movie review le weekend

Le Week-End

"Le Week-End"

Let us use the arrival of "Le Week-End"—a wistfully rendered yet often barbed account of longtime marrieds who find themselves dissatisfied and drifting apart while on an anniversary trip to Paris—to salute a filmmaker who rarely gets the credit he deserves: Roger Michell .

At 57, Michell is the youngest and most unsung of a trio of distinctively British directors whose film work began receiving global attention in the '90s. Mike Newell made his presence known with 1994's "Four Weddings and a Funeral", scoring Oscar nods for best picture and screenplay. John Madden topped that feat with 1998's " Shakespeare in Love ", winning seven Oscars including best picture. Michell's breakout arrived in 1999, when his romantic comedy " Notting Hill " turned into one of the highest-grossing British films of all time with a worldwide box office of $364 million. His involvement, however, was somewhat overshadowed by the sight of Julia Roberts playing a version of herself as a renowned actress opposite a smitten Hugh Grant . While there have been other hits among Michell's 11 films—his first, an adaptation of Jane Austen's " Persuasion " in 1995, was a well-received TV movie released in theaters overseas—there also have been notable misses.

Most recently, his " Hyde Park on Hudson " was done in by the unpalatable displays of FDR's extracurricular love life. But the biopic at least succeeded on a smaller scale as an intriguing private portrait of a public marriage. Specifically, that of an insecure King George VI ( Samuel West ), the stutterer who was the subject of " The King's Speech ", and his nagging wife ( Olivia Colman ), the mother of Queen Elizabeth II, as they visited the president's upstate New York retreat as World War II threatens. That royal gem of a union, as well as the interplay between West's King and Bill Murray's FDR, managed to save the show.

As exemplified by that effort as well as 2002's " Changing Lanes ", a road-rage drama, and 2006's "Venus", about an aged actor who lusts after an insolent young woman, Michell is often at his best when dealing with characters who find themselves under stress or attempting to seek common ground with an onscreen counterpart. When Michell is on his game, as he definitely is with "Le Week-End", he unearths small, invaluable and even profound truths about the human condition that are often as inspiring as they are devastating.

Michell also has great taste in collaborators. "Le Week-End" marks his fourth pairing with screenwriter Hanif Kureishi —they managed to earn the late Peter O'Toole his eighth and final shot at an acting Oscar with "Venus". Similarly, they find themselves working alongside two durable acting pros with notable depth and presence, owlishly avuncular Jim Broadbent , 64, who won an Oscar as the caretaker husband in " Iris ", and bewitchingly flinty Lindsay Duncan , 63, who was fabulous as the eccentric mum in " About Time ". Simple stereotypes are not what these two performers do.

Yet their domestic situation will be recognizable to anyone who has savored the comfortable familiarity that comes with a decades-long union but also has resented its predictability. With performers this seasoned, all it takes is the opening scene aboard a train to see where this journey to re-invigorate 30-year marriage is going. Meg has her nose in a book while trying to ignore Nick, who is checking over itineraries and other travel material while worrying about where he stashed their converted Euros.

Duncan's likeness to French actress Julie Delpy isn't the only reason that it is easy to think of "Le Week-End" as a twilight time version of Richard Linklater's " Before Midnight " and its two romantic predecessors. They all offer long, often intense verbal exchanges between partners in a relationship against a glorious scenic backdrop.

Once the couple arrives at their destination, the conversation initially turns comedic when Meg takes one look at the depressing cut-rate dump of a room that Nick has booked and observes with disgust, "It's beige!'' Off they go in cab to a high-end hotel complete with Eiffel Tower view and a fully stocked pricey mini-bar. Told that Tony Blair once stayed in their suite, Nick opines, "As long as they changed the sheets."

Where she is bold, decisive, impractical and reckless, he is fussy, clumsy, fretful and tentative. He wants to use this occasion to finally nail down what tiles to put in their redone bathroom. She hungers for fine food, great wine and excitement beyond the everyday norm.

Given they are both academics—Nick is a philosophy professor, no less—the talk gushes forth as they visit picturesque museums, bistros, book shops, churches and cemeteries. They argue about their wastrel son who wants to move back home. Nick reveals he is about to be pushed into early retirement at work. Meg tops that news with the admission that she has considered spending her golden years without him. As hurtful as she can be and as vulnerable as he can be, Broadbent and Duncan make sure that flickers of love and affection ignite now and then in between spats over having to use the same toothbrush.

Sex, of course, rears its head. And rather bluntly, too. As Nick, who is clearly hoping to get lucky on this jaunt, notes, "For the last five, 10 years, your vagina has become sort of a closed book." He then suggests taking their lovemaking "into another dimension," even suggesting they pretend to be other people.

Counters Meg, "I might do it for you later if you stay awake." She teases him in cruel fashion until he retreats, listening to Bob Dylan in boxer shorts with his ear buds in, and guzzling alcohol. They do make fine co-conspirators, however, as Meg pulls off a scheme to skip out of paying a steep bill at a restaurant and they passionately kiss on the street in celebration.

The climax of the movie arrives when Nick runs into a pal, a well-off American author named Morgan who now lives in Paris with his new pregnant wife. As played by Jeff Goldblum at his most grand-gesturing Goldblum-iest, his entrance into the movie is akin to throwing a lit Roman candle into a room. It's at a dinner party in honor of Morgan's latest tome that Nick and Meg go off on their own little adventures of self-discovery, and leave perhaps with a renewed commitment. Or maybe not. In any case, the final images suggested by a Godard movie will put a smile on your face and at least provide hope.

Susan Wloszczyna

Susan Wloszczyna spent much of her nearly thirty years at USA TODAY as a senior entertainment reporter. Now unchained from the grind of daily journalism, she is ready to view the world of movies with fresh eyes.

• Charlotte Leo as Dominique Ertel
• Jeff Goldblum as Morgan
• Denis Sebbah as Christopher Aragues
• Jim Broadbent as Nick Burrows
• Olly Alexander as Michael
• Sophie- Charlotte Husson as Plaza's Receptionist
• Brice Beaugier as Robert
• Xavier De Guillebon as Jean-Pierre Degremont
• Lindsay Duncan as Meg Burrows
• Marie-France Alvarez as Victoire La Chapelle
• Hanif Kureishi

Cinematography

• Nathalie Durand
• Roger Michell

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Edelstein on Le Week-End : Unbelievably Marvelous, in Light of Its Depressing Trajectory

Le Week-End is a marital ­disintegration–reintegration drama that opens with a dose of frost and vinegar and turns believably sweet—and unbelievably marvelous, in light of what had seemed a depressing trajectory. Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan play an aging, not-affluent British couple grabbing a fast weekend in Paris. Their tatty hotel appalls her so much she impulsively checks into a luxury one—which appalls her husband, who has yet to reveal he was forced to resign his professorship over a run-in with a student. He would like to touch her, but she quivers with displeasure when he tries. (“I’m a phobic object,” he concludes.) The not-so-sub subtext is that love doesn’t last. She sees his weakness and inability to get out of himself and truly care for her; he sees a still-beautiful woman who’s moving beyond his grasp.

Hanif Kureishi wrote it, Roger Michell directed; they collaborated on the creepy drama The Mother, and neither is a squishy humanist. But they’re working with actors whose firm masks yield glimpses of desperate, capacious souls. Jeremy Sams’s modest jazz score takes the edge off the severity, mellows it, signals a middle ground between hope and despair.

The wild card of Le Week-end is the guy they bump into: the superb Jeff Goldblum (as a solicitous American academic with enviable crossover success). At first he seems creepily intimate, a phony. Gradually you realize he’s just madly ­insecure—a Goldblum-esque blurter. At a party, they meet his young second wife, for whom he’s unsuited, and a son from a first marriage whom he loves but barely knows. They see what pathetic, lucky souls they are. I don’t know how Kureishi pulled the last act out of his hat. But then, true artists don’t always know where the magic comes from, either.

*This article appeared in the March 10, 2014 issue of New York Magazine.

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clock This article was published more than  10 years ago

‘Le Week-End’ movie review

One of the joys of attending the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival was the generous helping of adult-oriented romance on offer, from Nicole Holofcener's funny and wise " Enough Said " to the ruefully triumphant Chilean drama " Gloria ." One of the sparkliest jewels in that crown was " Le Week-End ," an alternately prickly and knowing tone poem to desire and disappointment whose light touch belies far deeper, darker human understandings.

"Le Week-End" begins on a train, which in this case is conveying Meg and Nick — an academic couple from Birmingham, England — to a Paris getaway. While a gorgeous jazz score plays, we watch as they engage in what are obviously age-old travel rituals ("You've got the euros"), in a scene that recalls Stanley Donen's 1967 marriage travelogue, " Two for the Road ." Recall the most stinging exchange in that film: "What kind of people sit like that without a word to say to each other?" asked Audrey Hepburn's character, observing a couple in a restaurant. "Married people," Albert Finney replied sourly.

