tue 12/11/2024

Interviews with leading figures from the arts

theartsdesk Q&A: director Jacques Audiard on his Mexican trans gangster musical 'Emilia Pérez'

Pamela Jahn

Jacques Audiard – creator of such subversive crime dramas and alternative romances as Read My Lips (2001), The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), A Prophet (2009), and Rust and Bone (2012) – isn’t an aficionado of film musicals. But in blending one into his comic Spanish-language trans gangster thriller Emilia Pérez, the 72-year-old director has made the most beautiful aberration of his career.

theartsdesk Q&A: Anna Bogutskaya on her new book about the past decade of horror cinema

Harry Thorfinn-George

You may have heard the phrase “elevated horror” being used to describe horror films that lean more toward arthouse cinema, favouring tension and psychological turmoil over jump-scares and gore.

theartsdesk Q&A: Alice Lowe on '...

Justine Elias

Before Alice Lowe wrote her first short film scripts, she was, despite success in television and theater, “terrified” of making a full-length feature...

theartsdesk Q&A: young pianist Ignas...

Rachel Halliburton

The high level of entries for this year’s Leeds Piano Competition – 366, almost twice the number who entered in 2018 – is just one reminder that any...

The Third Man rides again - 75th anniversary of...

Adam Sweeting

It was originally released in Britain 75 years ago this month, making its debut in a small cinema in Hastings on 1 September 1949, and quite a few...

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theartsdesk Q&A: conductor Dalia Stasevska on her new album of contemporary orchestral music

Bernard Hughes

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'

Adam Sweeting

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

David Nice

String siblings and old friend reunite with Tom Fetherstonhaugh's inspiring orchestra

10 Questions for DJ-producer Dave Clarke

Thomas H Green

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'

Adam Sweeting

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

Nick Hasted

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

Adam Sweeting

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

Nick Hasted

The co-director considers her revelatory account of the Stones' muse of mayhem

theartsdesk Q&A: Eddie Marsan and the American Revolution, posh boys and East End gangsters

Adam Sweeting

Versatile actor on playing John Adams opposite Michael Douglas in Apple TV+’s ‘Franklin'

theartsdesk Q&A: Marco Bellocchio - the last maestro

Nick Hasted

Italian cinema's vigorous grand old man discusses Kidnapped, conversion, anarchy and faith in cinema

10 Questions for folk singer-songwriter Olivia Chaney - 'deeply personal songs that open out to the universal'

Tim Cumming

The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter on 'Circus of Desire', her strongest album to date

theartsdesk Q&A: Singer Dee C Lee

Thomas H Green

The vocalist chats through music, life, love, heartbreak and glorious Eighties times with The Style Council and WHAM!

theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Karl Wallinger

Graeme Thomson

RIP Karl Wallinger: a 2012 interview with the World Party wizard on aneurysms, Robbie Williams, drugs and fame

theartsdesk Q&A: Wim Wenders on 'Perfect Days'

Graham Fuller

The German director explains why he made a drama about a Tokyo toilet cleaner

10 Questions for 'The Settlers' film director Felipe Gálvez Haberle

Graham Fuller

Why he made a Western to condemn the Chileans responsible for the Selk'nam genocide

Scala!!! interview with documentary co-directors Jane Giles and Ali Catterall

Saskia Baron

How the Scala became London's most infamous repertory cinema

theartsdesk Q&A: Steven Wilson on Porcupine Tree, 'The Harmony Codex' and electro-dominance

Graham Fuller

Travelling not arriving drives the reluctant prog star onto fresh musical terrains

32 Sounds: Interview with innovative documentarian Sam Green about his audio and visual feast

Saskia Baron

Rare chance to catch a unique documentary that explores the listening world

10 Questions for the avant-pop icons Stereolab

Cheri Amour

Laetitia and Tim on Nineties tribes, new-age technology and their lifelong affinity with music

'The people behind the postcards': an interview with Priya Hein, author of 'Riambel'

Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou

The writer discusses her prize-winning debut novel, the power of fragments, and the motivations that drive her work

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

Alice Brewer

Allongside its British re-release, the author of Motion Sickness discusses the state of fiction and her ways of writing

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

Tim Cumming

Mick, Keith and Ronnie at their Hackney Diamonds press conference on Wednesday

Composer and conductor Carl Davis, 1936-2023

Graham Rickson

theartsdesk Q&A from 2021 with the silent film specialist on shot lists, bass drums and projection speeds

Isabelle Huppert and director Jean-Paul Salomé: 'Cinema is about a little trade, a little business'

Nick Hasted

La Syndicaliste's star and director discuss misogyny, ambiguity and the quest for perfection

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