EP Articles
These are not recent but I never had a chance to read them before.
There is a good "making-of" interview with David Cronenberg at the Amazon Boutique.
From Russia with Lugs: Interview with David Cronenberg & Viggo Mortensen
Mortensen, director discuss their noirish 'Eastern Promises'
Ties that bind
PAIN RELIEF David Cronenberg’s existential promises
Viggo Mortensen Makes His Eastern Promises
Spotlight on Viggo Mortensen
What's In Your DVD Player, Viggo Mortensen?
Behind The Banter, Actor and Director Offer Serious Insights
My Heart Beats For Denmark
25 September 2007
Source: Ekstra Bladet
Translated by Rosen at Viggo Works
The last couple of days he has been visiting Denmark to promote his new movie Eastern Promises, which is having its premiere in Danish cinemas on Friday. And even if Viggo Mortensen lives in Los Angeles, he closely follows what happens in the small Kingdom of Denmark, the place where his entire family on his father’s side lives.
In love on Samsø
At the fashionable hotel Sankt Petri in Copenhagen, Viggo Mortensen tells us that his grandma and grandpa were born and raised on Samsø.
"They fell in love on Samsø and then my grandpa moved to the Landbohøjskolen (Farmers Academy) in Copenhagen to get his education. After that he married my grandma and they bought a farm in the Ringsted area where my own dad was born," says Viggo who has often visited Samsø.
How do you feel regarding the plans to connect Kalundborg and Aarhus with a bridge and using Samsø as a middle station?
"I am very much against it. It is not necessary to have a bridge. And there is nothing more beautiful than arriving at Samsø by ferry, while looking at both heaven and sea. A bridge would destroy the beautiful nature," says Viggo Mortensen.
Besides his star status as an actor, Viggo Mortensen is known as a photographer, poet and painter. That is why he was also very interested in the Muhammed Crisis in Denmark.
Shut up and listen
"On one hand I fully believe in artistic freedom and freedom of speech, but at the same time I feel that you should react wisely and show your respect for other people," says Viggo and he continues: "As an artist I express my opinion about everything, but I never talk about a subject I have no knowledge of. And I always think about how other people would interpret my expressions. Once in a while it is smarter to shut up. Think and listen to what other people say. Both Muslims and people from the Western world yell and scream too much. They do not listen to each other. What we need now is some silence."
Through his aunt Tulle, who is a member of the city council in Ringsted, Viggo Mortensen is also “spot on” with Danish domestic politics.
During the Gala Premiere of Eastern Promises, he spoke directly to the leader of “Ny Alliance” (new political party) Naser Khader from the stage.
Good advice to Khader
"I have a small greeting to Naser Khader who I know is present here tonight. It is from my aunt Tulle who is a member of the city council in Ringsted: Naser, you have started well as a party leader, but there are a few things she would like to talk to you about. She would like to tell you a few words of wisdom," Viggo Mortensen joked.
Danish movies in Danish
Despite his long passion and love for Denmark, the Danish actor has never participated in a Danish movie. And he can not give a clear Yes to a part in the Danish movie Between the Lines by the Danish producer Laurits Munch-Petersen, in which Connie Nielsen is to play the female lead.
"I am fully engaged with shooting movies and exhibitions of my art into spring 2009. Between the Lines is an exciting project and Connie Nielsen is an extremely good actress, but I really do not have any time available so far," Viggo says.
What do you think about the Danish producer Bille August? Would you like to work together with him?
"It could be fun, but if I was to work with Bille August, it would be in a Danish language movie. For instance, I am convinced that Smillas Sense of Snow would have been better in Danish. It was a bit stupid in English," says Viggo Mortensen who has received a lot of offers to participate in various Danish movies.
"I really would like to participate in a Danish movie. But to me it is essential that my first Danish movie is shot in Danish. To me it is a big challenge to shoot and talk Danish in an entire movie, so that it is believable."
Viggo Mortensen asked to have 6 extra copies of the Monday issue of Ekstra Bladet so that he could send them to his relatives in Denmark and they would be able to see him in his nice red suit at the Gala Premiere for Eastern Promises at the Imperial Cinema.
Viggo Mortensen Fights Nude In 'Eastern Promises' - But Could He Take Borat?
FOREIGN AFFAIRS: David Cronenberg talks about his strangely intimate new Russian mafia movie Eastern Promises and snuff films on the Internet
Meet the Terrifying Family Man (David Cronenberg)
Cronenberg's Latest Fulfills His Eastern Promises
No Holds Barred Between Actors And Director
Cronenberg's recent movies suggest artistic transformation
Star's Eastern Immersion Impresses His Director
Russian attack
Source: theage.com
Quote: Cronenberg liked (Steve Knight's) characters but wanted to change them. "I think Steve falls in love with his characters and can't bear to hurt them," he says. "I find that very touching, but it's not what I want in my movie." He didn't want a conventional romance; he didn't want the plot to turn on a woman in jeopardy. Knight saw exactly where he was driving and reworked the story into something slower that, instead of racing to a finish line, sidles up to its ambiguous ending.