"Le Week-End" possesses that same tone of wintry, hard-gained wisdom, as Meg and Nick's sojourn reignites youthful passions on the one hand, and years of accumulated resentments and regrets on the other. Such a candid portrait of warts-and-all intimacy would be a slow, depressing slog were it not for the fact that it has been so gracefully executed: Roger Michell, known best for such sweet-natured romantic comedies as " Notting Hill ," directs a script by the great Hanif Kureishi (" My Beautiful Launderette "). Meg and Nick are brought funnily, bitingly to life by the equally fabulous Lindsay Duncan and Jim Broadbent.

“It’s . . . beige,” a crestfallen Meg murmurs when they enter what will be the first of their hotel rooms. “There’s a certain light-brownness about it, yes,” Nick replies, a tad defensively. At first Meg seems to be the heedless romantic of the two, eager to splash out on pricey dinners, talking about the Zumba classes she’s taking to “redesign” her body. Nick worries about money and “likes things settled.” But gradually, “Le Week-End” reveals gnarlier truths beneath the neat categories, especially in bed, where Nick tries to rekindle amatory passion and is curtly rebuffed. “You’re hot,” he says to Meg at one point. “Hot but cold.”

Oof. "Le Week-End" continues in this vein, the exchanges alternating between tender and venomous, until a human wild card arrives on the scene in the form of Jeff Goldblum, who introduces notes of anarchic, daffy humor that send the film into flights of escalating, antic fancy — a crescendo that climaxes in a breathtakingly frank dinner-table aria to rival anything those battling, bickering Westons of Osage County can dish out .

As a portrait of middle-age boredom, dissatisfaction, fury and creeping mortality, “Le Week-End” may sound to some viewers like it’s too close to the bone to be that much fun. But in the capable hands of these fine filmmakers and actors, even its most bitter observations about life and aging are nearly always reliably balanced by moments of warmth, understanding and out-and-out screwball humor.

The late writer Nora Ephron once said that the last thing you know is your effect: “Le Week-End” pays homage to that notion with a combination of resignation and heartening good cheer. What kind of people go to Paris only to fight and cry, laugh and play and behave like fools? Married people, of course. C’est l’amour.

R. At area theaters. Contains profanity and some sexual content. 93 minutes.

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Le Week-End , directed by Roger Michell from a Hanif Kureishi script, is a small, perfectly formed triumph. It’s a triumph for what it doesn’t do as much as for what it does. It doesn’t bombard us with oh là là , as ageing marrieds Lindsay Duncan and Jim Broadbent embark on a shot-in-the-arm, shot-of-the-children anniversary binge in Paris. It doesn’t do Franglais gags or culture-shock coups. It introduces, almost shyly, the dark notes of a disintegrating marriage with two disintegrating souls.

Everything Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine was cracked up to be but wasn’t – a psychodrama with depth and astringency – Le Week-End is, though it probably won’t get the cracking up. (Too quiet, too subtle.) It even has Woody-style invocations, though unlike Blue Jasmine ’s smash and grab on A Streetcar Named Desire they waft in organically like bees to pollen. It is purely serendipitous, for instance, that Ms Duncan looks so startlingly like Julie Delpy: so like her that we goggle at Duncan and her sad cherubic hubby (Broadbent’s brand-recognition bluster here becoming the poignant tatters of a burst balloon), discerning some mad, post-menopausal homage to Richard Linklater’s Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight trilogy.

Midway in the plot, after delicate tone switches between comedy (escape from a can’t-pay restaurant) and tragedy (“You’ve picked our anniversary to dump me?” quails he), the couple attend a party thrown by an old Cambridge pal, a charmer-charlatan brilliantly played by Jeff Goldblum. The party catalyses their break-up as darkness thickens and talk deepens – come in, James Joyce’s The Dead – but then their relationship takes a new, transmuting turn.

The whole movie, beautifully judged, keeps surprising us. And not even Joyce created a young character-interloper as succinctly drawn and haunting as Goldblum’s son (Olly Alexander). A wry, fragile, renegade product of pushy parenting, he quietly intones his dissident wisdoms like the caterpillar on the Lewis Carroll mushroom, in a bedroom fortuitously strayed into by a wandering Broadbent.

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Le Week-End Review

11 Oct 2013

Le Week-End

Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan are a couple of one-time radicals on a 30th-anniversary second honeymoon in Paris, where the lifelong tensions between his avuncular denialism and her prickly impetuousness snap dramatically, and humorously. Intentionally or not, the film smacks of an attempt to capture a youthful, indie style the oldieweds themselves crave to rediscover, giving it a clumsy, puppyish feel — like an Exotic Mumblecore Hotel. But despite that it is never unappealing, thanks to a Jeff Goldblum cameo and some compelling verbal swordplay between Broadbent and Duncan.

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Le Week-End Reviews

It makes pretty good use of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and the story of Nick and Meg is certainly an interesting one.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 23, 2022

If you want to see an honest story beautifully written and brought to life by a stellar cast, I recommend you seek it out.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 13, 2020

As moving as it is engaging and astute.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 29, 2019

For better or for worse, Le Week-End relies a great deal on its two central performers, and fortunately Broadbent and Duncan are in fine fettle here.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 5, 2019

Confuses a one-dimensional, borderline sadistic view of the mitigations that come with ageing to their actual reality (which is surely a lot more nuanced and less miserable)!

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 8, 2018

Wonderful performances (including a fun but quite "huh?" supporting turn from Jeff Goldblum) and nice aesthetics help make Le Week-end a passable trip to Paris,

Full Review | Oct 10, 2018

The script falters as domestic drama turns to contrived farce, and the couple runs out on an expensive dinner check. What is this, Frances Ha?

Full Review | Aug 31, 2018

The film's uncomfortable emotional tone is well balanced and heightened by the majestic architecture and skies of the city, a city they can't truly enjoy until its almost too late.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 30, 2018

The sublime talents of British thespians Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan allow the comedic drama "Le Week-End" to travel beyond cheap cliches and tired road-trip gags into more thought-provoking territory.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 7, 2018

This isn't just about sex, it's a film about ageing, and the slights and delights of realising your life has never been your own. Unlike many Hollywood films, it doesn't make older people look angry or infantile. How refreshing.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 6, 2018

The banter is clever, yet so candid that the audience feels a bit sheepish. We're overhearing a wholly believable private conversation; these two are most definitely not on their best behavior. No company manners here.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 3, 2017

Beautifully written and performed, there are biting truths here that will resonate with anyone who's lived in a long term relationship.

Full Review | Oct 26, 2017

It's rare to see a film about late middle-age, which is neither pure escapism nor about people at the end of their rope.

Full Review | Aug 15, 2017

Le Week-End isn't nearly the comic lark the trailer would have you believe. It's much better than that: a poignant look at a relationship whose embers of love are barely glowing, but whose principals still like each other too much to split up

Full Review | Original Score: 4 of 5 | Apr 18, 2016

The film hits the mark on couples struggling to find that balance between individuality and union with Broadbent and Duncan providing pitch-perfect performances.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Mar 9, 2016

Great acting and a great script from the hand of Hanif Kureishi. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Nov 12, 2015

A movie that evoques the nouvelle vague, with discusions and quick romantic encounters, where Paris becomes a character and rebeling is part of staying alive. [Full review in Spanish]

Although the film is profound and moving indeed, one does wonder how a viewer of a certain age might respond to it.

Full Review | Oct 8, 2015

Despite its rough turns and bumpy exposition, Le Week-End is absolutely a trip worth taking, full of moving moments and well-earned laughs.

Full Review | Jan 6, 2015

A loosely structured but acutely observed relationships movie with a wide streak of painful comedy.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 6, 2015

Film Review: ‘Le Week-End’

Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan star in this bittersweet, charming yet often very thorny comedy-drama.

By Dennis Harvey

Dennis Harvey

Film Critic

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The fourth feature collaboration between director Roger Michell and scenarist Hanif Kureishi continues their explorations of love in later life — and love of veteran British actors. “ Le Week-End ” stars Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan as a sixtysomething academic duo who celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary by returning to the site of their honeymoon; Paris proves as romantic as ever, but this trip reveals both the deep bonds and the equally deep fissures in their relationship. Bittersweet, charming yet often very thorny, this display of keenly intelligent craftsmanship on all levels should appeal to the same mature audiences that embraced the creators’ 2006 “Venus.” Music Box plans a limited U.S. theatrical launch in February.

Things start on an off note — hardly the last — as Meg Burrows (Duncan), a woman of very definite opinions, summarily rejects the hotel they’ve booked. Assessing their room, she grumbles, “It’s … uh … beige ,” as if that were a well-known universal violation of good taste. After a costly sight-seeing cab ride to buck up her spirits, she and hubby Nick (Broadbent) check into a doubtless wildly expensive but duly superior establishment and set about realizing their perfect City of Love weekend .

