Interview: Nadav Lapid on 'Synonyms' and who gets to tell which stories

by Murtada Elfadl

Using his own experiences as a blueprint Nadav Lapid (The Kindergarten Teacher) made a furious, kinetic and altogether astounding film about being disaffected and seeking a new life, ideals and country. In Synonyms (opening today in limited release) Tom Mercier plays Yoav, a young Israeli who flees Tel Aviv for Paris and tries to completely erase his former identity. The movie is not easy to describe, it’s better to dive in and enjoy the experience. It won numerous accolades around the world this year starting with the Golden Bear at the Berlinale. While in New York to present his film in the main slate of the New York Film Festival, we got the chance to talk to Lapid about his film, his powerful lead actor and who owns the rights to tell which stories. The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity

Murtada Elfadl: Can you talk about the beginning of the film. The first 10, 15 minutes are hypnotic, confusing, and disorienting, throwing the audience into the story with no introduction.

NADAV LAPID: I felt that the movie should start with a vibration, with movement. In a way the biggest challenge of the filmmaking was to create this movie that doesn't have a clear narrative line. I didn't want the film to become a series of anecdotes. We had to have something attached to that feeling, that vibration. It's a movie that's based on compulsion, on an urge. You cannot imagine an introduction to such a movie...

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Posterized: Bong Joon-ho

by Nathaniel R

With Parasite rapidly collecting box office loot ($95 million worldwide to date) and looking very strong for awards season and top ten listsd, let's talk about the master behind the camera Boon Jong-ho. The Palme d'or winner turned 50 last month and had yet more cause to celebrate his half century mark with Parasite opening to sensational box office and expanding rapidly (lots more cities this weekend, so go see it!)

Let's look at his short but stellar filmography in poster form after the jump...

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Interview: Ira Sachs on "Frankie"

by Chris Feil

Frankie is the latest film from director Ira Sachs, one that transplants his trademark humane examination of family dynamics to a beautiful town in Portugal. Isabelle Huppert plays the titular actress, who has insisted on a vacation with family and friends after receiving a fatal diagnosis. The film - also starring Marisa Tomei, Brendan Gleeson, Jérémire Renier, and Greg Kinnear - is Sachs’ most sprawling ensemble yet. In the span of the day, there are reconciliations and aired heartbreaks shared between lovers, step-siblings, and most importantly parents and children - all set against the revealing truth of nature and the landscape. When I sat down to talk with Sachs about the film and his point of view as a storyteller, he was every bit as warm and thoughtful and introspective as his films...

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David Lynch's "Eraserhead" Debut

The Governors Awards (Honorary Oscars) will be held on October 27th, 2019. We've been discussing two of the honoraries: Directors Lina Wertmüller and David Lynch. Here's Mark Brinkerhoff...

Having just retrospected Mulholland Drive, David Lynch’s penultimate film (to date at least), let’s venture back to 1977’s Eraserhead, the debut film of American cinema’s enfant terrible ne plus ultra. 

To say that Eraserhead is weird would be a profound understatement. Not only is it deeply weird, but it’s wildly inventive. Made for a tight (even for the mid-‘70s) $10,000, Lynch’s first feature, shot in glorious black and white, seems like both a precursor and a post-script to the legendary director’s storied career...

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Over & Overs: To Wong Foo

In Over & Overs we ask Team Experience to share movies that they've seen countless times and tell us why. Here's Chris Feil...

The 90s were an interesting time to be an odd kid strangely compelled to the sight of men in dresses. Drag comedies had a kind of resurgence into the mainstream, particularly with Robin Williams headlining both Mrs. Doubtfire and The Birdcage to huge popularity. But the one that struck my imagination and sparked an undefined sense of self-identification was Beeban Kidron’s oddly named To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.

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