Writer-producer John McNamara and director Jay Roach talk about the struggle to make "Trumbo," about the 1940s Hollywood blacklist victim; Nancy Tartaglione, international editor for Deadline.com, on the importance of cinema in France; Rashard Bradshaw, aka Cakes da Killa, is a loud and proud gay rapper.
For cinema-loving Parisians, movies could become a welcome diversion from terrorism
The attacks in Paris have thrown the city into chaos, with even more violence occurring in the suburbs of the French capital Wednesday morning.
The city understandably remains on edge, but people are slowly starting to return to some Parisian rituals, and that includes going to the movies.
Cinema plays a big role in French cultural life. Movies were invented there, and they remain an incredibly popular diversion — from Hollywood blockbusters to low-budget domestic films.
Nancy Tartaglione, the international editor at Deadline.com, joined us from France to talk about the importance of the cinema in French culture and how moviegoing might play a part in the grieving and recovery process for Parisians.
Interview Highlights:
In response to last week's attacks, musicians like Prince and Foo Fighters canceled their European tours. I'm wondering how the movie industry in France, and more broadly in Europe, have responded to the attacks.
With regard to the rest of Europe, the movie industry hasn't necessarily had to do any contraction or change anything yet. I think that's still a question mark. Within France, the movie theaters were closed beginning Saturday, and that was actually meant to last for two days, but some of the major exhibitors started opening again on Sunday morning.
As I've written, cinema-going is one of the unassailable rights that I believe that we have as Parisians. I've lived in Paris for 17 years, and whilst all of the public venues, gatherings, protests, town halls, gyms, pools [were] closed, the cinemas ended up opening. Whether people are frightened or not to go back, which is entirely understandable, it was a lovely thing that happened.
Are exhibitors in France, specifically in Paris, adding extra security? If so, what kinds of things are they doing?
I think the initial reaction was that we've already had quite strong security in place. Very sadly, this is not the first time that this has happened in Paris. The devastating Charlie Hebdo attacks in January lifted security to kind of a maximum level. There aren't metal detectors at every movie theater, but there are measures in place.
I want to talk more broadly about the French relationship to film. What does cinema mean to Paris and its residents, traditionally and historically?
It's everything. Like I said, I've lived there for 17 years and probably started visiting in the mid-'80s, and anytime you want to see "Bringing Up Baby" or "His Girl Friday," you can. And these are in theaters, you can see them on a screen. [laughs] That's what's so lovely about Paris — there's everything available, from art-house to old Hollywood classics, every new movie from every country on the planet to the latest blockbuster.
It's the seventh art, it's absolutely celebrated, and France is the birthplace of all cinema. It was born in Lyon with the Lumière brothers, and cinema is exceedingly important. In the context of what's happening right now, it's a little tough to judge that. But just talking about cinema? It's a fantastically important part of who we are.
You talked about how quickly movie theaters opened after the attacks, and I'm wondering if, going forward, due to the communal nature in which people see movies, do you think there's a possibility that moviegoing might play some sort of role in the process of grieving and recovery from these horrible attacks?
I would like to think so. Today's Wednesday, which is the day that new releases come out, and you'd like to see people going out and communing. But at the same time, I think in Paris people are still a little bit skittish. And don't forget — we had a massive police raid on suspected terrorists this morning, so that sort of dominated a large portion of the day.
Should people be going to the movies instead of watching television and seeing what's actually unfolding right now? I don't know. I think the escapism is worth it and I think we all need diversions and whatnot, but there's also a very serious thing happening right now that we should also be paying attention to.
'Trumbo' writer and director bond over past failures
Director Jay Roach and writer John McNamara just wrapped a collaboration on "Trumbo," a movie about the 1940s Hollywood screenwriter who was blacklisted for his political beliefs during the Second Red Scare.
But Dalton Trumbo wasn't just any Hollywood screenwriter: He was the best — or the highest paid, anyway — of that time. Responsible for writing (and continuing to write, under pseudonyms) some of the biggest hits of the era, his oeuvre includes the movies "Spartacus," "Roman Holiday" and "Exodus."
So were Roach and McNamara scared about portraying such an unassailable genius? Not really. Like any working writer, Trumbo had to churn through a lot of paper to get to his useable material, which was something that Roach and McNamara could relate to. As Roach told The Frame: "If you haven't failed, you haven't worked long enough."