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But love is hardly the only emotion between them. Nick tries to resuscitate their sex life in vain; though not averse to occasional, casual physical affection, Meg can turn cross and reject his touch by snapping, “It’s not love — it’s like being arrested.” He’s devoted enough to try overcoming almost any rejection, while she is innately dissatisfied, mercurial, restless. “You can’t not love and hate the same person, usually within the space of five minutes” she says, “you” being very much a statement of self.

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Although the two have reached what should be a comfortable near-retirement, things are unstable back home. A hapless grown son has just moved out with his wife and child, yet is already begging to be taken in again, something Meg adamantly opposes. Nick has bad news: Flippant advice he gave a student prompted her to file a formal complaint, and now he’s being forced into early retirement from his university professorship. Meg is sick of her own teaching job, and fancies drastic life changes as financially whimsical as her attitude toward credit-card charges in Paree. Nonetheless, they manage to enjoy the city and each other enormously at times, even when running out on an astronomical restaurant bill or visiting Samuel Beckett ‘s grave.

A chance encounter reunites Nick with American expat Morgan ( Jeff Goldblum ), a writer who’s had all the fame, fortune and adventure that have eluded his former Cambridge classmate. The film reaches its emotional crescendo during a dinner-party sequence in which both leads have telling encounters with other guests — notably Nick’s with the host’s neglected son (Olly Alexander) from an abandoned first marriage, while secretly in the midst of possibly their most serious argument ever. Yet the public nadir they reach might just restore the Burrowses to each others’ good graces.

British stage, tube and film luminaries Duncan and Broadbent fully flesh out characters as familiar as they are complicated, while Goldblum gooses them (and the movie) with a delightful sketch of generous yet completely self-absorbed joie de vivre. A long way from the flashiness of such name-making early exercises as “My Beautiful Laundrette” and “Sammy and Rosie Get Laid,” Kureishi’s writing is insightful and precise here, though not immune to the occasional, useful shock tactic.

Michell handles all elements with restraint and panache, capturing some of Paris’ magic without resorting to tourist snaps amid a solid design/tech package. Highlighted soundtrack choices include a couple repeatedly heard cuts from English folkie icon Nick Drake.

Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentations), Sept. 6, 2013. Running time: 93 MIN.

• Production: (U.K.) A Music Box Films (in U.S.) release of a Film4, BFI and Curzon Film World presentation in association with Le Bureau of a Free Range Films production. (International sales: Embankment Films, London.) Produced by Kevin Loader. Executive producers, Sue Bruce Smith, Philip Knatchbull, Louisa Dent.
• Crew: Directed by Roger Michell. Screenplay, Hanif Kureishi. Camera (color, HD, widescreen), editor, Kristina Hetheringson; music, Jeremy Sams; production designer, Emmanuelle Duplay; sound (Dolby Digital), Martin Beresford; sound designer, Denny Hambrook; re-recording mixer, Paul Cotterell; assistant director, Valerie Aragues.
• With: Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan, Jeff Goldblum, Olly Alexander, Judith Davis. (English, French dialogue)

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Film of the Week: Le Week-End

By Jonathan Romney on October 30, 2013

I honestly can't remember seeing a more off-putting trailer than the one for Le Week-End . It features Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan flitting around the streets of Paris, lashings of breezy accordion, and then the stars—with Jeff Goldblum, and with Duncan in an amusing hat—imitating the Madison dance from Godard’s Band of Outsiders . It all suggests excruciating whimsy, a coy entertainment for Francophile viewers d'un certain âge —people, perhaps, like Duncan's character Meg Burrows, whose choice of reading on the Eurostar is Muriel Barbery's soft-philosophy best-seller The Elegance of the Hedgehog .

In truth, the trailer may not be a radical misrepresentation of Le Week-End , but conversely, it doesn't catch the distinctive blend of jollity and industrial-strength sourness of this latest collaboration between director Roger Michell and writer Hanif Kureishi. Over the last decade, Kureishi—once the hip young tearaway of British film and literature—has proved to be an insightful analyst of the discontents of aging, collaborating with Michell on a series of simple, at times austere vignettes that are certainly the director's best films. Le Week-End may seem a light divertissement compared to The Mother (03, about an elderly woman rediscovering sex with a youngish stud—played by Daniel Craig!) and Venus (06, in which an old man, Peter O'Toole, is fixated on a teenager). But Le Week-End 's melancholy and sometimes downright bitter disillusionment are plain to see behind the ooh-la-la veneer.

The story follows a late-middle-aged British couple, Meg and Nick Burrows, celebrating their anniversary with a weekend in Paris. She's a schoolteacher wearily and more or less fondly indulging her husband, often sniping at him with an acidity that suggests her regret at missed romantic opportunities and at her squandered intellectual potential. And he's a career academic beset with nostalgia for the glories that seemed to lie before him in his Cambridge youth; he now faces an ignoble career end, forced to take early retirement.

Oh, well, they'll always have Paris—but dream holidays have a way of bringing out a lifetime's worth of resentment. The pair arrive at their drab Montmartre hotel; Meg recoils at the beige decor and insists on going somewhere fancier. They take a cab, which whizzes them through the city, the Arc de Triomphe wheeling over their heads. For a nasty moment, it feels as if we're in one of Claude Lelouch's more touristic productions—which is the ironic point, since harsh reality quickly elbows glossy fantasy aside. The couple check in at a much fancier establishment, which means a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower and a towering tariff to match. But just as Nick is never quite able to put down the plastic bag he drags around, the couple can't leave behind their home lives. He thinks this is a good time to discuss their bathroom tiles; she can't resist laying her marital discontent on the table.

Being a British film written by a leading novelist/playwright, it's only to be expected that Le Week-End is somewhat talky; at times, the Paris locations come across largely as backdrops for the dialogue. And while the dialogue is pithy, even brutal, the lines aren't always polished zingers: Meg moans about the prospect of his “partially erect sausage”; Nick complains that “over the last five or six years, your vagina has become a closed book.” The repartee can feel creaky as much as brittle, but it does evoke the way an intelligent but intellectually and emotionally exhausted couple might snipe at each other—and the language takes on real vigor as delivered by Broadbent and Duncan.

You absolutely believe in them as a couple. There's no one like Broadbent for looking and sounding flattened by life, and for suggesting a rattlesnake acerbity beneath a soft, amiable exterior; it’s easy to imagine how a man so seemingly affable, yet razor smart, might have attracted a woman like Meg in her no doubt chilly youthful prime. Duncan is astute casting: for all Meg's now comfortable weariness, she has the demeanor of a sexual and intellectual alpha female who's married beneath her, with all the disappointment and barely concealed rage that implies.

Duncan is superb with her weary detachment, mixing a tolerant fondness into the sometimes shockingly overt contempt that Meg shows Nick—although that seems to be part of the tender sadomasochistic bond they share. There's also a curious resonance—perhaps accidental, but eerie nonetheless—for anyone who's recently watched Before Midnight , the third part of Richard Linklater's romantic trilogy, in which the cold truths of marital fatigue came home to roost. Duncan looks uncannily like Julie Delpy 20 years on, and the echoes of the French actress's scathing Céline in Linklater's film bring a fortuitous bonus dimension to Le Week-End .

Things come to a head at a dinner party held by Nick's old Cambridge friend Morgan (Jeff Goldblum), an American academic who's living the Parisian dream. He has a chic apartment, a new glamorous young wife, a prestigious publisher, a gaggle of highbrow friends—and a misguided belief that his English friends must be living a perfect existence. Nick glumly bonds with Morgan's neglected son, a lonesome stoner (Olly Alexander) found listening to Nick Drake (whose songs are synonymous with autumnal Cambridge melancholia). Meg, meanwhile, flirts with a Proust specialist, then lets Nick know she's open to an affair. The climax is a dinner-table tour de force by Nick, who announces to everyone: “I am truly fucked.” As can only happen in such theatrical set-pieces, which magically transcend the embarrassments of reality, he achieves a true moment of desolate grandeur.

Nick and Meg are fucked indeed, as are we all sooner or later, but the wit and acuity of Le Week-End is that it enables us to acknowledge the fact through articulate, if somewhat self-deceiving, characters who express their dilemma with some style. Kureishi's craft lies in not making these characters too lovable, or even tolerable. In real life, they'd bore you rigid; on screen they become, in all their disgruntlement, quite mesmerizing.

