A while back, I flagged up the fact that Anton Corbijn, director of Focus' George Clooney hitman hit The American, has a photography show in New York City. To promote “Inwards and Onwards,” which is currently showing at the Stellan Holm Gallery, Corbijn has been interviewed by publications like the New York Times and Interview Magazine, talking about how his parallel careers as film director and photographer fit together.

Below is an extract from his chat with the New York Times' William Van Meter:

You just came off of a big movie, and now you are shooting portraits of creative people again. Do you feel like you are coming full circle to the beginnings of your career as a music photographer?

Well, the show comes after the film, but a lot of the stuff I photographed before the film. The images are basically from the past eight years. After 2002, when I did my self-portraits, there was a whole period that I started in the early ’70s that I felt I had finished. I wasn’t sure what direction to go to, so I was just taking pictures. But after a few years, it dawned on me that I was just going back to basics — taking simple black-and-white photographs of people I wanted to meet.

So this wasn’t reactionary — to do something more personal and intimate after such a big-budget project?

I’m not so concerned with budgets in that sense or the effect of that. Film is more collaborative, and this is a very singular vision. Of course with a film, you try to keep your vision in it. I think with The American and Control I managed to do that. It’s such a different life. And there’s an appeal to me in the life of the photographer — one camera and meeting people. No lights, no assistants, just me taking the photograph. The really simple approach to photography is a great balance to making the films. So I really appreciate that life again after making films.

And here is Corbijn talking to Interview's Michael Slenske about The American:

SLENSKE: So how did The American come about?

CORBIJN: Well, after Control, and after how much I liked having made that film, I wanted to have another experience, and the experience had to be very different from Control, so I set out to make a movie that is in many aspects very different in genre and nationality of the actors. That's why The American is called The American and not The Private Gentleman. The book is about an English guy. So I looked at thrillers, dark comedies, all these things I could see in myself. I found something I could invest myself in, the question in the film is really if a man can really change his life. It's the core of the film. And it's about a loner just as Control was about a loner.

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The end of the year is approaching, and that means only one thing for the movie business: awards season. The Gotham Awards, Golden Globes, Independent Spirit Awards and the Academy Awards are all ahead of us in the coming months, and the prognosticators are already giving their take on who may or may not be a contender.

The Hollywood Reporter recently gathered a group of actresses they consider to be among the likely suspects in the Best Actress category, and one of those asked to attend was The Kids Are All Right's Annete Bening, who was joined in conversation by Helena Bonham Carter, Natalie Portman, Nicole Kidman, Hilary Swank and Amy Adams.

Below is an clip from the discussion in which Bening talks about balancing work with motherhood, an issue which, coincidentally, her character in The Kids Are All Right, Nic, is also forced to examine.

For more, including a video of the entire hour-long round table conversation, visit The Hollywood Reporter's website.

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In addition to being the director of Focus Features' George Clooney hitman hit The American, Anton Corbijn has been celebrated worldwide for his work as a highly gifted photographer. Over the course of his 35-year career taking pictures, Corbijn has had numerous gallery shows, and the latest is about to open in New York City.

The exhibit Anton Corbijn, Inwards and Onwards will be running at the Stellan Holm Gallery between November 6 and December 15, 2010, and is described as follows on the gallery's website:

Inwards and Onwards will feature a series of black-and-white portraits depicting various influential artists, musicians, models and designers, ranging from Gerhard Richter to Iggy Pop to Kate Moss. These exquisitely composed, deeply human photographs represent the very best of Corbijn’s craft as a portrait photographer. Foregoing any use of artificial lighting, Corbijn discovers subtle nuances of light and soft contours, creating a stillness that seems almost sculptural.

Like so much of Corbijn’s oeuvre, this series of portraits astutely portrays those whose creativity and fervor have served to shape the culture around us. Corbijn demonstrates a personal, contemplative view towards his subjects, and above all, an adoration for these important and iconic figures. A social and psychological awareness pervades, truthfully engaging the viewer in what it means to be an artist in our contemporary times. Whilst depicting those who traverse the inherent trials and tribulations of the creative process, Corbijn offers a unique glimpse into the artistic mind of his subjects, as well as his own.

For more info, head to the Stellan Holm Gallery website.

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Today we put up a slideshow of pictures from the UK premiere of Focus Features' The Kids Are All Right at the London Film Festival, so here's a little companion piece to that. The movie website The Fan Carpet was also at the Vue Cinemas in Leicester Square for the gala event, and the site's reporter Kimberly Marren braved the autumnal cold to chat with director Lisa Cholodenko and stars Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo.

You can see what happened in the video below.

For more on the event, head to The Fan Carpet.

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Newly online at the Nowness website is some great on-set photography from Sofia Coppola's upcoming movie for Focus Features, Somewhere, plus a short interview with Coppola herself. The pictures, a mixture of black-and-white and color, feature Sofia Coppola, cinematographer Harris Savides, and lead actors Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning. 

