Olmo Schnabel's directorial debut PET SHOP DAYS screened as a Festival Favorite at SXSW, 2024. The film stars Jack Irv, Darío Yazebek Bernal, alongside Willem Dafoe, Peter Sarsgaard and more.

Impulsive black sheep Alejandro (Bernal) and pet store employee Jack (Irv) enter a whirlwind romance that sends them down the rabbit hole of depravity in Manhattan’s underworld.

In an interview at SXSW with director Olmo Schnabel, actor Darío Yazebek Bernal, EP Jeremy O'Harris, here is what they had to say:

Can you tell us a little bit about the film? Was it difficult to get off the ground?

OLMO: It was a collaboration among friends, and yes was a difficult movie to make. Obviously when you’re not part of the industry and you’re doing something that might seem challenging or on the periphery of what people will accept, there is a lot of trial and error. It was a kind of search party to find the right producing partner to help me get this movie made. It wasn’t until I met Francesco Melzi d’Eril that I found a producer who was very excited and motivated to put this film together. I think because he’s from another cultural background, he was willing to take some risks. Whereas if you go meet with an agency or head of a studio in the US, they have a mandate to fill that this film didn’t fit into. Someone like Francesco is willing to bet on young filmmakers, and to take a risk. With Francesco I met Jeremy who was very instrumental. He helped me meet other people who were super useful for getting this out into the world. It was important to create a dialogue and have the support system I needed, because it wasn’t easy.

JEREMY: Olmo had worked a long time and garnered a lot of financing before I got involved. It was a real mountain to climb getting the movie made. Francesco is a great champion of Italian cinema and independent cinema. He’s worked a lot with Luca Guadagnino. I think that in Francesco, Olmo found a real partner who could read the universe he was building.  

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the story? Is it based on true events?

OLMO: Jack Irv, the lead in the movie who also co-wrote it, based it off a friendship he had with a friend of ours named Alejandro. In its core it’s based off a relationship he was very excited and surprised about. I believe it’s more of a fantasy of what they could do together than what they weren’t doing together. It’s a mixture between the attraction of a real relationship but also that kind of naïve childlike curiosity of what could happen if they went on this crazy adventure together. And Jack had that kind of spontaneous completely loose and free story that didn’t need to be hyper realistic. It was much more like if something was going to happen, then it’s destiny. Like if you’re going to win the lottery, you’re going to win it; I’m not going to explain to you how the ticket ended up in your hand. Similarly, these two characters literally

Olmo Schnabel's directorial debut PET SHOP DAYS screened as a Festival Favorite at SXSW 2024. The film stars Jack Irv and Darío Yazebek Bernal, alongside Willem Dafoe, Peter Sarsgaard and more.

Impulsive black sheep Alejandro (Bernal) and pet store employee Jack (Irv) enter a whirlwind romance that sends them down the rabbit hole of depravity in Manhattan’s underworld.

In an interview at SXSW with director Olmo Schnabel, actor Darío Yazebek Bernal, EP Jeremy O'Harris, here is what they had to say:

Can you tell us a little bit about the film? Was it difficult to get off the ground?

OLMO: It was a collaboration among friends, and yes was a difficult movie to make. Obviously when you’re not part of the industry and you’re doing something that might seem challenging or on the periphery of what people will accept, there is a lot of trial and error. It was a kind of search party to find the right producing partner to help me get this movie made. It wasn’t until I met Francesco Melzi d’Eril that I found a producer who was very excited and motivated to put this film together. I think because he’s from another cultural background, he was willing to take some risks. Whereas if you go meet with an agency or head of a studio in the US, they have a mandate to fill that this film didn’t fit into. Someone like Francesco is willing to bet on young filmmakers, and to take a risk. With Francesco I met Jeremy who was very instrumental. He helped me meet other people who were super useful for getting this out into the world. It was important to create a dialogue and have the support system I needed, because it wasn’t easy.

JEREMY: Olmo had worked a long time and garnered a lot of financing before I got involved. It was a real mountain to climb getting the movie made. Francesco is a great champion of Italian cinema and independent cinema. He’s worked a lot with Luca Guadagnino. I think that in Francesco, Olmo found a real partner who could read the universe he was building.  

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the story? Is it based on true events?

OLMO: Jack Irv, the lead in the movie who also co-wrote it, based it off a friendship he had with a friend of ours named Alejandro. In its core it’s based off a relationship he was very excited and surprised about. I believe it’s more of a fantasy of what they could do together than what they weren’t doing together. It’s a mixture between the attraction of a real relationship but also that kind of naïve childlike curiosity of what could happen if they went on this crazy adventure together. And Jack had that kind of spontaneous completely loose and free story that didn’t need to be hyper realistic. It was much more like if someth

Photo : Daniel Day Lewis in Phantom Thread by Paul Thomas Anderson (2017) © ChristopheL

A Day with a Chameleon Actor

After devoting a day to Brad Pitt in 2022 and to Nicole Kidman in 2023, we’ll be honoring an actor from the British Isles at the 52nd edition of FEMA (Friday June 28 through Sunday July 7).