Goldblum, meanwhile, plays everyone's idea of Jeff Goldblum, almost a Saturday Night Live impersonation of himself, with added Rive Gauche smugness. But we haven't seen him doing his routine with such zest for years, and his bizarre twitchy inflections pepper the film with a dash of arch cosmopolitan glamour. When the trio round things off with a finale of le Madison , it's a lovely curtain call—an imitation of an imitation, two Brits and an American impersonating three French actors doing a jukebox dance à l'américaine . It's a neat touch of the knowingness which the French call second degré : the film embraces its own artifice, even phoniness, in a sweet, light kiss-off to a scenario that, at heart, couldn't be bleaker or more bitterly real.

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• Cast & crew

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Le Week-End

Less magical than its marketing campaign would suggest: a mostly realistic, darkly touching look at a relationship that's close to breaking point..

• shawneofthedead
• Mar 4, 2014

Genuinely absorbing

• willsdomicile
• Oct 16, 2013

Not a romantic Parisian comedy, but a sharp reflection on long lasting couple life

• Jun 21, 2014

A mature look at mature love

• Sep 27, 2014

Good idea but...

• anthony_imdb
• Oct 12, 2013

Sour-tasting romcom

• Oct 22, 2013

A weekend that doesn't work

• Apr 20, 2014

Film Review: Le Week-End/ www.nightfilmreviews.com

• lucasnochez
• Apr 3, 2014

A simple and touching story about a long married British couple going to Paris for a romantic weekend.

• Aug 24, 2014

A nod to Godard

• ferdinand1932
• Feb 12, 2014

Unable to Suspend Disbelief

• Oct 31, 2013

Wonderful and Candid

• Feb 10, 2014

A dirty weekend - they should have gone on their own!

• flickernatic
• Nov 19, 2013

A grubby little shocker (as in shocked it was made in the first place)

• postmortem-books
• Oct 15, 2013

Can't burn a film...

• sharonlynnjoyce
• Mar 2, 2014
• Jul 16, 2017

A Surprsingly Great Watch! 6/10

• leonblackwood
• Feb 14, 2014

Lost Weekend

• writers_reign
• Oct 10, 2013

A couple goes to Paris for their 30th wedding anniversary, it is questionable if they may make it to their 31st.

• Jul 12, 2014

A delightful film - best watched if you're not too young-in-body

• Mar 8, 2014

We can identify!

• Sep 26, 2017

Pretentious, boring, offensive tosh

• Oct 11, 2013

Worth the wait.

• neilpurssey
• Nov 15, 2013

Interesting but slow

• peter-ramshaw-1
• Jul 7, 2014

Romp through Paris with whining sexagenarians

• Mar 18, 2014

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Le Week-End

Time out says.

After ‘The Mother’ and ‘Venus’, this is the third collaboration between ‘Notting Hill’ director Roger Michell and writer Hanif Kureishi. It’s their strongest yet, and once again they offer a late-life dash for love and happiness. ‘Le Week-End’ tells of Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg (Lindsay Duncan), a married couple who head to Paris for a break, but find themselves facing up to personal and professional ennui. It’s lightly played, often very funny and shot all over Paris with energy and wit, and boosted by superb, inquiring turns from Broadbent and Duncan. It deals head-on with its sad-faced subject without leaning on sentimentality or misery, or offering easy answers. Michell and Kureishi insert a winning dose of magic into the realism in the form of Morgan (Jeff Goldblum), a wealthy old friend that the couple bump into. The meeting inspires an awkward, near-surreal dinner-party scene and allows Michell to close the film with an uplifting nod to Godard’s ‘Bande à Part’. Delightful.

Release Details

• Release date: Friday 11 October 2013
• Duration: 93 mins

Cast and crew

• Director: Roger Michell
• Screenwriter: Hanif Kureishi
• Jeff Goldblum
• Jim Broadbent
• Lindsay Duncan

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Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – Le Week-End (2013)

October 11, 2013 by admin

Le Week-End , 2013.

Directed by Roger Michell. Starring Jim Broadbent, Jeff Goldblum, Lindsay Duncan and Olly Alexander.

Revisiting Paris for the first time since their honeymoon, a long-married British couple (Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan) run into an old colleague (Jeff Goldblum) and discover a new vision of what life and marriage might be.

Poignant, heartfelt and considered, Le Week-End is a captured 48-hours of playful banter, deeply cutting remarks and a reminder that relationships, at whatever age, are on a knife edge. One ill-timed comment or an unspoken moment of doubt can give the impression that everything could be lost. But things are not lost with Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg (Lindsay Duncan). This particular weekend harks back to a honeymoon of bliss, whereby marriage was fresh and new. Needy, adult children and aching bodies was the last thing on the mind of this teacher-lecturing pair. Thirty years later, and the original hotel has lost its charm – and a sense that maybe Meg and Nick have lost their own sense of self. Like the cheap hotel, they might’ve outstayed their welcome – and one member of the marriage may want out…

Under the Eiffel Tower, amongst the stunning landscape shots we see as we peer through the window of the hotel, there is a sense that this weekend will be a moment of change. Nick reveals his lack of security in his job and teases Meg, vainly hoping that she may allow one night of passion, while Meg seems to be pushing forward; keen to make a change and move ahead with her life – could she be interested in a new man perhaps? Her tone switches from cheeky and excited to snarky and harsh within moments – one moment discussing plans, the next telling her husband he’s a “f**king idiot”. Their arguments are passionate and full of resentment and brutal honesty – but something works. Something works between them on a level that only thirty years of marriage truly understands. Not a smug, rose-tinted version of a successful marriage but a revealing portrait that doesn’t veer down a route of sadness and overwhelming loss – such as Amour.

If you consider Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset / Before Sunrise / Before Midnight trilogy as a starting point, there are many similarities between the films. Both detail a specific moment in a relationships history within a European city – and the couples are both creative ‘types’ with passionate women. In fact the limited time-period and memorable meals in both Before Midnight and Le Week-End give the impression that maybe writer Hanif Kureishi may have had a hint of inspiration from Linkater’s films.

The performances are mesmerising and Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan manage to create characters that are familiar and charming to be in the company of. Decisions to “not tell the kids” about failing to pay a bill and their playful chasing in the hotel lobby is warm and relatable – and young adults will surely watch the film and realise that their own parents may not be as stuffy as they let on. Indeed, the child on the other end of the phone line becomes the buzzing bee that irritates – and a quick swot is needed.

Far from being a laugh-out loud comedy or deeply-depressing drama, Le Week-End manages to have its French Fancy and eat it, as Nick and Meg see through the weekend in a splendid fashion as Jeff Goldblum hosts a memorable meal with a black-comedic twist. An adoring film that may not be unique, it has a charm that could see it as ‘Before Old Age’ – and, in fairness, that’s not a bad thing to be.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

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Luke Evans Talks 'Weekend in Taipei' and Reuniting with Sung Kang

Moviefone speaks with Luke Evans about 'Weekend in Taipei' and reuniting with his 'Fast & Furious 6' co-star Sung Kang. "He's such a gentleman."

Luke Evans stars in 'Weekend in Taipei'.

Opening in theaters on November 8th is the new action film ' Weekend in Taipei ', which was directed by George Huang (“ Swimming with Sharks ’), based on a screenplay he co-wrote with Luc Besson (‘ Lucy ’), and stars Luke Evans (‘ The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ’ and ‘ Fast & Furious 6 ') and Sung Kang (‘ Fast X ’).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Luke Evans about his work on 'Weekend in Taipei', his first reaction to the screenplay, his character’s personal history, shooting the action sequences, working with the cast, reuniting with 'Fast & Furious 6' co-star Sung Kang, collaborating with director George Huang on set, and what he learned from Luc Besson.

Related Article: Luke Evans, Michiel Huisman and Jessica Ann Collins Talk 'Echo 3'

Luke Evans in 'Weekend in Taipei'. Photo: EuropaCorp.

Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay?

Luke Evans: I mean, the script was just very entertaining. It just felt like a very fun character. I got to move to Taipei for three months. Taipei became such an incredible part of the story. We were able to shoot in all those amazing locations in the city. Luc Besson and George Huang wrote a beautiful script, and it's just full of everything. There are amazing fight sequences, and great action pieces. There's a strong emotional core with the relationship between my character and Gwei Lun-mei 's character. You really root for these people, and there's humor to it. There's a bit of tongue-in-cheek charm that my character has. We tried to bring all of that to the story. I really loved it. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1713846134541-0'); });

MF: What can you say about John and Joey’s past together?

LE: Yeah, so John met Joey (Gwei Lun-mei) 15 years prior to where the story begins and had to leave her there. It all gets explained in the film as to why this happened. But little did he realize that when he left, she was pregnant with their child, and he has no contact with her. His job demands that he cuts all ties with everybody. He loses the love of his life and goes back to Minneapolis and carries on just doing his job and doesn't find anybody else. Joey brings up their son, and then he comes back to Taipei. Not to meet them; he doesn't even know that they exist or anything. Then he finds out that they're there, and they are integral to the storyline. He then must change his priorities as to why he's there. Now it's to protect them, his new family, which he didn't think he had.