© 2007 The Age Company Ltd
Eastern Promises
Source: filmjournal.com
Eastern Promises is essentially a character-driven crime thriller but is also a bloody tour de force laced with considerable nudity and sexually bold content that will rattle the squeamish. Mortensen’s startling performance as a coolly amoral thug provides ample compensation, as does the terrific support of all the film’s co-stars. Mueller-Stahl, Cusack and Skolimowski don’t have as much to chew on, but Watts is touching in her quiet torment and bravery and Cassel is particularly delicious as the thoroughly reprehensible, screwed-up mob boss’ son. Beyond the lurid, the film also manages scenes of considerable tenderness and adorableness (courtesy of baby Christine) and is also blessed by Howard Shore’s restrained score, which lets the film’s other estimable elements breathe through. Cronenberg does it again-a fact that will please most savvy filmgoers with strong stomachs.
©Doris Toumarkine
Eastern Promises David Cronenberg Interview
Source: Indie London
DAVID Cronenberg about directing Eastern Promises, working with Viggo Mortensen for the second time in succession [after A History of Violence] and the relevance of using a knife to kill someone, as opposed to a gun… He also discusses finding some surprise London locations during the shooting of the film, why he gravitates towards darker material in his filmmaking and why the Litvinenko case had some relevance to the shoot…
'Eastern Promises' reteams Viggo Mortensen and David Cronenberg in a violent tour de force
Source: Kansas City Star
After working on only two films together, the partnership of Canada’s master of the grotesque and Aragorn from Lord of the Rings is starting to resemble those other world-class director/actor collaborations.
First there was 2005’s A History of Violence, a seething drama about a family man with an ugly secret past that garnered rave reviews, two Oscar nominations and slots on many of the year’s best-of lists.
Now it’s Eastern Promises, a stomach-churning melodrama set inside the violent world of London’s Russian mob. The film opens Friday.
Cronenberg and Mortensen don’t just make memorable movies together. As they made clear in two recent phone interviews, they view themselves as cinematic and fraternal soul mates.
“I consider myself quite fortunate to do back-to-back movies with him,” Mortensen said. “It’s unusual in this business to find yourself on the same wavelength as a director.
“Plus, David is just starting to hit his stride. Usually someone who’s been making movies for 30 years starts to tire, but his curve keeps going up and up. It’s almost like he’s getting younger and more adventurous with every movie.”
Cronenberg is no less complimentary of his leading man.
“Viggo is just a lovely person, a sweetheart,” Cronenberg said.
“He has a wonderful sense of humor that is bizarrely similar to my own. We’re more like brothers, really, and that makes for a very close artistic collaboration. It’s not something you have to have to make a movie, but I do believe it gives us a much higher platform from which to launch.”
Both men are sticklers for research.
Cronenberg learned all he could about the Russian mob, which he describes as “capitalism in its most predatory form.”
“Here’s what happened after the fall of communism,” Cronenberg said. “You had a system of police and athletes supported by government, and suddenly that support was gone. Say you’re a karate expert training for the Olympics. You know discipline, you don’t fear violence, you thrive on camaraderie.
“Suddenly there’s no money for the Olympics, so you turn to crime, along with lots of other athletes, former military and KGB guys. You still have your old skills, only now you use them to earn money illegally.
“But whereas Western capitalism had 500 years to work out the kinks and cover up its brutal origins, the Russian mob is still an infant. They don’t just kill their enemies … unlike the Mafia, they go after their enemies’ wives, children, mothers. Sicily is pretty refined compared to Siberia.”
Russian gangsters, Cronenberg said, are a case study in capitalism in its most basic and brutal form.
“We’re shocked at the behavior of certain CEOs,” he said, “whereas we ought to consider it simply the natural outcome of this particular system.”
Meanwhile Mortensen was throwing himself into researching the role of Nikolai, the immaculately groomed driver and “fixer” for a London-based Russian crime family. He learned to speak Russian (about half his dialogue is delivered in that language, with English subtitles). He went to Russia to help him imagine the life his character led.
“The most fun I have is creating a back story for my characters,” Mortensen said. “My first question is always what happened to this man between the cradle and page one of the script? The answer to that question is usually very long and complicated and never fully explained … but it colors all aspects of my performance.”
The film’s dramatic highlight finds Nikolai being attacked in a steam bath by a couple of blade-wielding killers from a rival crime family. The scene is sure to become a classic, both for its unflinching brutality and for the fact that Mortensen wears nothing but tattoos.
“There was no time to be self-conscious,” the actor said.
“It’s not gratuitous. And it’s certainly not pretty. My body looks worse for wear in that scene. But it serves the plot.”
Cronenberg said he wanted to stage the fight in such a manner that every move of the three combatants could be followed.
“It’s not like the Bourne movies where everything’s blurred. I want to see everything as it happens,” Cronenberg said.
“I knew I was going to have to talk to Viggo about what he’d wear in the scene, but as soon as we started to he said, ‘It’s obvious I’m going to have to play this nude.’ And that was that. We shot the fight over two days, which was really fast. But I wanted to minimize Viggo’s exposure to injury.
