Rembrandt's J'Accuse Review
Variety's Analysis Of The Movie Rembrandt's J'Accuse
(Documentary -- U.K.-Netherlands)
By Richard Kuipers
October 8, 2008

A Content Intl. (U.K.) presentation of a Submarine (Netherlands) production, in association with Kasander, VPRO, WDR, YLE, in association with ARTE France. (International sales: Content, London.) Produced by Femke Wolting, Bruno Felix. Co-producer, Kees Kasander. Directed, written by Peter Greenaway.

With: Peter Greenaway, Martin Freeman, Eva Birthistle, Jodhi May, Emily Holmes, Michael Tiegen, Nathalie Press. (English dialogue)

A scholarly yet broadly accessible illustrated lecture by British auteur Peter Greenaway, "Rembrandt's J'Accuse" is an enthralling docudrama that examines the Dutch master's most famous painting, "The Night Watch," for proof that it was responsible for his dramatic fall from grace. A companion-piece to Greenaway's "Nightwatching" (2007), pic brims with juicy conspiracy theories and forensic investigations worthy of top-tier TV crime drama. A lengthy fest life is guaranteed, and pic has niche potential in upscale situations. Strong ancillary and specialized tube sales loom. Release in the Netherlands and several other territories is set for Nov. 27.

After publicly declaring cinema dead at the 2007 Pusan Film Festival, Greenaway shows his own stocks to be alive and well with this return to territory he partly covered in "Nightwatching" -- a dramatic interpretation of how Rembrandt van Rijn created his 1642 masterpiece.

Taking great care to bring art novices up to speed in record time, Greenaway launches with a snappy overview of the Dutch Golden Age and potted history of "The Night Watch" as its most famous and revolutionary exhibit.

His talking head occupying a small window in the center of frame for much of the duration, Greenaway energetically assumes the roles of art historian and detective, investigating a murder conspiracy he says is depicted in the painting. Always fond of numbers and how images may be read and related to the times in which they were produced, Greenaway methodically works his way through 30 specific parts of the canvas to support his theory.

Central to his argument are the group portrait's central figures, Capt. Frans Banning Cocq and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburgh, powerful members of the 13th Company of the Amsterdam militia whom Rembrandt strongly suspected of arranging the shooting of fellow officer Piers Hasselburg. As Greenaway zeroes in on everything from the rendering of Banning Cocq's hand to the outmoded weapon carried by van Ruytenburgh, a highly persuasive case is made for Rembrandt indeed portraying the duo as killers. That being the case, Greenaway asserts, Rembrandt so offended his influential patrons that he was effectively blacklisted from moneyed circles from that point onward.

Digging into the lives of everyone represented in the painting, pic occasionally calls upon dramatic re-enactment and direct questioning of behind-the-scenes players including Rembrandt's wife, Saskia (Eva Birthistle), and loyal maids Geertje (Jodhi May) and Hendrickje (Emily Holmes). Briefly reprising his "Nightwatching" role, Martin Freeman again brings a splendid earthiness to the celebrated painter.

Going so far as to name the trigger man, Greenaway's information-packed script is cohesive and frequently very witty.

Dramatic material is beautifully lit and framed to resemble Dutch paintings of the era, and the many mysteries are kept bubbling by precise editing of the helmer's trademark split-screens and multipanel visuals. A score darting effectively from crime-thriller stings to moody mystery arrangements completes a top-notch tech package.

Camera (color, HD-to-35mm), Reinier van Brummelen; editor, Elmer Leupen; music, Giovanni Sollima, Marco Robino; production designer, Maarten Piersma; costume designer, Marrit van der Burgt; sound (Dolby Digital), Bram Boers. Reviewed at Pusan Film Festival (World Cinema), Oct. 4, 2008. (Also in Rome Film Festival, Intl. Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.) Running time: 90 MIN.

LMR note: Martin Freeman’s photograph will be coming soon to the web site below:

Trinity Hospice » Buy Your Larger Than Life Limited Edition Print

Trinity’s new “Larger Than Life” Exhibition will consist of a series of unique photographic portraits of well known icons with a personal reflection written on the artwork on the theme: life and laughter.

Celeb-spotting alert as filming begins on Wild Target
Isle of Man Today
Published Date: 17 September 2008

IT'S time to get the celeb-spotting goggles on again as stars head to the Isle of Man to begin filming new British comedy Wild Target.

Isle of Man regular Bill Nighy (Love Actually, Pirates of the Caribbean, Notes on a Scandal) will join Rupert Grint (Harry Potter), Rupert Everett (St Trinian's, My Best Friend's Wedding) and Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) as cameras begin rolling next month.

Wild Target is a comedy about uptight Victor Maynard (Nighy), a middle-aged, solitary assassin, who lives to please his formidable mother Louisa (Eileen Atkins), despite his own peerless reputation for lethal efficiency. His professional routine is interrupted when he finds himself drawn to one of his intended victims, Rose (Emily Blunt).

He spares her life, unexpectedly acquiring a young apprentice in the process, Tony (Rupert Grint). Believing Victor to be a private detective, his two new companions tag along, while he attempts to thwart the murderous attentions of his unhappy client (Rupert Everett).

Directed by Jonathan Lynn (The Whole Nine Yards, My Cousin Vinny), from a screenplay by Lucinda Coxon (The Heart of Me), Wild Target is based on Pierre Salvadori's French hit Cible Émouvante.

The production, which began its London shoot on Tuesday, will arrive in the Isle of Man on October 7 for three weeks. Also in the starry cast will be Martin Freeman (The Office, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Love Actually) and Gregor Fisher (Lassie, Rab C Nesbitt).

Produced by Martin Pope (The Cottage, The Heart of Me) and Michael Rose (Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Werewolf, Chicken Run) of Magic Light Pictures, the film is backed by CinemaNX and will be filming at various locations around the Island, including St John's, Douglas and Ramsey.

Trade and Industry Minister David Cretney said: 'Wild Target is a great script which Isle of Man Film has developed with Magic Light Productions over recent years.

'We are absolutely delighted that the quality material has attracted such a fantastic cast and director and we look forward to welcoming all the cast and crew members to our shores for what we hope will be a happy and successful shoot.'

Wild Target will be the fourth film to shoot in the Island this year, joining A Bunch of Amateurs, Me and Orson Welles and Heartless.

Alan Carr and Martin Freeman put Coventry on movie map
Coventry Telegraph
September 17, 2008

Entertainment writer Marion McMullen finds out why comedian Alan Carr is stepping into her shoes and Christmas is coming early to Coventry and Warwickshire as she catches up with the location filming of new comedy movie Nativity.

"THEY say never work with children or animals and I am working with 100 children, camels, a donkey, pig, sheep ... and Alan Carr," laughs Debbie Isitt.

The Coventry-based writer and director has been heading all over Coventry and Warwickshire with a film crew in tow for her latest movie Nativity.

The cast includes The Office and Love Actually actor Martin Freeman, Ugly Betty and Extras favourite Ashley Jensen, comedian Alan Carr, Confetti actor Jason Watkins and Marc Wootton from Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel.

And it was camp comedian Alan Carr who minced into the Telegraph offices, resplendent in white suit and dickey-bow, to shoot scenes in which he plays a local newspaper's colourful drama critic.

The feel-good film, which will be released nationwide for Christmas 2009, tells the tale of frustrated, under-achieving primary school teacher, Mr Maddens, and his long-time adversary from the private school up the road.

The schools are embroiled in a bitter rivalry every year to achieve a five-star review in the local newspaper for their Christmas nativity play.

Maddens' class always comes runner-up and foolishly he makes an idle boast that his school's showstopping musical has attracted the attention of an American movie producer.

Nativity is Debbie's follow-up to her hit comedy movie Confetti.

The improvised "mockumentary" was an international success and Nativity is being filmed in the same style.

"I've already filmed more than 100 hours," admits Debbie, "and the hard part will be editing everything later. I already have more footage than I did for Confetti and I didn't think that was possible.

"The terrible summer might have been bad for lots of people, but it's been good for us because even though it's September we have been filming winter scenes with Santa Claus and tinsel and everything.

"We just need some snow now."

Filming has been taking place all over Coventry and Warwickshire, including Bablake School, Coundon; East Avenue, Stoke Park; Lower Ladyes Hills, Kenilworth; the Ricoh Arena; Spon Street; and the Coventry Telegraph newsroom.

A corner of the office was transformed into the showbusiness desk for Alan's scenes as a flamboyant and outrageous newspaper theatre reviewer.

His desk was festooned with theatre posters, press releases, Christmas cards and even a Christmas tree. He prepared for the part by slapping on a fake moustache and putting on a white linen suit.

Debbie, who graduated from Coventry Centre for Performing Arts, says the whole idea of Nativity was inspired by seeing her own nine-year-old daughter in school Christmas shows.