(L to R) Wyatt Yang and Gwei Lun-mei in 'Weekend in Taipei'. Photo: EuropaCorp.

MF: What was it like working with Gwei Lun-mei and the young actor who plays Raymond, Wyatt Yang ?

LE: Obviously my first connection was with these two lovely people. We get on very well. Anyway, they're very lovely. Wyatt was just so charming and innocent and unfazed by everything, impressively, because he'd never been on a film set before. This was his first job, and he just took it all in his stride. Mei, who is just so gracious; she just exudes charm. She is just this beautiful energy and very kind. We just clicked very quickly, and we just became this little family unit, and enjoyed the journey together. We tried to make it fun, and it was. There was a lot of fun moments. Yeah, it was lovely. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-inline-3'); });

MF: Can you talk about shooting the action sequences?

LE: Well, they were full-on. Obviously, I do my stunts as much as I can. So, I came three weeks before we started shooting, and spent every day with the stunt department. We had the French stunt coordinator with his team, and then we had the Taiwanese stunt coordinator, and then a translator that was translating between English, French, and Taiwanese. There was a lot of back-and-forth, but we somehow made it work. Three weeks of rehearsal put me in good stead then to be able to do the stunts and the fights.

Sung Kang in 'Weekend in Taipei'. Photo: EuropaCorp.

MF: What was it like reuniting with your ‘'Fast & Furious 6' co-star Sung Kang?

LE: Lovely. I mean, he's such a gentleman; and he's great in the movie. We didn't have a lot to do with each other in ‘Fast 6’. Obviously, I met him when we did the press tour. I spent a lot of time with him. He's just wonderful, and he’s a lovely partner. So, this time it was nice to play against him on the screen. He's playing the bad guy, and I'm playing the good guy for once. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-inline-4'); });

MF: What was it like collaborating with George Huang and Luc Besson on set?

LE: Well, it was wonderful. I mean, it was a very collaborative experience from the outset, and George steered the ship beautifully. It was lovely to have a Taiwanese American director who had co-written the script with Luc Besson. Having Luc there as well: he was around, and it was nice to have conversations and talk about development and what we were doing. We were all very happy to be there. Remember, this was very much a time when a lot of productions in the world had come to a standstill. We were very lucky to get one of those allowances to keep shooting. So, we all felt very lucky to be working, and it was wonderful. I mean, we were all having the best time. Taipei is amazing. You should go visit.

MF: Finally, you also worked with Luc Besson in 2019’s ‘ Anna ’. What have you learned from working with him on these two movies?

LE: I mean, Luc has many stories. He's worked with the great and the good, and he is a great storyteller. I know many stories: which I could never tell you, because that would be breaking my code of confidentiality with my friend Luc. But he does have many fun stories to tell. We had many dinners: me, Luc, George, Mei; they work very well together, George and Luc. I think that's a partnership that we will see a lot more of, I think, as we go forward. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-inline-5'); });

Weekend in Taipei

A former DEA agent and a former undercover operative revisit their romance during a fateful weekend in Taipei, unaware of the dangerous consequences of their past. Read the Plot

What is the plot of 'Weekend in Taipei'?

John Lawlor (Luke Evans), a committed American Drug Enforcement Administration agent, fell in love with Joey (Gwei Lun-mei), a Taipei-based transporter, but was forced to separate due to the disruption of criminal and corruption activities. 15 years later, the duo is reunited when Lawlor is on a mission in Taipei.

Who is in the cast of 'Weekend in Taipei'?

• Luke Evans as John Lawlor
• Gwei Lun-mei as Joey
• Sung Kang as Kwang
• Wyatt Yang as Raymond
• Tuo Tsung-hua as a police detective
• Lu Yi-ching as Joey's grandmother
• Patrick Lee as Bolo

List of Luke Evans Movies and TV Shows:

• ' Clash of the Titans ' (2010)
• ' Robin Hood ' (2010)
• ' Blitz ' (2011)
• ' The Three Musketeers ' (2011)
• ‘ Immortals ' (2011)
• ' The Raven ' (2012)
• ' The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ' (2012)
• ' Fast & Furious 6 ' (2013)
• ' The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug ' (2013)
• ' Dracula Untold ' (2014)
• ' The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies ' (2014)
• ' Furious 7 ' (2015)
• ' The Girl on the Train ' (2016)
• ' Beauty and the Beast ' (2017)
• ' The Fate of the Furious ' (2017)
• ' Professor Marston and the Wonder Women ' (2017)
• ' The Alienist ' (2018 - 2020)
• ' Ma ' (2019)
• ' Murder Mystery ' (2019)
• ' Anna ' (2019)
• ' Midway ' (2019)
• ' Nine Perfect Strangers ' (2021)
• ' Echo 3 ' (2022 - 2023)
• ' Pinocchio ' (2022)
• ' Good Grief ' (2024)

Buy Tickets: 'Weekend in Taipei' Movie Showtimes

Buy luke evans movies on amazon.

Jami Philbrick has worked in the entertainment industry for over 20 years and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Moviefone.com. Formally, Philbrick was the Managing Editor of Relativity Media's iamROGUE.com, and a Senior Staff Reporter and Video Producer for Mtime, China's largest entertainment website. He has also written for Fandango, MovieWeb, and Comic Book Resources. Philbrick received the 2019 International Media Award at the 56th annual ICG Publicists Awards, and is a member of the Critics Choice Association. He has interviewed such talent as Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Dwayne Johnson, Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Oprah Winfrey, Quentin Tarantino, and Stan Lee.

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Weekend in taipei review: this exciting, charismatic action thriller is unexpectedly funny.

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Jason Statham Reveals First Look At His New Action Thriller Mutiny

Elevation review: morena baccarin steals the show in a quiet place-like survival thriller, even the star wars galaxy doesn't believe "somehow, palpatine returned".

Perhaps the most unexpected thing about Weekend in Taipei is its humor. I went into the film knowing there would be a lot of action, a sprinkling of romance, and a family plot, but the comedy — sometimes through dialogue and sometimes situational — took me by surprise. Immediately I knew this was a film that wasn’t about to take itself so seriously, and I could get on board with that. Directed by George Huang from a screenplay by him and Luc Besson, Weekend in Taipei isn’t without its faults, but it’s charming, well-shot, thrilling, and, above all, entertaining.

Weekend In Taipei

The film obviously targets Western audiences, especially since its primarily Asian cast speaks English to each other for the runtime’s majority despite the film taking place in Taipei. It was a bit off-putting, and as much as I would’ve loved for the characters to speak their native language, it didn’t deter the movie’s excitement. And there’s plenty of that, especially after DEA Agent John Lawlor (Luke Evans) goes rogue after blowing his undercover job, landing in Taipei for the weekend in a bid to finally catch billionaire drug kingpin Kwang (Sung Kang), who’s married to Lawlor’s old love Joey (Lun-Mei Gwei).

Weekend In Taipei Has Thrilling Action & Stakes

The story is also contained & the characters don’t gallivant around the world.

Weekend in Taipei is a high-octane action film that doesn’t rush through its setup. This is not a case of all action all the time. The characters, while not the most developed, still have some semblance of personality and intriguing backstories. Huang and Besson also make sure the characters all have memorable introductions — from Joey racing through the streets in a sports car to John beating up a bunch of guys after his cover as a chef is blown. They’re painted with the widest brush strokes, but the cast, including Wyatt Yang as Joey’s son Raymond, imbues them with charisma.

These characters could have been anyone and the depth is barely there, but there was some thought and consideration put into their stories and portrayals that I appreciated.

They’re all having fun and it shows. Kang, best known for playing Han in the Fast and Furious movies , is a deliciously annoyed villain; Evans is stoic but understands the importance of comedic timing; and Lun-Mei is protective yet fierce as a stunt driver. Their interactions are some of the film’s best moments and the script plays around with entertaining flashbacks that give us insight about the situation from different perspectives. These characters could have been anyone and the depth is barely there, but there was some thought and consideration put into their stories and portrayals that I appreciated.

The characters stand out not only because of the cast’s efforts, but because the film and story are contained, as none of the characters go country hopping just for the sake of it. It keeps the narrative focused and personal. The action is slick and precise. The thrills vary, coming in the form of hand-to-hand combat and car chases on winding roads. The way they’re shot is particularly excellent — they’re well-lit and the stunt choreography is fantastic. The film doesn’t cut away from the action, either, which shows a confidence that other genre films don’t always have.

Elevation doesn't elicit too great excitement, there's something reliable about this story & cast that would make for a potentially successful series.

There’s an exhilaration that permeates Weekend in Taipei . Huang and Besson certainly don’t take the lazy road, amplifying the film’s action by ensuring the personal stakes are there and that we care about the characters. I wanted Joey and John to best Kwang if only so they could finally be together after more than a decade apart. If Huang’s film hadn’t bothered setting up and exploring aspects of that story, the action would have fallen entirely flat. We have to root for someone and the action thriller allows us to do that without forcing it.

