SDCC 2013 Video Interview: Alfonso Cuarón on the Long-Takes in ‘Gravity’

[MTV & Film.com Exclusive] With “R.I.P.D.” finally screening tonight, Alfonso Cuarón’s “Gravity” is now our most-anticipated film of the year. In fact, it was was our most-anticipated film of last year as well, until it was unceremoniously bumped from the schedule due to the fact that it wasn’t going to be ready in time to make its original November 2012 release date. An incredibly ambitious film that invited the “Children of Men” director to perfect the intricate long-take strategy that he first developed with his brilliant 2006 dystopian saga, “Gravity” tells the story of a medical engineer (Sandra Bullock) whose first mission to space, a seemingly banal technical exercise, becomes a breathlessly intense fight for survival when she and her veteran co-worker (George Clooney) experience a malfunction and are separated from their ship with just a limited reserve of oxygen to keep them both alive (peep the trailer here). Reportedly opening with a nearly 17-minute shot and containing fewer cuts in its 88 minutes than most films do in their trailers, “Gravity” is a classic suspense yarn with a mind-boggling technical flourish.

Cuarón brought the film to Comic-Con today, and sat down with MTV’s Josh Horowitz to discuss the film’s remarkable shooting style, the particulars as to why it was delayed for almost a full year, and how it was inspired by an unlikely Steven Spielberg movie. Enjoy this revealing five-minute video interview, and then try your best to go into cryogenic sleep until “Gravity” opens on October 4.

Note: If you’re having trouble playing the video, click through to MTV’s embed here.

For more great exclusive coverage from Comic-Con 2013, check out MTV’s Livestream!

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Tags: Alfonso Cuaron, George clooney, Gravity, Sandra bullock, SDCC, SDCC 2013

Video Interview: Olivier Assayas on Sex, Marx and Revolution in ‘Something in the Air’

“I’ve always believed more in movement than narration.”

With his new film “Something in the Air,” revered French filmmaker Olivier Assayas (“Irma Vep,” “Carlos”) has effectively made his version of “Almost Famous.” A sexy yet sincere reflection on the post-revolutionary times of his youth, Assayas’ film – torn between past and present – is almost certainly among the most entertaining movies he’s ever made, but also one of the most conflicted and layered.

In Film.com’s full review of “Something in the Air,” I described the film as follows:

“The film begins with a floppy teenager named Gilles (Clément Métayer as Assayas’ blank but perceptive proxy) running around the February 9, 1971 demonstration, in which a branch of French maoists were teargassed by the Parisian police force. Originally titled “Après Mai” (or “After May”), “Something in the Air” rages with the orphaned energy that lingered in the aftermath of the May ’68 revolution, introducing us to the kids who were there to devour the crumbs of the counterculture. Gilles’ friends – the most memorable of whom is played by Lola Créton, perhaps the most compulsively watchable ingenue in all contemporary cinema – represent a generation of agitated adolescents so idealistic and impossibly beautiful that their physical presence alone is enough to suggest that this is a personal story told through a political lens, and not the other way around. Like a fire with nothing to burn, they have all the zeal in the world and no cause into which they might channel it.”

It was a hell of time to be young, and it’s obvious from the film that Assayas has plenty more to say on the subject than what he could fit in a single movie. That being said, IFC was kind enough to offer Film.com an exclusive clip from this Sundance Now video interview with the filmmaker, in which he talks about some of the ideas that informed his new work.

“Something in the Air” hits theaters tomorrow.

Categories: Interviews

Tags: Apres Mai, Director, Ifc films, Interview, Olivier Assayas, Something in the Air, Video Interview

Video Q&A: Rosemarie DeWitt on Acting with Screenwriters

Rosemarie DeWitt, Hollywood’s hardest-working actor of 2012, keeps the hits coming in her sixth role of the year. She stars as Alice, a local girl who catches the eye of a visiting natural gas contractor, in the environmental drama “Promised Land.”

Though her face has been all over movie screens this year, there’s one place she hasn’t been: the writers’ room. In “Promised Land,” she stars alongside Matt Damon and John Krasinski, who also co-wrote the film.

“It made me a little bit more nervous,” she told Film.com in New York ahead of the movie’s Dec. 28 release, of acting alongside the authors of the script, “but in a good way.”

“As an actor, I’m so inspired by people who put on other hats.”

Watch the video, below, to hear DeWitt talk about taking notes from her co-stars, shooting the film and the importance of personal responsibility.

Categories: Interviews

Tags: john krasinski, matt damon, Promised Land, Rosemarie DeWitt, Promised Land, Rosemarie DeWitt, John Krasinski, Matt Damon