"It gave me the idea and I must have gone to see about 16 nativity shows in Coventry for research."

She then auditioned children from all over the country to find youngsters to play the schoolkids at the rival schools.

"It's been lots of fun and lots of noise trying to deal with so many children," she confesses.

"We've also got a lot of local children involved and were casting for a few months before filming began.

Ashley Jensen also flew in from Los Angeles for the movie and we've been busy across the city and in Kenilworth as well."

Alan Carr is no stranger to the Coventry area. His dad Graham was the manager of Nuneaton Borough Football Club in the mid-80s and went on to become boss at Northampton Town, where Alan was brought up.

BBC-backed comedy starring Freeman overlooks minimum wage for extras
By Matthew Hemley
The Stage / News
September 17, 2008

A BBC-backed comedy, starring Martin Freeman and Ashley Jensen, has been accused of attempting to flout minimum wage laws after production staff advertised for extras to work for free on the project.

The advert, placed on a casting website, called for actors to appear in scenes for the film, entitled Nativity, but added that “no payment can be made”.

For a five-hour shoot, in which actors were requested to appear as Christmas shoppers and stall holders, it promised only a meal and the chance to be “part of a BBC Film” with an “all-star cast”.

This is not the first time the BBC has been accused of trying to bypass minimum wage laws. As revealed by The Stage last year, it placed an appeal on online classified site www.gumtree.com for unpaid performers. But when approached about the latest advert - spotted by The Stage and Equity walk-on councillor Clive Hurst - the Beeb denied knowledge of it, despite being highlighted in it.

BBC Films executive producer Joe Oppenheimer told The Stage that the offending material had been placed by a member of staff from the production company Mirrorball Productions, “who had been asked to find extras and who was coming up with a way to swell numbers which he should not have done”.

Oppenheimer said he had since acted to ensure proper payments have been made to any actors who responded to the call, but admitted that extras could have gone unpaid if the advert had not been spotted.

“I don’t know what would have happened if we had not been alerted to the ad. I would like to think that when it came to it, the producer would have asked who these people were and asked if they were being paid - but we will never know that,” he said.

He added: “Genuinely, I am grateful that it was pointed out - it is the kind of thing that could easily happen - we try and make sure we are across these things as much as possible, but with a feature film and with so many people involved, it is sometimes tricky. What is odd is that the day the advert needed extras for was not the first day extras had been used and, up until that point, they had all been paid.”

However, Hurst disputed this, claiming he had received correspondence from actors who claim to have appeared in scenes prior to the advert being placed, for which they did not receive payment. He said the number of companies trying to flout minimum wage laws was rising and that he had asked the Low Pay Commission for more stringent measures to tackle the issue.

A spokesman for Nativity said: “We are grateful to have had the error highlighted and can confirm that all the extras will now be paid for their work.”

Comedy duo pair up for film
Ashley Jensen and Martin Freeman pair up for comedy
By Online Reporter - The Sun.co.uk
August 12, 2008

Ricky Gervais' pals Ashley Jensen and Martin Freeman have signed up to perform in a BBC improvised comedy about a nativity play.

Nativity sees much-loved Brit star Martin take on the role of Mr. Maddens - a wound-up, under-achieving, primary school teacher mixed up in a bitter rivalry with Gordon Shakespeare, who teaches at a nearby posh private school.

He wants to beat Shakespeare by getting a top review for his school’s nativity play, even though he loses every year.

But this year Madden makes an idle boast to Shakespeare that his school's musical has attracted the attention of his ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Lore (Ugly Betty and Extras' Ashley Jensen) - who happens to be a hotshot Hollywood Producer.

And when his lie gets out he finds himself surrounded by parents eager to thrust their children into the spotlight.

Will he be able to persuade Jennifer to grant their Christmas wish?

Nativity will be directed by Debbie Isitt - who created the film Confetti - and will be shot in the West Midlands.

Stable mates
Chortle: The UK Comedy Guide
August 11, 2008

Martin Freeman and Ashley Jensen are to star in a semi-improvised comedy film about rival school nativity plays.

The duo – who both shot to fame thanks to Ricky Gervais via The Office and Extras respectively – have signed up to the BBC Films-backed Nativity.

The film will be made by writer-director Debbie Isitt, who previously worked with Freeman in 2006 wedding comedy Confetti.

Also in the cast are Marc Wootton and Jason Watkins, who costarred with Jennifer Saunders in The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle.

Freeman plays Mr. Maddens, a teacher at a state primary school in Coventry, who is always overshadowed by Watkins’s Mr Shakespeare at the nearby independent school when it comes to the Christmas play.

In the plot, Maddens lies to Shakespeare that his school's musical has attracted the attention of his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Lore (Ashley Jensen), a big-time Hollywood producer, who wants to make a film starring his kids.

Executive producer David M. Thompson said: ‘I'm a big fan of Debbie's work, having backed her previous film Confetti. She is clearly a highly original talent with a bold and imaginative way of working, as well as a great sense of comedy. With an idea of such charm and wit, I am delighted that our association is continuing.’

Filming has just begun on the project, which will take about six weeks to shoot.

Martin Freeman to star in 'Nativity'
Debbie Isitt’s comedy is backed by BBC Films
By Archie Thomas - Variety.com
August 11, 2008

LONDON - Martin Freeman will star in “Nativity,” a semi-improvised Brit comedy from writer/director Debbie Isitt.

Freeman, who came to the fore in original “The Office” TV series before toplining in feature “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” re-teams with Coventry-based Isitt after the two collaborated on “Confetti” (2006).

Ashley Jensen (“Ugly Betty,” “Extras”), Jason Watkins and Marc Wootton also star in the pic about two rival English schools vying to outdo each other in the annual Christmas nativity play.

Pic is backed by BBC Films, Screen West Midlands and Limelight.

Nick Jones (“Confetti”) produces with Joe Oppenheimer and David M. Thompson exec producing for BBC Films.

Protagonist Pictures is handling intl. sales.

Principal Photography Begins On 'Nativity'
4rfv.co.uk - UK Film and Television News
August 11, 2008

BBC Films, Screen West Midlands and Limelight have announced that principal photography has begun on Nativity - writer and director Debbie Isitt's new British comedy.

Protagonist Pictures will handle international sales.

Directed and conceived by Debbie Isitt ('Confetti'), 'Nativity' is an improvised comedy, which has attracted an exciting British cast including Martin Freeman ('Hot Fuzz', 'Confetti', 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy'), Ashley Jensen ('Tristam Shandy', 'Ugly Betty', 'Extras'), Jason Watkins ('Confetti') and Marc Wootton ('Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel'). The film is produced by Nick Jones ('Confetti') and will be shot entirely on location throughout the UK's West Midlands during a six-week shoot.

Martin Freeman is Mr. Maddens, a frustrated under-achieving, primary school teacher. His long-time adversary, Gordon Shakespeare (Jason Watkins, is the teacher at the post independent school up the road. Every year, the two schools are embroiled in a bitter rivalry to achieve a 5-star review for their Christmas nativity play. Maddens' class always comes runner-up. The story of his life.

This year, Maddens makes an idle boast to Shakespeare that his school's show stopping musical has attracted the attention of his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Lore (Ashley Jensen) - who happens to be a big-time Hollywood producer. They want to make a movie starring his kids. Hollywood is coming to Coventry!

When over-enthusiastic new classroom assistant Mr Poppy (Marc Wootton) overhears the lie, suddenly Maddens finds himself a local celebrity and at the centre of quarrelling parents, a wannabe show director and more Mary and Josephs than he can shake a stick at! Now all he needs to do is persuade Jennifer to make Hollywood pay attention and make their dreams come true...

Isitt's 'Nativity' is a sweet heartwarming tale of how nothing can get in the way of the true spirit of Christmas.

Debbie Isitt said: "I'm so excited to be making another film with BBC Films and Screen West Midlands. Their enthusiasm and support for my work is fantastic."

Nick Jones, Producer said: "It's wonderful to be working with Debbie, BBC Films and Screen West Midlands on 'Nativity'. Their understanding of Debbie's process creates a truly supportive environment for this unique and hugely talented filmmaker."

Joe Oppenheimer, Executive Producer for BBC Films, said: "Debbie has a unique talent and vision and as ever has assembled a wonderful cast and creative team to bring her great ideas to life. We're delighted to be working with her again."

David M. Thompson, Executive Producer for BBC Films said: "I'm a big fan of Debbie's work, having backed her previous film 'Confetti'. She is clearly a highly original talent with a bold and imaginative way of working, as well as a great sense of comedy. With an idea of such charm and wit, I am delighted that our association is continuing."

(KMcA/JM)

Martin Freeman, Ashley Jensen start shooting Isitt's Nativity
Wendy Mitchell in London
Screen Daily.com
August 11, 2008

Debbie Isitt has started principal photography on comedy Nativity, starring Martin Freeman, Ashley Jensen, Jason Watkins and Mark Wootton.