Some Of Weekend In Taipei’s Moments Can Be Cheesy

But the film knows exactly what it’s trying to be.

To be sure, Weekend in Taipei is a corny action flick. The dialogue isn’t the snappiest, but it’s delivered with gusto that I didn’t even mind it for the most part. The romantic moments between John and Joey work primarily because the movie doesn’t linger on them; if it had, the lack of romantic chemistry between them would’ve been more obvious. When the characters are more playful, their attraction to each other works, but it takes a moment to get to that point of full believability between them.

The film’s lesser qualities occasionally bubble to the surface, including some of the supporting actors’ line deliveries, but the film is so energetic and confident in what it’s trying to be that it’s barely distracting. The pacing is swift and the surprising amount of humor is refreshing. Weekend in Taipei knows how to keep things exciting and, though it doesn’t wow us with any profound character depth, the storyline is straightforward and fun, and the characters aren’t so paper-thin that it’s bothersome. With a game cast and thrilling action sequences, Huang’s film offers more than expected to keep us engaged.

Weekend in Taipei is in theaters on November 8. The film is 100 minutes long and rated R for violence.

Weekend In Taipei, directed by George Huang, follows a former DEA agent and a former undercover operative as they rekindle their romance over a fateful weekend in Taipei, oblivious to the dangerous repercussions stemming from their tumultuous past.

• The action is exciting and there are stakes
• The film is fun and filled with equal amounts of thrills and humor
• The actors rise to the occasion, bringing charisma to their characters
• The film can be cheesy at times
• The chemistry between John and Joey isn't amazing

Weekend in Taipei Interview: Sung Kang & George Huang on Making Villains Believable

By Brandon Schreur

ComingSoon Senior Editor Brandon Schreur spoke to director George Huang and star Sung Kang about Weekend in Taipei. Huang and Kang discussed how the action project , which was co-written by Luc Besson, came to fruition, how they made Kang’s character a believable villain, and more.

“On a deep undercover assignment in Taipei, DEA agent John Lawlor (Luke Evans) was doing everything right… until he fell in love with his informant, beautiful Josephine ‘Joey’ Kwang (Gwei Lun-mei), one of the Asian underworld’s best transport drivers,” the synopsis for the movie reads. “Compromised and cover blown, John was forced to flee. Now, years later, John is back in Taipei for the weekend. But is he here to finish the job? Or to win back Joey’s love?

Weekend in Taipei releases in United States theaters on November 8, 2024, from Ketchup Entertainment.

Brandon Schreur: George, my first question is for you. I’m wondering if you can tell me just a little bit about how this project came about. I know you co-wrote it with Luc Besson, who was also a producer. Did you come to him and say, ‘Hey, I have this great idea for an action movie and you’re the action movie guy, let’s do this?’ Or how did that happen?

George Huang: So, Luc and I have actually known each other for a while. He actually, out of the blue, called me, like, ten years ago, and said he’d read a script of mine. He wanted to talk movies, so we got together, and that naturally just led to, ‘Hey, let’s write something together.’ He had a couple of story ideas, so we started writing together about ten years ago.

Even back then, Luc — he’s a very prolific filmmaker. He said, ‘Look, you work with me, I made more movies than Fox this year, so there’s an incredibly high likelihood that we will make our movie together.’ And that’s, oh my god. For any filmmaker, that’s exactly what you want to hear. We wrote one script together, that did not get made. Wrote another script together, that didn’t get made.

With this one, he came to me and said, ‘Hey, I’m interested in doing sort of a female Transporter movie set in Asia.’ So we wrote that together, and the third time’s a charm. He and his wife Virginie [Besson-Silla], who is his producing partner, really did everything they could to make this happen. I’m incredibly grateful for this opportunity to bring this film to the screen.

Sure, definitely. And it came out so well, too. I think you guys make some magic together so that’s awesome. Sung, you’re really well-known for playing Han in the Fast and Furious franchise. He’s obviously a really well-known and beloved character. Here, you’re kind of doing the total opposite where you’re not just a villain, but you’re an evil villain. Like, I think the moment where you really reveal your true colors is when you have the kid tied up and you’re hitting him. It’s like, ‘Oh, man. This guy isn’t good.’ I’m curious what it’s like going the complete opposite of things. Is it more fun playing a hero or a villain?

Sung Kang: Definitely a villain. It’s more fun. A lot more fun. The hero can get boring after a while. I’ve played Han so many times. It was nice to get into a different role. I think when you’re the bad guy, you get to take more chances and risks. You get to play more. It’s a lot of fun.

Sure. George, question for you about Sung. What’s it like directing Sung to be so evil like that? Do you have to give him a lot of direction, or do you just go, “Go for it, be evil, and we’ll see what happens? “

George: The great thing about working with someone like Sung is that he comes so prepared. Even before he signed on, the role was — yes, he’s the villain of the story, but to Sung’s credit, he came and said, ‘We really have to make this a well-rounded character, we have to make this a real character.’ We all worked together to try and deepen the role and not just make it a mustache-twirling villain, [we wanted to] give the character complexity, a deep backstory, and understand what it is that he really wants from all of this. Credit to Sung, he really brought these layers and depth to what could’ve been a typical, cardboard cutout villain.

Honestly, there are audiences who feel that [Sung’s] character is the hero of the movie and not the villain. You feel incredible empathy and sympathy for what he’s going through in this situation, and that’s really a credit to not only Sung’s work but his performance. It was a gift, quite honestly.

Thanks to George Huang and Sung Kang for discussing Weekend in Taipei.

Brandon Schreur has been writing about comics, movies, television shows, and all things pop culture for roughly five years. He's a lifelong cinephile who spends way, way too much money buying Blu-rays and trade paperbacks. You can find him on twitter at @brandonschreur.

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Weekend Event Planner

These are the 16 best things to do in dallas this weekend.

It's a big weekend for the performing arts in Dallas. Notable events include three comedy events, three theater productions, a drag performance, four concerts, two dance productions, and an opera. The two outliers are both festivals, one featuring dazzling lights and the other works from area visual artists.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, November 7

Tianyu Lights Festival, taking place outside of Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie, starts on November 8.

Plano Comedy Festival The Plano Comedy Festival will feature over 100 comedy acts, including stand-up, magic, characters, alternative comedy, panel discussions, workshops, and a Best of Fest Comedy Brunch. Headliners for the festival, taking place through Sunday at The Plano House of Comedy, will include Paul Varghese, Mike Vecchione, Cipha Sounds, Don McMillan, Learnmore Jonasi, Linda Stogner, Sarah Colonna, The Magic of Eric Eaton, KeLanna Spiller, Karith Foster, and Brad Upton.

WaterTower Theatre presents The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe Jane Wagner’s ever-timely, iconic, one-woman show, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe , examines American society, art, and human connectivity, and explores the feminist movement. As one actor transforms into a series of other archetypal characters, they become the play’s guiding conscience for the audience - a comical, quirky, and outlandish conveyor of the nuances of American society. The production runs through November 17 at Addison Conference and Theatre Centre.

Bob The Drag Queen: This Is Wild World Tour The alter ego of non-binary comic/actor Caldwell Tidicue, Bob The Drag Queen won the title of “America’s Next Drag Superstar'' on season 8 of RuPaul’s Drag Race . Through her work on HBO’s first unscripted show, We’re Here , Bob has been awarded a Peabody Award, GLAAD Media Award, and a Television Academy Honors recognition. She also won a Queerty Award as well as another GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Podcast for Sibling Rivalry , which she co-hosts with Monet X Change. She'll perform at Majestic Theatre.

Friday, November 8

Tianyu Lights Festival The Tianyu Lights Festival is an immersive show that tells the story of a 7-year-old boy as he explores the magical rainforest of Caballococha, Peru. It includes 19 immersive scenes featuring larger-than-life lantern sculptures crafted from metal, steel, fabric, and LED lights, plus nightly performances by acrobats and folk performers, as well as food, beverages, and souvenirs for sale. The festival takes place outside of Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie through January 19, 2025. It's one of the many merry and bright light events that will illuminate this holiday season in DFW.

Linkin Park in concert Through their first seven albums, rock band Linkin Park could lay claim to being the pre-eminent member of the genre in the 21st century. Five of their seven albums went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and all of them finished in the top 3. But then original lead singer Chester Bennington died by suicide in 2017, causing the band to go on indefinite hiatus. The band reformed in 2023, now with Emily Armstrong as lead singer, and is set to release a new album, From Zero , on November 15. They'll play at Globe Life Field in Arlington, joined by Bad Omens, Jean Dawson, and Helmet.

