ThinkingofRob | Source
Monday, October 26, 2015
Mia Goth joins ‘High Life’ + more details
From Deadline:
“Mia Goth is set to star opposite Robert Pattinson in High Life, the English-language debut film from director Claire Denis. The movie is about a group of criminals who accept a mission in space to become the subjects of a human reproduction experiment. They find themselves in the most unimaginable situation after a storm of cosmic rays hit the ship.”
Via ThinkingofRob
Rob Interview with Filmkrant (Netherlands)
“I always feel rather uncomfortable”
First Cronenberg, Michôd, Herzog, now Corbijn, very soon Gray, Korine and Denis: they all want Robert Pattinson. Why? What is the appeal of this teen idol?
By Kees Driessen
The penny dropped when I watched Cosmopolis (2012). The first time the film by David Cronenberg was disappointing to me. In ‘Vrij Nederland’ [dutch paper] I called him ‘bloodless – painful role for leading actor Robert Pattinson, who after his global success as a vampire in the insignificant Twilight series likes to sink his teeth into more serious material, but as autistic financial genius … he can hardly show a more emotional range [to the audience].
The second time I watched the movie I saw it. Then I understood that casting Pattinson was a great, even brilliant move. The hollow falsity of Cosmopolis is not only the reflection of the virtual financial system that is criticized in the film, but also of its leading character and, partly, its leading actor.
Robert Pattinson (London, 1986) plays in Cosmopolis a stunningly handsome stockbroker with huge financial success at a much too young an age, looking through the windows of his limousine with a detachment as if they were monitors, and fears that his inner self is rotting away (for which he gets daily anal examinations). You can almost call it typecasting, as a vampire with world fame.
Uncomfortable in his own skin
There are more great arthouse directors. David Michôd cast Pattinson in The Rover (not seen in 2014); just as Cronenberg, again, in Maps to the Stars (2014); Herzog, in a supporting role as T.E. Lawrence’s otherwise failed Queen of the Desert (2015); and soon James Gray in The Lost City of Z, Claire Denis in her yet untitled sci-fi movie and – very exciting – Harmony Korine, alongside James Franco, Idris Elba and Al Pacino in The Trap.
And now starring in Anton Corbijn’s Life, as a beginning photographer Dennis Stock, maker of the most famous photographs of James Dean. Where Cronenberg, as usual, in Cosmopolis magnified Pattinson’s character metaphorical and philosophical, the down to earth Corbijn uses [Rob] more realistic but nevertheless similar: as someone who feels uncomfortable in his skin, is keen to get recognition and feels a substantial distance to the world. “He’s an actor who wants to prove himself as an actor who plays a photographer who wants to prove himself as a photographer. Therefore the casting seemed like a great idea,” says a grinning Corbijn in Berlin.
Shy
Pattinson himself too is grinning a lot in Berlin. Many apologetic smiles too – like his character. Pattinson seems extremely nice, but is at the same time strikingly shy for someone of his fame and notoriety. Embarrassed BY his fame.
If he, as an actor often wanders outside his comfort zone? “I have no comfort zone at all haha! I always feel always rather uncomfortable.” He seems to mean it. “But so is my character.” And they {Rob and his character Dennis Stock] have more similarities. Like Stock Pattinson doesn’t like to be photographed. He really doesn’t. He mentions it three times. He feels like it’s making him ‘smaller’, “as if they are something away from you.”
Pattinson describes his character: “What I find fascinating is that he he couldn’t feel anything, not even love, as if he was handicapped.” And “Because he’s so restrained, he feels separated from the world, he lacks the experience of a normal person. That is quite tragic…” And: “I found it interesting that he finds solace in his art.”
Later, about all the media attention on himself: “Sometimes you feel just very separated from everything. That is a little worrisome..” And about acting: “You give quite a lot of yourself away, if you really
Uncomfortable
Is Stock is a mirror of self-portrait? The thought arises. If Pattinson, like Dennis Stock and James Dean, is a tortured soul himself, I do not know. But they share at least this: Pattinson feels an uncomfortable proximity to humans and is – something that’s not easy in the world of film or during a group interview – looking for a real connection.
That’s where there’s a blend in his role as Stock, in his roles for Cronenberg, and to some degree even with TE Lawrence and Twilight’s Edward.
When asked, via James Dean, what charisma is a movie star, Pattinson stumbles over his words a minute and then laughs nervously exclaiming: “I have no idea what the f*ck I’m saying haha!”
I want to make an attempt: charisma is the attraction of someone with a seductive look and an unattainable inner self. And that is Robert Pattinson has.
Via RPLife
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
More New Rob Interviews From "LIFE" Promo - ELLE Italy
(Via | Translation)
A talk with Robert Pattinson
During the Berlinale we met the actor, who talked about his new movie LIFE, bad fathers, and photography as art and frost bite on fingers.
What was it like to play a photographer under the direction of a legendary photographer like Anton Corbijn?
(laughs) Luckily I didn’t really see Dennis Stock as a photographer in the beginning. For me he was someone who wanted to be an artist but wasn’t sure if he had what it takes to be an artist. I had the feeling that the camera was a means for him to express himself.
How did you work with the camera? Did you only pose with it or did you really use it?
The great thing was that I got the camera a couple of months before we started shooting. It was loaned to us from the Leica museum and it’s the same camera Dennis Stock used. There aren’t many original old cameras left, but they are great and I used mine extensively.
What did you photograph?