Backers are BBC Films, Screen West Midlands and Limelight. Protagonist Pictures is handling international sales.

Isitt, who last directed Confetti, is again directing an improvised comedy.

Nick Jones is producing.

The film will shoot throughout the West Midlands during a six-week shoot.

Freeman and Watkins play teachers at rival schools who hope to put on the best Christmas nativity play. Freeman's character then boasts that his ex-girlfriend, a Hollywood producer (Jensen) will be involved in his schools' production.

Isitt said: "I'm so excited to be making another film with BBC Films and Screen West Midlands. Their enthusiasm and support for my work is fantastic."

Joe Oppenheimer and David M Thompson for BBC Films will serve as executive producers.

Oppenheimer said: "Debbie has a unique talent and vision, and as ever has assembled a wonderful cast and creative team to bring her great ideas to life. We're delighted to be working with her again."

Martin Freeman on why the 60s is the best decade ever!....

Video UKTV Gold: When Were We Funniest?: Martin Freeman on the 60s: The 60s should win!

Martin Freeman talks about how comedy came on in leaps and bounds between the 50s and the 60s....

Video UKTV Gold: When Were We Funniest?: Martin Freeman on the 60s: Everything became more challenging

Read our Martin Freeman interview at Stuff.tv – the Gadget Guide:

Martin Freeman: "Simon Pegg is my gadget guru"
May 30, 2008

We caught up with Martin Freeman in the July issue of Stuff Magazine. Here are some of the highlights:

Almost everything frustrates me about technology:

There's virtually nothing that I find easy about it. I'm just not great with buttons. I like the ones that make my life easier but I'm not endlessly in the shops buying things. Because I'm not particularly literate at it I get someone else to fix it when I've got a problem.

Acting on green screen is fun but slightly bizarre:

In lots of ways modern technology has been a godsend for film making but the point is it doesn't matter if you like it or not, it's like saying you don't like the sky or the sea, it's irrefutable. I did some green screen work with Bill Night on Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. It was good fun because we were just in a sound studio in Earl Street having branches whipped at us and buckets of water chucked over us.

Film and TV is not meant to be watched on a tiny screen:

I've watched a couple of things on my iPod but it's obviously not something you really want to do. It's just too small. I'll make do on a train journey but I think that the medium something is made for is usually the one it should be watched on. The idea of listening to all my music through a mobile phone is totally horrific to me.

I have an iPod dock but still prefer my record player:

In hotels and dressing rooms, iPod docks are brilliant. But occasionally I will take a portable record player to my trailer and that's more fun. I've got thousands of records and that's my medium really. The iPod doesn't seem quite real to me but it's dead clever. If I really want an album, even if it's on my iPod, it still doesn't exist for me until I've got a hard copy.

Simon Pegg is my personal gadget guru:

He's famous for being a slightly sci-fi and gadget-orientated person. He's always got the latest thing first. One of my brother's is like that too. He's a web designer so I had a website long before most actors. I think as long as you've got people in your life to take care of that sort of thing it means you don't have to.

LMR note: Great article below. As for Martin in the photo below? A few words come to mind: classy, sophisticated, tasteful, fashionable and timeless.

Martin Freeman on why life shouldn't be just another day in the office
By Chris Sullivan
the Mail on Sunday
May 3, 2008

"Unlike Jude Law, who is a heart-throb, I can, and usually do, look like **** on screen.

"Maybe that's why I dress so carefully off camera. You could say I'm a mod, but with a small 'm'; I don't wear a parka, but I do question what I wear and what I listen to, which is what it's all about.

I think there should be a test in school that asks people, 'Do you know why you are wearing that, and what are you trying to say?'"

Martin Freeman appears to pass his own test. He's impressively fastidious about his appearance.

Today, he's dressed in vintage Levi's 501s and a Fred Perry shirt under a short Sixties overcoat. His hair is styled like that of the Small Faces circa 1965.

"Most actors are either a shower of bloody scruffs or think they should dress like Hamlet off stage. There's a lot of billowy shirtsleeves going on. But there aren't many mods.

"Being a mod is more of a sensibility than a style. It's hard explaining something that on the surface is rather silly and inexplicable.

"It's not curing cancer and it's not being Gandhi, but it is important to me, because it's another way of thinking about the world."

What a curious stall to set out; and curiouser coming from the man known to most as The Office's Tim Canterbury, the relentlessly benign foil to Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's monstrous creations - nauseating egomaniac David Brent, deluded Gareth et al.

For just as with Gervais and Mackenzie Crook and their persuasive caricatures, it's hard to separate Freeman from his onscreen persona.

"Oh yes – I meet people and they say, 'Are you Tim from The Office?' And when I say yes, they say, 'Have you done anything else?'

"Some people actually think I was an office worker. But before I did The Office I was seen as a bit edgy.

"I used to go up for parts as gay bare-knuckle boxers and nasty debt collectors. I did a two-part TV drama called Men Only about these five football players who rape a nurse on a ketamine-fuelled, horrible night."

Freeman is decidedly not like Tim, however. His views are unashamedly outspoken.

This emerges when, after running out of time at the Live shoot, he invites me to his house on the outskirts of London, in Hertfordshire, to continue our chat.

He introduces me to his family – his girlfriend, actress Amanda Abbington, two-year-old son Joseph and dachshund Archie – makes me a cup of tea and pulls out the biscuits.

Politely, I comment on his lovely house and the tranquillity that surrounds it.

"When I moved up here this woman I know said, 'Ooh! There are a lot of whiteys up there', and I said, 'I love white people; I've no problem with them at all."

The idea was that I was going to complain because there weren't enough blues dances out here; not enough ragga around. But I'm not bothered by it.

"Multiculturalism hasn't and doesn't help, because rightly or wrongly it polarises people so much," he continues.

"Racism is one thing – and I don't agree with that in any form – but noticing that there are differences is normal and fine and to be encouraged.

"We've reached a state now where it's, 'You shouldn't notice. Why are you noticing he's got a bomb and has a beard and is Muslim and wants to kill your family?"

"There is no country in the world like this. If all of a sudden all the traffic wardens in Ghana were Welsh, they'd really notice and might not love it… We give ourselves a hard time in this country in a sort of mea culpa way. But if we were that racist, people wouldn't come. Very simple."

Personally, I wouldn't want Freeman hanged for these remarks. Before he moved north he lived in Crouch End, and before that Bethnal Green.

Of the move he says: "I got out just after the BNP were elected in 1993. That was a disgrace."

Benign Tim Canterbury this is surely not – a point he's happy to press home.

"A lot of people love The Office, and I am genuinely pleased they like it. I loved playing Tim, but I try not to get too carried away by it – and the blessing of The Office was also a curse.

"The blessing was that it really helped me; the curse is I'm expected to not do anything else.

"I made a four-part TV series called Charles II: The Power And The Passion, in which I played Lord Shaftesbury.

"The day after there was a picture of me in a newspaper with the headline, 'Tim in a wig!' And that really got me down.

I thought, "Will I always be Tim in a wig or Tim in a concentration camp or Tim on a horse? So I had to broaden my horizons."

Freeman, whose diction is sharp and precise, his accent neither common nor posh, speaks in long paragraphs such as this, expressing love for something in one breath and derision for something else in the next.

His well-formed sentences are punctuated with expletives ("I swear too much; I ****ing hate it!"), answering any question I ask with refreshing candour.

Freeman, 36, is the youngest of five children, born in Aldershot, Hampshire, to a Royal Navy father, raised in suburban London and schooled at a Catholic comprehensive.

He went on to attend London's prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama.

"I used to watch Sleuth with Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier every day as a kid," he remembers.

"I was 11 and loved it. I thought, 'I could do this acting lark.'"

After theatre, he worked on The Bill, This Life and The Office, and he's now progressed to the big screen.

He has played opposite Jude Law and Ray Winstone in the late Anthony Minghella's Breaking And Entering, starred in Hot Fuzz and appeared alongside Danny Dyer in The All Together ("People thought, 'Danny Dyer and Martin Freeman in a film together – that sounds good', but actually they hated it").

In The Good Night, just released on DVD, he gets to snog both Gwyneth Paltrow and Penélope Cruz.

His first major and most recognisable cinematic role was that of Arthur Dent, the everyman accidentally embroiled in an intergalactic adventure in 2005's The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

"At first I didn't think I'd get the part," he says. "But when I thought about it, I reckoned maybe I was right.

"Arthur had to be believed and I suppose I have that rooted quality – someone you can side with – which isn't a bad thing."

He points to a picture of the great English character actor Alec Guinness on his mantelpiece. "It certainly didn't do him any harm," he says.

"But I wasn't a huge fan of Hitchhiker's Guide to begin with. And then I had to wear that thick bloody towelling dressing gown all day for weeks on end throughout the summer.

