Michael Fassbender On Strombo: Full Interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Odwe5q1jNTU


The Hour

How Canadian are the Genies in the age of co-production? (CBS NEWS TORONTO)

A Dangerous Method, a film about Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud shot in Austria, and starring three big international stars, is a leading contender for Genie Awards with 11 nominations.

Not only does Canadian David Cronenberg have a nomination for best director, but German star Michael Fassbender and American Viggo Mortensen are in the running for performance awards. 

The German-Swiss-British-Canadian co-production is just one of the internationally backed films in line for the Canadian film awards. There’s also The Bang Bang Club, a South African-Canadian film, In Darkness, a Polish-German-Canadian film and The Whisteblower, a German-Canadian film about Bosnia.

Read further:  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/03/07/videp-stub-genies-copros.html

Rhoades Review: ‘A Dangerous Method’ is more Jungian than Freudian (The Daily Advance)

By Shirrel Rhoades
The Daily Advance
Tuesday, February 14, 2012

 Sigmund Freud came up with what he called the Talking Cure.

His protégé Carl Jung bought into this dangerous method, but eventually broke off to explore the collective unconscious, telepathy, and areas of the mind that Freud termed mysticism. But according to “A Dangerous Method” the schism was mostly over a woman, a patient that Jung took as his mistress.

 The storyline is historically accurate, a screenplay by Christopher Hampton based on his stage play “The Talking Cure,” which was based on John Kerr’s book called “A Most Dangerous Method,” which was largely based on actual letters between Jung and his estranged mentor. Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung remain cornerstones in the field of psychoanalysis.

And Sabina Spielrein was at first Jung’s hysterical pain-driven patient, later his mistress, then Freud’s pupil, and finally a respected psychoanalyst in her own right – as implausible as that might seem. But as Jung tells her, a doctor must suffer illnesses in order to be able to cure.

 Director David Cronenberg used to be known for his splashy Canadian horror flicks (remember those exploding heads in “Scanners” and the murderous mutant children in “The Brood”?), but he has shown his true mettle in recent years with such films as “Crash” (winner of the Cannes Jury Special Prize), “Naked Lunch” (winner of the New York Film Critics Circle Award), “Dead Ringers” (winner of the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Director), “A History of Violence” (winner of the Chicago Film Critics Award for Best Director), and “Eastern Promises (winner of the Directors Guide of Canada’s Craft Award for Best Direction).

However, “A Dangerous Method” is a far subtler film than Cronenberg’s usual milieu. About the infamous Talking Cure, this is a talky movie. The focus here is on Carl Gustav Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist who pioneered analytical psychology (sometimes called Jungian psychology).

Hot British actor Michael Fassbender portrays Jung as a repressed man, ambitious for fame, competitive with his father figure Freud, but weak of flesh. Twisting and twitching, Keira Knightley eschews her usual delicate beauty to unveil a character’s torturous psyche. Mad, vengeful, yet ultimately wise.

 Practically unrecognizable behind goatee and cigar (“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”) we find Viggo Mortensen. He’s downright placid as Sigmund Freud, a far cry from his previous bare-knuckle-action roles for Cronenberg in “A History of Violence” and “Eastern Promises.”

 Read further:http://www.dailyadvance.com/features/rhoades-review-8216a-dangerous-method8217-more-jungian-freudian-914303

David Cronenberg: Robert Pattinson is sensational in “Cosmopolis”

Posted by Larissa Edwards On Monday, November 28th 2011 in Entertainment

Canadian director David Cronenberg trusted Robert Pattinson’s acting abilities and now thinks he is sensational in “Cosmopolis”. The movie doesn’t have an official launch date, but will come out next year.

Though he had pretty good performances in “Water for Elephants”, “Remember Me“, “Bel Ami” or “Little Ashes”, Robert Pattinson, age 25, always had to fight the critics’ bad opinion concerning his acting in “The Twilight Saga”. In an interview with MTV News, Cronenberg unveiled that he chose the British actor for “Cosmopolis” because he instinctively felt that Pattinson was the right one for the part.Cronenberg described his choice in a common casting process mentioning the basics: “How old is he? What does he look like? Is the character very nerdy? Is he handsome and devilish? Is he an intellectual? You think about all these things and you think about the actors who could possibly project the things that you need from this character.”

The director admitted that playing millionaire Eric Packer is very different from playing Edward Cullen in “Twilight”, “New Moon”, “Eclipse” and “Breaking Dawn”. Still, Cronenberg stated that Robert Pattinson was sensational and made an excellent impression, proving he’s an actor that doesn’t refuse challenges. Croneneberg said this was an unusual jump for the actor and somewhow scary, as Pattinson never really had to carry a movie that way before, totally on his own, appearing in every scene. Still, Cronenberg added that scary is good for an actor and that Pattinson was fantastic: “Really, I'm telling you. He's a great actor. It's obvious in the movie. It's not like maybe yes, maybe no. It's obvious.”