“Viggo is so dedicated … he would never admit it to me then, but the makeup guy later told me he was spending more time covering up Viggo’s bruises than putting on his tattoos.”
But don’t go looking for a macho-centric action picture, Mortensen said. Eastern Promises, which also stars Naomi Watts, French star Vincent Cassel and German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl, aims to be more.
“To me it’s a movie about kindness and compassion and self-sacrifice,” he said. “Nikolai is a man who holds hope and compassion next to his despair and fear. In this increasingly complicated and confusing world, there are people even in the darkest realms who will nonetheless do the right thing.
“Just because it is the right thing.”
©©2007 Topix LLC
The Univision Interview
Found by: transcribed/translated by Graciela at Viggo Works
23 September 2007
The following is a translation of the videoclips broadcast (in Spanish) by Univision as part of the Eastern Promises promotion
On making a good team with Cronenberg
"The way Cronenberg does his movies, just like in A History of Violence, you can see what violence is…that it is terrible, and that the consequences of violence, the emotions that it creates…the physical consequences are terrible…that violence is no joke. It’s never been [a joke] for Cronenberg. And people who say: 'Ah, Cronenberg, he's nuts, he always shows these horrible killings', the fact is that there are very few minutes of violence in the movie, but it looks real. It does not give you the possibility, like other directors do…very good directors as well…to work with the camera, to put like a curtain so that it doesn’t bother you too much...it doesn’t affect you too much. But in the case of Cronenberg, it’s like: 'Here it is, it’s ugly…and you’re going to see it.'
But in spite of that, and of the trailer, and the idea that you may have about the movie, and the aspect that I and the other actors have in the movie, [people think]: 'Oh, this is going to be really hard, very dark, very tense all the time.' The truth is that I laughed a lot while shooting it, not only because Cronenberg is a very funny guy, really, but because the story has some funny details. There is a very interesting sense of humor in the relationship between the characters, and the story…when you get to the end of it, you realize that it is a story that has to do with compassion, with the risk that some people accept in very difficult conditions, sometimes brutal, to go and help just because they feel that they have to do it. You see it in Naomi Watts' character and, to a certain extent, in my character. It’s kind of surprising…that such a tough guy, you don’t really know why, would say: 'I have to do something here. This is wrong.'
There are people that do this all the time, in our families, in our communities, in spite of the fact that you are not going to get a prize for helping someone who needs help. Sometimes in difficult cases, like we all know in real life, you have to do it. That is compassion…to do something for someone without getting a prize, without them realizing, and sometimes even with the possibility that this will have negative consequences for you, that you will suffer for helping someone. And you can see this in the movie. In the end, it’s more about compassion, the amazing compassion that people manifest in circumstances as difficult as these…it has more to do with this than with violence. And violence is not Russian violence or English violence. It’s just violence, human behavior. For me Cronenberg is a master at studying and showing complex, detailed, credible human behavior."
An anecdote from during the filming
"The language of the tattoos that the character has, which are a lot...tattoos are like a personal code, a summary of one’s life up to then. Tattoos speak. They say...I am from here, from this area, this society, this country. I have loyalties towards certain people… from a certain area. These are my criminal specialties, this is what I do, this is my job. These are the prisons where I have been [pointing to his hands], and how many times, everything.
There are images that appear to be one thing, but they are not; [images] of the Holy Virgin, of the Cross, of the church; many things that actually mean something different in their code, in criminal language. And if you change the position or place of the tattoo, instead of having it on your chest, you have it in your back, or on your leg or shoulder, or in another position, towards the right or towards the left, it slightly changes the sense of the image, of the idea."
How he prepared for his character
"I also went to Russia a couple of weeks before filming. It was quite funny. I had not been there. I went to the big cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg, and I spent several days in each place, taking the subway…public transportation…walking a lot…to look at people. And I did it on purpose, although the production people were kind of scared because I disappeared for two weeks and I came back right before shooting started. And they said: 'Phew, it’s great that this guy made it back, otherwise we would have been screwed' [laughs]. They said: 'Don’t you want to go with a bodyguard?' or 'We can get in touch with people in Russia', and I said: 'No, I have some contacts', because these people I had spoken with, the ones that had taught me about street slang, when they realized I was not going to make fun of them, or judge them, that I simply wanted to do it right, they had helped me and they had told me: 'If you go to Russia, I have a brother…I have friends…they can show you some special places.' And the idea was tempting, but what I wanted the most was to go without any filters, without guides, to see what would I find, what I would think, what I would feel, without filters, without anybody telling me: 'Well, you have to go this way, but not that way.' I went wherever I wanted, and that’s how I did it.
Then I went far, far away, to the center of the country, where Europe ends and Asia starts, because that’s where the character comes from more or less, although maybe he hasn’t been there for a long time, that’s his place of origin.
