‘Ripples' Premieres in New York: A Presentation of Struggles from Xinjiang, China
On March 15, a dense fog enveloped New York as long lines formed outside the Producer's Club, where the documentary 'Ripples' had its U.S. premiere at 8 PM.
'The criminal will commit any further crime to hide the truth' — Alex Davidson
NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, March 20, 2025 / EINPresswire.com / -- On the evening of March 15, a dense fog enveloped New York as long lines formed outside the Producer's Club, where the documentary ' Ripples ' was set to have its U.S. premiere at 8 PM. The Producer's Club, an iconic theater in New York City, is just a few steps away from Times Square.
'Ripples' uses a documentary approach to focus on the inspiring stories of four Uyghur women from Xinjiang, China. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and has won Best Film at both the International Documentary Festival of Ierapetra and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. In anticipation of this special film, the Producers' Club created an invitation and several posters which were displayed in advance.
Despite heavy fog on the day of the screening, the turnout of eager New York audiences exceeded expectations, prompting the cinema to add two additional screening rooms. Liam, the manager of Producer's Club, hosted the pre-screening discussion, expressing how the stories of these women from a distant ancient country resonate closely with those of us across the Pacific.
Throughout the screening, the audience responded with sighs and laughter as the
narrative shifted. After the film concluded, many viewers remained in their seats, deep in thought. One audience member, unable to contain their emotions, told the media that 'Ripples' dispelled the clouds of misinformation, and the experiences of the four women chasing their dreams in Xinjiang were uplifting. Dan Salerno, a senior consultant from Documentary Business, expressed preliminary interest in acquiring the film, while the Brooklyn Film Festival extended an olive branch to the production.
As viewers exited the theater, discussions continued in the lounge area, lingering as they debated the film's creative approach, the current state of Uyghur women in China, and how U.S. - China relations might be better sustained. Twenty minutes may seem brief, but the reflections and discussions it prompted will last much longer.
This film and some others were screened by Intellect Pictures - a film production, finance and distribution Corporation based in Los Angeles and Toronto. The company distributes more than 100 films with a total production budget of more than $90 million. The company produces several short and full-length feature and films and documentaries per year.
One more documentary film-invastigation, which was screened in NY this time was 'Death of Alexander Alekhin' about the 4th World Chess Champion, murdered in Estoril, Portugal between March 23 and 24 in Estoril.
The documentary 'Death of Alexander Alekhine 's' delves into the enigmatic circumstances surrounding the death of the fourth World Chess Champion, Alexander Alekhine, who died in Estoril, Portugal, in March 1946. While the official narrative attributed his death to choking on food, the film explores various theories that have emerged over the years, including potential foul play or assassination due to his controversial political affiliations and past during World War II.
As the investigation unfolds, the documentary presents a thorough examination of Alekhine's life, his chess career, and the socio-political climate of the time, shedding light on the possible motives behind any foul play. It interviews historians, chess experts, and individuals familiar with Alekhine's life, piecing together clues from his final days.
Ultimately, the film suggests that the most plausible explanation for his death involves a conspiracy linked to his past. This investigation posits that Alekhine's death was not merely a tragic accident but rather a calculated act, leaving viewers with a chilling reminder of the complexities surrounding his life and legacy. The documentary encourages further exploration and discussion about the darker aspects of history that often remain obscured. It encourages further exploration and discussion about the darker aspects of history that often remain obsc.
The documentary is the result of a comprehensive 3 years investigation conducted by an international team of professionals from five countries: United States, Portugal, France, England, and Russia. This collaborative effort involved over 100 specialists across diverse fields, including investigators, pathologists, doctors, biochemists, forensic scientists, historians, and filmmakers. The film crew meticulously retraced Alekhine's final days, conducting on-site investigations at the Park Hotel in Estoril, as well as traveling to key locations in Lisbon, Paris, London, and Moscow, where initial investigations took place.
