Interviews, 2/5.

"Turkey has changed more in the past year than it has in the past 70," writes Fiachra Gibbons in the Guardian, meeting up with Zeki Demirkubuz, "one of the utterly unclassifiable talents Turkish cinema has quietly produced to surprise, delight and challenge the world. Like his friend Nuri Bilge Ceylan, responsible for such masterpieces as the Cannes-winning Distant, he seems surprised that his serious films have struck such an international chord. Yet he is one of a select club of directors to have had two films competing at Cannes at the same time, and probably the only one who credits the generals who threw him into prison for turning him into a filmmaker."

Also in the Guardian:

• Michael Billington meets Robert Altman, who's in London to direct the British premiere of Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues at the Old Vic.

• Sandra Hebron has a long on-stage talk with Charlize Theron and North Country director Niki Caro.

• Ryan Gilbey interviews Natascha McElhone.

• Ed Vulliamy profiles Rachel Weisz.

The Telegraph's Benjamin Secher goes to Seoul to meet Park Chan-wook, who selects his five top scenes in Korean film.

Also: Sheila Johnston gets Anand Tucker talking about Peter Weir's Fearless and Tim Robey meets costume designer Jacqueline Durran.

"I've had all sorts of people come up to me and say, 'I don't really care for your movies but I love that DVD,'" Kevin Smith tells the Vue Weekly's Paul Matwychuk. The DVD is An Evening with Kevin Smith and a sequel is due later this year.

AICN's Quint talks with George Clooney, who lets on that he'll be in another Coen brothers film to be called Burn After Reading.

Slate culture editor Meghan O'Rourke talks with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bryan Curtis has a fun meet-up with Penn Jillette.

Mike Russell has a long talk with Taggart Siegel, director of The Real Dirt on Farmer John, "a documentary about his pal, the hard-working, proudly eccentric artist/writer/farmer John Peterson."

Scott Foundas talks with Roger Donaldson about The World's Fastest Indian. Also in the LA Weekly: Ella Taylor meets Bryce Dallas Howard.

At Hollywood Bitchslap, Jason Whyte talks with Christopher Warre Smets, director of The Overlookers.

Alix Sharkey meets David LaChapelle for the Observer. Also: Simon Garfield talks with Rosanne Cash about her problems with Walk the Line (Philip French reviews the film) and Killian Fox asks Nick Clooney about his influence on his son, George.

For indieWIRE, Michael Gibbons reports on a recent iChat session: "During a half hour discussion with critics and fans, [Lars] von Trier reflected on his career and responded to questions in a relaxed, self-deprecating, and witty tone, with only a slight hint of mockery."

Annie Wagner introduces Stranger readers to Adam Sekuler, the new programming director for the Northwest Film Forum.

For the Independent, James Mottram meets Josh Hartnett.

Stop Smiling's running an excerpt from James Hughes's interview with doc-maker Steve James.

Posted by dwhudson at February 5, 2006 12:13 PM