BFI London Film Festival Guests: Laura Dern

Posted on October 28, 2019 by Mark Winter / Chicane

This year’s BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL has just concluded. Here is one of the guests whom I met at the event:

Autographed drawing of actor Laura Dern

Double Oscar nominee, Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy winner Laura Dern plays divorce lawyer Nora Fanshaw in Noah Baumbach’s comedy-drama MARRIAGE STORY, which had its Gala Screening at this years festival on Sunday 6 October at both the Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square and the Embankment Garden cinema.

Her two Oscar nominations were for her roles as orphan Rose in 1992’s RAMBLING ROSE (Best Actress) and as Bobbi Grey in the 2015 biographical drama WILD (Best Supporting Actress). She has won four Golden Globe Awards including one for her portrayal as Renata Klein in the HBO series BIG LITTLE LIES (2017-19) for which she also received a Primetime Emmy. She has already won the Best Supporting Actress award at this years Hollywood Film Awards for her performance in MARRIAGE STORY, which could be the first of many accolades.

Laura signed my sketch at the Ham Yard Hotel on Saturday 5 October, before she attended the MARRIAGE STORY Gala screenings the following day.

BFI London Film Festival Guests: Steve Coogan

Posted on October 25, 2019 by Mark Winter / Chicane

This year’s BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL has just concluded. Here is one of the guests whom I met at the event:

Autographed drawing of actor Steve Coogan

Steve Coogan “dazzles as the ‘da Vinci of deal-making’ in Michael Winterbottom’s sharp-tongued satire on corporate greed.” He plays Sir Richard McCreadie, the king of High Street in GREED, which had its Headline Gala Screenings at the Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square and the Embankment Garden Cinemas on Wednesday 9 October.

In 2013 he co-wrote, produced and starred in the comedy-drama PHILOMENA, which earned him Golden Globe, BAFTA and two Academy Award nominations. Last year his performance as English comedian Stan Laurel in the film biopic STAN & LAUREL, opposite John C.Reilly as Oliver Hardy, earned him a Best Actor BAFTA nomination. It premiered at the BFI London Film Festival.

Steve signed my Stan sketch for me at the Embankment Garden cinema after the screening of GREED.

BFI London Film Festival Guests: Lily-Rose Depp

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Mark Winter / Chicane

This year’s BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL has just concluded. Here is one of the guests whom I met at the event:

Autographed drawing of actor Lily-Rose Depp

With Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis for parents, an acting career was a given for 20 year-old Lily-Rose Depp. She plays Catherine of Valois, the future Queen of England and wife of Henry V in the historical drama THE KING, which screened at this year’s Festival. Writing in ‘The Film Stage’, Rory O’Connor described her performance as “a excellent cameo”.

It’s her second period drama, after her 2016 role as Kate Barlow alongside Natalie Portman in PLANETARIUM. Her upcoming projects include the thriller DREAMLAND with Gary Oldman and Arnie Hammer and the sci-fi film VOYAGERS alongside Colin Farrell, both in post-production.

She signed my portrait sketch at the Gala Screening of THE KING at the Embankment Garden Cinema on Thursday 3 October.

BFI London Film Festival Guests: Joel Edgerton

Posted on October 23, 2019 by Mark Winter / Chicane

This year’s BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL has just concluded. Here is one of the guests whom I met at the event:

Autographed drawing of actor Joel Edgerton

Joel Edgerton demonstrates that he is a gifted and versatile an actor as he is a writer playing the soulful, tragic-heroic John Falstaff in THE KING and co-writing the screenplay with director David Michôd, adapted from Shakespeare’s HENRY IV, PARTS 1 + 2 and HENRY V texts. Familiar with the material from his involvement with the Sydney-based Bell Shakespeare Company’s stage productions in the late 1990’s, playing Prince Hal in HENRY IV and the title role in HENRY V.

Film followers will know him as Owen Lars in STAR WARS: EPISODE II-ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002) and EPISODE III-REVENGE OF THE SITH (2005) with other appearances in such notable films such as THE GREAT GADSBY (2013), BLACK MASS (2015) and LOVING (2016) for which he received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor. In 2018 he wrote, directed and starred in BOY ERASED, about gay conversion therapy.

Joel signed my sketch at the Embankment Garden Cinema before THE KING’s Gala Screening on Thursday 3 October.

BFI London Film Festival Guests: Timothée Chalamet

Posted on October 22, 2019 by Mark Winter / Chicane

This year’s BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL has just concluded. Here is one of the guests whom I met at the event:

Autographed drawing of actor Timothée Chalamet

Timothée Chalamet’s lead role in David Michôd’s THE KING follows his startling transformation from Hal, the fun-loving prince to an all-powerful monarch who unwittingly ascends the English throne. Described as a “stunnng, visceral portrait of Henry V” based on several plays from Shakespeare’s ‘Henriad’, it is one of literatures’s most acute character studies.