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All 12 Wes Anderson Movies, Ranked, from ‘Bottle Rocket' to ‘The Phoenician Scheme'
Let's get this out of the way right from the top: Wes Anderson has never made a bad movie, and — in all likelihood — he probably never will. He's too particular, too immaculate, too in command of his craft. Of course, the fact that he has always been so sure of himself only makes it more tempting to chart the progress of his career and to measure his films against each other. Or maybe it's just fun because there are still only 12 of them, and everyone seems to have their own favorite. Who could say? Anderson is the rarest of rarities, an arthouse filmmaker who not only finds ways to consistently make ambitious original projects, but also maintains genuine influence on what remains of mainstream pop culture. (None of the other esteemed directors who competed for the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival were the subjects of viral TikTok trends.) But the instantly-recognizable aesthetic that propelled Anderson to filmmaking superstardom often prompts his critics to look at his work through an oversimplified lens. More from IndieWire Wes Anderson Put a Great Deal of Time and Thought Into His Upcoming Criterion Career Box Set Luca Guadagnino Attached to Direct AI Business Comedy 'Artificial' for Amazon MGM Many of Anderson's films contain similar stylistic flourishes — like twee interior design with perfect color palettes, inserts of hand-written notes, and the presence of Jason Schwartzman, to name a few. But the visual similarities mask the fact that he has covered an insanely wide range of narrative ground in his 25 years of filmmaking. From dry comedies and whimsical animated features to painfully mature dramas about the nuances of grief, Anderson's filmography is anything but monolithic. We all know what a Wes Anderson movie looks like, but the differences between his films and the substance of his artistry are complex subjects that merit rigorous debate. With 'The Phoenician Scheme' now in select theaters, it's a perfect time to reevaluate Anderson's catalogue. Here are all of Wes Anderson's feature films, ranked from 'worst' to best. We're not including his short films here, including the collection 'The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More' — the title installment there won him an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film at the 2024 Academy Awards ceremony. [Editor's note: This story was published on May 1, 2017 and has been updated multiple times since.] Almost as indebted to Satyajit Ray and Jean Renoir as 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' is to the writings of Stefan Zweig, 'The Darjeeling Limited' never pretends that it isn't the work of a white guy from Texas who was raised on the 'exoticism' of movies like 'Charulata' and 'The River.' On the contrary, Wes Anderson's uneven fifth film confronts that naïveté head-on, telling a story about three grieving brothers who travel to India with the half-assed hope that they can bottle up some of the country's spiritualism and take it home as a souvenir. Riding the eponymous train through the countryside and looking out the window like everything they see is a backdrop for their self-obsessive bullshit, Anderson's most noxious cast of characters learns the hard way that you can't be a tourist in your own family. Modernist to the extreme and a bit stilted as a result, 'The Darjeeling Limited' doesn't quite match the sum of its parts, but — from Bill Murray's opening dash to Amara Karan's unforgettable performance — the parts are pretty great. —DE 'If family is the sharpest and most cutting of double-edged swords, few storytellers have ever wielded it with more violent enthusiasm than Wes Anderson, whose movies often start with — and then scab over — the seemingly mortal kind of wound that only a severed relationship can leave behind, and only a carefully mended one can ever hope to fix. In that sense and several others, 'The Phoenician Scheme' is the most enthusiastically violent film that Anderson has made thus far.' 'Spackled together from all the gray paint and seriocomic grotesquerie that he couldn't find a use for in his previous work, the 'Asteroid City' auteur's hectic father-daughter story takes pains to clarify a certain ethos at the root of his art, even if it does frustratingly little to flesh that ethos out any further.' 