Here's an extract from the interview:

Your films also deal tenderly with father/daughter relationships. How attuned to that are you?

I don't know, I was thinking about becoming a parent for the first time when I was writing Somewhere, so it was on my mind, but it's true, Lost in Translation has that. I like that memorable and romantic relationships can exist in an innocent way.

You are known for your effortless taste—where do you think that comes from?

Oh, I don't know, thanks. I think you just put what you like or think is funny or stupid in your work––taste is just a reflection of what you like, I guess.

Head to the Nowness website for more.

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Saoirse Ronan, the 16-year-old actress who received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for playing Briony in Atonement and is reteaming with director Joe Wright on the 2011 Focus Features movie Hanna, recently sat down with Kyle Buchanan of New York magazine's Vulture blog.

She talked about a handful of her upcoming movies, including Hanna, and below is an extract in which she discusses her continuing creative partnership with Wright. (You can also read Wright's perspective on their collaborations here.)

So how has your relationship with Joe Wright changed since you made Atonement together?
I think like any relationship, it just grew. We know each other better now, and we're closer. We have a very good working relationship and we seem to be quite in sync. Also, this time, I'm sixteen and before, I was eleven or twelve.

Was he already treating you like a sixteen-year-old then?
I don't think he's ever really labeled me with an age, which I'm glad of. He's always just treated me as Saoirse. I think when we started to work together on this, he got a bit of a shock that I had grown up since we'd last worked together -- mentally and physically, you're going to grow a lot in four years -- so he may have been like, "Oh my God, Saoirse's not a little kid anymore." It was quite funny for me.

To read more, go to the Vulture website.

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Dutch director Anton Corbijn, the man behind Focus Features recent George Clooney hit The American, has gone back to his roots in Holland.

Corbijn was asked by the Dutch postal service TNT and creative agency KesselsKramer to make what is being called the "smallest and shortest film" ever. It is a one-second short starring Dutch actress Carice Van Houten (most famous for playing the lead in Paul Verhoeven's Black Book) and is being featured on a stamp! These are no ordinary stamps, however, as they are lenticular (or lens-shaped) and feature 30 frames of film.

According to the Creative Review website, "The action apparently references a rather more innocent-looking Dutch stamp designed in 1951 by Cas Oorthuys which shows a beaming Dutch girl complete with a windmill in the background."

Corbijn's film is now on YouTube (with an opening credit sequence infinitely longer than the film itself!), and can be seen below.

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Today, film critic Elvis Mitchell announced the nominations for the Gotham Independent Film Awards, and Focus Features' The Kids Are All Right and Greenberg will both be in contention this year.

Lisa Cholodenko's family comedy received two nominations, for Best Feature and Best Emsemble Performance (honoring the work of Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson). Meanwhile, Greta Gerwig is a nominee in the Breakthrough Actor category for her performance in Noah Baumbach's LA-set comedy drama Greenberg.

As reported earlier, Focus Features CEO James Schamus will receive a career tribute at this year's Gotham Independent Film Awards.

You can watch the announcement of the nominations below.

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Zach Galifianakis may well be the busiest man in showbusiness: his Focus Features movie It's Kind of a Funny Story is in theaters now, he has another comedy, Due Date, coming up next month, and he's currently shooting The Hangover 2.

But that's not all he's been up to. Yesterday, Galifianakis unveiled the latest interview in his Between Two Ferns - a chat with Bruce Willis -- and then unveiled a whole lot more in a swimsuit photoshoot for Vanity Fair that needs to be seen to be believed. (Zach gives those Sports Illustrated girls a run for their money!)

Check out the Bruce Willis interview below, and then head to the Vanity Fair website to see Zach frolicking on the beach.

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On 10/10/10, the Los Angeles Times gave in to the temptation to create a list of the top 10 movies of 2010 so far, and Lisa Cholodenko's summer comedy hit for Focus Features, The Kids Are All Right, was among the films selected.

The full list, ordered alphabetically, read as follows:

Animal Kingdom; Cyrus; Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould; The Kids Are All Right; Mademoiselle Chambon; Prince of Broadway; The Social Network; The Tillman Story; Toy Stoy 3; Waiting for Superman.

Here's the Betsy Sharkey quote on Lisa Cholodenko's movie from the article:

Witty, urbane and thoroughly entertaining, The Kids Are All Right is an ode to the virtues of family, in this case a surprisingly conventional one even with its two moms, two kids and one sperm donor. Whatever your politics, between peerless performances from its core ensemble of Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, lyrical direction by Lisa Cholodenko and an adventurous script, this is the sort of pleasingly grown-up fare all too rare in the mainstream daze of  summer.

Check out the full piece - which, incidentally, was also published at 10:10am... - on the LA Times website.

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