The cast for “Cosmopolis” also includes Marion Cotillard, Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti, Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton, Mathieu Amalric, Sarah Gadon and Jay Baruchel. The movie shows the agitated day of 28-year-old millionaire Eric Packer, who’s been married to Elise Shifrin (Sarah Gadon) for 22 days and is already cheating on her with two other women the same day he loses his fortune. Trying to reach his father’s barber, Eric is stopped on his way by the funerals of a famous rapper, by an anti globalization protest, and by a presidential visit.

News on the Wall

One on One: Keira Knightley Talks 'A Dangerous Method'

Hollywood

By Matt Patches, Hollywood.com Staff|Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Before speaking with Keira Knightley about her new movie A Dangerous Method, I took another glance over her lengthy list of previous roles. She's really done a little of everything—action (The Pirates Trilogy), comedy (Bend It Like Beckham), romance (Pride and Prejudice), sci-fi (Never Let Me Go) and a few projects that are nearly unclassifiable (The Jacket). Not surprising, considering she's one of the most versatile, in-demand actresses working today. The real shocking part? She's only twenty-six!

With so much of her career ahead of her, it's no wonder why Knightley is branching out, starring in one of the truly daring films of 2011. In Method, the actress co-stars as Sabina Spielrein, a young girl stricken by dementia who finds a cure through her own budding interest in psychoanalytics. Her doctor and mentor is the famed Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), who helps her overcome her physical and mental issues through correspondence with his own colleague, Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen). Jung and Spielrein's relationship complicates when their work evolves into a lustful romance.

Knightley spoke to me on her day off from a new movie to discuss A Dangerous Method, digging deep into the clouded mind of her character, working with legendary director David Cronenberg and why crafting intense drama doesn't stop her from having a swell time:

I was trying to figure out where you would be exactly, since I believe you're in the middle of filming?
Keira Knightley: I'm in the middle of filming Anna Karenina, but I've actually got the day off. So I'm sitting in Shortage House in London.

Well, extra thanks for talking to me! Your character, Sabina Spielrein, is a real person, ingrained in history. Where did your relationship with her life begin? How much research did you have to do to prepare to embody her?
KK: I'd never heard of her before, so when I read the script, that was the first time I knew anything about her. I thought she was fascinating. But the idea of playing her, I thought, 'Wow this is daunting.' Quite often when you play characters, you understand them on an emotional level. You go, 'OK, she's sad because of this, I get that.' But with her there was really nothing. I had no idea why she would want to behave like that, or what would cause that kind of behavior. So I immediately phoned up Christopher Hampton who wrote the screenplay and the play it was based on. So I phoned him and said, 'I'm going to play it…HELP.'

So I went to his house and he basically handed me an enormous pile of books and he said, 'start reading.' So I spent four months reading as much as I possibly could about the subject. There's actually very little about her, except for the book that the screenplay is based on, by John Kerr (A Most Dangerous Method). And then there was…I was lucky enough to find a book called Sabina Spielrein: Forgotten Pioneer of Psychoanalysis, a collection of essays written about her, and also translations of some of her diary entries and Jung's original notes. So I worked from that for quite a bit, and that was helpful. I also spoke with a couple of psychiatrists, including the one that compiled that book, a Jungian analyst. Just about the nature of what she was suffering from, sadomasochistic personalities, that kind of thing.
It was completely fascinating. But when you're playing someone who's mad—I don't like that word—but as much as their behavior to the outside world seems illogical, it's completely logical to them. So you try to answer the questions of why this is the way this person must behave. What has driven them to this particular way?

Considering the state Sabina is in at the beginning the film, was physicality a big part in realizing your character?
KK: No…I think the first part was the script. For her, she was ravaged by tics, hysterical fits. But what does that mean? What is a hysterical fit? So I went to Christopher and he said, 'Well, anything you want, really.' And then I spoke to the psychiatrist and asked her 'what is a tic?' And she said, 'Well, it can be anything.'

Helpful!
KK: Yeah. So believe or not, there weren't very specific descriptions of exactly what it was. So I did a lot of reading, and the physical side was based on a part of her diary where she describes herself as a dog or a demon. I thought it might be quite interesting to show that. So it was and Francis Bacon paintings, which were quite good for understanding internal struggle.

Really? Which paintings?
KK: Francis Bacon's Study for a Crucifixion. There were three of them and they were all weirdly helpful. And then I got on Skype with David and started making faces and asked him which ones he liked.


So there was a video Skype call that was just you making weird faces at David Cronenberg.
KK: Yup, pretty much. And give him an idea of the accent. In a conversation before he said he wanted "mid-Atlantic with a blush of Russian" and wanted the tics to be not funny and 'on your face.' So I said, 'OK," went away for a few months then came back and did a little show and tell.

