Interview articles from February 2008

Interview archives from February 2008

Loves it or leaves it.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dear Interview, After seeing the gorgeous Keira Knightley in so many costume dramas, it was a rare pleasure to receive your December/January issue and see her looking so, shall we say, un-costumey. Loved the pies...

Andy is in the building.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... Dear Interview, As I write this letter, I have in front of me an old issue of Interview magazine from 1985 and another one from June 2007, and I must congratulate you as you have kept alive the spirit of the magazine Andy Warhol started....

Ultimate smackdown.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... Dear Interview, Your November 2007 article covering the "stars" of the UFC franchise was a real low for you. Debates about skill and athleticism aside, caged fighting matches are nothing more than legalized brutality. The sport's...

What's in a name?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... Dear Interview, Is Taylor Kitsch's [December/January 2008] real name Taylor Kitsch? He says he failed as a model and now wants to make it as a movie star, but his name would seem to doom him to failure in any performing arts endeavor. Last...

In praise of pain-free acting.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... Dear Interview, I grew up in Colombia dreaming of one day becoming an actor like Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, and Sophia Loren, but lately it seems as if the movie industry has been underestimating our intelligence by putting...

As tears go by.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... Dear Interview, I adored Zoe Cassavetes's film Broken English, so when I saw that she was being interviewed by Wes Anderson in your July issue, I couldn't have been happier--that is, until I reached the very end of the article and landed...

A stake in Jake.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... Dear Interview, I've never seen Jake Gyllenhaal looking as sullen as he does on your October cover. What did photographer Mark Seliger do to piss him off? I was almost worried Gyllenhaal was in a bout of depression, but at least he seems...

Tangled up in blues (and reds and greens): Bob Dylan once waxed lyrical about dating Botticelli's niece and painting a masterpiece. Now the voice of America has a museum show.(CROSSING BOUNDARIES)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ever since the early '70s, when Bob Dylan started putting his drawings onto the covers of his records, it's been clear that there's a strong visual component to the work of that very American bard. Which makes sense:...

Max Lugavere & Jason Silva: how carousing in Miami's South Beach landed two young filmmakers on the cutting edge of cable TV.(WHAT'S NEW ON THE BOX)(Interview)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Current TV, which was founded in 2005 by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, is the fastest-growing cable network of all time, thanks in part to a lineup of fresh-faced hosts like Max Lugavere and Jason Silva. The two, both of...

Stray cats: a crown that says rock 'n' roll royalty.(LOOK OF THE MONTH)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Who hasn't romanticized becoming a rebellious rock star with all the attendant fame, fortune, and fast times? But while turning that fantasy into fact requires at least a modicum of musical talent, nailing the look...

K.D. Lang: how I fell in love with America.(FEBRUARY [love] STORIES)(Cartoon)
February 1, 2008... K.d. lang's new album, WATERSHED, is out this month [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] GROWING UP IN CANADA MY FIRST IMAGES OF AMERICA WERE MUSICIANS, THEIR ALBUM COVERS WERE LIKE PORTALS INTO A WORLD THAT I IMAGINED AMERICA TO BE. ...

Comic book Verite starring Naomi Watts.(Cartoon)
February 1, 2008... I SPENT THE FIRST FOURTEEN YEARS OF MY LIFE IN BRITAIN. THEN WE MOVED TO AUSTRALIA--THAT WAS A MAJOR... CULTURE SHOCK! TO GO FROM GREY DREARY DAYS TO SUNSHINE EVERY DAY SO MANY PEOPLE OUT AND ABOUT, WANDERING AROUND IN BIKINIS....

Lake Bell: isn't it about time that the big screen had a female lothario?(MOVIE SCOOP)(Interview)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When Lake Bell made the breezy transition from television to movies, she might have imagined that escaping the sleazy lawyers of Boston Legal and the electric mutant amphibians of Surface would assure her an easy...

Edgar Ramirez: the former diplomacy student is about to cause an international incident at a theater near you.(MOVIE BREAKOUT)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "He looks great with a gun" is how Pete Travis, director of this month's Vantage Point, describes part of actor Edgar Ramirez's appeal. And it's true that many of his movies have played to that particular strength,...