"It was really very boring, very hot and very unglamorous. Mos Def had a nice suit, Zooey Deschanel had a lovely little powder-blue number and I had that. It was ****."

What exactly does Freeman consider stylish, if not a perfectly respectable dressing gown?

"I love that pre-mod jazz look of the late Fifties, the Steve McQueen style that influenced the British modernists. I love all kinds of loafers – penny, tassel, fringed.

"Loafers have been a staple of my wardrobe since I saw Terry Hall of The Specials in them on the cover of Do Nothing.

"One of my favourite looks is a button-down gingham shirt with a Sixties Levi's jacket, Levi's 501 "XX" jeans and a pair of loafers with maybe a nice little hat. You can wear that all your life.

"I love all that 'Ray Davies circa 1966' style – sort of English dandy. And I love the cut of Soho tailor Mark Powell's suits.

"Being a mod is about attention to detail and a love for clothes. Mark and I meet on that level and he knows my taste.

"I like really versatile clothing that's not too showy but has nice details – stealth style.

"But I have to be careful with clothes, because in my mind I'm 6ft 1in – but really I'm quite short."

Indeed, on the day of Live's shoot we dithered for half an hour as he decided how long his trousers should be, returning to the ironing board twice so the bottoms, in keeping with the suit's immaculate Sixties styling, would fall in exactly the right place.

When did this fascination with the nuances of Britain's subcultures begin?

"It's always the music that's led me," he says. "For other people it was the clothes, but for me it was music.

"The first records I could sing along to when I was five were by the Sex Pistols, The Clash and the Buzzcocks. I had older siblings and that was what I heard all day long.

"I think I sensed it was naughty. I used to sing them to wind up my dad. But it was 2 Tone that really started me off.

"I thought I looked like one of The Specials, but really I was just this nine-year-old kid who didn't even know that rude boy” was a term for a Jamaican gangster."

Freeman even remembers the first outfit he bought with his own money. "I was 15," he says, "and it was a Prince of Wales three-button mod jacket bought from a local mod shop.

"I had matching trousers from Oxfam, a Ben Sherman shirt, loafers from Hobbs and an umbrella. People used to ask me, 'Why do you dress like that?' They were genuinely puzzled."

He hasn't always been a mod purist. "I did have a hip-hop period," he admits. "I dressed a bit like that in 1990, but after a while I thought, 'Nah, back to the white Levi's.'

"I really liked hip-hop until the gangsta rap took over. I come from a time when not every rap record was 'nigga' this and 'nigga' that; an earlier socially and morally conscious hip-hop sensibility, when it was, 'Don't call people nigga'."

"But now it's nigga, nigga, nigga, and it's not funny or interesting politically, artistically or socially. I really don't like it."

At this point the conversation switches to the youth of today.

"These days, kids avoid stuff because it's old, but why?" he asks. "When I speak to people about music and they say, 'I don't know about that; it was a bit before my time", it really angers me.

"Mozart was before my time, but does that make him irrelevant? I wasn't hanging around with Hitler, but I've heard of him.

"I get really worried about cultural reference points, because I expect people to know when World War II was or that Paris is in France."

Someone who certainly knows his onions, Freeman – who has recently filled in as a DJ on BBC 6 Music – is an avid (some might say rabid) collector of classic vinyl.

His pristine record collection is meticulously sorted in alphabetical order in a set of custom-made shelves in his Sixties-inspired living room.

"I love everything about going to a record shop and buying records. There's something really special about that.

"But there's no reason to suppose that old music will be better or worse. It's just from another era, which might be as relevant or irrelevant as what's happening now. So I try to always learn about stuff.

"The one thing I've found is that someone always knows more than you do, including your babies. There are loads of things people presume I know about that I don't."

But after talking with Freeman for a while, one realises he knows rather a lot about quite a variety of things.

Another of his passions is classic British cinema. "The Carry On films are a part of this country's cultural DNA; some are awful, but others are superb," he says.

"If a 16-year-old today loves Catherine Tate, The League Of Gentlemen and Little Britain, they'd love Kenneth Williams and Dick Emery.

"That's where Matt [Lucas] and Dave [Walliams] got all that from – great British camp, which no other country has."

"Talking of which... 'The funny thing about the acting business is that there are more poofs in it than you can have hot dinners thrown at you,'" he says.

"But no one is out. It's not so bad here, but in Hollywood … Jesus Christ. Why don't they just admit it? No one cares if they're gay or not. I certainly don't.

In this so-called liberal industry, no one has the guts to come out because of "the box office", but someone has to be the first in the firing line.

"Without the suffragettes a lot of women would have thought, 'Why should we have the vote?' And I think that the same argument exists today. People should stand up and be counted."

Freeman, a pescatarian (he eats fish but not meat) who rarely uses computers, doesn't drive a car and has his scripts sent to him by post rather than emailed, is resolutely individual.

He hates pubs and doesn't feel the need to attend premiere parties or London clubs.

"I don't do any of that – I'd rather be at home stroking the dog," he says.

"My idea of a good night out is staying in. When The Office came out I got a lot of attention, which made going out hard.

"But you soon realise you should never take that adulation seriously. People called me a legend, but what they really meant was that they'd seen me on the telly."

He adds, "Some people moan about the cult of celebrity – but get real. If these people don't want to be photographed, then they should stay in.

"And while everyone says they hate it, someone is buying those magazines. It's like finding someone who voted for Thatcher these days – no one will admit it, but millions did.

"The great thing about getting older is that you learn not to care about being cool. I'm happy with who I am, I know what I like and I can't see myself changing… not for a little while, at least."

Martin gets a feminine touch
thisisnorthscotland.co.uk
February 20, 2008

Martin Freeman is apparently set to go all girly in a new ITV drama which sees him swap identities with a woman.

The Office star plays DIY shop worker Dan in Boy Meets Girl, alongside Tipping The Velvet actress Rachel Stirling, who plays fashion editor Veronica, reports the Daily Mirror.

Dan and Veronica's lives are entwined one day when they both get struck by lightning and take on each other's personalities.

A source said: "The storyline then follows a hilarious sequence of events where Dan and Veronica go to incredible lengths to try to regain their identities. Dan certainly has to get in touch with his feminine side."

The four-part series is being filmed in Manchester and is due to be broadcast on ITV1 later this year.

Martin came to fame playing Tim Canterbury in The Office in 2001 and then appeared in smash hit British movie Love Actually in 2003.

'Carry On' Russell Brand
Monsters and Critics - People
February 5, 2008

Russell Brand is set to star in a new 'Carry On' film.

The 32-year-old comedian is in secret talks to play a Simon Cowell-style music impresario alongside stars including Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding in 'Carry On To The Next Round', the first film in the famous British comedy series for 16 years.

A source said: "Lots of stars have been sent scripts for the new 'Carry On' film. It's a romantic comedy involving three judges on a reality talent show who argue constantly. One of them then falls for a contestant. Russell's role is based on Simon Cowell."

Harding - whose band Girls Aloud shot to fame on reality singing show 'Popstars: The Rivals' in 2002 - is expected to play Viv, the contestant who steals Brand's heart.

It would not be the first time the pair have starred in a movie together.

Last year, Brand and Harding both featured in 'St. Trinian's', another big screen revamp of a classic British comedy.

The new 'Carry On' film is also expected to feature 'The Office' star Martin Freeman and 'Gavin and Stacey' actor Matthew Horne.

It will be the first movie in the 'Carry On' series since 'Carry On Columbus' in 1992.

The series enjoyed huge success between 1958 and 1978, with director Gerald Thomas and producer Peter Rogers creating 29 films based on farcical, slapstick humour.

In 2003, Rogers announced plans for a new movie called 'Carry On London' but production never began.

Last year, it was announced the next 'Carry On' project would be ready for release by the end of 2008.

IGN: Martin Freeman Q&A
Office star talks about new film The Good Night
By Leigh Singer, IGN UK

UK, January 17, 2008 - Following the success of The Office, Martin Freeman has become one of Britain's most sought-after comic actors, appearing in hits like Love, Actually and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Now he's taking a slightly more serious turn, co-starring with Gwyneth Paltrow, Penelope Cruz and Simon Pegg as a disaffected ex-pop star trapped in a failing relationship, who meets the woman of his dreams, in his dreams, in The Good Night.

IGN: Your character Gary tries to live out his dreams. Have you ever had any really striking or recurring dreams yourself?

Martin Freeman: I've had several really tangible dreams about UFOs and they've been amazing! You know that sort of everyday quality that you get in a couple of scenes in Close Encounters [of the Third Kind] where these lights fly over a road and it somehow seems tangible, somehow seems real. I've had a few of those dreams about UFOs where it's been absolutely clear that this is the day that the world changes and it's very exciting. I've not had one of those for a while, but I love them when I have them!

IGN: Ever get abducted by the aliens?