'More linear than 'Asteroid City' or 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' and yet significantly harder to follow than either of them, 'The Phoenician Scheme' is the busiest of Anderson's films, and also — at least on first viewing — the least rewarding. The scale of its story is immense, in that Zsa-zsa (Benicio Del Toro) and the gang span an entire nation in search of the money he needs to complete his deal, but the stops on their tour often feel like isolated vignettes, more focused on milking a few dry chortles out of their celebrity cameos than they are in deepening the father-daughter bond that inspired the billionaire's cockamamy plan. At least Zsa-zsa is courteous enough to bring souvenir hand grenades with him everywhere he goes.' —DE Read IndieWire's complete review of 'The Phoenician Scheme.' Wes Anderson arrived fully formed (or close to it), and so much of his cinematic ethos can be distilled from the very first shot of his very first film, the camera crashing in on Luke Wilson's young face with the confidence of a master and the exuberance of an eternal kid. And it's really that energy that makes 'Bottle Rocket' such a perfect indication of what was to come. Yes, the film is full of Anderson's future signatures — whip-pans, insert shots of handwritten lists, overly elaborate plans, the hierarchy of accessories that are assigned for infiltration missions (and used as measuring sticks for love) — but the director's debut points the way forward because it's so high on its own existence, its characters as committed to the bubbles they create for themselves as we are to watching them burst. Anderson's most naturalistic film by a long shot (there's something so intolerably casual about those gray skies), this puckish caper movie sputters out at least three different times before James Caan even shows up to spark the third act, but 'Bottle Rocket' is colorful even when it isn't sparkling. Would Wes Anderson have even been possible without Owen Wilson there to translate him for us? His Dignan, dreamy and deranged, set the mold for at least seven movies to come, playing the guy in an electrified defensive coil of some kind, always trying to disguise themselves and doing such a poor job of it that you can't help but laugh at their transparency ('What are you putting that tape on your nose for?' Bob Mapplethorpe asks. 'Exactly,' Dignan replies). Thank God someone was able to see through the film's disastrous box office performance and recognize that this was the start of something great. —DE 'Oh, shit! Swamp leeches. Everybody, check for swamp leeches, and pull them off… Nobody else got hit? I'm the only one? What's the deal?' It's amazing, just when he was on the verge of becoming a household name, Wes Anderson made a dry nautical epic about Jacques Cousteau being a shitty father. I mean, I'd appreciate this movie being made under any circumstances, but 'The Life Aquatic' is the only Wes Anderson film that feels as though it exists for the simple reason that someone was willing to fund it. As exhaustingly dense as 'The Royal Tenenbaums,' as spirited as 'The Grand Budapest Hotel,' and as anarchic as 'Fantastic Mr. Fox,' this expansive adventure is even better than the Adidas sneakers it inspired. Yeah, it sits uncomfortably in the middle of Anderson's career and sometimes play like a watered down version of his previous work, but it also features Bill Murray as a vengeful shark hunter, Seu Jorge covering David Bowie, Cate Blanchett radiating right off the screen, Willem Dafoe as an over-sensitive German sailor, and Bud Cort giving us the closer that 'Harold and Maude' never did. —DE If the two decades that brought us 'Rushmore,' 'Fantastic Mr. Fox,' and 'Moonrise Kingdom,' felt like a passionate love affair between cinephiles and Wes Anderson, the release of 'The French Dispatch' is more akin to settling into a comfortable relationship. The excitement inevitably fades when you pretty much know what you're going to get, but that does not negate the fact that Anderson is one of the most technically proficient filmmakers working today. As his aesthetic becomes more recognizable, if that's even still possible, the (often unfair) question of what Wes Anderson is offering beyond unique interior design choices and snappy dialogue will weigh on him more with each subsequent film. 'The French Dispatch' succeeds in part because it does not particularly try to answer that question, instead offering a light ensemble piece that goes down relatively easily and gives Anderson plenty of opportunities to work with new actors and show off the cinematic bells and whistles his devotees have come to expect. The thinly veiled tribute to The New Yorker does an excellent job of weaving multiple stories together without boring audiences, even if that means sacrificing the narrative heft of some of Anderson's earlier films. While this was probably Anderson's first opportunity to cast Timothée Chalamet since the young actor broke through in 2017, the pairing still felt long overdue. As did the film's decision to partially shoot in black and white, which gave Anderson a new color palette that produced some stunning shots. Anderson's technical precision has never been better — even if the film looks less flashy than some of his earlier work, there is no doubt that he is at the top of his game as a visual filmmaker. 