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A Conversation with Animation Legend Chuck Jones
Few people today remember the 1992 Warner Bros. release Stay Tuned, but how could I pass up the opportunity to get on the phone with one of my childhood heroes, the animation master Chuck Jones? Fortunately, this interview spends a minimum of time discussing his seven-minute contribution to that project and much more on his philosophy…
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Gus Van Sant Emerges from the Underground
When I met Gus Van Sant in 1991 at New York’s Mayflower Hotel to discuss one of his most acclaimed films, My Own Private Idaho, I was startled to see his star River Phoenix sitting on a nearby couch, strumming a guitar as we talked. At one point, Phoenix chimed in excitedly about how the film…
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Ken Russell Enters His Gothic Phase
Ken Russell was everything I hoped him to be when I met him in 1987: animated, outspoken, brimming with energy belying his 59 years. (I still remember how he sat with his legs tucked under his torso.) I encountered this veteran enfant terrible of British film during his Gothic phase—he would follow Gothic with the wild horror phantasmagoria Lair of…
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A Quick Encounter with the Dancing Stars of MGM
I was hired by Film Journal in August 1983, and my first couple of years there are filled with indelible memories. Attending the premiere of Brian De Palma’s Scarface at Manhattan’s Cinema I and spotting Eddie Murphy chatting with Lucille Ball just a few rows behind me. Going to the premiere of Footloose at the Trans-Lux on Lexington Avenue and seeing…
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Jack Lemmon Looks Back on His Seven-Film Partnership with Billy Wilder
Apart from my conversations with legendary writer-director Billy Wilder for my book Wilder Times, I cherish the memory of my 1993 phone interview with his frequent leading man Jack Lemmon. The Oscar-nominated star of Some Like It Hot and The Apartment was completely generous with his time and insights, an invaluable resource for my project. At the end of our…
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Spike Lee Got Game: A Mid-Career Conversation
In 1989, I was happy to see my name in newspaper ads proclaiming Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing as the best picture of the year. A modern classic set in my home borough of Brooklyn, it’s one of the most dazzling, vibrant and provocative films of the 1980s. Nine years later, I got the chance to…
Kevin Lally on Film
Interviews and more from the former executive editor of Film Journal International and Boxoffice Pro
- Film Appreciation
- Filmmakers
- Altman, Robert
- Baker, Sean
- Bass, Saul
- Benton, Robert
- Bigelow, Kathryn
- Coen, Joel and Ethan
- Costa-Gavras, Constantin
- Davies, Terence
- de Angelis, Edoardo
- Docter, Pete
- Eastwood, Clint
- Foley, James
- Freeman, Morgan
- Gondry, Michel
- Gordon, Emily V.
- Henson, Jim
- Ivory, James
- Jewison, Norman
- Johnson, Rian
- Jones, Chuck
- Kelly, Gene
- Lee, Spike
- Lemmon, Jack
- Lester, Richard
- Lord, Peter
- Lumet, Sidney
- Lynch, David
- Maddin, Guy
- Malle, Louis
- Martin, Steve
- Nair, Mira
- Nanjiani, Kumail
- Oz, Frank
- Park, Nick
- Polanski, Roman
- Ponti, Edoardo
- Reiner, Carl
- Resnais, Alain
- Russell, Ken
- Schoonmaker, Thelma
- Schrader, Paul
- Showalter, Michael
- Shyamalan, M. Night
- Ullmann, Liv
- Van Sant, Gus
- Wajda, Andrzej
- Waters, John
- Wilder, Billy
- Woo, John
- Uncategorized
Kevin Lally on Film 