Freeman: No, it never gets that far and I suppose that's the thing, dreams are never that literal are they? It's never a proper sort of narrative, they're more a series of random events.

IGN: How did this role come your way? I understand [writer-director] Jake Paltrow wrote it for you…

Freeman: I don't know if I was the first actor he had in mind but I was certainly one of the first. I was really pleased because it showed some nous on his part that he was prepared to take a punt on me because I wasn't exactly what you'd call a huge movie star.

IGN: Did you know what he'd seen you in?

Freeman: I presume it was The Office, he might have seen me in Love Actually, but I really don't know what else. I spoke to him while I was making Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and it's not like I've done 100 films anyway. It's not like he could have seen me in Zulu and A Bridge Too Far…

IGN: He managed to assemble a very glamorous, starry cast, including Penelope Cruz and his sister Gwyneth.

Freeman: There was very little 'starriness' happening on the set, which was good, considering there were major stars around. It's always encouraging to know that it is possible to be a huge star and be relatively normal.

IGN: Was the Paltrow brother-sister dynamic ever awkward to be around?

Freeman: Gwyneth wasn't involved initially. Obviously she and Jake are close and Gwyneth had come along wanting to throw her hat into the ring and be in it from the get-go and Jake had nicely said 'No, I don't want that to happen, it's my first feature and it'll just look too cute.' But then as time went on, it just transpired that there's a really good actor, who knows the material, who knows the director, who's volunteering her services, and I'm guessing, for a slight cut in her fee! I think it was the right choice, I love Gwyneth in it and I loved being around her.

IGN: You and Simon Pegg are good friends off-screen and known for real laugh-out-loud comedies – was there an appeal in doing something together as darkly comic as The Good Night?

Freeman: I can't speak for Simon but it was certainly an appeal for me. Simon's obviously very funny and I must admit I lobbied for him to be in the film. He's very truthful and very un-egotistical as an actor, he serves the piece that he's in and gives 100% all the time – sorry, it sounds like a football manager! The fact that he and I already know each other pretty well, it was good to have that short hand in the film.

IGN: So what's up next – playing Rembrandt in the new Peter Greenaway film Nightwatching? Were you a fan of his?

Freeman: Some of it, yeah. I don't suppose he'd expect anyone to be a fan of all his work – I doubt he's a fan of all of it. I think some of it is really beautiful and quite compelling and I hope Nightwatching is. I've never had an experience like it. It's one of those where if Peter Greenaway asks you to play Rembrandt, you don't think twice. But you do think, 'that's an odd offer…'

IGN: It's hard to imagine Peter Greenaway sitting down with The Office DVD box set...

Freeman: Well that's the thing, I think he did! I was sitting around trying to suss out what it was he'd know me from and I think it was that.

IGN: Speaking of The Office, have you ever watched the U.S. version? Is it of any interest to you what they've done with it?

Freeman: I've not seen many of them but I think it's really good, yeah. It's different enough to not be annoying in a way, they've done their own thing with it - obviously heavily based on ours - but they're all too good for it to not work, particularly Steve Carell, who's pretty much a master.

IGN: What about your own ambitions to do more work in the U.S. – several of your Office co-stars have taken their chance.

Freeman: It really depends on what it is. It genuinely does because of course some big American films are absolutely brilliant and some of them aren't, but that's the way of everything. I don't write anything off without reading a script and if it's a good one, I'll consider it, whether it's for $20 or a million dollars.

IGN: Moving further away from comedy?

Freeman: I suppose most of the things that I've either gone towards or have come my way – I'm, not Chuck Norris, you know what I mean?! I'm not an action star, those things don't really come my way and I guess there's a reason for that. But you know, if there was a great Chuck Norris film, I'd read it.

Freeman steps up to join A-list
By Nicola Dann
BBC NEWS - Entertainment
January 17, 2008

Martin Freeman is best known as the unassuming Tim from the multi-award winning BBC series The Office.

His latest movie, The Good Night, centres around his character Gary - a former pop star turned commercial jingle composer who is heading for a mid-life crisis.

He joins an all A-list cast including Gwyneth Paltrow, Penelope Cruz, Danny DeVito and Simon Pegg but Freeman is not intimidated by that.

"What I really care about is, are people good? Penelope Cruz is a fantastic actor, Gwyneth Paltrow is a fantastic actor, Simon (Pegg), one of the best things we've got and Danny DeVito, I mean please, enough already."

'HUGE HONOUR'

To escape what has become a humdrum life, Gary enters a dream world where he meets Anna, played by Cruz. And as this is a dream world he has created, he gets to kiss her several times. So how did he find that experience?

"Awful," he says with a huge smile on his face.

"It was good for her, she loved it. She couldn't get enough of it."

The Oscar-nominated actress has, in turn, said Freeman is one of the best actors she has worked with.

"If that is true, that is a huge honour," he says.

"It is always nice to know that someone you like reckons you. And we did have a really good time working with each other, it really worked I think."

The Good Night is also the directorial debut for Jake Paltrow, Gwyneth's younger brother.

"I tried not to annoy either of them in the other one's presence in case I got beaten up by the Paltrow gang," he concedes.

DONKEY DREAMS

"So anything I had to say, I would say individually."

As for brother and sister teaming up for the film, he says it was Gwyneth's idea.

"She wanted to be in it I think before he wanted her to be in it. Because he didn't want it to look like he was just relying on his sister. It is really sweet watching a brother and sister work together - it is an interesting dynamic."

As for his own recurring dreams, he holds his hands up.

"Dreams about donkeys. Not weird ones. But one was so strong I remember thinking we have got a donkey and I went downstairs and was really disappointed to see in the kitchen that there was no donkey," he says.

"I have also had dreams about Stevie Wonder quite a lot, just getting to hang out with him. Then you wake up and think, 'I'm nowhere near meeting him or making a record with him.'"

He may not have met Stevie Wonder in real life just yet, but if this film is anything to go by, things are certainly looking up for Freeman.

UKTV Gold in 'Funniest' commission
By James Welsh
Digital Spy
January 17, 2008

UKTV Gold has commissioned a year-long series, When Were We Funniest?, seeking to find the funniest decade of comedy in the last 50 years.

The series is the channel's largest ever commission and involved a multi-million pound deal with producers BBC Entertainment.

Twelve two-hour programmes will feature comedians including Jo Brand, Martin Freeman, Phill Jupitus and Meera Syal encounraging the public to vote for their favourite decade of comedy between the 1960s and the present day. Monthly specials and clip shows will showcase a variety of comedy highlights including Hancock's Half Hour and Spike Milligan's Q.

"This massive new series will spark a national debate about Britain’s position as the world’s best humorists," said UKTV Gold channel head Paul Moreton. "I’m thrilled to add this superb raft of comedy talent to UKTV Gold’s undisputed riches."

The series will get underway on February 28 with a studio-based launch show hosted by Alexander Armstrong.

Martin Freeman on Radio 3
December 18, 2007

Freeman, who sprang to fame in Ricky Gervais's The Office, will star in The Picture Man by David Eldridge.

He plays Neil, a man pushed to the edge by the loss of manners and sense of community in modern society, and decides to make a stand for what he believes in. The Picture Man airs next month (January). – Media Guardian, UK

Hitchhikers' Guide star Martin Freeman is to star in The Picture Man from David Eldridge. In the play, which goes on air in January, he will play a man distraught at the lack of community and civility in society. – Digital Spy, UK

Cheeky Greenpeace aimed at encouraging lads to go eco-friendly
By Mark Sweney
Media | Guardian Unlimited
December 4, 2007

Greenpeace is making its first attempt to get lads to go eco-friendly with a risqué viral ad featuring men and women who literally have light shining out of their rear ends.

The viral ad, which features a voiceover by The Office and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy star Martin Freeman, aims to get the "lads' mag" audience of 16- to 24-year-old men to think about energy-efficient light bulbs.

Greenpeace's 45-second ad, made by production company Park Village and agency Escape Partners, features people illuminating everyday situations by dropping their pants and providing a spotlight beamed out their backsides.

In one scene a man aims the beam from a lightbulb in his posterior under a car bonnet so a friend can fix an engine.

Freeman's voiceover finishes with the line, "Until the sun shines out of your arse, use an energy-efficient light bulb instead".

"Humour is a great way of engaging younger audiences," said Martin Atkin, Greenpeace's Amsterdam-based head of creative development.

"By taking a light-hearted approach to a serious issue like the need to save energy we can reach the generation who really will make a difference in tackling climate change."

Greenpeace said it was the first time it had tried to target this lads audience who "may not be receptive" to the usual type of environmental awareness ads the organisation runs.

"It has been hard for us to get the message across that there are simple things that people can do to effect climate change and this viral is an example of this," Atkin said.

