House of horrors: writer-director Oren Peli outside his San Diego house, where Paranormal Activity was filmed. Photograph: Dale Robinette/Blumhouse/AP There is nothing remotely scary about the beige library in the Soho Hotel. It's calm, quiet, bland. ...
Andrea Arnold makes extraordinary films about ordinary people. Her new film, Fish Tank, a modern love story set on a housing estate in Essex, is quite simply spellbinding. At 48, Arnold finds herself at the vanguard of a new generation of British ...
Big Train, which was on television between 1998 and 2002, is my all-time favourite sketch show. This sketch, in which a boss breaks the unpopular news that Tom Henderson will be the new office manager, makes me laugh every time, purely because of its ...
Confronting their demons … scene from Lars von Trier's Antichrist What is absolutely not in doubt is Lars Von Trier's considerable talent to offend and enrage. What is less clear is where his intentions actually lie. His latest film, Antichrist, is ...
Wizard in the woods … Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) rehearse a scene from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Photograph: Jaap Buitendijk Somewhere off the M25 in a 500,000 sq ft studio, Emma Watson is swearing. ...
Years before David Simon created The Wire, he kept hearing about this crime writer in Washington DC called George Pelecanos. He even met him a few times at parties. Eventually he got around to reading The Sweet Forever, Pelecanos's seventh novel. "So ...
An exclusive interview with Patti Smith, who performs at this month's Meltdown At 62, Patti Smith seems to have lived several lives in one. Her first album, Horses (1975), which drew on her background in poetry and performance art, was a literate, ...
Taylor Swift performing at the American Music Awards, Los Angeles. Photograph: Rex Features Is it possible to be a bona fide superstar aged just 19? In Taylor Swift's case, the answer has to be "hell yeah". Last year, Swift was the bestselling artist ...
Voted 'student with the best smile' ... James Franco. Photograph: Sarah Lee When Judd Apatow first met James Franco around 10 years ago, he thought the 20-year-old was funny, strange, skinny and very greasy. He couldn't understand why women found him ...
When he was 17, Ray Winstone was excluded from a Christmas party and it changed his life. Back in December 1976, the head of his drama school didn't much like him so didn't invite him to the Christmas party. The young East End lad already felt like a ...
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