Video interview. Joe Swanberg.

Joe Swanberg's Hannah Takes the Stairs premieres at SXSW on Sunday, and at the main site, you can watch Joe talk about, among other things, how it relates to his previous features, Kissing on the Mouth and LOL.

A first glimpse of Joe's trailers for this year's edition of the festival: Rehearsal for a film scene, a showdown between jealous lovers: a cellphone goes off, an actor whiplashes out of character. Very nice, very Swanbergian - speaking of which, a second online viewing tip: Season 2 of the unique and wonderful series Young American Bodies is on at Nerve.

Related: Ray Pride's extensive and insightful profile of Joe for Newcity (Chicago). Updates, 3/12: The extended, illustrated version. By the way, Hannah is wonderful. More later.

Paul Harrill: "Like Renoir, one of Swanberg's primary talents is his ability to fill his films with immensely likable actors, and this film, which is almost completely comprised of other independent filmmakers, has an ensemble that's as warm and generous as any I've seen in a long, long time. Greta Gerwig, in particular, is a knockout."

Update, 3/13: "I admire Swanberg's ambition and integrity immensely, and the intimate moments he captures are a direct result of his unusual method," writes Salon's Andrew O'Hehir. "I like the ideas behind his work, and I'm grateful that he's making it. But the ultra-low production values in Hannah (the sound is tinny and sometimes almost inaudible) and nearly total lack of narrative intensity make for a highly uneven viewing experience.... I suspect Swanberg's work would benefit from more domineering, artistic-dictator behavior on his part, rather than less."

Posted by dwhudson at March 9, 2007 11:09 PM