And that is something that is not written, I mean, it is written a bit, but it’s not something that I can explain watching the movie. I can simply say that when you make that effort in preparing a character, there is something in the behavior, the way you move, your face...the language also helps, it changes the way you express yourself. For example, I am talking to you in Spanish and I realize that I am using my hands [moves his hands more]; if I am talking to you in English, I'm more still [motionless look on his face]. But the Russians also have their way of expressing themselves, it’s not exactly like the Latinos, but it is their own thing. And you can imitate it, but the combination of talking…and some subconscious things that happen, little by little you start moving like them. And by being with them all the time, without being able to speak English or Spanish or anything…speak very little really, and listen a lot [laughs], because I was learning... and that helped me a lot, and I think that it also helped the others. Because when I meet Naomi Watts, the British character in the movie, there is a distance, an initial lack of understanding between them…[being] a man and a woman, but it also has to do with culture, perspective, sense of humor, everything. I don’t realize that she is making fun of me, that she made a joke, and she doesn’t either. Because the Russians I met, often make a joke, but they make it like this [expressionless look], and you get it or you don't. And all that helps…”
©© Univision Communications Inc
Viggo Mortensen On The Top Of Hollywood
Source: iBYEN
Translated by Rosen at Viggo Works
It already smells like an Oscar in connection with David Cronenberg's and Viggo Mortensen's new thriller Eastern Promises, which is premiering on Friday.
“You can call it a pact. David and I have developed a collaboration that suits us both perfectly. And as soon as we had finished filming A History of Violence, he asked me if we should do another movie together. I know he considered a few more manuscripts, but that he chose Eastern Promises because I fitted the role as Nikolai Luzhin.”
The words come quietly from Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. And even if he doesn't visit Denmark that often, his pronunciation and sentence structure is, as always, impressively correct this morning at the Hotel Sct. Petri in Copenhagen.
It is here we meet Viggo Mortensen and the Canadian director David Cronenberg who are in Denmark to present their movie Eastern Promises that is having its Danish premiere tomorrow.
Hint Of Oscar Nominations
And the two of them can be proud of the chilling thriller about the Russian criminal brotherhood Vory V Zakone. The movie has already won the People's Prize on the Toronto Film Festival this month, which is normally a hint for later Oscar nominations.
“I hope that David receives an Oscar. Because even though A History of Violence was the best movie in 2005, he wasn’t even nominated. I think that was a shame, since the more times you watch A History of Violence the better it gets. Not many movies can brag about that. But luckily the Danish critics have an eye for that, so David received a well earned Bodil last year,” says Mr. Mortensen who most Danes has adopted and refer to as Viggo.
Danish Dynamite Per Excellence In Hollywood
It may say quite a lot of our self-perception as a pocket state that pretty much all the Danish media in the past week have praised "The Half Dane", as he is the Danish dynamite per excellence in Hollywood.
But Viggo Mortensen carries part of the blame because of his down to earth attitude and constant marketing of his father’s birth country, and even a Canadian Master Director falls for that.
He Is Universal
"When I read the script for Eastern Promises, I immediately thought of Viggo as Nikolai. Even if I see him as an American actor, he has this very special European sensibility that - paired with his South American glow from his Argentinean background - makes him universal. He can walk into almost every role. As, for example, as a Russian in this movie,” says David Cronenberg.
“And then he has a good ear for language, which in reality is an ear for music since he is also composing music. To make a Russian accent in English is extremely difficult. Many actors have failed during the years. But Viggo does it convincingly. At the same time he is a good person and a good friend, who is generous to all and everyone, makes him a gift for every movie. That is why I want him in every one of my movies” says the Canadian director.
Russian Gangster In Danger
Eastern Promises tells the story of the mysterious and charismatic Nikolai Luzhin, who is a driver for one of London’s most organised criminal families. This again is a part of the feared, Russian Vory V Zakone brotherhood.
His life is suddenly shaken when he meets the beautiful midwife Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts). Anna has come into possession of a dead patient’s diary that draws dark threads into the Vory V Zakone brotherhood and consequently the employer of Nikolai. Soon Nikolai does not know who to trust. And he must realize that his own life is in danger.
A Church On The Back
As part of the preparation for his part, Viggo Mortensen has been in contact with some members of the Vary V Zakone brotherhood.
“I have had meetings with people in the States that have been in prison in Russia. They taught me street-slang and the special prison language they use. And they gave me addresses of people in Russia, who I visited. Also criminals deeply involved in the brotherhood, who, for example, could tell me how my tattoos in the movie should be. Tattoos play a big part in the brotherhood and consequently also in the movie. For example, I had a huge tattoo of a church on my back. The number of the spires tells how many times you have been to prison,” the 49 year old actor tells us.
No Danish Movie On Its Way
He would very much like to participate in a Danish movie but he does not think it is realistic in the coming years as he is busy doing movies in America. And also because he wants time for his work as a painter, photographer, poet and musician.
“I have just finished filming Good in Hungary and will soon start shooting a western (Appaloosa, directed by Ed Harris and with the director himself and Renée Zellweger as fellow players.) And there is something about a screen version of a Cormac McCarthy novel, The Road. And I have promised myself that I do not want engagements that stretch farther than Christmas 2008. That is why a Danish movie can be hard to place in this schedule.”
“Also because right now I plan a large exhibition of my photographs and paintings in Roskilde next year. I will be in Denmark around that time again and then we can talk about the prospects for a Danish movie” says Viggo Mortensen.
