Question and answer interviews

theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Mike Hodges

THEARTSDESK Q&A: MIKE HODGES The British writer-director reflects on his thriller 'Black Rainbow', out on Blu-ray

The British writer-director reflects on the making and meaning of his thriller 'Black Rainbow' as it bows on Blu-ray

Mike Hodges arrived in cinema through television, including a stint on the rightly revered Granada Television current affairs series World in Action. He burst on to the big screen in 1971 with the gritty and witty crime thriller Get Carter, which revealed both his brilliant eye and piercing lack of sentiment.

theartsdesk Q&A: actor Gemma Whelan

THEARTSDESK Q&A: ACTOR GEMMA WHELAN Upward mobility is the name of her game

From 'Game of Thrones' to 'Emma' and the new series of 'Killing Eve', upward mobility is the name of her game

She's not quite a household name yet, but Leeds-born Gemma Whelan is heading speedily in that direction. Having started out as a standup comedian, winning the Funny Women Variety Award in 2010, Whelan began notching up film and TV roles, en route to making a significant breakthrough by being cast as Yara Greyjoy in HBO's Game of Thrones.

Remembering John Prine, one of the great American singer-songwriters

REMEMBERING JOHN PRINE One of the great American singer-songwriters

A tribute to the blue-collar folk poet, who has died at the age of 73

John Prine, who has died at the age of 73 from a Covid 19-related illness, was one of the great American folk poets. Having spent his early adulthood pounding the sidewalks as a mailman in Chicago, he never quite shucked that blue-collar aura of the working man's minstrel.

Director Marjane Satrapi: ‘The real question is do you like everyone? No? So, why should everyone like you?’

FILMMAKER MARJANE SATRAPI ‘The real question is do you like everyone? No? So, why should everyone like you?’

The forthright 'Radioactive' filmmaker on intelligence, ignorance and Marie Curie

Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-born French filmmaker, has a reputation that precedes her. Her upbringing was the subject of the acclaimed films Persepolis (2007) and Chicken With Plums (2011). Persepolis won the Cannes Jury Prize, two César awards and was nominated for an Oscar. Satrapi adapted and co-directed both films. She also wrote and illustrated the comic books on which they were based.

10 Questions for Irina Nalis

10 QUESTIONS FOR IRINA NALIS Multidisciplinary thinking at a time of crisis

Multidisciplinary thinking at a multidisciplinary festival in a time of crisis

Normally we'd put a descriptor - "cellist", "film maker", "techno producer" for example - in the title of this interview, but for Irina Nalis there isn't space. Like, "10 Questions for psychologist, ministerial adviser, festival founder, architectural consultant, digital humanism activist and techno veteran Irina Nalis" wouldn't fit across the page. But that's the multidisciplinary world for you.

Roy Hudd: 'I was just trying to make 'em laugh'

RIP ROY HUDD The most traditional of entertainers harked back to a vanished age

The most traditional of entertainers, who has died at 83, harked back to a vanished age

Roy Hudd, who has died at the age of 83, was the last link to the age of entertainment before television. Born in 1936, he entered the business just as music hall and variety were dying out. But he knew the luminaries of that era: Gracie Fields, Max Miller, above all Chesney Allen, who asked him to play the late Budd Flanagan in a stage revival of the songs of Flanagan and Allen. Four years ago he impersonated him one last time in the BBC drama We're Doomed!

theartsdesk Q&A: musician Rick McMurray

Ash drummer on 25 years as an indie rock teen titan

With them having famously been just teenagers when they released their debut single in 1994 it seems fitting – and not a little tongue in cheek – that the indie rock trio chose Teenage Wildlife for the title of their 25th anniversary compilation. The name – from a David Bowie song that appears on the “rarities” disc of the three-disc set – is clearly one that resonates: it also belongs to a documentary about the band, itself almost a decade old.

Actress Noémie Merlant: 'This is something that hasn't been told yet'

The star of 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' talks about a film that asserts the female gaze, behind and in front of the camera

Lest anyone believe that Parasite was the only ground-breaking foreign language film of the past year, Céline Sciamma’s fourth feature, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, arrives to remind us otherwise.

'She was revolutionary': Tanztheater Wuppertal's new director on the legacy of Pina Bausch

'SHE WAS REVOLUTIONARY' The legacy of Tanztheater Wuppertal's Pina Bausch

Bettina Wagner-Bergelt talks violence and taped music in a monumental early masterpiece

Ten years on from the death of its founder-choreographer, the Pina Bausch company finds itself at a crossroads, unwilling to limit itself to endless revivals of hits such as Café Muller or Rite of Spring, yet equally unwilling to relinquish the back catalogue altogether.