Anamaria Marinca: Romania is the film world's next red-hot spot for talent--and she's about to bring it to a boil.(MOVIE NEWS)(Movie review)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It is an unlikely success story: A dark little Romanian drama goes on to win international awards and acclaim. The film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, from writer-director Cristian Mungiu, is just that, and its...

Shots in the dark: when directors tackle their own remakes, who scores?(MOVIE COLUMN)(Movie review)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Michael Haneke's archly self-reflexive Funny Games caused walkouts when it played In Competition at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. Now he's remade it as an American movie, but why would a director as intellectually...

Be Kind Rewind.(Movie review)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Review: BE KIND REWIND Directed by Michel Gondry (New Line) A Michel Gondry film that slyly manages to keep its Gondry-ness in check until it emerges like a Cracker Jack surprise, Be Kind Rewind is nevertheless...

The Air I Breathe.(Movie review)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Review: THE AIR I BREATHE Directed by Jieho Lee (ThinkFilm) The current big-screen trend of interwoven stories connected via "fate" and "coincidence" reaches its boiling point in Jieho Lee's overbaked, self-important underworld soap opera....

4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days.(Movie review)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Review: 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS Directed by Cristian Mungiu (IFC Films) Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, Cristian Mungiu's emotionally ravaging drama is a stripped-down, expertly paced film that takes as its...

In Bruges.(Movie review)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Review: IN BRUGES Directed by Martin McDonagh (Focus) In Martin McDonagh's first stab at directing a feature, Bruges--the medieval jewel-box city in Belgium--provides a pristine contrast to the trademark rough-poetry rhythms of his...

Two-minute Oscars.(MOVIES: REVIEWS, PREVIEWS, OUR VIEWS)
February 1, 2008... Nice to report that discovering ephemeral, indelible performances---a fixture in the pages of Interview since 1992--was easier in 2007. Please celebrate moments of true shock and awe from these great, selfless artists: 1 Tereza Srbova, who...

Fashion's 12-step program: Chanel's quilted classic goes hands-free.(STYLE THERAPY)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] These days a well-dressed woman seems incomplete without a status bag. But lately the handbag has been eclipsed by an eye-popping accessory that has adorned several of Hollywood's shiny young things at high-profile...

Revel in revelation: show 'em what you're made of.(STYLE FLASH)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When Henry James wrote in his novel The Ambassadors about a character's "fluidity of self-revelation," he could have been describing spring 2008's trend toward transparency. That's because the models who sported...

My America: Interview asks three great American photographers to tell us why this country is such a natural in front of the camera. Their answer? America keeps moving.(Interview)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BRUCE WEBER "I first started photographing in America from a car. Where else in the world can you roll down the window--the electric window--stick your camera out and take pictures of moving images while listening to...

Charles Bock: how a debut novelist found his muse in his parents' Las Vegas pawnshop.(WRITER SPOTLIGHT)(Interview)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Charles Bock's debut novel, Beautiful Children, involves a 12-year-old boy who goes missing in Las Vegas, but the sweep of plot and character that Bock weaves around his tale cannot be reduced to a quick description....

Teyana Taylor: meet the new queen of hip-hop hipsterism.(MUSIC TIP)(Interview)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Seventeen may be a ripe age to pine for rock-star status. But if you're Harlem-bred Teyana Taylor, the dream might not be so far-fetched. Sounding like a mash-up of Jay-Z and Lauryn Hill, the MC prodigy and mama's...

Matt Costa: when his doctor told him to find things to do in bed, this singer didn't just listen to music: he wrote it.(MUSIC BREAKOUT)(Interview)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Matt Costa's entry into show business involved a big break--literally so. The California-based surf-pop musician had a skateboarding accident that left him with a shattered leg and doctor's orders to remain in bed...