The viral ad will be seeded on websites and blogs to target markets including the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

MTV Movies Blog » Martin Freeman Bares All For ‘Nightwatching’
By Shawn Adler
October 12, 2007

Rough surfaces. Visible brushstrokes. The impression of art as stylized, not true to life. When an art critic describes a painting as “painterly,” this is what they mean.

It’s also what Martin Freeman means when he describes his new film with director Peter Greenaway — “Nightwatching” — the same way.

“You’re not going to be seeing ‘Pearl Harbor,’” Freeman joked of his role as Rembrandt van Rijn in the upcoming film. “Greenaway has a style, he’s very painterly film director. We’ve made the film we wanted to.”

The story centers on the legendary Dutch painter during the time he painted “The Night Watch” (More properly called “The Company” since it’s actually, in fact, a day lit scene).Biopics, of course, are big business these days (Just ask Jamie Foxx or Joaquin Phoenix) but it wasn’t the role that attracted Freeman so much as the chance to work with Greenway, he said.

“If Peter Greenaway says I want you to play Rembrandt you say ‘Yeah. You’re going to have too many anecdotes to not do it,” Freeman insisted. “I was surprised that he asked me. He’s the only one making these kinds of films. His output isn’t phenomenally high. I was intrigued.”

But stepping into the famous painter’s shoes turned out to be much easier than, err, stepping OUT of them … and the rest of his clothes for that matter, Freeman joked.

“[Being nude] has never been of my favorite things in life [but] you almost want to live up to being Dutch,” Freeman said. “For them, their attitude about nudity is so different to mine. It’s like jumping into a very cold swimming pool. Once you’re in it’s kind of okay.”

Martin Freeman Unloads:
Nudity, Selling Out, And Why He Makes Everything Melodromatic
MTV Movies Blog
October 5, 2007

I guarantee this is the most charmingly angst-ridden and utterly honest actor you’ll hear from today. Chatting with Martin Freeman about his new film, “The Good Night,” directed by Jake Paltrow (and co-starring his sister Gwyneth), it’s immediately clear that the former star of “The Office” can’t help but be forthright about the business and the challenges he faces in his career, not to mention nudity, and premature mid-life crises. Oh and he has the mouth of a sailor too.

MTV: What was your initial take on the script?

Martin Freeman: I was just about to finish “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” and I got the script from Jake Paltrow. I didn’t know him. I just liked it. It was the combination of liking it and being surprised that you’d been sent it in the first place. Apart from “The Office,” I don’t know what Jake would have seen of mine. I’m guessing nothing.

MTV: What did you want to hear from a director when you meet with them?

MF: I suppose it’s just hearing them talk and hearing a writer/director talk about his thing. I’m always attracted to writer/directors because they can realize their own vision. Jake was impressive with his knowledge of film. He knows reference points and the context and history of film. But I wanted to talk to him about the script. I’ve seen enough films where men stay fully clothed and women get them out. It’s not really my taste unless it’s a porno. I really don’t like the ease with which we use the female form. It’s f–king boring and it’s lazy! We dress it up as something serious and then it’s like, wait why haven’t we seen his nob? We’ve seen everything of her. Why aren’t we seeing some c–ks in this? But he was totally kosher. I mentioned these reservations he was like, “that’s the last thing I want to do.” And it was genuine.

MTV: Your character, Gary, is having a kind of a pre-mid-life crisis.

MF: I was a bit horrified when I first read it. I was like, “this guy is having a midlife crisis! F–k, I’m not that old!”

MTV: Do you ever have existential crises of your own about your career or personal life?

MF: Never career really. My personal life is very lucky. I have a beautiful family and a very loving one but being who I am I always try to find the f–king melodrama in something.

MTV: What do you make melodramatic?

MF: Anything. Everything. Did that guy slight me last night? When he said that, was he insulting me? Should I have said something? I’m a f–king pu–y. Why didn’t I say something? That kind of thing. I don’t do that with my career I think because I don’t take it that seriously. I take work seriously but not career stuff. The stuff that keeps me awake at night is never, why is he doing better than me? Because the truth is if I wanted to be there instead of here, it comes down to luck and me engaging in the process that actors have to engage with, which for the past six years I’ve been running away from, publicizing movies and being in full f–king denial that anyone would want to speak to me.

MTV: You must have done a ton of press for “Hitchhiker’s”?

MF: I did. Yeah. And I really had to steal myself for it and gird my loins because there’s always that English part of me that goes, “don’t sell out! Don’t f–king go to Hollywood!”

MTV: Unless Michael Bay calls with a lot of cash?

MF: This is something I think about a lot. Having integrity really does preoccupy me. If you relax about something, to what extent are you selling out? I do want to keep working. I’m just negotiating myself through that now really. It’s an ongoing process because my general default setting is hostility.

MTV: Are your agents on board with this philosophy?

MF: I’ve been with my agent in Britain for six years and the reason I’m with him is we’re on a similar wavelength and he knows that I’m going to say no ten times more than I’m going to say yes regardless of things like status and career. I should have been living in American five years ago by the book. Once people saw “The Office,” I should have moved. But I just never did. I don’t want to hang out there just so someone can ignore me. Life is too short. I want to be doing things I’m actually proud of, not let me do this s–t film that might lead to a slightly less s–t film which at some point will buy me a new swimming pool.

MTV: The question is, is there a breaking point? How much is enough to make you compromise?

MF: I don’t know because I haven’t found it yet. I’m not Gandhi. I’m not a super good person.

MTV: Even Marlon Brando did “The Island of Dr. Moreau.”

MF: I know. But I think he was insane. I think he was actually mental by the time he was 45 in a way that please God I hope I’m not.

Movie Review: The Good Night
By Ron Wilkinson
Monsters & Critics
October 5, 2007

A buddy rom-com featuring Martin Freeman and Simon Pegg owes its success to on-screen chemistry but doesn’t shake the foundations of the silver screen.

In a screenplay by Jake Paltrow, sister Gwyneth plays shrew of a wife Dora who so distresses her hubby Gary (Martin Freeman) that he recedes into a world of dreams. The dreams center around the perfect woman, Anna (Penélope Cruz - “Volver,” “All the Pretty Horses”), a combination of a Siren of Titan and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Barricading himself into his New York apartment, Gary can’t live with her and he can’t live without her.

As Anna comes to life in the form of a high fashion model whose bus-poster presence haunts Gary daily, he can’t decide whether he is asleep or awake. In fact, he can’t decide if he wants to know the difference. It’s a lucky break for Gary, and even luckier for the audience, when Danny DeVito shows up to help out.

As Gary cultivates his ability to live in a dream world, slowly, and hilariously, covering his entire apartment with sound-deadening material to block out the unblockable sounds of New York, he attends classes by the dream master himself, Mel (DeVito).

Danny DeVito has reached the point in his life where he only has to take the best parts in the best screenplays. He chooses his parts with care and seems to be showing up in the most quirky and lowest budget efforts. Like Wayne the Pool Guy showing Parker Posey the way to sexual fulfillment (“The Oh in Ohio”) he is the key to Gary’s limited success in the dream department. As Gary plasters sound deadening cotton and foam from wall to wall, Mel continues to grease the skids to lunacy as only the master can do.

Whereas Gary seems to be failing in everything he does, his pal and ex-band mate Paul (Simon Pegg) is doing better all the time. As Paul lands contract after ever-richer contract Gary is reduced to plunking piano keys looking for the lowest common denominator in advertising jingles. Freeman affects a very funny deer-in-the-headlights sophistication that works well onscreen with Pegg. He is able to be the urban sophisticate and the confused walking-wounded male at the same time. Close friends in real life, Freeman and Pegg have a strong on-screen chemistry that makes this film fun.

But part of that chemistry is the fun of seeing Pegg finally move beyond the clownish roles he had in “Shawn of the Dead” and his recent “Hot Fuzz.” Not that there is anything wrong with those films, they were good hearted attempts at fresh humor. But seeing a more serious side to Pegg opens up powerful possibilities. He has mastered slapstick, or come close enough. Now let’s see what else he can do. In fact, he makes a great sophomore sophisticate, constantly missing the point of his friend’s distress while naively twisting the dagger of his own unintended success. He is hugely successful and blissfully unaware of how lame he is, at the same time.

Director of Photography Giles Nuttgens had a challenging task in delineating the frequent breaks between Gary’s real life and his dream world. The solution was to shoot the real life scenes in Super 16mm film and the dream scenes in finer grained and more colorful 35mm stock. The end result is a “Wizard of Oz” effect that puts the harsh realities of real life in a perspective of graininess and washed out potentials whereas the dream world is soft and colorful. A cheap solution to a potentially expensive problem that met the budgetary goals of relative newcomer writer/director Paltrow.

In the end this film is clever and does the right thing. If there is little new here, perhaps it paves the way for a bright future for Jake Paltrow.

