Interview

Plot synopsis:
Pierre Peders (Steve Buscemi) is a political journalist who has been assigned an interview with a popular soap opera star, Katya (Sienna Miller). She arrives an hour late, doesn't apologise and immediately succeeds in convincing the maitre d' (David Schechter) to give them the best table, which up to then was occupied. The couple on that particular table (Elizabeth Bracco and James Villemaire) complies and is happy to vacate the table for her. Later, another fan (Jackson Loo) asks her to autograph his i-pod. Pierre becomes so irritated with her attitude, full-mouthed, cocky, brainless, answering the ever-ringing mobile phone with a stupid dog tone, that he leaves the restaurant without the interview. However, she has immediately noticed that he hasn't seen any of Katya's films, and only has overheard about her sexual relationships with several men. When he leaves, he picks up a taxi. He watches as Katya talks for a while to the paparazzi waiting outside, and then leaves by foot. Pierre's taxi driver (Craig "muMs" Grant) starts talking to Katya, saying how much he loves her, that he likes her tits, so his taxi crashes into a van in front. Pierre bumps his head on the inside glass of the taxi, so Katya takes him home.After she tends to him, they drink a lot of alcohol, and keep on talking. Her mobile phone is always ringing. She says that she knows what men like in women, for example high-heels and fishnets, because that way, women look like easy prey. Pierre tries to ask her questions, but they are very stereotypical. He watches on the TV the political interview he should be doing at that moment, asking about the last sexual scandal of the politician of the moment. She laughs about him, and he finally admits that he has seen some of the horror films Katya has done.Pierre tells her a terrible story: his brother Robert (Michael Buscemi), a graphic journalist, had fallen in love with a prostitute in Bosnia, and got her pregnant. The local militia gang-raped her and killed her foetus, sending it to Robert in a bottle. Pierre reads Katya's net diary, where she expresses feelings of loneliness, depression, darkness inside of her. Pierre considers that this is proof that she realises her films are bad, her own lack of talent, the uselessness of her relationship with her boyfriend Ethan...Katya also seems to be intent in avoiding her boyfriend. She doesn't pick up his calls and doesn't open the door when he knocks. Pierre tries to lead her to express those feelings to him. When she refuses to acknowledge the existence of those feelings, he shows the computer diary. She gets really angry that he has read it. Pierre sends that diary to his own mobile phone and makes a deal with Katya. If she tells him her secret, he will tell her his secret.So Katya sits in front of Pierre's camcorder and tells him that she has cancer, and that it is probably deadly. She gets really emotional, and Pierre says that there is no way he's going to make that piece of news public. Afterwards, she insists that he tells her his secret. He admits that he exaggerated his brother's story, that he has started to invent his sources so that his editor doesn't trust him anymore, and then he admits in front of a camcorder to a murder: he and his wife had come back after their daughter died, and both had problems with alcohol because of their angst. One day, when he was completely drunk, he saw his wife fall to the floor, drunk and breathing heavily; he didn't even bother to check whether she was alive, and didn't phone for an ambulance. He just left and when the police came to talk to him, he played the sorry widower - tears and shock.Pierre picks the videotape from Katya's camcorder thinking that it is the recording in which he appears. Instead, he picks the videotape where Katya and Maggie (Tara Elders), a fellow star, prepare for the next instalment of City Girls, the stupid soap opera which they star in. Pierre phones his editor saying that he has Katya's private diary and that he got some exclusive smashing news: she's got cancer. When he hangs up, Katya phones him: she tells him that he's stolen the script for the episodes of City Girls she is recording - so he hasn't got her diary - and that the story of the cancer sickness is part of the new script and part of her character's feelings. Pierre is terrified: he realises that Katya has the videotape where he admits to the murder.Alone at her luxurious loft, Katya watches Pierre's videotape, and he cannot do anything about it.

Tags: dramatic

Review:
One night in New York he is assigned to interview a beautiful actress known for B movie horror films and highly sexed cable TV fare of the "Sex in the City" variety.
Her only real claim to fame seems to be that she underwent a breast reduction operation, getting her implants removed.Through a fluke what starts off as an interview so disastrous that both want to immediately end it, turns into an all night affair when he bumps his head in a fender bender accident outside the restaurant where they meet.
And over the course of the evening, we learn quite a bit about both of them, or so we think.Steve Buscemi, who also directed, gets good marks for his acting, but even better for his work helming this story.
He keeps it moving along with such energy and such conviction that one hardly notices that this is a two character set piece probably better suited to the theater and a small theater at that.The real revelation for me, though, was Sienna Miller, who I had never seen before and know virtually nothing about.