'The French Dispatch' did not represent a massive step forward in Anderson's filmography, but it was not a step backward, either. —CZ The world is trash, and Wes Anderson is currently enjoying the hottest streak of his career. These things, it turns out, are not unrelated. The worse things get, the more fantastical Anderson's films become; the more fantastical Anderson's films become, the better their style articulates his underlying sincerity. Disorder fuels his imagination, and the staggeringly well-crafted 'Isle of Dogs' is nothing if not Anderson's most imaginative film to date. There's a whiff of inevitability to that. Whether telling a story about a splintered New York dynasty or one about a faded European hotel where it used to be possible to find some faint glimmers of civilization in this barbaric slaughterhouse known as humanity, Anderson has always been attuned to the beauty of magical idylls, to the violence of losing them, and (most of all) to the fumblingly tragicomic process of building something better from the rubble. So at a time when global warming and gun violence have become inescapable — a time when fascism and xenophobia are no longer abstract threats so much as Republican campaign promises — it's no wonder that America's fussiest auteur is operating near the peak of his powers. 'Isle of Dogs' is the work of an artist who's howling into the same wind that's currently blowing in all of our faces. Blending Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki into a darkly comic fable about a boy, his dog, and a world that's on the brink of running out of biscuits, this is a movie that literally asks: 'Who are we, and who do we want to be?' And since it's a Wes Anderson movie, those questions are posed straight into the camera. It's funny, it's grim, and it's probably the most pet-able bit of dystopian fiction we've ever seen. —DE If all of Anderson's movies are sustained by the tension between order and chaos, uncertainty and doubt, 'Asteroid City' is the first that takes that tension as its subject, often expressing it through the friction created by rubbing together its various levels of non-reality. Some might see that as self-amused navel-gazing, but the unexpected moment towards the end when Anderson finds a certain equilibrium between those contradictory forces — with a major assist from a movie star whose name you suddenly remember seeing in the credits some 100 minutes earlier — is so crushingly beautiful and well-earned that the artifice surrounding it simply falls away. Read IndieWire's complete review of 'Asteroid City' by David Ehrlich. For such a singular artist and aesthete, Wes Anderson has always been comfortable with wearing his influences on his sleeve, rightly confident that he can celebrate his touchstones without resigning to them. For proof, just look at the way his characters worship each other in order to find themselves — from Ned Plimpton's childhood obsession with Steve Zissou, to the mild awe that Gustave H. inspires from his new lobby boy, Anderson understands that self-discovery is the last stage of a failed attempt to become someone else. Maybe that's why 'Rushmore' represented such a breakthrough for him, because this coming-of-age story about a super precocious kid (and the grown man who goads along their mutually assured destruction) is so giddy about the things that made it possible. Running on the fumes of the French New Wave and drafting behind American touchstones like Mike Nichols and Albert Brooks, Anderson's second feature is like an artistic manifesto that never declines to cite its sources. And, not for nothing, it gave the world Jason Schwartzman, reinvigorated Bill Murray, and — most importantly — made it possible for generations of viewers to say 'Wait wait, go back… was that Rory Gilmore!?' 'Rushmore' is a film as self-possessed as its hero (and many times cooler), and that makes it a favorite for many, but it lacks the sentimental spark that galvanizes Anderson's more mature work. —DE The Wes Anderson movie that people think of when they think of Wes Anderson movies, 'The Royal Tenenbaums' is a story about failure that's told by someone who's afraid of his own ambition (or, more precisely, afraid of his unwillingness to tame it). Unfolding like 'Fanny and Alexander' as remade by a very drunk Whit Stillman, 'The Royal Tenenbaums' is responsible for so many of the worst quirks of recent indie cinema, but it falls victim to exactly none of them. It's a film where the characters are cobbled together from affects, but all manage to feel human. It's a film that feels overstuffed to the gills, but one whose every moment is iconic — gather enough twentysomethings together, and their Tenenbaums tattoos could serve as storyboards for the entire script. It's a film that leaves me a little cold every time I watch it, but always feels worth watching again. —DE Wes Anderson's career can be cut into two distinctly different parts: Before 'Fantastic Mr. Fox,' and after 'Fantastic Mr. Fox.' Stung by accusations of self-parody, Anderson could have eased off the gas after 'The Darjeeling Limited' divided critics and inspired all sorts of talk about how the filmmaker had grown subservient to his own style. But rather admit that the tail was wagging the dog, Anderson snipped the damn thing off and let his next hero wear it as