Release: October 5, 2007
MPAA: Rated R for language and some sexual content
Runtime: 93 minutes
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color

Martin Freeman: Moving from 'The Office' to a warehouse
Independent Online Edition – Profiles
October 4, 2007

He was the long-suffering everyman in 'The Office'. Now he's a warehouseman with a chip on his shoulder. James Rampton meets him.

The 16-year-old Greg Wilson is the sort of self-satisfied TV magician you wish would make himself disappear, or saw himself in half – permanently. Greg is the central character in Other People, a promising new sitcom that kicks off a run of six Channel 4 Comedy Showcases on Friday.

We first meet him when he appears as a pleased-with-himself guest on Crikey, It's Saturday!, a children's TV show, an entertainer who has risen without trace to star in The Royal Variety Show. However, when a caller to the show's phone-in sums up the nation's feelings by shouting out on live TV: "you're a wanker", Greg's career implodes.

Spool forward 21 years, and Greg, now 37, has been reduced to working as a lowly sales assistant at a furniture warehouse. Just when he imagines things can't get any worse for him, he is accused of GBH by Shirley (Siobhan Finneran), a spurned autograph-hunter. In just two decades, he has gone from the Palladium to the police-cell.

Martin Freeman is an actor who, since he broke through six years ago in The Office as Tim, the salesman with the weight of the world on his shoulders, has cornered the market in care-worn characters. So he is perfect casting as Greg, a man who is on first-name terms with failure and frustration.

Like all the best Brit-coms, Other People trades in the comedy of disappointment. Thirty-six-year-old Freeman – who, in person, is as sparky as his most famous alter ego was deadened and world-weary – wouldn't have it any other way. "If you're alive for more than five minutes, you're going to be disappointed," asserts the actor, who has also exhibited his "downtrodden-ordinary-bloke" quality as Arthur Dent, the put-upon, dressing-gown-clad lead in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. "There is nothing far-fetched about disappointment as a subject for comedy. It's something we are all too familiar with.

The actor, who has appeared in several productions – such as Men Only, Picking Up the Pieces, The Debt, The Robinsons and The All Together – with his long-term partner and fellow actor Amanda Abbington, reckons that smiley-happy people do not great comedy make. "Comedy can't be about continuous success. The characters we get behind – whether it's Hancock or Basil Fawlty or Captain Mainwaring – are eternally frustrated. Disappointment is an endless wellspring of comedy inspiration."

Another topical strand of Other People, is Greg's almost pathological desperation to be famous – you only have to watch 10 seconds of The X Factor to see what a prevalent concern that is nowadays. "As a teenager, Greg desperately tried to ingratiate himself with the Brucies and Tarbies," Freeman muses. "He wanted to be invited in to the fame building and allowed to stay there. He thought that having done The Royal Variety Show, he'd made it. He'd met Princess Margaret – what could possibly go wrong?"

But even when Greg's career hurtles off the rails and ends up in a hideous train-wreck, he can't quite quell his craving for celebrity. "When the woman in the furniture store asks for his autograph, he immediately obliges. It's a knee-jerk reaction," Freeman comments.

"He thinks, 'someone wants me, I'm in the limelight again – even if only for two seconds.' Once you've tasted the limelight, it's hard to let it go. Everyone wants to be acknowledged."

However, Freeman reckons the current obsession with celebrity is totally out of proportion. "These days it's not enough to be acknowledged as a surgeon – you have to be acknowledged as the cover-star of Grazia magazine. After all, that's much more valuable to society than saving a child's life, isn't it?"

The same perverse instinct is displayed by Shirley in Toby Whithouse's Other People, a pilot that Channel 4 hope will go to series. According to Freeman, "the woman in the furniture shop doesn't know who Greg is. He's that 'wanker' from that kids' programme, but because he was once on the telly, that's good enough. If Joseph Goebbels were alive today and walking down the high street, the same thing would happen to him. Who cares what he's done – he could be a footballer, an actor or a genocidal maniac – as long as he's famous? It's the same currency."

Greg is soon enraged by Shirley, and Freeman thinks that anger, too, is a rich comedy seam. "In a later episode that Toby is working on, Greg goes to anger-management classes," the actor reveals. "He is asked by the therapist, 'why are you here?,' and he replies, 'why isn't everyone here? It can't only be me that's wound up just by being alive!'

"The show is poking fun at everyone who gets wound up and reminds us how stupid it is to get hacked off by petty things – life's too short. Having said that, I frequently get annoyed by things. We all know how to behave on paper, but it's much harder in reality, isn't it? What winds me up? You name it! I don't want to sound like a grumpy old man, but nothing winds me up more than people saying, 'chill out' to me when I'm irritated!"

But the way his career is going, Freeman has every reason to be cheerful. The actor, who has previously starred in such films as Love, Actually, Confetti, Breaking and Entering and Ali G In Da House, will soon be seen headlining in two American films, The Good Night, in which he plays a man torn between Gwyneth Paltrow and Penelope Cruz, and Dedication, a rom-com in which he portrays Mandy Moore's ex.

Like all the other stars of The Office – Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Lucy Davis and Mackenzie Crook – Freeman has capitalised on the break the groundbreaking comedy of embarrassment handed him.

Freeman has largely managed to evade the trap of being known merely for that one work. "I've got absolutely no complaints," he declares. "I think people now know that I'm not just Tim from The Office. The only place that image persists is with a few lazy journalists. You'll sometimes see a picture of me in something like Charles II with the caption: 'Tim from The Office in a funny wig'. I'd like you to apologise for that on behalf of the NUJ," he deadpans.

Freeman, who hails from Aldershot, has again donned "a funny wig" to play the lead in Nightwatching, Peter Greenaway's bio-pic about the traumas Rembrandt experienced when his wife died during the painting of The Night Watch.

"I like things that are slightly off the beaten track. If you want your film to be instantly green-lit, your first approach is not to go to a relatively unknown English actor. They're not going to throw millions of dollars at you for that." Freeman concludes that, "I'm really proud to appear in these kind of arthouse films because they reflect my own taste." He pauses for effect. "But I know they'll never get me a swimming-pool in the Bahamas."

'Other People', will be shown tomorrow at 10 pm, Channel 4.

Martin Freeman: No Sequel For ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy’
By Shawn Adler
MTV Movies Blog
October 1, 2007

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” ended with Zaphod, Trillian, Marvin and Arthur traveling toward Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe - oddly appropriate, perhaps, given that the Great Prophet Zarquon will return before another movie adaptation of Douglas Adams’ sci-fi comedy, said “Guide” star Martin Freeman.

“There isn’t [any possibility of a sequel] at this point,” Freeman said, insisting that a sequel was deader than Hotblack Desiato (and not just for tax purposes). “I found that out from the horse’s mouth, [director] Garth Jennings. I had dinner with him and he said [the first one] just didn’t do well enough.”

It’s actually a blessing in disguise for Freeman, he said (and probably for fans, as well, since the first movie was mostly harmful toward our memory of the radio and book series).

“It’s kind of cool with me because I just got out of being Tim from ‘The Office.’ To go straight from that to being Arthur Dent for the next 12 years of my life wouldn’t have been too cool,” he said.

Martin Freeman

Movie Review for The Good Night
Reviewed by Katey Rich
Cinema Blend.com
September 19, 2007

Length: 93 min
Rated: R
Distributor: Yari Film Group
Release Date: 2007-10-5
Starring: Martin Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Simon Pegg, Danny DeVito, Penelope Cruz
Directed by Jake Paltrow
Produced by Donna Gigliotti, Bill Johnson
Written by Jake Paltrow

Much of The Good Night seems to be lifted directly from other recent films about young men finding their way in a slightly sci-fi version of our world. Our hero Gary (Martin Freeman) is with a dowdy woman (Gwyneth Paltrow) who is in fact a beautiful actress in disguise, not unlike Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkovich. Unhappy with the state of his life, he uses lucid dreaming to connect with his fantasy woman (Penelope Cruz), much in the way Vanilla Sky’s Tom Cruise tried to connect with, well, Penelope Cruz.

It’s not a good sign when your debut film can be so easily compared to earlier, better films, and even though writer-director Jake Paltrow (yes, Gwyneth’s brother) shows some style and genuine human feeling, nothing about The Good Night promises to help him stick out from the pack. Good thing a famous last name usually takes care of that anyway.

Danny DeVito and Martin Freeman

The movie’s meandering narrative kicks off immediately, with documentary-style interviews from Gary’s friends in order to set up his life in New York. Basically, he’s miserable. He works as a jingle composer for his philandering best friend Paul (the always-welcome Simon Pegg) and lives with his girlfriend Dora in barely-concealed contempt of one another. When his dreams start arriving, they’re like breaths of fresh air. In various scenic locations, an unnamed woman (Cruz) in a stunning white tuxedo gives him everything he’s been missing in life—namely, a fantasy version of love. When Gary meets lucid-dreaming expert Mel (Danny DeVito), he tries to sleep round-the-clock in order to somehow take control of his dreams and maybe even make them come true.

