Life had it’s Latin American premiere in Mexico at the Guanajuato International Film Festival on Friday and director Anton Corbijn was in attendance to present the movie and take part in a Q&A.
We have some pics from the premiere below and also some articles covering the Q&A which we’ve translated for you (using google Translate).
“GUANAJUATO, 26 July.- Although many related and pigeonhole the name of Robert Pattinson in the Twilight series, there are others, such as Dutch director Anton Corbijn who see beyond the stigma and / or social labels.
That’s why I did not offer preposterous British actor the role of Dennis Stock, this famous photographer 50s that caught James Dean three months before his death in the film Life.
“After Twilight I felt Robert tried to choose characters away from this whole saga.
“He wants to prove to the world that he is a real actor can do challenging roles and that reminded me of Dennis Stock, a photographer who wanted to check he was good at what he did. That part was something I found in common between the two.
On the other hand, Robert is always being chased by photographers and I liked the idea that in the film he had to act like a photographer behind a star, Anton Corbijn said to questions expressed by Excelsior.
The director, who has been behind films like Control, recreating the last days of Joy Dovision vocalist, Ian Curtis, or documentaries about U2 and Depeche Mode, attended the Friday night at the Teatro Juarez in Guanajuato City conducting the premiere of Life, his fourth feature as a director, as part of the 18th edition of International Film Festival of Guanajuato.
The filmmaker, who likewise attended the Festival last year to promote The most wanted man, was forceful in ensuring that while speaking of James Dean Life is not a movie about him, but the man behind the lens that made him some emblematic images that turned it around the world.
“Whoever thinks that this film is about James, I’m afraid to say that is not so.
“In fact, when I was offered the script I did not care because I did not want to make a film about James Dean, however, when I began to see that the story was more about the photographer, I felt I identified because basically that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 40 years, ” said Corbijn.
In addition to Robert Pattinson, Life features performances from Dane DeHaan, Ben Kingsley, Kristen Hager and Joel Elgerton.
This film was shot in Canada and does not have release date in Mexico.”
“Guanajuato.- Because after Twilight Robert Pattinson had shown he wanted to remove the image of an easy film actor, he was chosen to star in Life, directed by Anton Corbijn.
In the movie he plays professional photographer Dennis Stock, who came to have a friendly relationship with James Dean, legend of cinema. That closeness was born after the image Stock took of Dean in 1955.
“I had noticed that he took movies out of the ordinary (Bel Ami and Cosmopolis) wanting to check that he was a real actor; and good in his life he is chased by photographers, and now he must act as one, “the director recalled yesterday.Corbijn is known in the audiovisual media by their American films and Control, as well as being director of music videos for bands like Depeche Mode.
Life appeared Friday night at the Teatro Juarez in this city, in the framework of the International Film Festival that ended this weekend.
“It is not a biography of James Dean, so if people believe that’s what they’ll see they better get out,” joked the filmmaker, shortly before the screening.
In the question and answer session at the end of the movie, he said the biggest challenge was to get away from the public image of the Rebel Without a Cause and East of Eden actor.
The responsibility to carry it to fruition was down to Dane DeHaan (The Amazing Spiderman) someone who physically does not look like the Hollywood star, so he did adhesions in places like ears.
“The challenge was to show the private Dean, not the one which we all know well. So the actor also found how different things were, like how he talked and saw the difference between the private person and the public persona”, narrated Corbijn.
“It’s based on a true story, not so much a biographical film but an emotional one, although there were changes for dramatic reasons,” he said.
Life still has no release date in Mexico. It was launched internationally in February, during the Berlinale and now it was the event of the Bajio.
In September will reach cinemas in France, UK and Ireland, one month later will be the turn of Italy and Germany.
Ben Kingsley, Allison Brennan and Joel Edgeron make up the cast of this film for nearly two hours.
“I knew some of the pictures , like the Times Square one, but never asked the photographer; when they said I could make a movie about him that’s when I decided to do it, “said Corbijn.
“Right now while I was watching the film I remember the cold. It was almost all filmed in Canada,” he said.”
“The muses of the Juarez theater and hundreds of people witnessed the gala of stars on the red carpet of the Guanajuato International Film Festival, before the screening of the latest film by the photographer and director Anton Corbijn, “Life”.The awaited person of the night was the director Anton Corbijn, who last year was one of the guests of honor at the seventeenth edition of the International Film Festival Guanajuato.
Corbijn spoke with Sara Hoch to present his latest film at the historic Teatro Juarez, so the filmmaker traveled to Guanajuato to share with buffs his short film inspired by the friendship that had photographer Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson) and the new promise of cinema in the mid-fifties, James Dean (Dane DeHaan)
The director said it is not an autobiographical film in spite of a connection between him and Dennis Stock, both have similar lives because of their recognition is precisely because the images are taken from famous artists.
The film 111 minutes long portrayed the relationship between the actor and photographer. Dennis Stock looking for the right person to take him to stardom, the same wish James Dean, who at first refuses to be photographed for the magazine “Life”.
Although both situations, Dean invited Stock to meet his family who lives in Indiana, and that is where captures most famous photographs taken of him. The film goes beyond its famous life, he focuses on both his personal life.
Subsequently, the film opened a a time for questions and answers, DeHaan said that at first refused to portray Dean, because he felt that the role was too big for him, but managed to convince him through a friend in common between the actor and the filmmaker.
On choosing Pattinson for the role of the photographer, he said he and Stock have a lot in common, at the time Stock sought recognition, the same goes for Pattinson, who sought the opportunity to demonstrate that he is a serious actor despite the latest movies that launched him to global fame.
He said he was not interested in making a film about the life of James Dean, the writer liked the character of the photographer and that is why on Friday night hundreds of people had the opportunity to see the film to be released in theaters film at the end of the year.”
