simoncrerar.com :: Simon Crerar's website » Film & DVD

Daryl Hannah, star of Blade Runner and Splash, on permaculture

simon — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 02:32:05 +0000

A childhood encounter with a calf on its way to slaughter sparked a lifetime of environmental campaigning for Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah, who now lives in a house powered by solar panels, drives a vehicle that runs off used cooking fat and grows most of her own food.

Yet the 1980s pin-up still thinks she isn’t doing enough for the environment.

Hannah is in Far North Queensland for a two-week course on permaculture, which aims to mimic the principles of natural ecosystems in human settlements and agriculture.

Read the full story at Cairns.com.au

Chatting to Gorgeous George at the LFF

simon — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:20:13 +0000

“Believe me, this isn’t the first time I’ve worked with goats: I’m from Kentucky man!”

Managed to grab a few moments with George Clooney on the red carpet outside the Odeon Leicester Square tonight, ahead of The Times Gala presentation of his new pic The Men Who Stare at Goats. Oozing glamour, he was even more impeccably groomed than the average Hollywood A-lister.

Watch our report at Times Online

Wet, wet, wet: Bafta Awards 2009

simon — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:01:15 +0000

Just squelched back from an incredibly soggy Covent Garden after covering the Baftas. Last year was a spectacular February blue-sky day, and because of the Writers’ Strike, a huge number of Hollywood stars rocked-up to stroll the red carpet. This year the heavens opened just as arrivals started, so most of the big names (Dev, Danny, Kate, Brangelina!) arrived en masse in the last 30 minutes. We managed to blag a few umbrellas and just about stayed dry. I got within pinching distance of Angelina Jolie, and managed to piss off Kate Winslett, so not a bad night’s work. You can read our report and watch our red carpet video here

Heath Ledger v The Dark Knight

simon — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:00:27 +0000

Got along to the BFI Imax on the Southbank tonight to see The Dark Knight, and yes, as blockbusters go it is exceedingly good. I loved Heath’s impossible to control, impossible to dislike anarchic vibe. I loved Christopher Nolan’s sweeping IMAX camera work (the Hong Kong scene in particular is about the most balletic, graceful and stomach moving celluloid yet committed). I loved the twist on twist on twist. I loved the strong characters way down the bill. I loved the 21st century terrorist undertones (not so subtle most of the time, check out the imagery of Batman’s logo carved into a Gotham City high rise a la WTC on 9/11). I had to scrabble hard to get a central seat in the IMAX – one place you really do not want to be sitting in the front row – and will be queuing up to watch it again. Biggest Film Ever I would imagine. Well, this summer anyway.

Philippe Petit is a nutter!

simon — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:30:19 +0000

Like most people of a certain age, I stood on the top of the World Trade Centre in New York before the Hamburg Boys decided to rearrange it. Like most people I admired the view of Uptown, admired the view of Liberty, marvelled at the Twin Towers stupendous height, and beat a hasty retreat for the elevator.

Frenchman Philippe Petit first saw the WTC in an architectural magazine before it was even built, and naturally decided he simply had to string a wire between the towers and walk across. One of the year’s most engaging and amusing films, Man on Wire is a Sundance winning documentary coming soon to a cinema near you. Through interviews and reconstructions, it tells Petit’s story of Petit’s walk between two giant skyscrapers 1350 feet up. A walk he dubbed “the artistic crime of the century.”

In particular, I liked that the stunt took place on August 7, 1974, nine day before I was born.