The faux-documentary style gives out halfway through the film, around the point the story takes its most interesting turn. Gary actually meets his dream woman in real life, only she’s an arrogant model named Anna with no time for Gary’s awkwardness or creepy fetishization of her. Once Anna departs the film loses steam, as Gary must choose between the real world with Dora and his dream life with Anna, particularly when an accident makes the option of eternal sleep a real one.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Martin Freeman

The problem with this choice is that Gary’s life never seems appealing enough to come back to, even when the other option is death. He and Dora make one another miserable, and we never get to see the love that presumably started their relationship to begin with. Narration tells us that Gary’s work life becomes more successful as he takes control of his dreams, but we never hear the music he comes up with. Paltrow, like Gary, is more invested in the dream world than in the real one, but unlike Gary, he has an audience to please as well. Gary loves his dream woman, but Paltrow never makes us understand what it is about her that makes her so compelling. Gary tells us that she is “passionate and supportive and inspiring,” but we only ever see her gaze alluringly at the camera and pose in a bikini. She’s nothing but adolescent male fantasy, a beautiful woman with endless libido and zero inner life—Barbie with an accent.

Despite its structural flaws, The Good Night features some fine performances—Pegg and Freeman are a joy to watch together—and characters who, while under drawn, earn our sympathy without being cloying or too self-absorbed. Paltrow may have a career as a director ahead of him, but as a screenwriter, his ideas come out muddled and, well, tired. Like someone else’s “fascinating” dream, The Good Night never turns out as interesting as its teller thinks it is.

Cinema Blend - Movie Review for The Good Night - Image Gallery

Is Arthur Dent Taking Over The Hobbit?
By Rafe Telsch
Cinema Blend
September 17, 2007

Martin Freeman has already made one fanboy dream come true. The actor brought a much better version of Arthur Dent to life in the recent Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy adaptation. Now Internet scuttlebutt has the actor bringing another fan-favorite role to life, but the question is: do we really want him to?

MTV Movie Blog reportedly talked to Freeman about recent rumors that his name is being tossed around to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, should the problem-plagued adaptation ever get made. It seems that, while rumors continue to fly about Ian McKellen reprising his role as Gandalf and Viggo Mortensen making an appearance (even though LotRcanon never puts Aragorn around in the time of The Hobbit), the one name that isn’t being rumored to put in an appearance in the prequel story is Ian Holm, who played an older Bilbo in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies.

MTV attempts to rationalize the rumored change to Freeman, stating While wizards and elves and part elf-men all age slowly (or not at all), hobbits get old quick, and we can’t imagine a 51-year-old Bilbo played by the same actor who brought him to life on his eleventy-first birthday. Apparently they forget Holm played a younger version of Bilbo in one of the scenes showing the history of the ring and Gollum’s origins. Loss of geek-cred for MTV.

Thankfully, their interview with Freeman pretty much shows all the talk is just that – talk. Freeman says he’s talked to Jackson, but not about The Hobbit. Instead the actor was turned down for a part in Jackson’s next picture. The Lovely Bones. He also seems confused over hobbits, goblins, and trolls. Is this really the person we want taking on the mantle of Bilbo Baggins? I think not.

No, I for one want Ian Holm back. It would seem unnatural for anyone but Holm to play the role. Of course, at this point I’m still skeptical about the movie happening at all. There’s lots of talk being tossed around, but still no solutions seem to be happening in the battle for the rights to make the movie (or distribute it). Until that’s solved, we can say anyone from Freeman to Jorge Garcia is being considered to play Bilbo, but nothing’s really happening.

Will Martin Freeman Hitch A Ride To ‘The Hobbit’?
By Shawn Adler - MTV Movies
September 17, 2007

Should a “Hobbit” movie ever actually get made (and, frankly, we sometimes have our doubts), we want as many of the actors from “Lord of the Rings” to reprise their roles as possible - even the ones, like Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom, whose characters aren’t actually even in the book. In the last few months, we’ve made it our mission to ask as many of them as we could about their potential involvement.

But one actor we wouldn’t want to see return is actually the actor when it comes to a Hobbit movie. While wizards and elves and part elf-men all age slowly (or not at all), hobbits get old quick, and we can’t imagine a 51-year-old Bilbo played by the same actor who brought him to life on his eleventy-first birthday.

But if not Ian, than who? How about “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” star Martin Freeman? Internet scuttlebutt has him front and center as a replacement candidate, and no one can argue that he doesn’t looks the part. So when we caught up with “The Office” alum while he was promoting his new film “The Good Night,” we asked him to address the hubbub.

“I’m not sure I should take it entirely as a compliment,” Freeman laughed when asked by MTV News if he was familiar with the online rumors. “Let me put it this way: People saying ‘You look like a f-cking goblin!’”

Ok, so he gets his goblins mixed up with his hobbits, but would he be up for it if Peter Jackson called?

“Peter Jackson has called,” Freeman revealed, although adding that it wasn’t about the “Hobbit.” “He has just this summer turned me down for a job [”The Lovely Bones”]. [But] I really enjoyed meeting with him.”

And if he gets offered the “Hobbit”?

“I’ll cross that troll’s bridge when I come to it!” he joked.

'Pot-bellied' role for Office actor
The Press Association
September 6, 2007

The Office star Martin Freeman is set to shock fans with a risque film role as Dutch painter Rembrandt.

His performance in Peter Greenaway's Nightwatching includes full-frontal naked shots, several graphic sex scenes and X-rated language. Several people walked out of a preview screening of the film.

Freeman had to pile on weight for the part - director Greenaway said the real-life Rembrandt was "by no means handsome... stocky, pot-bellied, squat and not especially sexually endowed".

It is Freeman's first starring role in a serious drama. But he said playing Tim in TV comedy The Office had helped him to land the part.

"I was actually quite puzzled when Peter asked me to do the job, probably for the same reason a lot of people would be puzzled," Freeman said as the film was unveiled at the Venice Film Festival.

"But Peter wanted Rembrandt to have a lightness of touch and a sense of humour, and he saw I could bring that to it. The sense of humour is quite important to bring to this because it prevents him from becoming this great tortured artist.

"Peter was quite keen that Rembrandt should be three-dimensional and do all the things that people do in their personal lives."

Greenaway said of the frequent sex scenes: "There are really only two subject matters - one is sex and the other is death. What else is there to talk about?"

Freeman, 35, stars opposite Irish actress Eva Birthistle, who plays Rembrandt's wife Saskia.

Since finding fame in The Office, he has appeared in movies Confetti, Hot Fuzz and Breaking And Entering, and starred in a big-screen comic version of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

Greenaway film to unravel Rembrandt riddles
By Mike Collett-White
Reuters
September 6, 2007

VENICE (Reuters) - British director Peter Greenaway attempts to unravel the riddles surrounding Rembrandt and one of his most famous paintings in a new film, suggesting foul play was behind his slide into penury.

"Nightwatching" is a story about how Rembrandt's picture of the Amsterdam Musketeer Militia, known as the "Night Watch," came to be commissioned, and explores what secrets Rembrandt may have revealed in the masterpiece.

The painting has perplexed art historians for centuries, and Greenaway said his theory was as valid as any other.

"Of course there have been lots and lots of theories, but we would like in this film to offer you another theory," Greenaway told reporters in Venice, where the movie is in the main competition at the film festival.

"There's no such thing as history, there's only historians. I can't prove to you every single fact, but you can't disprove it either."

He said there were at least 51 "mysteries" in the painting, including the young girl or dwarf in a crowd of men, the significance of the musket being fired, whether the two main men were having an affair and whether the man in the background, with one eye showing, was a self-portrait by the artist.

In the film, Rembrandt reluctantly accepts a commission to paint the pompous musketeers, but weaves into his work accusations of murder while sending up their airs and graces.

The movie hypothesizes that the equivalent of the "nightclub crowd" of 17th Century Amsterdam sought to ruin Rembrandt as revenge by sullying his reputation and trying to blind him.

Sex and Swearing:

Greenaway said he wondered why Rembrandt, successful during his own lifetime, had descended into poverty after the Night Watch was completed in the 1640s.

"Fifteen years late he was a pauper, he was bankrupt. It's always been very, very difficult to explain this riches-to-rags story," said Greenaway.

The director said his film was about art itself, and why painters and film makers sought to create the illusion that what they were portraying was real.

In "Nightwatching," Greenaway uses theatrical sets and lighting techniques that recall the masterpieces of 17th Century Northern European art.

Rembrandt is played by Briton Martin Freeman, most famous for his portrayal of Tim in the hit TV comedy "The Office."

With plenty of swearing, nudity and bawdy behavior, the film tries to demystify the character of Rembrandt.

"I think that the sense of humor is quite important to bring to this character," he said. "It prevents him from being the great tortured artist who is somehow ... from another planet."