Miller's character is smart, at times highly manipulative, and more than able to handle herself in a verbal street fight.Whether in real life any actress, much less any journalist, would reveal their deepest secrets to a total stranger is highly questionable.
The premise here is that Steve Buscemi is a washed-up political reporter who is assigned to interview a tabloid-fodder actress known for her direct-to-video horror movie sequels (played by Sienna Miller).
Theo Van Gogh, a renowned journalist, once said "I prefer covering the war between a woman and a man." With this remake, director and actor Steve Buscemi does a wonderful job of doing just that.The set-up is simple enough.
She is all over the place with the role, but stays focused on the internal torment and remarkable people smarts that Buscemi's Pierre is lacking.Along the lines of "My Dinner with Andre" and "Before Sunset", there is an enormous amount of dialogue and interaction between the two leads, who are on screen 95% of the time.
Of course, the whole time the viewer is skeptical about which stories are real and which are fabricated or embellished for the purpose of the moment.Really an interesting film and directed with a nice touch by Buscemi, who is also at his usual high level of acting.
Co-written and directed by Steve Buscemi, the film is an insightful, at times intense exploration of the nature of celebrity, as experienced by a world-wearied, overly cocksure political journalist who'd do well not to underestimate his beautiful interviewee.Buscemi is Pierre, the flailing reporter who begrudgingly finds himself waiting to interview Katya (Sienna Miller), the latest in a long line of flash-in-the-pan Hollywood It Girls.
Once here, moods swing violently, old wounds re-open and skeletons emerge from closets, an uneasy air of sexual tension underscoring the proceedings.Buscemi is certainly an excellent director of actors, himself not only in fine, sharply skewed form, but also earning from Miller possibly her best performance to date.
The hand-held digital camera-work ably services a voyeuristic plot, and the script crackles with caustic repartee.The remake of a film by murdered Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gough, Interview is a tight, engaging drama with a thick nasty streak and an acutely barbed final act.
As I am staying in Amsterdam, that know-how interested me and on top of that I have a liking for Steve Buscemi (obviously after seeing Fargo).This is a story of a political journalist Pierre Peters (Steve) who is given a job to interview a B-grade movie celebrity Katya (Sienna Millers).
There is a final twist in the movie that makes the viewers satisfy.Both the characters are complex, especially of Katya  and I should say that even though Sienna Millers has tried her best and acted well too, still her character remains un-defined and shallow.
I expect Buscemi was meant to be the villain of the piece but I ended up feeling far more sympathy for his character than I did for Sienna Miller's protagonist.Maybe that was intentional but it left me feeling less than satisfied with the ending and at a running time of under 80 minutes, it felt like there could have been a lot more to the story.
Perhaps redemption of either character or revenge for/reversal of the trick Miller's character pulls on Buscemi's.That said it was extremely well written and directed and the performances by both leads were pretty exceptional, hence a high score, but for the dissatisfaction I felt with the ending it would have been an 8 or even 9 out of 10 for me..
If they aren't pop superstars out of the gate or genuine teen stars that get great coverage with films like, I don't know, "Mean Girls" for instance, then they remain B movie actresses and never achieve celebrity.
Nevertheless, thanks partly to some intriguing "acting of acting" by Buscemi and especially Miller, between the lines the film succeeds in discussing its problematic theme: the relation between a journalist and an actor, in which information and truth become tradeable goods and instruments of power.
In case you're wondering, this story was not written by "the" Theo Van Gogh (brother of the famous Dutch painter) but his great-grandson who wrote and directed the original "Interview" in 2003 a year before he was shot, stabbed & partially decapitated by a ticked off Muslim extremist who didn't like his movies.The only reason I'm mentioning this is to illustrate that Theo Van Gogh's films certainly had an effect on people.
While I seriously doubt anybody will get assassinated over this film, I'm sure it may (good naturedly) ruffle a few feathers in the world of self-important journalism and Hollywood tabloid reporting.Steve Buscemi plays an arrogant political journalist who is sent on a fluff assignment to interview a soap opera/B-movie celebrity (Sienna Miller).
He's a character we love to hate, and that's what makes this film work.Sienna Miller is well cast as the starlet known for her love affairs & bust size more than her talent.
In the second half they raise the stakes, building momentum to a big finale which I found very satisfying.If you're a fan of plays or films made from plays, particularly ones where characters love to antagonize each other like "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) or "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951), with a somewhat claustrophobic 1-on-1 presentation, then give this playful movie a shot..
Sometimes the acting is good--Sienna Miller plays parts of her flighty-actress role well, and Buscemi is good as a washed-up journalist.