a necktie. He introduced himself to audiences as an aesthete, and every one of the films he made after 'Bottle Rocket' had a little less breathable air than the last, but that was fine by Anderson. If anything, he wanted more control, he wanted to play God, he wanted to make something so airless that his characters wouldn't even need to have lungs. And so he ventured into the painstaking world of stop-motion, working in a medium where literally nothing made its way on screen unless he thought to put it there. It turns out that yeah, everything else was just getting in the way. Flattering Roald Dahl's (lovely) source material into a gloriously wry domestic comedy about compromise, belonging, and accepting one's lot in life (be it in below ground or above), 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' is more than just one of the most quotable films this side of 'Casablanca,' it's also an immaculate portrait of flawed 'people' doing the best they can for themselves and each other. —DE A pre-pubescent 'Badlands' that's told with the endearingly pathetic quality of an elementary school play, 'Moonrise Kingdom' is the rare American film that's about children, but not necessarily for children (a schism that studios can't seem to wrap their heads around, but one that artists like Robert Bresson, Ingmar Bergman, and Hayao Miyazaki have always been able to reconcile with ease). The movie begins with the most perfect premise that Wes Anderson has ever devised for himself: Two kids get together and try to run away from home, only to be stymied by the fact that they live on an island. If you squint, that pretty much sums up every Wes Anderson movie. But 'Moonrise Kingdom' isn't a story about being stuck, it's a story about how the things we can't escape are often the things that love us the most, about how the greatest myths are the ones we create for ourselves, about how everything is better when narrated by Bob Balaban. It's like a mousetrap, it's written with a whimsical Dickensian flair, and it's filled with lines so evocative that merely reading them can bring the whole film back to life ('I love you, but you don't know what you're talking about'). Anderson has made a lifetime's worth of family sagas, but none of his other movies so pointedly capture what it feels like to have a home. —DE There will always be some debate as to whether or not 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' is the best Wes Anderson movie, but there may be no denying that it's the most Wes Anderson movie. The latest work from an artist who seems to become himself a little bit more with every film, this flawless, four-tiered confection is like a wedding cake filled with arsenic, a nostalgic comedy that functions like a requiem for itself. Anderson's stories are about boys, men, or male foxes who seek to live in snow globes of their own design, ensconcing themselves in the empire of their own imaginations. Some of his films (e.g. 'Moonrise Kingdom') are about creating those magical spaces, but most of his stories are about the heartache of losing them, about the tragicomic process of building something new on top of the rubble. With 'The Grand Budapest Hotel,' Anderson directly confronts the hermetic fantasy of his films, reaching into the not-too-distant past and exhuming the spirit of Stefan Zweig in order to mourn the world we lost, the civility that we've forgotten, and the beauty of creating beautiful things even when we know that the world will never let them survive. The film is so beautifully realized that Ralph Fiennes' career-best performance almost feels like the cherry on top. Also: Willem Dafoe playing the best henchman who Bond never killed, and Tilda Swinton as a sexually active octogenarian. And Saoirse Ronan's Mexico-shaped birthmark. Oh, and also the best line that Anderson has ever written, shrugged off like an afterthought in the first act: 'You see, there are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. Indeed, that's what we provide in our own modest, humble, insignificant… oh, fuck it.' —DE Best of IndieWire The Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in June, from 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' to 'Emily the Criminal' Nightmare Film Shoots: The 38 Most Grueling Films Ever Made, from 'Deliverance' to 'The Wages of Fear' Quentin Tarantino's Favorite Movies: 65 Films the Director Wants You to See
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Here's What Denzel (Likely) Told Handsy Photog During Heated Exchange, According To Lip Reader
