Interviews with leading figures from the arts
32 Sounds: Interview with innovative documentarian Sam Green about his audio and visual feast
Thursday, 23 November 2023
Sam Green’s film 32 Sounds has been described as the greatest documentary you’ve ever heard, which is a pretty noisy claim – how does anyone know all the documentaries you’ve experienced? What is certainly true is that the way Green presents his films as immersive events, where musicians play the soundtrack live, the audience wear headphones and the director narrates, makes for a very unusual cinema experience.
10 Questions for the avant-pop icons Stereolab
Thursday, 02 November 2023
Just over 30 years ago, avant-pop icons Stereolab released their debut album Peng! establishing the early hallmarks of the English-French band’s sound; 1960s pop harmonies, chorus-laden guitar riffs and a borderless world of analog electrics.
'The people behind the postcards': an...
Tuesday, 03 October 2023
Priya Hein’s debut novel, Riambel, is an excoriating examination of Mauritius’ socio-political structures and the colonial past from which they have...
Warhol, Velázquez, and leaving things out: an...
Friday, 22 September 2023
Motion Sickness (1991) is the second novel published by the writer, art collector and cultural critic Lynne Tillman. It is difficult, to her credit,...
'We wanted to make a record we really love...
Friday, 08 September 2023
One day, someone will compile a full illustrated history of Rolling Stones press conferences, going right back to Mick and Keith in 1964 buying a...
Composer and conductor Carl Davis, 1936-2023
theartsdesk Q&A from 2021 with the silent film specialist on shot lists, bass drums and projection speeds |
Isabelle Huppert and director Jean-Paul Salomé: 'Cinema is about a little trade, a little business'
La Syndicaliste's star and director discuss misogyny, ambiguity and the quest for perfection |
theartsdesk Q&A: musician Susanne Sundfør - ‘Blómi is a message of hope for whoever might need it’
Interviewed about her new album, the Norwegian singer-songwriter reveals its inspirations - family, flowers and much more |
Filmmaker Tarik Saleh: ‘A director is at heart an immigrant’
Cairo Conspiracy's director talks power, Egypt, Islam and Le Carré |
'I let it emerge': an interview with Fiona Benson on the cusp of the TS Eliot Prize announcement
The poet discusses her new book, mayflies, motherhood, and memory |
'Corsage' director Marie Kreutzer: 'Being beautiful is her only currency'
The Austrian director on Vicky Krieps, a rotting empire's rebel royal and corsetry as control |
theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Mike Hodges
The British writer-director reflects on the making and meaning of his thriller 'Black Rainbow' |
10 Questions for writer and translator Saskia Vogel
Translation as inhabiting in a book with a witchy love of things |
10 Questions for comedian Alex Edelman
US comic talks about bringing 'Just For Us' to the Menier Chocolate Factory |
10 Questions for Bruce Lindsay, biographer of Ivor Cutler
How the teacher-poet became like a Zelig figure across so many swathes of UK culture |
Directors the Dardenne brothers: 'To be living means to be fragile'
The Belgian masters discuss 'Tori and Lokita', and finding humanity on film |
Wilko Johnson (1947-2022): The Bard of Canvey Island
Snug-bar confessions in an epic Canvey Island encounter with the late Essex great |
Q&A: Bianca Stigter, director of 'Three Minutes: A Lengthening'
The historian and filmmaker discusses her haunting documentary about a Polish shtetl filmed on the brink of the abyss in 1938 |
Leslie Phillips: 'I can be recognised by my voice alone'
Saying goodbye to the actor famous for saying hello |
‘Stripping naked the process of making theatre’: Martin Crimp talks about his latest play
The playwright talks about 'Not One of These People', which he is performing himself, digital creativity and constraints on authorship |
'The first thing I do when I wake up is write.' Hilary Mantel, 1952-2022
An interview with the novelist the morning after she won the Man Booker Prize for the first time |
theartsdesk Q&A: Abel Selaocoe
The South African cellist and rising star of World and Classical on the music, life and history embedded in his debut album 'Where Is Home' |
theartsdesk Q&A: Horn player Sarah Willis on returning to Cuba
Guaguancós, cha-cha-chas and crickets as the horn player commissions a new work in Havana |
theartsdesk Q&A: bass-baritone Christopher Purves on communicating everything from Handel to George Benjamin
The great singing actor on his best experiences - including Zurich Opera's new Ring |
10 Questions for art historian and fiction writer Chloë Ashby
On sights, acts of seeing and book 'Wet paint', inspired by Manet’s 'A Bar at the Folies-Bergère' |
theartsdesk Q&A: Marc Almond of Soft Cell
The Eighties icon tells how Andy Warhol, Chernobyl, nostalgia and the colour purple inspired the first Soft Cell album in 20 years |
10 Questions for Musician Jarboe
'skin blood women roses', collaboration and the secret to excellent hearing |
William Hurt, great Hollywood contrarian, has died at 71
A string of brilliant performances cemented his place as a great face of 1980s cinema |
The unexpurgated Clement Crisp - in memoriam
The titan of ballet critics, who has died at 95, once agreed to be grilled - with scorching results |
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