Elephant dancing: from Springsteen to the new pornographers, how a handful of acts capture America now.(MUSIC COLUMN)(Calendar)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] New York City, fall 2007. Performing two weeks apart in small clubs in October, the Avengers and Mary Weiss made a kind of epiphany: This country is very small. Appearing at Madison Square Garden nearly dead center...

Detours (A&M/Interscope): Sheryl Crow.(SOUND ADVICE)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "God Bless This Mess," the first track off Sheryl Crow's new album, Detours, doesn't exactly sound like a Sheryl Crow song on first listen. Its achy, withheld vocals and aged-in-wood analogue backed up by an acoustic...

BIPPP: French Synthwave 1979/85 (Everloving): various artists.(SOUND ADVICE)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Obscurantists and beard-strokers, we've got the record for you: "Esoteric" would be a generous way to describe the songs on this compilation, which delves into the wacky subgenre of Synthwave, a blippy, beepy off-shoot of New Wave that emerged...

Jukebox (Matador): Cat Power.(SOUND ADVICE)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Cat Power, a.k.a. Chan Marshall, achieved widespread acclaim as a performer of other people's songs with The Covers Record in 2000. There she imbued cuts like "Sea of Love" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" with a visceral melancholy. Her...

We Brave Bee Stings and All (Kill Rock Stars): Thao Nguyen.(SOUND ADVICE)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... On her sophomore album, We Brave Bee Stings and All, Virginia-based singer-songwriter Thao Nguyen writes confused, pleading songs of lost love, and personal revelations of insecurity and newfound maturity--subject matter not at all surprising...

The Bedlam in Goliath (Universal/Motown): The Mars Volta.(SOUND ADVICE)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Alternately head-banging and head-scratching, this fourth studio album from two-piece the Mars Volta features yet another surreal concept--this time involving a mystical Ouija-type board--amid music that shifts like sand. Opener "Aberinkula"...

This Gift (Domino): Sons and Daughters.(SOUND ADVICE)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Do any bad bands come from Glasgow? Scotland's urban center has an incredible musical batting average: Teenage Fanclub, Belie and Sebastian, Mogwai, Franz Ferdinand. Sons and Daughters are the latest Glaswegian sensation. The group's sophomore...

Clear and present: think "coo coo ca choo, Mrs. Robinson".(FASHION COMEBACK)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mr. McGuire was onto something when he advised Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate to listen up: "I want to say one word to you, just one word... plastics." Forty-one years and countless raincoats later, the material...

Dress to the music: the fashion person's guide to the orchestra.(FASHION'S RITES OF SPRING)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Brahms, Viktor & Rolf, Bach, and Valentino are not usually names uttered in the same sentence, but watching the catwalk presentations for spring 2008, it seemed that rather than just being an accompaniment to the...

Luc Tuymans: a journey inside Disney's kingdom that lands in a whole new place.(SHOWTIME)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Luc Tuymans's new paintings are mysterious even for this often-recondite artist. One seems to show a flying saucer, a disk with a central tower, afloat in a dark-blue void. Another looks like a crown, an enormous...

Small talk: why the melting-pot ideal must not melt.(CULTURE KLATSCH)(Interview)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] INGRID SISCHY: So Camille, this conversation will be running in a special issue we're calling "Falling in Love With America, All Over Again." What do those words make you think of? CAMILLE PAGLIA: For me America...

Lee Friedlander: if you want to understand America, start by looking out the window.(THE AMERICAN ROAD)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Epic journeys have been a popular subject for artists worldwide at least since Odysseus undertook his famous sea voyage, but the modern version--taking trips down endless lengths of blacktop--has an especially...

Wolfgang Joop: founder and creative director of the fashion label Wunderkind.(FEBRUARY [love] STORIES)(Cartoon)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] How I Fell in Love with America [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I learned about movies from America [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] The creative spirit of Berlin landed in New York [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

How I fell in love with America.(Cartoon)
February 1, 2008... I grew up in Canada in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It's a small city--you know, pretty chill. It has a sense of historic character. I played a lot of sports when I was little, soccer especially. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] My first real memory of...