So how much time did you spend making faces at yourself in the mirror?
KK: Oh, a good couple of hours, really. Just making faces. It was like, 'Oh, that one looks horrible, I think I'll make that one!'

How did you and David work together to discover the right tone, to figure out what worked and what didn't?
KK: Well, it's kind of amazing. I don't know how he does it, really. There weren't many discussions. I didn't meet him physically until the first day on set—or rather, the day before the first day when he saw what I planned to do. But before that, he's like a horse whisperer. He creates this calm, creative atmosphere that makes everyone believe they're exactly the right person to be there. It's the most empowering, amazing thing ever.

It's very tricky to make this film, especially with hysterics. This is a strange thing to say, but on film I think depression works really well because it's a kind of low energy, internalized thing, which you can pull people into. Hysteria is very highly energized that pushes people away. In another director's hands I would have been very concerned about playing this part, but because he's so brilliant, his taste is so wonderful he knows when to go really far and then when to pull things back. He basically said, 'go as far as you can and I'll pull you back.'

So it sounds like you didn't have too much time to prepare before showing up to set. Were you able to rehearse with Viggo and Michael? Or does it just happen on set?
KK: Exactly. That's the weird thing about David, it just happened! I have no idea. We got to Cologne, which is where we were shooting and I said, 'OK, should we rehearse?' and he was like, 'no.' I think me and Michael went out for a night of of drinking quite a lot of martinis. 'Hello! Nice to meet you!' And then we were on set.

I'm beginning to think all great movies are born from long nights of drinking.
KK: Well, I think it was actually the day before the first day. I wouldn't have been very with it if it was the day before. [Laughs] We did have one day before, where David took us on set, and we started with those kind of character scenes and he told us how he was thinking of shooting it and we went through it once. Literally we went, 'Yup. Fine. Great.'

Did the intensity of the on-screen action bleed over into the behind-the-scenes atmosphere? Is it a worry that you'll carry around emotional baggage while not on set?
KK: Oh, no, it was so fun, so happy. I was so grateful it was these people. It was the opposite of what you would think when you watch the film—we didn't take it home. I spent four months on my own researching it and knew it quite well, so I knew what it was going to be and it was just a question of getting it out. Once it was out, it was out. That's quite nice!

After this movie, I can't imagine Viggo and Michael palling around and smiling.
KK: But they're hilarious together! Absolutely hysterical, like a comedy duo. That's what's so weird about the whole thing.

Apparently they need to do a buddy comedy! After delving into the world of psychoanalytic, do you suddenly find yourself analyzing everyone?
KK: [Laughs] No, no, it's really annoying! The research was so specifically into her, I haven't retained any knowledge whatsoever. I read some amazing books, but I was only looking for things to use to play the character. So, no, as my study goes, it was a complete failure. But for studying for the part, it was very useful!

You can contact Matt Patches directly on Twitter @misterpatches and remember to follow @Hollywood_com!

22 New Images from David Cronenberg’s A DANGEROUS METHOD

Collider

by Matt Goldberg Posted:October 24th, 2011 at 8:54 am

Sony Pictures Classics has released 22 new images from David Cronenberg‘s A Dangerous Method. Here’s the brief synopsis:

Seduced by the challenge of an impossible case, the driven Dr. Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) takes the unbalanced yet beautiful Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) as his patient in A Dangerous Method. Jung’s weapon is the method of his master, the renowned Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen). Both men fall under Sabina’s spell.

I liked the film when I saw it at TIFF but found it a bit too sterile. However, it’s Cronenberg which means it’s at least worth your time. Hit the jump to check out the images. A Dangerous Method also stars Vincent Cassel, and opens in limited release on November 23rd.

Keira Knightley Interview For David Cronenberg’s ‘A Dangerous Method’

Flicks and Bits

 

Keira Knightley Interview For David Cronenberg’s ‘A Dangerous Method’

Drawn from true-life events, David Cronenberg’s ‘A Dangerous Method’ chronicles the turbulent relationships between fledgling psychiatrist Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), his mentor Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), the troubled but beautiful young woman who comes between them. Into the mix comes Otto Gross (Vincent Cassell), a debauched patient who is determined to push the boundaries. In this exploration of sensuality, ambition and deceit set the scene for the pivotal moment when Jung, Freud and Sabina come together and split apart, forever changing the face of modern thought. ‘A Dangerous Method’ is set for release November 23rd in the US, and Febuary 10th in the UK. Check out what Keira Knightley had to say about the film in a quick interview below.
What was the research process for you like on ‘A Dangerous Method,’ to help you understand Sabina more?
Keira Knightley: As soon as I knew I was going to play the part I phoned Christopher Hampton (screenwriter), and said, ‘help!’ He said, ‘alright, come around.’ I thought that he was going to give me a talk for a couple of hours and I’d take notes, which he did, but he also handed me a massive pile of books and said, ‘Read all of those, it’s somewhere in there.’ So I did that, I also found a translation of the diaries and Jung’s notes, Jung biographies, including ‘Memories, Dreams, Reflections.’ Sabina’s diary entries, a lot of that, they were very helpful. Then I spoke to couple of analyses as well, just to get an idea of what exactly hysteria was and what it would come from.