Nikki Glaser: Alive and Unwell Tour For nearly two decades at clubs across the country, and as the host of three hit podcasts, Nikki Glaser has been honing her honest, no-holds barred style of comedy. Her daily show, The Nikki Glaser Podcast , is peppered with Glaser's sense of humor and honesty to help keep listeners sane, well-informed, and laughing through life. She recently made headlines for her unfiltered performance at The Roast of Tom Brady on Netflix. She'll perform at Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie.

Dallas Black Dance Theatre presents Director's Choice As Dallas Black Dance Theatre approaches its 50th anniversary, this curated showcase features works exclusively from Dallas Black Dance Theatre alumni, including Oremus by Richard Freeman, Above & Below by Nycole Ray, and a world premiere by the award-winning Zach Law Ingram. There will be performances on Friday and Saturday at Wyly Theatre.

Family Music Theatre presents Peter Pan Peter and his mischievous fairy sidekick, Tinkerbell, visit the nursery of the Darling children late one night and, with a sprinkle of pixie dust, begin a magical journey across the stars that none of them will ever forget. In the adventure of a lifetime, the travelers come face to face with a ticking crocodile, a fierce Indian tribe, a band of bungling pirates, and, of course, the villainous Captain Hook. The production runs through November 23 at New Vida Church of God in Dallas.

The Dallas Opera presents Pelleas and Melisande Lost, confused, and frightened, Melisande is coerced into marrying the overbearing Prince Golaud, and in her marital melancholy, the young bride grows close to her handsome brother-in-law, Pelleas. Golaud’s rage sets the stage for this timeless tale of forbidden love, family jealousy, and regret. The production will have four performances through November 16 at Winspear Opera House.

Encanto : The Sing Along Film Concert Disney Concerts and AMP Worldwide will present Encanto: The Sing-Along Film Concert , where fans have the opportunity to sing along with their favorite songs performed by a live band while watching the full film. Fans are encouraged to dress up as Mirabel, Luisa, Isabela, or any of their favorite characters from the film. Taking place at Eisemann Center for Performing Arts in Richardson, the performance on Friday will be in English, while the performance on Saturday will be entirely in Spanish.

Ballet North Texas presents Modern Works Ballet North Texas will present Master Works , a performance that features two new works and the critically acclaimed Sur Le Fil , choreographed by Penny Saunders, which is celebrated for its dynamic and innovative choreography. The piece explores the delicate balance of life and relationships, challenging and delighting audiences with its intricate movements and emotional depth. There will be performances on both Friday and Saturday at Moody Performance Hall.

Saturday, November 9

Foundation for Public Spaces presents Turtle Creek Arts Festival The annual Turtle Creek Arts Festival transforms the picturesque Reverchon Park into an outdoor gallery. The two-day festival will showcase approximately 100 local and regional painters, photographers, sculptors, metalwork, glass artists, jewelers and more. Festival goers are invited to sip, stroll, shop, and mix and mingle with the artists while enjoying live demonstrations, a children’s area, and food and drink from local food trucks and vendors. The event takes place on Saturday and Sunday.

Cody Johnson in concert Country singer Cody Johnson is an example of someone who created his own success. His first six albums, from 2006 to 2016, were self-released, with the final two of those going against the odds and charting high on the Billboard Country chart. That got him signed by a major label, where he has continued to build on his popularity. He'll play at Globe Life Field, joined by special guests Jon Pardi, Tracy Byrd, and Ella Langley.

Art Centre Theatre presents Anastasia the Musical Anastasia transports its audience from the twilight of the Russian Empire to the euphoria of Paris in the 1920s, as a brave young woman sets out to discover the mystery of her past. Pursued by a ruthless Soviet officer determined to silence her, Anya enlists the aid of a dashing con man and a lovable ex-aristocrat. Together, they embark on an epic adventure to help her find home, love and family. The production runs through November 24 at Art Centre Theatre in Plano.

Funnier Than a Mutha Comedy Festival The third edition of the Funnier Than a Mutha Comedy Festival will feature a headlining performance by D.L. Hughley. Hosted by Rickey Smiley, the one-day event will also feature performances by Eddie Griffin, Jess Hilarious, Mario Hodge, and Nanette Lee. The event takes place at Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie.

Sunday, November 10

For King + Country in concert Christian pop duo For King + Country have been at the top of their genre since their debut in 2012, with all five of their albums making the top 5 on the Billboard Top Christian Albums chart, and a couple of them charting high on the overall Billboard 200. For this concert at American Airlines Center, they will perform new music from the soundtrack of the recent biopic film, Unsung Hero , along with many fan favorite songs.

Movie Review

Cillian murphy takes on church in irish film small things like these.

Last we saw actor Cillian Murphy, he was starring in the titular role of Oppenheimer , a role that would go on to earn him a Best Actor Oscar, not to mention many awards for the film itself. Instead of a big, flashy follow-up to build on that momentum, Murphy has gone in the opposite direction with the small and personal Small Things Like These .

Set in the 1980s in Murphy’s native Ireland, the film centers on Bill (Murphy), who owns a coal delivery company. One of his clients is the local convent, and during a delivery he witnesses a young pregnant woman being forced into the convent against her will by her mother. The scene triggers memories from his own childhood when he was raised by a single mother.

Every subsequent delivery to the convent has him questioning his own morality, although his taciturn nature doesn’t allow him to share his misgivings with his wife, Eileen (Eileen Walsh). With the Catholic Church an all-encompassing entity in Ireland, even if Bill wanted to help the girls who are trapped and mistreated at the convent, he’s not sure of any way to go about it.

Directed by Tim Mielants and written by Enda Walsh, the film has a slow build to it, so slow that it is a little difficult to ascertain the point of the story. The filmmakers go back and forth between scenes showing Bill as an adult and Bill as a child, and even though they each contain elements of trauma for the characters, the connection between the two timelines is not as strong as they might want it to be.

Even when it’s not part of a scene, the power of the church is the driving force of the film. Bill is clearly having a crisis of faith given his history and what he sees, but his wife seems to be willfully ignorant of any faults of the church and remains a true believer. The few segments that take the audience inside the convent are full of unforgiving nuns, with Sister Mary (Emily Watson) as their ultra-stern leader.

Given that this is an Irish film featuring all Irish actors, heavy accents accompany the majority of the dialogue, making it difficult to understand at times. This is clearly not an issue with the filmmaking and it helps with the verisimilitude of the story, but anyone who doesn’t have a lot of experience with the Irish accent may find themselves a little lost and/or disengaged with the emotions of the story.

Murphy’s role in Oppenheimer and this one don’t share much in common save for the fact that he clearly put his whole self into each of them. This is a testament to Murphy’s skills and dedication that he cares as much about an inherently local story as he did about a world-changing one. Walsh and Watson are also great as two women who have a huge influence on Bill’s outlook on life.

Small Things Like These , based on the book by Claire Keegan, is not as huge a takedown of the Catholic Church as some other films, but it’s still a searing indictment of its arcane practices. It’s one made even more effective by using a smaller story of one man’s lonely fight against injustice.

Small Things Like These opens in theaters on November 8.

'Weekend in Taipei' "Ticked Every Action Movie Box" for These 'Fast & Furious' Stars

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The Big Picture

• Collider's Perri Nemiroff hosts an exclusive Q&A with Weekend in Taipei director George Huang and stars Luke Evans, Sung Kang, and Wyatt Yang.
• Weekend in Taipei is a throwback action movie about Agent John Lawlor, who returns to Taiwan to finish a job from years ago and finds himself in a compromising position once again.
• During their conversation, Huang discusses working with Luc Besson on the story and their inspiration, and Evans, Kang, and Yang discuss filming challenging action sequences and their on-set family.

In recent years, Hollywood has shifted focus to action flicks in the style of '80s and '90s classics, from rebooting franchises like Bad Boys to John Woo 's 2024 remake of The Killer . So when filmmaker Luc Besson ( The Fifth Element ) approached director, writer, and producer George Huang ( Swimming with Sharks ) with a pitch he couldn't refuse, the two set to work on the script for Weekend in Taipei , a thriller that races across beautiful locations in Taiwan.

"I really want to do a female Transporter movie set in Asia," Besson told long-time collaborator Huang a couple of years ago. Together, the filmmakers crafted a narrative that blends fast-paced, heart-racing action sequences with an emotional core. Everything began to take shape when Fast & Furious stars Luke Evans and Sung Kang boarded the project as opposing forces, Agent John Lawlor and the sinister drug lord, Kwang, respectively.

Before the film's theatrical release on November 8, Collider's Perri Nemiroff sat down with Huang, Evans, and Kang, as well as Wyatt Yang , who plays Raymond in his debut on-screen role, for an exclusive Q&A following an advanced screening . You can watch the full conversation in the video above or read the transcript below for all the details behind what drew the stars to the script, the preparation and execution of challenging action sequences, developing characters and avoiding Hollywood tropes, and more.

