I sat down earlier this afternoon with “127 Hours” star James Franco, director Danny Boyle and writer Simon Beaufoy. I’ll have proper written pieces up surrounding each in the coming days but there was something I wanted to share now.
Firstly, it’s always a joy to talk cinema with Boyle. He’s a truly excitable character who projects a brand of passion impossible to counterfeit and is just a good guy on top of it. (Check out my interview with the director from the 2008-2010 season — “8 things I’ve learned from my career in features” — here.)
Anyway, he got fired up when we began discussing the hallucination sequences of the film, how to convey something that’s intrinsically so personal in a creative but organic way. Off he went on a tangent, soon joined by Beaufoy, that I found inspiring as a fan and as a writer. Maybe you will, too. Have a listen after the jump.
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And Franco:
[Photos: Life, Kristopher Tapley]
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10 responses to “Boyle, Beaufoy on pushing the boundaries of cinema”
that was short but interesting, but i love how passionate he is.
Anyway he seems like a nice and sincere guy, i was so glad when he won the oscar, how could u be against him.
I got to talk to Boyle last year at TIFF at a screening of An Education. He was sitting next to me. Boyle and I had a wonderful conversation. He seems like such a genuinely nice man who cares about the cinema. After the screening he turned to me and apologized for having to leave quickly but said he enjoyed talking to me. Boyle didn’t know me from Adam and certainly didn’t have to do that.
His film, “127 Hours” is astounding and it is the manner of how he makes it so that amazes me — think about it, a guy is stuck in a hole pinned by a boulder…yet through the stunning performance of Franco (really incredible work) and Boyle’s dizzying direction he makes this a masterpiece — and more than that, a challenging demanding work about how far a man will go to survive all the while staring into the mirror at his own life choices and selfishness — and then finds the strength to do the unthinkable…God — Boyle is a genius — have loved the man since “Trainspotting” for which he should have won the Oscar.
This is pretty cool. His passion for filmmaking us matched by very few directors today, but he’s definitely someone to aspire to I think. Sounds like a great interview. Color me jealous.
Boyle strikes me as someone who hasn’t changed much since Shallow Grave. Yes he’s far more famous and wealthy now but he’s still the guy from Radcliffe.
Loyal, that’s what I felt. That he hasn’t let fame get to his head and make him too guarded. I talked to him about his film Millions, which is a favorite film of mine and he seemed genuinely pleased. And when he did the Q&A this year for 127 Hours, he addressed his answer directly facing the person who had posed the question. I hope 127 Hours is a success because I liked it a bit more than Slumdog. I thought he did so much with the limitations he had to work with.
Daveylow — YES!!!! THANK YOU!!!! I too prefer the film “127 Hours” to “Slumdog Millionaire” which I think was pushed to Oscar glory by a lot of goodwill, (little film takes on the world) much the same thing that happened when Begnini won Best Actor for “Life is Beautiful” — while the eight Oscars for “Slumdog Millionaire” are not the travesty Begnini winning Best Actor was, not for a moment did I think the film was best of the year — “127 Hours” might be.
[…] While Kris Tapley gets Danny Boyle and James Franco to talk about “127 Hours.” […]
[…] While Kris Tapley gets Danny Boyle and James Franco to talk about “127 Hours.” […]
[…] While Kris Tapley gets Danny Boyle and James Franco to talk about “127 Hours.” […]