While Denzel Washington is currently attending the 2025 Cannes Film Festival in support of upcoming Spike Lee joint Highest 2 Lowest, his heated red carpet exchange with a handsy photographer is what went viral, as he was seen giving the man a stern talking-to for grabbing the 70-year-old stage veteran's arm. Washington's body language indicates he wasn't pleased with his personal space being violated, with lip reader Jackie 'G' Gonzalez giving some insight into what was likely said via her social media pages. 'Hey, you're the one that grabbed me, right? Let me tell you something, let me tell you something, stop! You ever put your hands on me again, and that'll be [camera loses focus]. I'm warning you, you heard me, right? Ok.' Denzel then turns to walk away and is grabbed a second time. 'Stop. Stop. Stop. You got me? Stop.' While Washington's red carpet experience was less than stellar, he was soon awarded with a surprise Honorary Palme d'Or, the festival's highest accolade, during the Highest 2 Lowest premiere Monday (May 19) night. 'This is a total surprise for me, so I'm a little emotional, but from the bottom of my heart, I thank you all,' said Washington during his speech. 'To be here once again in Cannes — we're a very privileged group in this room that we get to make movies and wear tuxedos and nice clothes and dress up and get paid for it as well.' He was also sure to recognize director Spike Lee as his 'brother from another mother.' Highest 2 Lowest, co-starring Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, A$AP Rocky, Ice Spice, and more, will be released in select theaters on Aug. 22. It will then stream exclusively on Apple TV+ beginning Sept. 5. Check out the teaser below. More from Denzel Washington Has Tense Exchange With Photographer At Cannes Film Festival A$AP Rocky Says Denzel Washington Listens To Rappers From This Southern City The Most 'Highest 2 Lowest' Teaser: Spike Lee And Denzel Reunite For Fifth "Joint" Of Their Careers
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Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears Talks ‘Pillion' Acting Debut & 'Shocking' NSFW Sex Scene With Alexander Skarsgård: 'My Jaw Was On The Floor'
SPOILER ALERT:Pillion. As Jake Shears was recently between stops in Glasgow and Bournemouth on a UK/Ireland arena tour, moviegoers were watching his titillating onscreen debut in the South of France. More from Deadline 'Pillion's Alexander Skarsgård And Harry Melling On Working With Intimacy Coordinator For 'Kinky Gay Bikers' Movie: 'It Got Messy' – Cannes Studio 'Pillion' Review: Alexander Skarsgård Is Dom For The Holidays & Harry Melling Is Hopelessly Devoted In Steamy BDSM Romance — Cannes Film Festival As Nigerian Cinema Goes From Strength To Strength, Ramsey Nouah & Rita Dominic Return For AfroCannes Screener '77: The Festac Conspiracy' Deadline caught up with the Scissor Sisters frontman following the Cannes premiere of Pillion, writer-director Harry Lighton's feature debut that sets a heartbreaking love story within a queer BDSM biker gang, featuring a supporting performance from Shears as sexual submissive Kevin. 'I'm wiped, but I'm happy,' said Shears over Zoom from his UK home, one day after wrapping up the tour that reunited the band after a 13-year hiatus. Meanwhile, Scissor Sisters is preparing to embark on The Tits Out Tour on July 1 in support of co-headliner Kesha's album Period. After co-founding the pop rock group 25 years ago and releasing solo music during the hiatus, Shears made his Broadway debut in Kinky Boots back in 2017 and recently played the Emcee in the West End's revival of Cabaret in 2023, paving the way for his onscreen acting career. But nothing could prepare him for the NSFW nature of his first film role, which culminates in a picnic tabletop orgy scene with Alexander Skarsgård's Ray, the elusive dom and romantic opposite of Harry Melling's timid sub, Colin. Although Lighton has teased more explicit shots were left on the cutting-room floor, audiences got an eyeful and Shears got a mouthful with Ray's pierced prosthetic phallus. 'Well, my jaw was kind of on the floor, reading it,' said Shears of the scene. 'I sort of couldn't believe it, but it was really exciting for me when I was reading the script. It's a movie about sex and sexual dynamics and dynamics of love. When I read it, I was really expecting it to be something dark, and what I was so pleasantly surprised by is the warmth and the humor that's in the movie. And to me, that sort of blended with the more explicit stuff in the film. I loved that combination when I was reading it. And when I read the script for the first time, it really made me smile, it made me sad, it's heartbreaking. It's got all of these different feelings in it, and it just was not what I expected. And when I read the orgy scene in the script, I was just like, 'Oh my God.'' Although Shears' acting debut is quite the unconventional role, he takes every inch of it like a champ (pun fully intended). Explicit sex scenes and piercings aside, the Grammy-nominated artist seamlessly loses himself in the film's tense relationship dynamics while shedding light on the BDSM culture captured in the source material, Adam Mars-Jones' 2020 novel Box Hill. 'All the guys in the movie are the real deal,' he noted of the film's biker gang. 