Keira and Sienna discuss The Edge of Love

simon — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:00:33 +0000

This morning I was lucky enough to spend ten minutes with Britain’s hottest actresses, Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller. By hot I of course mean “in demand” rather than “highly attractive”, though it isn’t news that they are both rather pleasing on the eye. Anyway, I made much less of an idiot of myself than in my recent Scarlett and Natalie fumble, and we had a relaxed chat about their new film The Edge of Love. Written by Mother Knightley, the film depicts the life and loves of the Welsh poet Dylan Jones and includes a bit of saucy girl-on-girl action which the actresses were happy to discuss. It’s an enjoyable watch – Keira can really sing – and beautifully shot, though sadly, the script is a little clunking. You can watch the interview here

Festival de Cannes, 2008

simon — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:55:02 +0000

Back from another hard slog on the Cote d’Azur. Seriously, Cannes is a hard slog. Screenings from 08:00 to midnight, endless photocalls, red carpet calls, press conferences, publicity stunts, lunch receptions, cocktail receptions, late night parties. And, being a 24/7 news practitioner, endless rolling deadlines. All the time fighting for space with 3,000 other hacks from around the world, plus 10,000 or so delegates, plus thousands of star spotters. The entire experience made harder still this year by last Thursday’s tragedy (five days after moving into our new place, our dear little pooch Walter committed hara-kari attacking a passing white van, Rachelle breaking her foot trying to stop him).

The Palais awaits: Cannes Red Carpet 2008

Highlights? Blagging into the Maradona by Kusturica premiere (rewarded with a sustained standing ovation, film was pretty ace too), hanging out with Iron Mike at the Tyson party, Brit artist Steve McQueen’s Maze hunger strike drama Hunger, the superb 1982 Lebanon war cartoon Waltz with Bashir, the first half of Steven Soderbergh’s Che, being in the first audience in the world to see the new Indiana Jones. Not forgetting Times Chief Film Critic James Christopher’s yoga on the Martinez pier at Monday’s Times/Sky Movies lunch…

James Christopher and Omgasm star Alexandra Fulton

Scarlett and Natalie discuss The Other Boleyn Girl

simon — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:00:45 +0000

Pleasant morning acting like an idiot in front of two of Hollywood’s most stunning leading ladies. Walked into my Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman interview at the Dorchester Hotel to find Scarlett talking about a dream she’d had the previous night. Apparently Barak Obama had made her a senator (Scarlett is a big Barak fan). So I sat down and started quizzing them about the US election for five minutes (Natalie is backing Hillary). Then the producer gives me the five minute heads-up, and panicked, I rush through my questions, which are already a mess as I’d anticipated time with each actress separately, rather than a threesome. So to speak. Anyway, ended up asking Scarlett about her love of cheese. Which at the time seemed to me to follow naturally from a corset and lunch discussion. But apparently not. Heard Natalie whisper: “journalists are weird” as I left. Guess I blew the menage a trois. You can watch the interview here

Daniel Radcliffe discusses Journey

simon — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:00:38 +0000

My most interesting moment on tonight’s Bafta red carpet came when I got a few minutes with Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe. We talked about his forthcoming role, playing Dan Eldon, the young British-born artist and photojournalist brutally murdered in Somalia in 1992.

Daniel Robert Eldon (18 September 1970, Hampstead, England â€“ 12 July 1993, Mogadishu, Somalia) was an English photojournalist. He and three colleagues were killed by an angry mob in Mogadishu. He left behind a series of journals, which his family has exhibited on a worldwide tour. [Source: Wikipedia]

Oliver Stone discusses World Trade Center

simon — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 23:01:17 +0000

What was it like to be carried alive from the ruins of the Twin Towers on 9/11?

Oliver Stone was in London last week to discuss his movie World Trade Center and shed light on a film critics have called one of the most pro-American pictures of all time â€“ no mean feat for a director previously accused of being unpatriotic.

The director was accompanied by New York Port Authority Police Department officer Will Jimeno, one of only 20 people to be pulled alive from Ground Zero on September 11.

Stone’s film brilliantly evokes the confusion and fear of the tower’s attack and collapse, before documenting the terrible predicament of Jimeno and his sergeant John McLoughlin as they struggle to keep each other alive under the wreckage.

Stone lived through the Kennedy assassination, and says he quickly realised that in many horrible ways the events unfolding on his screen on 9/11 resembled a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. How then did he distance himself from simply recreating the disaster as a Hollywood event?

Read the full story at Times Online