© iBYEN.dk.
There is a good "making-of" interview with David Cronenberg at the Amazon Boutique.
From Russia with Lugs: Interview with David Cronenberg & Viggo Mortensen
Mortensen, director discuss their noirish 'Eastern Promises'
Ties that bind
PAIN RELIEF David Cronenberg’s existential promises
Viggo Mortensen Makes His Eastern Promises
Spotlight on Viggo Mortensen
What's In Your DVD Player, Viggo Mortensen?
Behind The Banter, Actor and Director Offer Serious Insights
My Heart Beats For Denmark
25 September 2007
Source: Ekstra Bladet
Translated by Rosen at Viggo Works
The last couple of days he has been visiting Denmark to promote his new movie Eastern Promises, which is having its premiere in Danish cinemas on Friday. And even if Viggo Mortensen lives in Los Angeles, he closely follows what happens in the small Kingdom of Denmark, the place where his entire family on his father’s side lives.
In love on Samsø
At the fashionable hotel Sankt Petri in Copenhagen, Viggo Mortensen tells us that his grandma and grandpa were born and raised on Samsø.
"They fell in love on Samsø and then my grandpa moved to the Landbohøjskolen (Farmers Academy) in Copenhagen to get his education. After that he married my grandma and they bought a farm in the Ringsted area where my own dad was born," says Viggo who has often visited Samsø.
How do you feel regarding the plans to connect Kalundborg and Aarhus with a bridge and using Samsø as a middle station?
"I am very much against it. It is not necessary to have a bridge. And there is nothing more beautiful than arriving at Samsø by ferry, while looking at both heaven and sea. A bridge would destroy the beautiful nature," says Viggo Mortensen.
Besides his star status as an actor, Viggo Mortensen is known as a photographer, poet and painter. That is why he was also very interested in the Muhammed Crisis in Denmark.
Shut up and listen
"On one hand I fully believe in artistic freedom and freedom of speech, but at the same time I feel that you should react wisely and show your respect for other people," says Viggo and he continues: "As an artist I express my opinion about everything, but I never talk about a subject I have no knowledge of. And I always think about how other people would interpret my expressions. Once in a while it is smarter to shut up. Think and listen to what other people say. Both Muslims and people from the Western world yell and scream too much. They do not listen to each other. What we need now is some silence."
Through his aunt Tulle, who is a member of the city council in Ringsted, Viggo Mortensen is also “spot on” with Danish domestic politics.
During the Gala Premiere of Eastern Promises, he spoke directly to the leader of “Ny Alliance” (new political party) Naser Khader from the stage.
Good advice to Khader
"I have a small greeting to Naser Khader who I know is present here tonight. It is from my aunt Tulle who is a member of the city council in Ringsted: Naser, you have started well as a party leader, but there are a few things she would like to talk to you about. She would like to tell you a few words of wisdom," Viggo Mortensen joked.
Danish movies in Danish
Despite his long passion and love for Denmark, the Danish actor has never participated in a Danish movie. And he can not give a clear Yes to a part in the Danish movie Between the Lines by the Danish producer Laurits Munch-Petersen, in which Connie Nielsen is to play the female lead.
"I am fully engaged with shooting movies and exhibitions of my art into spring 2009. Between the Lines is an exciting project and Connie Nielsen is an extremely good actress, but I really do not have any time available so far," Viggo says.
What do you think about the Danish producer Bille August? Would you like to work together with him?
"It could be fun, but if I was to work with Bille August, it would be in a Danish language movie. For instance, I am convinced that Smillas Sense of Snow would have been better in Danish. It was a bit stupid in English," says Viggo Mortensen who has received a lot of offers to participate in various Danish movies.
"I really would like to participate in a Danish movie. But to me it is essential that my first Danish movie is shot in Danish. To me it is a big challenge to shoot and talk Danish in an entire movie, so that it is believable."
Viggo Mortensen asked to have 6 extra copies of the Monday issue of Ekstra Bladet so that he could send them to his relatives in Denmark and they would be able to see him in his nice red suit at the Gala Premiere for Eastern Promises at the Imperial Cinema.
Viggo Mortensen Fights Nude In 'Eastern Promises' - But Could He Take Borat?
FOREIGN AFFAIRS: David Cronenberg talks about his strangely intimate new Russian mafia movie Eastern Promises and snuff films on the Internet
Meet the Terrifying Family Man (David Cronenberg)
Cronenberg's Latest Fulfills His Eastern Promises
No Holds Barred Between Actors And Director
Cronenberg's recent movies suggest artistic transformation
Star's Eastern Immersion Impresses His Director
Russian attack
Source: theage.com
Quote: Cronenberg liked (Steve Knight's) characters but wanted to change them. "I think Steve falls in love with his characters and can't bear to hurt them," he says. "I find that very touching, but it's not what I want in my movie." He didn't want a conventional romance; he didn't want the plot to turn on a woman in jeopardy. Knight saw exactly where he was driving and reworked the story into something slower that, instead of racing to a finish line, sidles up to its ambiguous ending.