'So I was reading The Leatherman's Handbook and all the sort of training and processes and the sort of formalities that are involved. … And I'm pretty well-versed in faggotry [laughs] and a lot of different things in the queer world, but other than a moment when I was about 19 years old, I hadn't really had any experiences in this world, so it was interesting to learn about it and be with all the guys.' Ahead of Pillion's world premiere at Cannes on May 18, which earned an eight-minute ovation and the Un Certain Regard Best Screenplay for Lighton (as well as the Palm Dog for canine supporting actor Hippo), the film was acquired by A24 for US distribution rights in October. Read on about Jake Shears' experience making his acting debut in Pillion, as well as his sex scene with Skarsgård and whether his co-star's piercing was in the script. DEADLINE: Pillion JAKE SHEARS: I met this woman named Kahleen Crawford, who was the casting director for it, and she had seen me in Cabaret. We ended up meeting at a house party over Christmas a couple years ago and became acquainted and friends, and she told me about this movie. And then, when I finished Cabaret — I'm trying to get the timeline right — but I was at my place in New Orleans, and she called me and she's like, 'Are you sitting down? I really think that this would be a great thing for you to do' that would be not biting off more than I could chew, I think, even though I still feel like I bit off more than I could chew. DEADLINE: SHEARS: No pun intended. But then I talked with Harry [Lighton], we had a great conversation. That's sort of how I got into the project. I've been acquainted with Skarsgård from years before, through friends and whatnot, so I was really stoked to see him. I was excited, it was really interesting. I feel like it was definitely an education for me in a lot of different ways. DEADLINE: SHEARS: Yeah, all the guys in the movie are the real deal. So I was reading The Leatherman's Handbook and all the sort of training and processes and the sort of formalities that are involved. I mean, it's a lot of stuff. You could have three college courses on it. It was a bit overwhelming, but I feel like I got a much better picture of what that scene is, that I didn't know before. And I'm pretty well-versed in faggotry [laughs] and a lot of different things in the queer world, but other than a moment when I was about 19 years old, I hadn't really had any experiences in this world, so it was interesting to learn about it and be with all the guys. So it was both warm — the experience — and it was also incredibly intimidating in certain ways, just for me personally, not that anything, not that anybody specifically made it that way. It was intimidating for me for for a lot of different reasons, the whole experience. DEADLINE: Cabaret SHEARS: No, I mean, the intimacy coordination was so thorough and so good. It really was like, I found that stuff to be the easiest. The sex in the movie to me, that wasn't sort of what was intimidating to me. The process of filming and being in a film is what I found to be really jarring, and I learned a lot from it. I knew it would be vastly different from theater, and I knew it would be vastly different from performing on stage and and singing music. It really was like a different ballgame. And I'm a big film head; all the nonfiction I read is basically film history, and that's what I consume. I watch a lot of movies, I watch a lot of old movies, it's just a deep passion of mine. So it's really fascinating for me to be on the other side of it a bit and actually seeing how a machine like that works, and being in front of the camera in that sort of machine. I didn't feel like — and this was my own insecurities, and this isn't about the sex in the movie — but I just didn't feel like I had the tools for it. Just in general, just the process of being in a movie, I was like, 'I think I'm in like over my head.' But I also at the same time, I've always really pushed myself to do things that are new, that are not necessarily something that's comfortable for you, and by comfortable I just mean, as far as your skill set. There's so many facets to this process, and it made me have a whole other kind of respect for film actors. It really did, it's just so strange how it all works and how people turn it on, And to the film and TV actors I know, it's just sort of given me like a much deeper insight into what they do. But it was exciting for me to be a part of a project that I thought was something really different and interesting, and something that I could really be proud of being in, and being a part of, that was really exciting for me in that way. So there was a whole bunch of feelings that I was just going through internally. Doing this movie, I love the people I was doing it with. Harry was amazing, both Harrys were awesome. I had a a couple scenes with Harry Melling, one of them made it into the movie. He really was just very sweet with me about my sort of insecurities or fears about doing it. And he really, I think, had quite a bit of patience with me that I really, really appreciated, that made me comfortable. And Skarsgård is somebody that I've already felt really comfortable with, and just somebody who is really nice to have a laugh with. They're both