Read more of Jay Roach and John McNamara's conversation with John Horn below:
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
Why do you think Bryan Cranston was the right person to play Dalton Trumbo?
Jay Roach: He’s very Trumbo-esque. He’s very passionate about ideas. He doesn’t just say what he thinks; he performs his ideas with so much gusto and beautiful language, and humor, that he had a lot more overlap with Trumbo than anyone else we talked about.
Dalton Trumbo was a complicated person — personally, politically, professionally. Even if he was branded a Communist, he cared a lot about money and material possessions. So was he the first limousine liberal?
John McNamara: You can think of him as the precursor to China. China is a country that is wildly, successfully capitalist — but I think Trumbo is more moral and ethical than China can be at times.
We talked to [Trumbo's] daughters a lot. Jay and I really suffered over how much hypocrisy and contradiction [he exhibited]. The daughters [said] he never was bothered by this. It was never an issue. He just lived how he wanted to live.
Roach: And we portrayed that in the story. We cast Louis C.K. as a more hardline lefty who busts [Trumbo] for his hypocrisy and really questions his fortitude because he doesn’t think he's committed to true Communist ideals. And in fact, he wasn’t. A good Communist would have figured out how to spread his own wealth. He was more like a modern-day liberal, to be honest. He joined the Communist Party in ’43 when we were allied with a Communist country. And he mostly joined, as he put it, as a reaction to the rise of fascism, and sort of in support of workers’ rights. He was very active in the union movement.
Let’s talk about Trumbo’s body of work. He wrote some great movies like “Spartacus” and “Lonely Are the Brave.” But he also wrote some really bad movies — “Rocketship X-M,” “The Prowler,” “Emergency Wedding.”
McNamara: Look, he wrote some bad movies. And he wrote some bad movies that were big-budget movies. I actually don’t love “Exodus,” so there’s a joke in the script at its expense because I think it’s a bloated mega-epic.
He was kind of all over the place. I’ve had a long, checkered career myself. If you IMDb me, you would see some things that I would love to bang my head against the wall [for], and get amnesia. Sometimes you have to just take a job! And I think Trumbo always did good work — sometimes they were just really bad ideas.
Roach: But his batting average is pretty good when you think of films like “Roman Holiday.” And “The Brave One,” which I had never seen, is a weirdly beautiful little film. He was so talented, and I think part of it was he always wished he could go back to writing novels. He was so well known for “Johnny Got His Gun.” In all his letters, he’s making a plan to get through the current writing "assignment" and get on to a novel. But when he really did bite into a script like “Spartacus” — which he wrote millions of words [for] to get to the few that they turned into a movie — he was pretty extraordinary.
So John, I won’t ask you about “Fast Lane” and “Vengeance Unlimited.”
McNamara: Again, “Fast Lane” — no comment. “Vengeance Unlimited” is pretty good! . . . Believe me, you could name others.
Roach: We all have them. If you haven’t failed, you haven’t worked long enough.
"Trumbo," starring Bryan Cranston, is currently in theaters.
Cakes da Killa isn't afraid to rap about his sexuality
The hip-hop world has often been criticized for its homophobia, but there has been some progress in recent years.
When the popular R&B singer Frank Ocean revealed that he had been in love with a man, many of his peers expressed their support, and the hit TV show “Empire” features a gay character and explores themes of sexuality. But that isn’t to say the hip-hop community is widely accepting of LGBT artists.
(Warning: The video below contains explicit language.)
Rashard Bradshaw — also known by his stage name, Cakes da Killa — is a 25-year-old rapper from New Jersey. He quickly became known for his aggressive style and explicit lyrics about his queer identity.
The Frame’s James Kim recently spoke with Cakes da Killa during Red Bull's "30 Days in LA" event to find out how he deals with a community that doesn’t quite accept him yet:
I think when I first started rapping, it was more making fun of straight people, which isn't really far from what I'm at now. I have to embarrass them lyrically because a lot of people are just like, You can't do [that]. So that's already pressure. And even though it may seem easy now because of the crap they put on the radio, it's not really easy to rap. So for me, I just feel like the cards are stacked up against me, so I have to be extra malicious.