1st Interview of Sean Penn about THE LAST FACE

his dedication:

He spent the past two-and-a-half years working on it, putting his own money into the production. “I had almost enough to do this one the way I wanted to do it,” he says. “Then I had to pony up much more than I can afford to complete it.”

Performances of the actors and Cannes's impact:


The Last Face defies categorisation, he suggests, which means its critical reception in Cannes, where it is in competition for the Palme d’Or, becomes important for its future prospects. “I’ve got an ‘everything is riding on it’ deal going to Cannes this year,” he says. “I think [the movie] will disappear if it gets a poor reaction and I think that would be a terrible shame because it’s very relevant now and the performances are transcendent . . . I’ve given it all I’ve got.”

movie industry:


“Movie studios were started by visionaries who loved movies,” he says, taking a drag on his cigarette, his voice cracked and gravelly. But over time “it wasn’t film lovers running the studios”. Now, Hollywood has become a “ubiquitous fraud” interested only in “cookie-cutter” stories.

he tells me the business is only concerned with “supplying stimulus and comfort”. Hasn’t it always been like this, I ask? He shakes his head. The balance between “salesmanship and artistry” is out of whack. “It’s all about branding now,” he says. “Greed is good. Superficial as all *beep* hell but popular.”


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/df340274-1762-11e6-b197-a4af20d5575e.html