Comments on: John Malkovich in conversation with Jim Sharman | Sydney Festival

By: wanderer

wanderer — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 02:12:52 +0000

I hold a contrary view on Jim Sharman here (I assume it is ‘Blood and Tinsel’ to which the blog hostess nods in para 1). It seems two things are agreed – it was a fantastic interview in that Mr Malkovich said lots of wonderfully interesting things, and that Jim Sharman wasn’t the usual open faced chatty host. Well, as I heard it, the success of the evening was entirely in Sharman’s hands, close to his face notwithstanding. I found his questions profound and deeply felt, questions he had thought about himself, and he paced and directed the interview with a firm eye on the exposé he sought. And he got it, as did we. It didn’t come by itself.

If you wanted cheesy grins and the odd clever quip, then Andrew Denton would have provided them, but at the expense of drawing less water and then from the top of the well.

My one criticism, or rather observation, is that with two such as they, it all began and stayed deeply serious, mostly.

By: Diana Simmonds

Diana Simmonds — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 04:07:48 +0000

It’s interesting, don’t you think, that so little respect or understanding of the vital role of an expert interviewer is evidenced here? As remarked above – Andrew Denton would have done a great job (and he was in the audience – there’s irony!). Caroline Baum is a wonderful interviewer – and she was around for the festival and did others.
Being a fine director doesn’t make you an interviewer, particularly a director with the introverted demeanour of JSharman: that should have been obvious. And it’s why I wasn’t interested in being there (even though I was tied up with the theatre awards anyway). It would have given me tooth ache – but I knew that when the program was published.

By: js

js — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 05:10:50 +0000

JS was a disgrace, he mumbled into his hand, had the audacity to speak over Mr Malkovich at times, made no eye contact at all & fumbled his notes frequently during the interview .
I find it extraordinary that a better interviewer could not be found for a world renowned actor!

By: Christine

Christine — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:52:33 +0000

I found Jim Sharman very disappointing as an interviewer. Several times he cut JM off when he was making an interesting point. JS was more interested in following his notes, than following the conversation. He cut the interview short, very abruptly, as well, and short-changed the audience in the process. It was nice that JM acknowledged the audience twice at the end. Overall it was good but had the potential to be so much better. I wish the interview had been conducted by Andrew Denton, he would have been sharper, and drawn more from Mr Malkovich. I found a similar, but better, recent interview of JM posted on YouTube.