Timothée demonstrates his full acting range, perfectly capturing both the charm and recklessness of the youthful royal and the steely authoritarianism of a king in the making. It’s a range that was clearly evident in his two most acclaimed film portrayals-his role as 17 year-old Elio Perlman in 2017 coming-of-age romantic drama, which earned him an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, SAG and Critics’ Choice Award Best Actor nominations and teenage drug addict Nic Seff in BEAUTIFUL BOY, with further recognition in the form of Globe, SAG and Critics’ Choice Award NOMINATIONS.

At the age of 23 he has appeared in 14 feature films, with three more in post-production, since his debut five years ago. Timothée signed my sketch at the Gala Screening of THE KING on Thursday 3 October at the Embankment Garden Cinema.

BFI London Film Festival Guests: Atom Egoyan

Posted on October 21, 2019 by Mark Winter / Chicane

This year’s BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL has just concluded. Here is one of the guests whom I met at the event:

Autographed drawing of director Atom Egoyan

Atom Egoyan. The Canadian stage and film director Atom Egoyan is one of the most celebrated contemporary filmmakers. His latest feature GUEST OF HONOUR, a story of family secrets with David Thewlis screened in the Festival’s Thrill category also on Tuesday 8 October.

His work is known for exploring the themes of alienation and isolation. One of my favourite Atom Egoyan films is THE SWEET HEREAFTER (1997) with Ian Holm. It won the Grand Prix and Jury Prizes at the 50th Cannes Film Festival and Atom was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director Oscars. He also took part in the LFF Connects series at the BFI on 8 October, where he signed my sketch.

BFI London Film Festival Guests: Rian Johnson

Posted on October 18, 2019 by Mark Winter / Chicane

This year’s BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL has just concluded. Here is one of the guests whom I met at the event:

Autographed drawing of director Rian Johnson

Rian Johnson. Described as a ‘genre-hopping’ director, Rian’s fifth feature film, KNIVES OUT, a ‘wickedly witty and stylish murder mystery’, featuring Christopher Plummer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette and Michael Shannon to name a few, had Gala screenings at both the Odeon Luxe and the Embankment Garden’s pop-up cinema on Tuesday 8 October. Rian, who wrote and directed one of the most successful movies of all time, STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI also did a Screen Talk on the same day at the BFI on London’s Southbank where he signed my sketch afterwards.

BFI London Film Festival Guest: Marielle Heller

Posted on October 17, 2019 by Mark Winter / Chicane

This year’s BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL has just concluded. Here is one of the guests that I met at the event:

Autographed drawing of director Marielle Heller

Marielle Heller. Marielle’s third feature, A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD, featuring Tom Hanks as the American Television icon Fred Rogers was the BFI Patron’s Gala screening at the Odeon Luxe Cinema in Leicester Square last Friday. Marielle’s directing debut was the award-winning 2015 comedy-drama THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL, which she also wrote, based on Phoebe Gloeckner’s hybrid novel of the same name. She followed that with last year’s sleeper hit and Oscar-nominated CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? featuring Melissa McCarthy and Richard E Grant.

Marielle signed my drawing at the Odeon Luxe after her introduction on Friday night.

BFI London Film Festival Guest: Alejandro Landes

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Mark Winter / Chicane

This year’s BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL has just concluded. Here is one of the guests that I met at the event:

Autographed drawing of director Alejandro Landes

Alejandro Landes. The Brazilian-born Colombian-Ecuadorian director’s third feature MONOS, the hallucinogenic and intoxicating thriller about child soldiers, set on a remote mountain top in Latin America is one of the most talked-about films of the year and won the top prize at the London Festival, adding to the numerous accolades already collected, including the Jury Prize at Sundance where it premiered in January and is Colombia’s Official entry for the Academy Awards.

Alejandro signed my sketch at the first screening of MONOS at the Vue Cinema in Leicester Square.

Drawing: Juan Diego Florez

Posted on October 11, 2019 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of tenor Juan Diego Florez

Peruvian opera superstar Juan Diego Florez is considered by those who consider such things as the best tenor on the planet and certainly the most sort after at the world’s finest venues since making his international breakthrough in 1996 at the age of 23 at the Rossini Festival in the Italian city of Pesaro (Rossini’s birthplace) as the leading tenor in MATILDE DI SHABRAN. He made his Covent Garden debut a year later as Count Potoski in the Royal Opera’s world premiere concert of Donizetti’s ELISABETTA.

Standing ovations are the norm when he performs. The Telegraph’s opera reviewer Rupert Christiansen calls him the “Roger Federer of Opera… an exceptional virtuoso with an immaculate technique, who has enjoyed an exemplary career, free of scandal or disaster and marked by sound decisions, vocal consistency and a serious commitment to a charitable foundation back home.”

Coincidentally he said Roger, a fellow Rolex Ambassador, inspired him along with Pavarotti and incidentally he also likes to play a bit of tennis. Juan Diego has just finished his latest Covent Garden engagement, performing the title role of the Royal Opera’s third revival of Massenet’s WERTHER, described by The Guardian’s Tim Ashley as “hugely moving as the obsessive romantic.” He kindly signed and dedicated my sketch at the Royal Opera House.