His magnetic charisma, his perfectionism and his spellbinding charm have profoundly marked his roles and established him as one of the greatest actors of his time.

An unparalleled shape-changer and immersive actor, he becomes the characters he plays so fully, with such dramatic impact, that he is the only actor to have won three Oscars. He fascinates audiences as much as he does the filmmakers who have worked with him on multiple films, like Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father), Martin Scorsese (The Age of Innocence, Gangs of New York) and of course Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread).

On Saturday July 6, come spend a day with… Daniel Day-Lewis!

With 5 films introduced by Adrien Dénouette, critic at Carbone and TroisCouleurs.

Ice cream at midnight courtesy of Ernest le Glacier!

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Continuing its numerous actions directed at high school and university students, the Festival La Rochelle Cinéma opens its 7th young critics’ competition, in partnership with Hôtel Saint-Nicolas de La Rochelle, Blink Blank, Capricci Éditions, LaCinetek, le Read more

The 74th Berlin Film Festival marked the outgoing edition for artistic director Carlo Chatrian, who will be replaced next year by Tricia Tuttle, the former head of the London Film Festival. This year’s jury, headed by Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o, awarded Mati Diop’s one-hour film Dahomey the coveted Golden Bear – the second year in a row that a documentary took the top prize Here, we’ve brought together five of the best films that played in this year’s Berlinale. 

Love Lies Bleeding | Rose Glass

Rose Glass, the British filmmaker who enjoyed huge critical acclaim with her 2019 debut Saint Maud, returned with this blistering crime yarn. Set in the late 1980s, we follow the story of Lou (Kristen Stewart), a gym manager who falls in with a female bodybuilder (Katy O’Brian). However, their relationship begins to turn sour when a dire situation arises concerning Lou’s criminal family. A violent and surreal must-see, Glass and her co-writer Weronika Tofilska (who directed on the shows Hanna and His Dark Materials) have crafted one of the most compelling films of the year. 

Made In England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger | Martin Scorsese

Any fan of master director Martin Scorsese will be aware how much he lauds the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the filmmakers behind such luminous British films as The Red Shoes (1984) and A Matter of Life and Death (1946). Here, Scorsese talks us through their movies, one by one, in an illuminating documentary that also serves as a perfect primer for his own work. Directed by David Hinton, who previously helmed a South Bank Show episode about Powell in the 1980s, this is a hugely knowledgeable homage that makes you admire and value Scorsese even more.

Crossing | Levan Akin

Already picked up by MUBI and soon to be seen in the BFI Flare season in London is this engaging film by Swedish director Levan Akin (known for And Then We Danced). A Georgian schoolteacher (Mzia Arabuli) teams up with a former pupil, Achi (Lucas Kankava), as they head to Istanbul to find her late sister’s estranged daughter Tekla (Tako Kurdovanidze). Playing in the Berlin Film festival’s Panorama strand, this is a movie that lightly wears its heavyweight topics – trans rights and identity – especially thanks to the engaging chemistry between Arabuli and Kankava. 

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: THE BIG EIGHT

We're down to less than three weeks before they open the envelopes on March 10th.  Here's is my latest update on the predicted winners in the "Big Eight" of the 23 Oscar categories. Today's listing also includes a film/performers previous MTFB rank to the right in parentheses.  TFF films are indicated in Bold.

The Berlinale presented today this year’s Honorary Golden Bear to to Martin Scorsese: a filmmaker who has constantly pushed the medium toward uncharted paths. With a body of work spanning six decades and over fourty features, running the gamut from crime epics to animated features and religious dramas, Martin Scorsese has revolutionised the medium, and reinvented himself with every new film. His latest, "Killers of the Flower Moon" (Apple Original Films), is a vivid and engrossing testament to the power of cinema to turn into what critic Roger Ebert once called an “empathy machine,” a telepathic conduit between filmmaker and audience.

Hosted by none other than acclaimed British director Joanna Hogg, enjoy this in-depth panel which invites the two filmmakers to reflect on Scorsese's journey through films, as well as our shared love for cinema in all its languages.

ONE MILLION!!!!!

Over the just-ended weekend MTFB recorded its one-millionth view.  1,000,000.  That's insane for a little blog that is the "nicheiest" of niche blogs.  I'll likely have a little more to say about the milestone in Thursday's post. 

One Million...wow!

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: THE BIG EIGHT

We're down to less than three weeks before they open the envelopes on March 10th.  Here's is my latest update on the predicted winners in the "Big Eight" of the 23 Oscar categories. Today's listing also includes a film/performers previous MTFB rank to the right in parentheses.  TFF films are indicated in Bold.