Selaocoe
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
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
The great singing actor on his best experiences - including Zurich Opera's new Ring |
10 Questions for art historian and fiction writer Chloë Ashby
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
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
'skin blood women roses', collaboration and the secret to excellent hearing |
William Hurt, great Hollywood contrarian, has died at 71
A string of brilliant performances cemented his place as a great face of 1980s cinema |
The unexpurgated Clement Crisp - in memoriam
The titan of ballet critics, who has died at 95, once agreed to be grilled - with scorching results |
10 Questions for filmmaker Romola Garai
The star’s macabre directorial debut 'Amulet' is fuelled by anger |
10 Questions for musician and DJ Pete Tong
On his latest EP and his musical life thus far |
theartsdesk Q&A: jazz musician Charles Lloyd
Jazz Zelig’s long, strange trip from Howlin’ Wolf to Norah Jones |
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