The twist ending was mildly entertaining (hence 2 stars instead of 1), but it shows Miller's character to be much smarter and virtually psychic about Buscemi's next moves than she would ever have been.
Steve Buscemi's "Interview" is the remake of a 2003 Dutch movie of the same name (which I haven't seen, therefore I can't compare this to the original).
It was great to see him playing an atypical, much more serious role than usual - Pierre, a political journalist who's set to interview a blonde diva, B-movie star Katya (Sienna Miller, who surprised me with a good performance after her bloody awful turn in "Factory Girl", easily one of the most cringe-inducing performances I've ever seen).
They end up at her apartment for a long night of talking, drinking, and secrets revealed.Buscemi and Sienna have the right chemistry, plus his smart script and directing find the right pace for this kind of movie, so their long conversation never gets boring.
This movie is entertaining just by the performances of Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller despite its silly screenplay.I have to say that I liked the movie despite it was bad written, and I think the reason is because Steve Buscemi is a very good actor and Sienna Miller is likable in here, even though they play 2 characters who spend a night together in a very unrealistic situation acting in a very estrange way.Pierre Peders is a former political journalist now making interviews to the show business people thing which he doesn't like at all.
One evening very strange things will happen to him when he interviews Katya a movie and TV actress ....6.5 stars = regular +.
Interview, a remake of the Theo Van Gogh film from a few years back, is a taut tightrope act between two characters who can't stand one another and seem somehow fascinated all the same.
You really can't stand these people (or actually Miller's character), but you never want to look away from what they'll do next.It's about a political journalist (Buscemi) assigned to a "fluff piece", begrudgingly, with a hot young starlet of B-movies and TV (Miller), and after a bad dinner interview, or would-be interview, and a bad knock on the head in a taxi cab as Buscemi is leaving the restaurant, she invites him up to her place to clean his wound and suddenly the interview starts up again.
One might wonder why this film needed to be because of Van Gogh's original film from years before (which, by the way, had the actors playing their characters with the same names, and as a real serious actor playing against a real TV star).But Buscemi, as writer, director, and actor, is never one to stop his form of weird fascination too.
By the end we probably don't know her any better than when she sat down for a drink at the restaurant, except perhaps that she loves getting into character and messing with someone who has no idea who she is, in work and in life.When Interview is at its best, it combines fine performances with a beat after beat of dialog that does a double-cross: it's playfully self-aware of the situation, but at the same time the two characters go for truths about one another that take people sometimes years to get at in 'real' relationships.
And Sienna Miller is tremendous in her role of Katya, a young "with it" actress who lets it all hang out and then she encounters an INTERVIEW like no other.
Steve Buscemi and Miller light up the screen with an intensity and dialog that is ripping, angry and very much reflects what is happening at this moment of time on wanting to nail the perfect story.However, the twist at the end of the film is a wonderful scene and once again, Sienna Miller is at the top of her game in handling "the lies we tell each other" photographed in the glamorous loft settings of New York.
"Interview", directed and starred by Steve Buscemi, at first seems something like "Out of sight", where opposite attract, but then it turns into something like "Tape", where we experience various plot turns in a little space in a short amount time.
Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller obtain a great script and a naturalistic dialogue that have them interweaving a personal experience as they verbally fence over an interview.
A contemptuous political journalist Pierre Peders (Steve Buscemi) is assigned to interview a soap opera star Katya (Sienna Miller), much to his annoyance.
Even though Interview is not among my favourite conversation films, Buscemi alone makes it worth seeing for friends of dialogue-driven character dramas.
A political journalist (Buscemi) is sent on a clearly beneath-him assignment to meet an attractive B-list soap star celebrity (Sienna Miller).
Just like her character, Miller gets a lot of bad press but I've seen most of her work and she's actually quite talented.The direction was impeccable and kudos to Buscemi for making this film such an entertaining, engaging and wild ride and also for not trying to extend the running time.
INTERVIEW is a smart little independent film adapted from the 2003 Theo van Gogh film by the same name, a film that drew a lot of attention based on a script by Theodor Holman, which in turn was based on an idea by Hans Teeuwen sparring the famous Dutch actress Katja Schuurman with actor Pierre Bokma.
In this adaptation Steve Buscemi reworked the Holman screenplay with the help of David Schechter, changing the female role to a tabloid type bombshell actress (also named Katya, played with razor sharp clarity by Sienna Miller) with a disgruntle political reporter Pierre (Steve Buscemi) whose career is on the skids requiring that he take lousy assignments such as this interview to stay alive.Other than a disastrous opening in a classy restaurant where the two characters realize they are ridiculously mismatched as an interview pair, the entire film takes place in Katya's loft.