© 2007 The Age Company Ltd
Eastern Promises
Source: filmjournal.com
Eastern Promises is essentially a character-driven crime thriller but is also a bloody tour de force laced with considerable nudity and sexually bold content that will rattle the squeamish. Mortensen’s startling performance as a coolly amoral thug provides ample compensation, as does the terrific support of all the film’s co-stars. Mueller-Stahl, Cusack and Skolimowski don’t have as much to chew on, but Watts is touching in her quiet torment and bravery and Cassel is particularly delicious as the thoroughly reprehensible, screwed-up mob boss’ son. Beyond the lurid, the film also manages scenes of considerable tenderness and adorableness (courtesy of baby Christine) and is also blessed by Howard Shore’s restrained score, which lets the film’s other estimable elements breathe through. Cronenberg does it again-a fact that will please most savvy filmgoers with strong stomachs.
©Doris Toumarkine
Eastern Promises David Cronenberg Interview
Source: Indie London
DAVID Cronenberg about directing Eastern Promises, working with Viggo Mortensen for the second time in succession [after A History of Violence] and the relevance of using a knife to kill someone, as opposed to a gun… He also discusses finding some surprise London locations during the shooting of the film, why he gravitates towards darker material in his filmmaking and why the Litvinenko case had some relevance to the shoot…
'Eastern Promises' reteams Viggo Mortensen and David Cronenberg in a violent tour de force
Source: Kansas City Star
After working on only two films together, the partnership of Canada’s master of the grotesque and Aragorn from Lord of the Rings is starting to resemble those other world-class director/actor collaborations.
First there was 2005’s A History of Violence, a seething drama about a family man with an ugly secret past that garnered rave reviews, two Oscar nominations and slots on many of the year’s best-of lists.
Now it’s Eastern Promises, a stomach-churning melodrama set inside the violent world of London’s Russian mob. The film opens Friday.
Cronenberg and Mortensen don’t just make memorable movies together. As they made clear in two recent phone interviews, they view themselves as cinematic and fraternal soul mates.
“I consider myself quite fortunate to do back-to-back movies with him,” Mortensen said. “It’s unusual in this business to find yourself on the same wavelength as a director.
“Plus, David is just starting to hit his stride. Usually someone who’s been making movies for 30 years starts to tire, but his curve keeps going up and up. It’s almost like he’s getting younger and more adventurous with every movie.”
Cronenberg is no less complimentary of his leading man.
“Viggo is just a lovely person, a sweetheart,” Cronenberg said.
“He has a wonderful sense of humor that is bizarrely similar to my own. We’re more like brothers, really, and that makes for a very close artistic collaboration. It’s not something you have to have to make a movie, but I do believe it gives us a much higher platform from which to launch.”
Both men are sticklers for research.
Cronenberg learned all he could about the Russian mob, which he describes as “capitalism in its most predatory form.”
“Here’s what happened after the fall of communism,” Cronenberg said. “You had a system of police and athletes supported by government, and suddenly that support was gone. Say you’re a karate expert training for the Olympics. You know discipline, you don’t fear violence, you thrive on camaraderie.
“Suddenly there’s no money for the Olympics, so you turn to crime, along with lots of other athletes, former military and KGB guys. You still have your old skills, only now you use them to earn money illegally.
“But whereas Western capitalism had 500 years to work out the kinks and cover up its brutal origins, the Russian mob is still an infant. They don’t just kill their enemies … unlike the Mafia, they go after their enemies’ wives, children, mothers. Sicily is pretty refined compared to Siberia.”
Russian gangsters, Cronenberg said, are a case study in capitalism in its most basic and brutal form.
“We’re shocked at the behavior of certain CEOs,” he said, “whereas we ought to consider it simply the natural outcome of this particular system.”
Meanwhile Mortensen was throwing himself into researching the role of Nikolai, the immaculately groomed driver and “fixer” for a London-based Russian crime family. He learned to speak Russian (about half his dialogue is delivered in that language, with English subtitles). He went to Russia to help him imagine the life his character led.
“The most fun I have is creating a back story for my characters,” Mortensen said. “My first question is always what happened to this man between the cradle and page one of the script? The answer to that question is usually very long and complicated and never fully explained … but it colors all aspects of my performance.”
The film’s dramatic highlight finds Nikolai being attacked in a steam bath by a couple of blade-wielding killers from a rival crime family. The scene is sure to become a classic, both for its unflinching brutality and for the fact that Mortensen wears nothing but tattoos.
“There was no time to be self-conscious,” the actor said.
“It’s not gratuitous. And it’s certainly not pretty. My body looks worse for wear in that scene. But it serves the plot.”
Cronenberg said he wanted to stage the fight in such a manner that every move of the three combatants could be followed.
“It’s not like the Bourne movies where everything’s blurred. I want to see everything as it happens,” Cronenberg said.
“I knew I was going to have to talk to Viggo about what he’d wear in the scene, but as soon as we started to he said, ‘It’s obvious I’m going to have to play this nude.’ And that was that. We shot the fight over two days, which was really fast. But I wanted to minimize Viggo’s exposure to injury.