Letter from the editor: February 2008.(view)(Editorial)
February 1, 2008... This month's cover subject, Amy Adams of Castle Rock, Colorado, has been on tuned-in movie watchers' radars for a while, mostly for her performances in Catch Me If You Can (2002) and Junebug (2005), but it is now that her moment has come. This...

Amy Adams.(Interview)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE ENCHANTED STAR HAS HAD TO LEARN A FEW THINGS ON HER WAY TO BECOMING HOLLYWOOD'S SPARKLING, TWINKLING NEW ALL-AMERICAN HOPE: THE ART OF KICKING UP YOUR HEELS BETWEEN BUSING TABLES; WHAT IT'S LIKE TO TRUDGE AWAY IN...

Mary J. Blige: if the American soul had a voice, it might sound something like hers.(Interview)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With the success of 2005's The Breakthrough, it seemed that Mary J. Bilge was ready to embrace the power of positive thinking. That may be true, but the singer hasn't completely abandoned the soul-searching,...

Kevin Federline: his turbulent marriage to Britney Spears thrust him to the front lines of America's growing obsession with the lives of celebrities, and transformed him from a struggling backup dancer into a paparazzi magnet and a late-night talk show punch line. But will K-Fed have the last laugh?(Interview)
February 1, 2008... BILL VOURVOULIAS: As everyone knows, a lot has been written about you. But I don't think we've heard your story. We know that you grew up in Fresno, California, but that's about it. What was Fresno like growing up? What kind of family do you...

Norah Jones: move over, Norah Jones, softly pleasing practitioner of the jazzy, whispery, adult contemporary slow jam. Make way for Norah Jones: edgy chameleon, irrepressible risk-taker, and star of the year's wildest American road trip movie, My Blueberry Nights.(Interview)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For as long as there has been a United States, people have been taking to the American road. The phenomenon of folks looking out at the landscape and seeing nothing but potential--whether they're running away from...

A Harlem portfolio: Part I.
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHETHER IT CONJURES UP FOR YOU IMAGES OF URBAN BLIGHT OR A GREAT NEW REAL ESTATE OPPORTUNITY, BOARDED-UP BUILDINGS OR SOME OF THE BEST STATELY ARCHITECTURE IN THE COUNTRY, PRESIDENT CLINTON'S CHOICE FOR POST-WHITE...

Diane Keaton: whether she's acting directing, photographing, designing, dressing, venturing out on a limb, or simply living life, Diane Keaton has always gracefully gone her own way--because that's what royalty does in America.(Interview)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In real life, Diane Keaton loves to wear hats, and, metaphorically speaking, she wears many of them. Writer, actress, producer, art collector, photographer, architectural historian: The list is rich. So it was only...

How does your garden grow.(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One of the great, all but forgotten, part environmental/part aesthetic programs to come out of New York City was the "Keep America Beautiful" campaign, which Lady Bird Johnson joined and started to promote in the...

Dolly Parton: what would the most uniquely American of musical genres--country music--be without its original straight-talking, boundary-breaking renaissance woman? A lot less heartfelt, a lot less unpredictable, and a lot less interesting.(Interview)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ELVIS MITCHELL: How are you? DOLLY PARTON: I'm good. I always wanted to have an intimate conversation with Elvis! EM: I always wanted to have an intimate conversation with you, so everybody's happy! DP:...

Milo Ventimiglia.(Interview SHOWCASE)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The writers' strike might have provided the season's most unexpected plot twist on the hit television drama Heroes, but that hasn't done much to mitigate the hubbub surrounding one of the show's stars, Milo...

Paris Hilton: America might not have the pyramids, but we'll always have Paris.(Interview)
February 1, 2008... NICOLE RICHIE: Tell me about The Hottie and the Nottie, your new film. PARIS HILTON: The Hottie and the Nottie is a romantic comedy, and it's basically about two friends who have been best friends, like us, since nursery school. Twenty...

Scenes from Cinema City.(PAGE 5)(Photograph)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] 1 Adrien Brody and Elsa Pataky at Mr Chow in Tribeca for a private dinner following the New York premiere of Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, hosted by Gucci, Miramax, and Interview's Sandra...