Interview: Germán Tejeira on 'A Moonless Night,' Uruguay's Oscar Submission

Jose here. When I scheduled my interview with director Germán Tejeira who is based in Montevideo, I hadn’t been counting on the internet being unaware that Uruguay had gotten rid of their own Daylight Savings Time, a practice which was deemed “old fashioned” and “inefficient” by the progressive government. We had to reschedule the interview, but Tejeira was kind enough to laugh the confusion off and even sent me an article which explained how this new practice had brought chaos within his own country. It was an anecdote I found peculiarly surreal, something out of a movie perhaps, and one that for that matter reminded me of Tejeira’s own A Moonless Night, a charming account of three men trying to find their, existential, way in the Uruguayan countryside during New Year’s Eve.

Cesar (Marcel Keroglian) is a cab driver spending the holiday with his ex-wife’s new family, Antonio (Roberto Suarez) is a magician en route to a presentation whose car breaks down stranding him and his rabbit Oliver, Molgota (Daniel Melingo) is a singer released from jail a day earlier so he can perform at a New Year’s party. Their routine is altered by a blackout, but to say their stories cross paths in a traditional way would be a disservice to Tejeira’s lovely screenplay, and his perceptive direction. The film has been selected as Uruguay’s Oscar representative and I discussed that with the director, as well as his perception of what films should provoke in spectators, and whether Uruguay has a well defined “cinematic identity”.

Read the interview after the jump...

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Topic Du Jour: Female Directors

If you haven't read Vulture's list of 100 female directors Hollywood could be hiring you should. It's a great 'shut your mouth' argument for those suits that hilariously say 'well, we would hire female directors if there were any!' Bless Kyle Buchanan for spearheading this -- though I hope he had interns helping.  Naturally there will be passionate responses. Diversity arguments will always promote some degree of snark -- see Anthony Mackie's recent comments about the Black Panther movie's search for a director -- and nitpicking, including here.

But we nitpick with love.

David Poland argues that "strategy," not shaming, is what's required and that statistics and math won't help. He neglects to detail the strategy though. As for myself I (mostly) love the list and think it's important that a wake up call like this is out there -- what did happen to Laverne herself, Penny Marshall, who directed so many huge hits in the 80s and 90s? It's smart to make the list far reaching and extensive but some of the people are not reasonable for an argument either because their careers have been over for so long or because...wait for it... they aren't good directors. (Obviously there are many bad directors with penises who get lots of work. But we'd like them to find other jobs, too!)  

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Posterized: 21st Century Spielberg

Spielberg & his current muse, Tom HanksDepending on whether you count 1971's Duel as Spielberg's debut (it's a TV film but most cinephiles seem to count it where they don't count television features as the debuts of other auteurs) Bridge of Spies, opening today, is Steven Spielberg's 25th or 26th full length feature film. His superstar-making run as an auteur (1975's Jaws through 1985's The Color Purple) is so often discussed and mythologized that for this week's edition of Posterized, let's just look at his output in this new century.

Bridge of Spies, the new cold-war thriller starring Tom Hanks, headlining his 4th Spielberg picture, appears to be divvying people up into two camps from early reviews. Doubters say it's too slow and lacks thrills. Devotees praise it's glorious classical filmmaking. Will there be a Happy Medium crowd that meets in the middle and says, 'a little dull sure but worth it for the glorious classical filmmaking'?  We all have time to decide now that the movie's open.

How many of Spielberg's eleven most recent films have you seen?
All the posters and what's next for Spielberg after the jump...

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Don Cheadle x 4 in "Miles Ahead"

Nathaniel reporting on the closing night film of the New York Film Festival

Don Cheadle has been an esteemed actor for a full twenty years now. His big reputation began with his breakout turn in The Devil with the Blue Dress (1995) and kept building. Somewhere along the way, despite a Best Actor nomination for Hotel Rwanda (2004) the leading man career didn't materialize (apart from his 4 time Emmy nominated gig on Showtime's House of Lies). The sturdy ensemble player attempts to right that wrong by producing, writing, directing and starring (whew) in a Miles Davis biopic.

Cue the trumpets!

And here we are. Miles Ahead was given the honor of closing this year's New York Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics will release the film.

It's tough to argue that Cheadle hasn't earned a spotlight as bright as this. [More...] 

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Great Moments in... Craft Services

Clint Eastwood likes broccoli.

This report just in from the set of Sully, Clint Eastwood's latest. It is not a biopic about the star of Monsters, Inc. The 85 year old workaholic's latest project will star Tom Hanks as Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger who landed a plane in the Hudson River in 2009 (remember that?) to save everyone's lives onboard. It seems a slim premise for a whole feature but maybe Clint will keep the running time short for a change? That would give him more time to squeeze in a second or third picture for 2016, you know.