I started doing the Werner Herzog film 'Queen of the Desert' right after that and I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the location. I took hundreds of pics of the sets and Marrakesh. I didn’t really do it seriously or because of the movie, but more because it was fun. I figured I could ask Anton how to use the Leica correctly later, but he couldn’t really help me with that (laughs)
But he did show you some tricks, didn’t he? I mean he has to be the best teacher for that.
That’s what I thought, that he would show me how to hold the camera and move it, but Anton told me that I needed to understand the camera myself. Eventually I understood him because he is a different photographer than Dennis Stock was. Anton loves photography, he likes moving on the sidelines and observe everything as oppose to Dennis Stock, who acted more like a painter. Stock wasn’t only focused on his counterpart but also on himself and he was looking for validation. He didn’t really enjoy his role as a photographer because he wanted to be more extravagant.
Is that the reason you were interested in the role?
To be honest the first thing that interested me was that he was a bad father. Usually at my age there aren’t many father roles to play and in this one the father doesn’t love his kid and doesn’t understand why. There is this beautiful scene where James Dean is playing with his nephew and Stock is watching them and wracking his brains how Dean can be so natural and loving with a child. That broke my heart. Another thing is, that everybody thinks that someone like that is an asshole and I thought it was exciting to present him more likable despite of that. Contrary to that Dennis Stock’s pictures are full of feeling.
You can really see that, in his own way, he really loved James Dean. He couldn’t really tell him that but it seems like Stock put a crown on James with the pictures. At the same time bitterness and jealousy also shine through those pictures and one could also see the influence James had on him. I love Stock’s pictures from that era, the jazz musicians whose pictures showed how much he admired them. I think photography was a way for him to show his love for others.
(Via | Translation)
Robert Pattinson is back in cinemas on October 8 with the film Life , an Anton Corbijn’s movie dedicated to James Dean, movie legend who died exactly 60 years ago in a car accident . The actor who became famous as a vampire in Twilight , however, did not take the role of the legendary Jimmy (his shoes are filled by Dane DeHaan ), as widely expected, but those of photographer Dennis Stock , who in 1955 – that same year of the death the star – snapped a series of photographs for the magazine Life immortalizing James Dean as no one before him had done. Anton Corbijn is dedicating the whole movie to the trusting relationship that comes to life between the two: to speak in more detail of the film is own Robert Pattinson , in this exclusive interview given during the filming of the movie.
Dennis and James. A photographer on the brink of bankruptcy and an artist on the crest of a wave. Tell us about the dynamics of their friendship.
The story of these two has a very original dynamics. James Dean is a character so emphatic and Dennis, is not. There’s a moment that, for me, sums up this diversity. There’s this scene where James Dean is playing with his nephew, and Dennis just says, ‘I do not know how you can do it.‘ Basically he is saying ‘I do not understand what they’re feeling’. Dennis had a son, of course, but he does not love him and that’s just awful. He is constantly permeated by negativity, so full of anxiety, to the point that he becomes really irritating. You can hardly believe that these kinds of people exist, you can’t believe the fact that they say they are not able to love. He’s kind of a horrible being, but in his tragedy he’s also an extremely fascinating character. And as I said the dynamic between them is really interesting.
James Dean is a myth. Has he ever had an influence on your career?
I have long admired his work. I believe that a lot of 16 year old actors have had their ‘James Dean’ stage and for most of them, the important thing is not the role to play but being part of the fantasies derived from the myth – and I also have experienced one of the two phases. He is certainly still an icon but Dane (DeHaan) would be able to answer that question better than me because he is more tied to James Dean, his figure, the myth.
Would you have been interested in playing the part of James Dean?
Oh no, absolutely not (laughs) Dane did a great job.
How did it go with Anton Corbijn?
Working with Anton Corbijn has been a great honor and his first film Control (about the life of Ian Curtis, leader of Joy Division), was the reason why I decided just to accept the part. I loved that movie. I love the style of Anton and I knew that LIFE would have followed the same path.
And with the camera?
To practice at best, I took some pictures on the set of LIFE and of the other film that I was shooting The Queen of the Desert where I worked with Nicole Kidman. Then for a few months I took a number of wonderful, horrifying pictures with a Leica M1 of 1953. It wasn’t the personal one used by Dennis, but the same model. It must have been a model that came out some time before Stock’s. It’s beautiful, and it works perfectly. I think that will never break. ”
Who was Dennis Stock?
Dennis was always worried that everything could go wrong. He felt haunted by the possibility that the public would not follow him, that they wouldn’t be on his side. But at the same time, I thought he was a modern, contemporary character. The story is about someone trying to become an artist and the fear of not being able to achieve his dream is the saddest and demoralizing part of his life. Dennis is the kind of artist who is so afraid of not being good enough for his profession that he would use excuses for anything. When he sees Jimmy for the first time, it’s fun because he has precisely this undeniable effect. Being close to someone who is reaching their potential is a very nice process to witness. Relating to James Dean and everything that was happening to him allowed Dennis to believe a little more in himself too.
Do you believe then that James Dean had a positive influence on the photographer?
Absolutely yes. Sometimes you just need a little encouragement and the fact that Jimmy told him ‘These are great ” while he showed him the pictures he had taken of him was a huge source of pride. I think at that specific time Dean clearly showed and paved the way for Stock. He regarded Jimmy as a true artist who had a profound impact on his life. And so, when Jimmy gave his approval, well, that’s all you need sometimes – this is all it takes to start believing in yourself. And I think that’s what happened. For Dennis, the encounter with Jimmy was fundamental and has changed his life and certainly his work.”
Via RPLife
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