wonderful human beings. DEADLINE: SHEARS: 'Cause that's not me, you know what I mean? It was really not in my nature, so just that scene, I had to work on really, really hard to find the spot, and I hope it works. Does it work? DEADLINE: SHEARS: I feel like I just had to turn part of my brain off and turn part of myself off, and I found it incredibly challenging. You just walk away from that, and you just don't know if it works, And that's the thing about films that really blows my mind is that, anybody could make a movie and you can think it's the most incredible thing in the world, and you think that you've done the most amazing job in the world, but unless all the parts are operating together, you could really end up in something that stinks. Which is different from theater because in theater, you've got an audience there, you can kind of feel that out a little bit better. I feel like with film, I just don't see how you can see the forest for the trees. It really is some real faith. DEADLINE: SHEARS: Well, my jaw was kind of on the floor, reading it. I sort of couldn't believe it, but it was really exciting for me when I was reading the script. It's a movie about sex and sexual dynamics= and dynamics of love. When I read it, I was really expecting it to be something dark, and what I was so pleasantly surprised by is the warmth and the humor that's in the movie. And to me, that sort of blended with the more explicit stuff in the film. I loved that combination when I was reading it. And when I read the script for the first time, it really made me smile, it made me sad. It's heartbreaking. It's got all of these different feelings in it, and it just was not what I expected. And when I read the orgy scene in the script, I was just like, 'Oh my God.' DEADLINE: SHEARS: [Laughs] No, and I didn't know about the Prince Albert until the moment it was in front of my face. It might have been in the script, but it wasn't something that I even thought about until It was right in front of me, and it was so realistic that in the moment, when it's happening and being filmed, it was kind of shocking in a really great way. DEADLINE: SHEARS: It was a real reaction! [Laughs] DEADLINE: SHEARS: Yes, I gotta say that prosthetic was really realistic. To me, in real life, it felt very real. Literally and figuratively. DEADLINE: SHEARS: No, but the costumes were fantastic. I love what I got to wear in the movie. I just loved the stuff that was made for me. There was that really cool apron thing that was made for me. I just loved what I got to wear. I thought the costumes were amazing. And I felt sexy. It's funny because I'd gotten out of Cabaret in like really good shape, and as the summer had gone on, I felt like I was getting more and more out of shape. And I was like, 'I just don't know, I'm not feeling like I'm fully, like, snatched. And Harry [Lighton] was like, 'Please don't. I want you to have a more natural body in this.' And so I sort of had to get comfortable with that too, And I did feel sexy when we were doing it, it felt sexy to me. I wasn't too worried about that, even though I don't feel like I was my normal stage shape or whatever, I still felt good doing it. And I loved my hairdo. They gave me a great haircut. But the experience was a real eye-opener for me. It was just one of those things in my life that I'm really happy that I just took a chance with myself and did. I just think doing things that are out of your wheelhouse can be really good for you. And I think it was really good for me in that way, and I'm very thankful to everybody on the project for being as warm and patient and understanding and fun as they were. DEADLINE: SHEARS: My world has been Scissors, and it's gonna really be for the rest of the summer. We just put loads of work into — we just did an arena tour in the UK. And I think it was the best show we've ever made. It really was a dream show, and we put so much work into it. And it was the longest show we did, it was like a two-hour, it was a big show. So I'm just really happy with what we accomplished with that. We're touring, we're doing the Tits Out Tour — Kesha, Scissor Sisters, all summer basically, finishing it off with a show with the Pet Shop Boys in mid-August. And then I'm gonna take a little bit of a break. But it just doesn't stop. You know what I mean? I work a lot. I would love to definitely do more theater, and I'd be interested in doing more film, but I still feel like I've got a lot to learn in that regard. And I think I definitely need to keep building a toolkit for it, and I feel like I feel like I got a couple tools with this movie. But I definitely think it would be amazing to keep building that toolkit with the right stuff cause I really did enjoy the process. And I'm so happy that people seem to really love the movie. I'm just really happy how it already sort of feels sort of beloved in a way. So I'm really about that, because like I said before, you just never know what you're making, when you're making it. 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