“Viggo is so dedicated … he would never admit it to me then, but the makeup guy later told me he was spending more time covering up Viggo’s bruises than putting on his tattoos.”
But don’t go looking for a macho-centric action picture, Mortensen said. Eastern Promises, which also stars Naomi Watts, French star Vincent Cassel and German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl, aims to be more.
“To me it’s a movie about kindness and compassion and self-sacrifice,” he said. “Nikolai is a man who holds hope and compassion next to his despair and fear. In this increasingly complicated and confusing world, there are people even in the darkest realms who will nonetheless do the right thing.
“Just because it is the right thing.”
©©2007 Topix LLC
The Univision Interview
Found by: transcribed/translated by Graciela at Viggo Works
23 September 2007
The following is a translation of the videoclips broadcast (in Spanish) by Univision as part of the Eastern Promises promotion
On making a good team with Cronenberg
"The way Cronenberg does his movies, just like in A History of Violence, you can see what violence is…that it is terrible, and that the consequences of violence, the emotions that it creates…the physical consequences are terrible…that violence is no joke. It’s never been [a joke] for Cronenberg. And people who say: 'Ah, Cronenberg, he's nuts, he always shows these horrible killings', the fact is that there are very few minutes of violence in the movie, but it looks real. It does not give you the possibility, like other directors do…very good directors as well…to work with the camera, to put like a curtain so that it doesn’t bother you too much...it doesn’t affect you too much. But in the case of Cronenberg, it’s like: 'Here it is, it’s ugly…and you’re going to see it.'
But in spite of that, and of the trailer, and the idea that you may have about the movie, and the aspect that I and the other actors have in the movie, [people think]: 'Oh, this is going to be really hard, very dark, very tense all the time.' The truth is that I laughed a lot while shooting it, not only because Cronenberg is a very funny guy, really, but because the story has some funny details. There is a very interesting sense of humor in the relationship between the characters, and the story…when you get to the end of it, you realize that it is a story that has to do with compassion, with the risk that some people accept in very difficult conditions, sometimes brutal, to go and help just because they feel that they have to do it. You see it in Naomi Watts' character and, to a certain extent, in my character. It’s kind of surprising…that such a tough guy, you don’t really know why, would say: 'I have to do something here. This is wrong.'
There are people that do this all the time, in our families, in our communities, in spite of the fact that you are not going to get a prize for helping someone who needs help. Sometimes in difficult cases, like we all know in real life, you have to do it. That is compassion…to do something for someone without getting a prize, without them realizing, and sometimes even with the possibility that this will have negative consequences for you, that you will suffer for helping someone. And you can see this in the movie. In the end, it’s more about compassion, the amazing compassion that people manifest in circumstances as difficult as these…it has more to do with this than with violence. And violence is not Russian violence or English violence. It’s just violence, human behavior. For me Cronenberg is a master at studying and showing complex, detailed, credible human behavior."
An anecdote from during the filming
"The language of the tattoos that the character has, which are a lot...tattoos are like a personal code, a summary of one’s life up to then. Tattoos speak. They say...I am from here, from this area, this society, this country. I have loyalties towards certain people… from a certain area. These are my criminal specialties, this is what I do, this is my job. These are the prisons where I have been [pointing to his hands], and how many times, everything.
There are images that appear to be one thing, but they are not; [images] of the Holy Virgin, of the Cross, of the church; many things that actually mean something different in their code, in criminal language. And if you change the position or place of the tattoo, instead of having it on your chest, you have it in your back, or on your leg or shoulder, or in another position, towards the right or towards the left, it slightly changes the sense of the image, of the idea."
How he prepared for his character
"I also went to Russia a couple of weeks before filming. It was quite funny. I had not been there. I went to the big cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg, and I spent several days in each place, taking the subway…public transportation…walking a lot…to look at people. And I did it on purpose, although the production people were kind of scared because I disappeared for two weeks and I came back right before shooting started. And they said: 'Phew, it’s great that this guy made it back, otherwise we would have been screwed' [laughs]. They said: 'Don’t you want to go with a bodyguard?' or 'We can get in touch with people in Russia', and I said: 'No, I have some contacts', because these people I had spoken with, the ones that had taught me about street slang, when they realized I was not going to make fun of them, or judge them, that I simply wanted to do it right, they had helped me and they had told me: 'If you go to Russia, I have a brother…I have friends…they can show you some special places.' And the idea was tempting, but what I wanted the most was to go without any filters, without guides, to see what would I find, what I would think, what I would feel, without filters, without anybody telling me: 'Well, you have to go this way, but not that way.' I went wherever I wanted, and that’s how I did it.
Then I went far, far away, to the center of the country, where Europe ends and Asia starts, because that’s where the character comes from more or less, although maybe he hasn’t been there for a long time, that’s his place of origin.
