Viggo Mortensen
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Getting the Job, Learning from The Master and Goodfellas, and Shooting with Cleaner Glass: Cinematographer Sean Porter Talks Green Book
Viggo Mortensen always seemed like the kind of actor who would insist on eating a dozen hot dogs in a scene if his character did the same. Green Book cinematographer Sean Porter confirmed those suspicions. “We shot a hot dog eating contest and Viggo was cramming them in at full speed every take,” laughs Porter. Green Book provided Mortensen (and his digestive system) with ample opportunities to display that kind of commitment to authenticity. In the based-in-fact story, Mortensen plays Tony Vallelonga, a Bronx bouncer with a penchant for gluttony who accepts a job driving a refined piano virtuoso (played […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Dec 15, 2018 -
10 Lessons on Filmmaking from Viggo Mortensen
In his latest film, Captain Fantastic, Viggo Mortensen plays Ben, a man intent on raising his children on his own terms in the wild forests of the Pacific Northwest. When he learns of his wife’s sudden death, he must uproot his family from the life they are accustomed to and try to find their own path back in civilization. The film had an incredibly successful festival run after its Sundance premiere, picking up top awards in Cannes, Deauville and Karlovy Vary. And recently, the film picked up the Audience Award at the Rome Film Fest, where Mortensen and director Matt […]
by Ariston Anderson on Nov 2, 2016 -
Not Without My Daughter: Jauja
Jauja courts enigmatic status, but this much can be safely established: Danish officer Captain Dinesen (Viggo Mortensen) is with his daughter Ingeborg (Viilbjork Mallin Agger) in 19th-century Patagonia for unspecified military purposes. She’s a bit of a mystic, announcing “I love the desert. I love how it fills me.” “I beg your pardon?” sputters nonplussed, over-protective dad, put off both by her love of inhospitable terrain and sexual language. Ingeborg promptly runs off with a young officer and Dinesen follows, his would-be rescue made more dangerous by repeatedly coming close to Zuluaga — once a Danish officer, now something like a Red […]
by Vadim Rizov on Mar 20, 2015 -
Lost in a Dream
“I don’t think humans communicate well.” —Lisandro Alonso I agree with the Argentine director. In our present age — when everyone has to be “connected” all the time, doing more than one thing — the chatter, the noise, can be maddening. Encountering the work of Lisandro Alonso makes me recall the feeling of lying on the floor and listening to a record as a teenager: not texting or talking or answering emails, simply listening. Alonso’s films let the viewer pay attention and dream simultaneously. Spare in dialogue, attentive to landscapes, meditative in pacing, they allow one to get lost in […]
by Alix Lambert on Jan 21, 2015 -
“I Don’t Know If Camus Would Have Approved”: Five Questions for Far From Men Director David Oelhoffen
David Oelhoffen’s latest film, Far From Men, is based on Albert Camus’ short story “The Guest.” Set during the Algerian War and shot in the manner of a Western, the film features a French and Arabic-speaking Viggo Mortensen as Daru, a schoolteacher in remote Algeria required, against his will, to transport murderous prisoner Mohamed (Reda Kateb) to meet his justice. The two men must confront their own morality and each other against a backdrop of the Atlas Mountains. The powerful film recently played at the Marrakech International Film Festival, near where the film was shot. Mortensen received a career tribute award for the […]
by Ariston Anderson on Dec 23, 2014 -
Mad Men: The NYFF’s Go-To Films (II)
Can we permanently delete the term “home stretch” in a festival context? All right then. In the NYFF’s final week, the best fiction in the Main Slate is stronger (arguably) and more obscure (undoubtedly) than just about everything that has come before. Products of exceptional minds creating in different keys, these three gems (Horse Money, Jauja, Life of Riley) do share some elements that could make them off-putting for the passive viewer. All bets are off for anyone looking for the expected visual and aural cues. Each of these directors builds a self-contained universe with its own rules of engagement. […]
by Howard Feinstein on Oct 7, 2014 -
“These Movies Work Better If You’re Really Stoned:” David Cronenberg on Architecture and His Early Work
TIFF’s acclaimed Evolution exhibition — celebrating the career of hometown boy David Cronenberg — had just closed when OCAD University hosted a free discussion between him and TIFF CEO Piers Handling. For the past five months, the art school has been partnering with Toronto International on The Cronenberg Project, a multimedia exploration of the director of Dead Ringers, Crash and A History of Violence. It’s appropriate that the discussion before an audience of 325 students and VIPs centered on Cronenberg’s student years, early films and architecture. The talk began with excerpts from Stereo (1969) and Crimes of The Future (1970), […]
by Allan Tong on Jan 24, 2014 -
Ana Piterbarg on Everybody Has a Plan
A self-assured feature debut from Argentine writer/director Ana Piterbarg, the moody identity-swap thriller Everyone Has a Plan features a remarkable turn by Viggo Mortensen, working in Spanish, as both Agustín, a preternaturally depressed Buenos Aires physician, and Agustín’s identical twin Pedro, a rural beekeeper who suddenly shows up at Agustín’s, dying of cancer and suggesting euthanasia. Seeking a way out of his staid, bourgeoise existence, defined by his unwillingness to adopt a child with his seemingly long-suffering wife, Agustín chooses to take his brother’s place, relocating to the Tigre delta, an evocative and historically rich backwater where Pedro lived. After assuming the dead […]
by Brandon Harris on Mar 21, 2013 -
TRAILER WATCH: DAVID CRONENBERG’S “A DANGEROUS METHOD”
The trailer for David Cronenberg’s latest, A Dangerous Method, which is about Carl Jung’s relationship with a female patient and his clash with Sigmund Freud, is online. The film stars Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley and Viggo Mortenson. According to The Playlist, Knightley has a “lengthy neurotic monlogue” that “steals the show.” Indeed, her extreme physical angularity may never have been used to such good effect as it appears to have been used here.
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 21, 2011 -
SONY CLASSICS TAKES CRONENBERG’S “A DANGEROUS METHOD”
In a press release sent out today, Sony Pictures Classics has announced that they have acquired the U.S. rights to David Cronenberg‘s next film, A Dangerous Method. Starring Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley, Vincent Cassel and Cronenberg regular Viggo Mortensen, the film follows how the intense relationship between Carl Jung (Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Mortensen) gives birth to psychoanalysis. Knightley plays their patient, Cassel plays Freud disciple, Otto Gross. The film, Cronenberg’s 19th, is currently in post production and was shot mostly in Germany by the director’s longtime DP Peter Suschitzky. The composer is Howard Shore and adapted from Christopher Hampton‘s […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jun 16, 2011