It’s such a frantic and frenetic role, was that a challenge in crafting?
Keira Knightley: It was a very challenging role, I think that was one of the reasons I wanted to play her, because I didn’t know who she was. I think very often when you play characters, there are certain threads that link you, emotionally you can understand exactly what the person went through, with this one I had no frame of reference. But that was what was fascinating and exciting about it. So it really was a question of trying to find logic with what was perceived from the outside to be madness. Because I think as much as she knew that she was ill, there were logical reasons within her for the way she behaved, so it was really about trying to understand what that logic was, and then find out from the inside and build her up. With the help of David Cronenberg, we managed to craft something. It was a very exciting process.

Is it cathartic, in a strange way, playing a role like Sabina?
Keira Knightley Oh yeah, it can be incredibly cathartic, particularly with a role like this. It’s almost strange what a wonderful time we had making this film (laughs). It’s….particularly my character is very dark, so it seems almost perverse that we had such a wonderful and fun time outside that. I think part of that was because you’re going to these incredibly dark places, you’re trying to think of that and it all comes out in that direction, then afterwards you leave it and you go and watch football, have a beer and have a really nice time.
You seem to love acting in historical based films.
Keira Knightley: I do a lot of costume dramas (laughs), I don’t know why, I really just enjoy them. I think it’s a taste thing, I just really enjoy them. I love reading about them, I love history books so it’s a privilege that that’s part of my job.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY AT THE ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL

A Venice peach: Keira Knightley makes a grand entrance in a beautifully decorated dress at the Italian film festival

By Marcus Barnes

Last updated at 5:51 PM on 2nd September 2011



As a veteran of the red carpet Keira Knightley knows how to make an entrance.

So today was a walk in the park for the actress who arrived at a photocall at the Palazzo del Cinema in Venice for her new movie A Dangerous Method in an amazing patterned Mary Katrantzou dress.

Keira, 26, stepped off her boat and onto dry land, sashaying into the press area giving off a superlative air of cool in her black shades.

Dazzling: Keira Knightley sparkles in her Mary Katrantzou dress at a photocall for new movie A Dangerous Method at the Venice Film Festival

Oozing cool: The 26-year-old actress sashayed off her boat giving off a superlative air of chic

She completed her dazzling outfit with a pair of nude-coloured patent heels.

 

Set between 1904 and 1913, A Dangerous Method tackles the struggle between Sigmund Freud (Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Fassbender) to establish their supremacy at the dawn of the era of psychoanalysis.

Star of the show: Keira was the main attraction at the photocall - here she gets a helping hand off her boat

Miss Knightley plays a troubled teenager named Sabina Spielrein who is at the centre of a clash between the two men.

She arrives at a Zurich hospital aged 18 to be treated by Jung.

In a distressing state, she's at human contact, twisting and contorting her body and face both in pain and terror.

Rave reviews: The actress really pushes herself in her new movie in which she plays a troubled young lady who is treated by psychoanalyst Carl Jung

Jung treats her though his 'talking method', getting her to relive her childhood, when her father used to beat her.

And, though he is married with children, Jung eventually admits to his repressed lust for Sabina and they embark on an affair.

Disturbingly, he indulges her in her fetish for being spanked.

Keira's performance in the film has already garnered rave reviews, her ability to convey the intensity of Sabina's condition in the movie's early scenes coming in for the most praise so far.

A Dangerous team: Keira with, from left, David Cronenberg, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, Sarah Gadon and Vincent Cassel in Venice

Derek Malcom at the Evening Standard said of her performance: 'Though playing against two performers of considerable weight, she more than holds her own from the moment she arrives on the scene, a hysterical patient, to the time when her love for Jung is finally reciprocated.'

Meanwhile Keira's co-star in new movie Anna Karenina, Olivia Williams, has described her as a 'phenomenal actress'.

The are set to work together in the upcoming adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's classic novel which has British director Joe Wright at the helm and stars Aaron Johnson and Jude Law.

Olivia has no doubt that Keira would be confident in taking on the challenging title role.

She said: 'In some films you're on your own but in a Joe Wright film you're not on your own, it's a genuinely collaborative event and I think that she's a phenomenal actress with or without this incredible ensemble behind her.'

Explore more:

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2033034/Venice-Film-Festival-2011-Keira-Knightley-A-Dangerous-Method-photocall.html#ixzz1WpkzBo51