And that is something that is not written, I mean, it is written a bit, but it’s not something that I can explain watching the movie. I can simply say that when you make that effort in preparing a character, there is something in the behavior, the way you move, your face...the language also helps, it changes the way you express yourself. For example, I am talking to you in Spanish and I realize that I am using my hands [moves his hands more]; if I am talking to you in English, I'm more still [motionless look on his face]. But the Russians also have their way of expressing themselves, it’s not exactly like the Latinos, but it is their own thing. And you can imitate it, but the combination of talking…and some subconscious things that happen, little by little you start moving like them. And by being with them all the time, without being able to speak English or Spanish or anything…speak very little really, and listen a lot [laughs], because I was learning... and that helped me a lot, and I think that it also helped the others. Because when I meet Naomi Watts, the British character in the movie, there is a distance, an initial lack of understanding between them…[being] a man and a woman, but it also has to do with culture, perspective, sense of humor, everything. I don’t realize that she is making fun of me, that she made a joke, and she doesn’t either. Because the Russians I met, often make a joke, but they make it like this [expressionless look], and you get it or you don't. And all that helps…”
©© Univision Communications Inc
Viggo Mortensen On The Top Of Hollywood
Source: iBYEN
Translated by Rosen at Viggo Works
It already smells like an Oscar in connection with David Cronenberg's and Viggo Mortensen's new thriller Eastern Promises, which is premiering on Friday.
“You can call it a pact. David and I have developed a collaboration that suits us both perfectly. And as soon as we had finished filming A History of Violence, he asked me if we should do another movie together. I know he considered a few more manuscripts, but that he chose Eastern Promises because I fitted the role as Nikolai Luzhin.”
The words come quietly from Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. And even if he doesn't visit Denmark that often, his pronunciation and sentence structure is, as always, impressively correct this morning at the Hotel Sct. Petri in Copenhagen.
It is here we meet Viggo Mortensen and the Canadian director David Cronenberg who are in Denmark to present their movie Eastern Promises that is having its Danish premiere tomorrow.
Hint Of Oscar Nominations
And the two of them can be proud of the chilling thriller about the Russian criminal brotherhood Vory V Zakone. The movie has already won the People's Prize on the Toronto Film Festival this month, which is normally a hint for later Oscar nominations.
“I hope that David receives an Oscar. Because even though A History of Violence was the best movie in 2005, he wasn’t even nominated. I think that was a shame, since the more times you watch A History of Violence the better it gets. Not many movies can brag about that. But luckily the Danish critics have an eye for that, so David received a well earned Bodil last year,” says Mr. Mortensen who most Danes has adopted and refer to as Viggo.
Danish Dynamite Per Excellence In Hollywood
It may say quite a lot of our self-perception as a pocket state that pretty much all the Danish media in the past week have praised "The Half Dane", as he is the Danish dynamite per excellence in Hollywood.
But Viggo Mortensen carries part of the blame because of his down to earth attitude and constant marketing of his father’s birth country, and even a Canadian Master Director falls for that.
He Is Universal
"When I read the script for Eastern Promises, I immediately thought of Viggo as Nikolai. Even if I see him as an American actor, he has this very special European sensibility that - paired with his South American glow from his Argentinean background - makes him universal. He can walk into almost every role. As, for example, as a Russian in this movie,” says David Cronenberg.
“And then he has a good ear for language, which in reality is an ear for music since he is also composing music. To make a Russian accent in English is extremely difficult. Many actors have failed during the years. But Viggo does it convincingly. At the same time he is a good person and a good friend, who is generous to all and everyone, makes him a gift for every movie. That is why I want him in every one of my movies” says the Canadian director.
Russian Gangster In Danger
Eastern Promises tells the story of the mysterious and charismatic Nikolai Luzhin, who is a driver for one of London’s most organised criminal families. This again is a part of the feared, Russian Vory V Zakone brotherhood.
His life is suddenly shaken when he meets the beautiful midwife Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts). Anna has come into possession of a dead patient’s diary that draws dark threads into the Vory V Zakone brotherhood and consequently the employer of Nikolai. Soon Nikolai does not know who to trust. And he must realize that his own life is in danger.
A Church On The Back
As part of the preparation for his part, Viggo Mortensen has been in contact with some members of the Vary V Zakone brotherhood.
“I have had meetings with people in the States that have been in prison in Russia. They taught me street-slang and the special prison language they use. And they gave me addresses of people in Russia, who I visited. Also criminals deeply involved in the brotherhood, who, for example, could tell me how my tattoos in the movie should be. Tattoos play a big part in the brotherhood and consequently also in the movie. For example, I had a huge tattoo of a church on my back. The number of the spires tells how many times you have been to prison,” the 49 year old actor tells us.
No Danish Movie On Its Way
He would very much like to participate in a Danish movie but he does not think it is realistic in the coming years as he is busy doing movies in America. And also because he wants time for his work as a painter, photographer, poet and musician.
“I have just finished filming Good in Hungary and will soon start shooting a western (Appaloosa, directed by Ed Harris and with the director himself and Renée Zellweger as fellow players.) And there is something about a screen version of a Cormac McCarthy novel, The Road. And I have promised myself that I do not want engagements that stretch farther than Christmas 2008. That is why a Danish movie can be hard to place in this schedule.”
“Also because right now I plan a large exhibition of my photographs and paintings in Roskilde next year. I will be in Denmark around that time again and then we can talk about the prospects for a Danish movie” says Viggo Mortensen.
© iBYEN.dk.