Miller is perfectly cast as a very popular soap/B movie actress, and Buscemi is loathed to have to interview her, as he is a Washington correspondent.
The two exclusive characters in the film are Sienna Miller's pop culture sex icon known for her roles in Z-grade slasher films and an earthy, intelligent yet down-on-his-luck reporter, played with great flexibility by Steve Buscemi, who's time is above being spent on her sort of movies and culture, with personal problems and a back-stabbing agent.
I had only seen her in Layer Cake before seeing her in this, wherein she was a decorative T&A role.The movie perceives a different side of the image society brands on these two types of people and communicates an understanding far deeper than anyone picking up a tabloid with Miller's face on it or reading an interview by Buscemi would ever go.
We wave off our celebrities and providers of information with fleeting judgments that we cynically and obstinately cling to, and Interview knows it, which makes it all the more powerful and beautiful and fascinating to see these two people in the privacy of an NYC studio apartment hacking away at each other's brains and hearts in very ambiguous ways that are underhanded and dishonestly motivated at the same time they're yearning to pour their oft-misunderstood hearts out to someone.Any semblance of visual style in Buscemi's directing is quite deadpan, yet it may be intentional to lend focus on the personal nature of the film.
I watched this film just last night and thought it was absolutely brilliant and this is without the words but the concept of keeping 2 people in a room in a movie for 90% and keep the audience entertained It was very clever very funny and very disturbing all at the same time could not take my eyes off the screen if for no other reason than Katya.
Watching a Dutch person trying to act is like watching a bad TV commercial trying to to be artistic.Steve Buscemi is a wonderful actor and proved with this film that he can also write.
What did you think of Steve Buscemi's film "Interview"?
Buscemi plays Pierre Peders, a political journalist who is given a non-governmental cumbersome assignment in interviewing a tabloid soap opera star named Katya, played by the ravishing Miller.
The script is incredible and spot-on; every single word is the perfect choice for the two characters, Pierre (Buscemi) and Katya (Miller).
The movie is about a journalist(Buscemi) who is sent to interview a young and famous actress(Miller), they end up asking intimate questions about each others personal life's in (millers) house.
Miller is a young actress, she shows talent with this performance, by the end you'll believe that she is the character she plays, in real life.
It starts out interesting enough with Steve Buscemi playing a political reporter who has to do a story on starlet Sienna Miller and can't really hide his contempt for this.But it doesn't go anywhere.
Steve Buscemi does double duty as director and lead character, political journalist Pierre Peders, assigned the task of doing a fluff piece on the flavor-of-the-week Sienna Miller's self-involved actress Katya.
Buscemi's direction is to tap into the truth of the relationship between Pierre and Katya, and this does come off as caustic at times, but the actors always seem like real people.The look of the flick is well-matched to its themes.
This is a two-hander and Buscemi and Miller carry the entire feature, and the dynamic that ignites between the two is memorable and will leave you thinking through much of what the characters say and do as the screen fades.The film at times may feel a little too much like theatre.
This movies was written, directed and stars Steve Buscemi.
The performances by Buscemi and his co-star Sienna Miller as well as a good part of the dialogue satisfied my expectations but I don't think there was sufficient material in the script for the length of the movie.
Sienna Miller character was excellent writing and she was a pleasant surprise by the time the movie ended.
Steve Buscemi directs, acts, and co-writes a small Indiewood movie with Sienna Miller about a political journalist who ends up interviewing a Hollywood star he knows next to nothing about.
Sienna Miller was all over the board.Except for a rough and unnecessary twist-form of ending, it makes a nice little dramatic comedy, a great exercise in acting, and a fun Indie-mentality small film.
Pierre, An over-the-hill (formerly successful) political journalist is forced to interview the 'actress' Katja, whose more famous for who she sleeps with than for her 'films'.
This is basically a 2 character play, with a prologue that while being well done (actually more interesting than what follows) This however has next to nothing to do with what follows.Steve Buscemi wrote, directed & stars in this version of a 2003 Dutch film by Theo Van Gogh.
That film HAD to be better than this.Now to this movie,Steve cant do wrong as an actor,he makes all the right moves.
INTERVIEW (2007) ** ½ Steve Buscemi adapted and directed this remake of slain European filmmaker Theodor Holman's absorbing yet constrained character study about a once hotshot political journalist (Buscemi) forced into taking a fluff piece assigned by his editor on a superficial actress best known for her lascivious lifestyle (Miller, in another strong performance, proving she's more than a pretty face) than for her questionable work.