'Weekend in Taipei' Is a "Female 'Transporter' Set in Asia"

The idea came from co-writer and producer luc besson..

PERRI NEMIROFF: George, can you tell us all what idea number one was, the thing that started it all, but then also if you and Luc had a break-story moment, something you came up with along the way that made you say, “We have a whole idea for a film now?”

GEORGE HUANG: I've had the fortune of working with Luc Besson for the last 10 years, collaborating on different scripts, and he came to me a couple of years ago with the idea, “Hey, I really want to do a female Transporter movie set in Asia.” So, we sat down together and started asking questions. “Okay, she's a transporter. Who is she transporting? Who is she running away from? Why is she running away? What are her deep, dark secrets?” And then, out of that process, all this stuff started to unfold.

What would you say is the biggest difference between draft one of this screenplay and the finished film that everyone just watched?

HUANG: When we got to Taipei, first of all, it's a beautiful place. There are a lot of gorgeous scenes, as you can see, and we can’t shoot all of it, but a lot of opportunities just unfolded organically when we were there. For example, the final fight between Luke and Sung, originally, we were gonna do it out in the streets — in the back alley there’s sort of night market — but we were shooting in the summer in Taipei, and it is super hot. So, Luc Besson and I were just wandering the streets just trying to scout, and five minutes into walking we were just drenched in sweat. I just joked to him when I saw a movie theater across the way, “Too bad we can’t do the final fight in an air-conditioned movie theater,” and he looked at me and said, “Why not?” [Laughs] So, to make all of our lives easier, we moved the whole third act to the movie theater.

Here's How Billie Eilish Inspired Luc Besson's Upcoming 'Dracula' Movie [Exclusive]

Director Luc Besson also discusses working with Caleb Landry Jones and Christoph Waltz and moving away from "pure fantasy."

Sometimes, that's when you find the best stuff, when things don't go according to plan!

HUANG: Exactly.

I also need a whole spin-off movie about the two people who sat in that theater while they fought.

HUANG: They had a lot of fun things to say.

'Weekend in Taipei' "Ticked Every Box" for a Great Action Movie

Evans and kang share how they joined the film..

Luke and Sung, I wanna come your way now to touch on signing on for this film because you’re both very busy guys in this industry; I imagine you have lots of opportunities at your fingertips. When this particular script comes your way, what is something about the story or the characters that made you think, “I have something to gain from this as an actor who's always evolving my craft?”

LUKE EVANS: Well, I did a movie with Luc, maybe four or five years ago, called Anna , so we'd worked together once before, and we had a really great experience together. The final conversation we had before I left Paris was, he said, “We're going to work together again one day,” and I guess I was in his head. I didn't think much of it. Directors promise a lot of things, and often, they don't come back. But Luc kept his word, and I was in his mind, and I guess in your mind, too, when they wrote this character. I knew that this was happening, I knew that they were writing something. Luc was always keeping me involved, and I was excited to read it. When it came, it literally ticked every box of what I would want to watch in an action movie and what I would want to be part of in an action movie.

SUNG KANG: I can echo what Luke said about Luc Besson. I got the opportunity to meet Luc on the set of Fast X . He came to visit Louis Leterrier, the director of Fast X , and we were just talking about filmmaking. One of my favorite films is The Big Blue . I don't know if you’ve had an opportunity to see Luc’s earliest films, but I think that is a cinematic masterpiece and a big part of my high school years. And then George Huang with Swimming with Sharks 30 years ago, I think ‘95, he was definitely on my bucket list of directors that I wished to work with because of that film. So, those two elements were a huge draw.

Also, the fact that George was directing this film, I knew that at least I would be safe and be able to have this open dialogue with them to stay away from the common tropes of an Asian bad guy. The luxury to be able to sit down with George and Luc every morning at the hotel — we pretty much all lived together in a dorm, so at breakfast, we were able to talk about the scenes and the characters and just keep adding dimensions. I think that's just such a blessing and a luxury to have as an actor, to have that access with the writers and the director.

What are some subtle qualities of your characters that you knew you needed to add so that they didn't just become the villain and the hero of the story, but they felt like fully realized people who had something to fight for?

EVANS: It's all on the page. You want to see a well-rounded, layered character. Good guys have bad sides, and bad guys have good sides. I think these are very relatable people — even Kwang is relatable. He loves this woman. He's twisted and crazy, but he loves this woman. He just wants this woman. He's obsessed with this woman. And I relate to that story, as well. I can understand it. It's interesting. I think that's what's very clever about the writing is George and Luc created characters that are not just cookie-cutter , obvious versions of a bad guy, a protagonist and an antagonist. They are way more than that.

What I love about John Lawlor is I think he's just a nice guy who's not really chosen the right decisions in life. He's a bit of a mess, he's a bit jaded, he's tired. The face says everything. I mean, he's been through the wars, and I think he's missed the boat of having a family, and he's accepted that. Then, all of a sudden, boom , a mother of a child and a man who wants to kill them all, and he has to fight for them. And he sort of looks at life with a bit of a smirk. He has a humor. Even in the darkest moments, there's a bit of, like, “Oh, here we go again,” kind of thing, and I quite like that about him. He's sort of like an everyman. I like that.

Luke Evans Feels the '90s Vibe in Action-Packed 'Weekend in Taipei' Trailer [Exclusive]

The thrilling movie comes from the creator of 'The Transporter' and 'Taken'.

The second he saved the fish, I was like, “I get and appreciate this guy.”

EVANS: That's another thing, right? That's in the writing. That was in the script from the beginning, and I just think it's lovely because he saves this little fish, but his son wants to save the dolphins, and they have this connection. Obviously, it's a tiny detail, but I think that's what makes this action film a lot more nuanced , this detail like that, which I find intriguing and touching, and I appreciate that kind of detail.

KANG: I think Luke explained it well. To be able to tap into this idea of a character that is so obsessed and in love with a woman, that explains the why. Why is Kwang such a bad guy? Why is he gonna do what he does? Not everybody can relate with being a drug lord and being a gangster and being this sexy [laughs], but I hope most of us can relate to being in love with someone so deeply that you would do anything to keep that person, right? So, that was the North Star. I think that's what made this bad guy interesting and unique. Again, it's a luxury to be able to explore those dimensions.

'Weekend in Taipei's Wyatt Yang Is a Star in the Making

"there's a realness to wyatt's performance.".

Wyatt, I'm gonna make this real awkward for you for a moment. I'm gonna make the three of them talk about you for a second because this is your first movie, and I was just so wildly impressed by how incredibly natural you are right off the bat, and there's no doubt in my mind that there's gonna be many, many more filmmaking opportunities for you out there if you want them. So, for the three of you, can you each tell me something about Wyatt as a scene partner and as a lead in your movie that you're so excited for even more filmmakers to experience in the future?

EVANS: Look at that face.

HUANG: How could you not love this kid?

EVANS: Working with Wyatt, I've said it many times, but there's a realness to Wyatt's performance . He doesn't overthink it. And for somebody who's never been on a film set and then all of a sudden is thrown into this giant machine, you just took it in your stride, and you just left Wyatt at the door and turned into Raymond every day. It sounds simple, but it's really not easy to leave yourself out of the equation when it comes to performance, and Wyatt did it without even thinking. He just became my son. He became Joey's son. It was fascinating and brilliant and just so nice to have somebody so young embracing it in a very simplistic way, which is actually a brilliant, brilliant tool. And I told you that night, never lose it. Never lose that because it's brilliant, and you have it in bucket loads.

HUANG: Wyatt is great, but a lot of it is acting is like playing tennis, so you're as good as your partner. When you’ve got Luke and Sung to work opposite of? I remember there was one take when Sung was beating Wyatt, and there were tears coming down Wyatt’s face. I was like, “Oh my god, that’s fantastic! How did you get there?” And he was like, “Sung was scaring me, man.” [Laughs] He was like, “Oh my god, what did I do to piss him off?” So, when you have scene partners and actors like Luke and Sung to play off of, it helps out, right, Wyatt?

WYATT YANG: Yeah, definitely.

KANG: It's nice to work with young folks because they remind you what it was like when you were on a set for the first time. Every day I was just so excited because I think you didn't have to go to summer school or something, so he was like extra, extra excited. It reminds you why we were attracted to this crazy business, his fresh perspective. I give credit to his mother and father; they are also artists and thespians, so he already came with a structure or method to the craft. So, it wasn't like working with some wild kid that they just found at an open call. I was just shocked how professional he was.

Wyatt, you're clearly a pro right out of the gate, but one of the coolest things about doing more and more movies is you get the opportunity to learn from the people you're working with every step of the way. What's something you saw Sung and Luke do on this set that you wanted to put in your back pocket so you could try them yourself on another film?

YANG: It was really exciting to work with both these amazing actors. I saw Luke play Gaston in Beauty and the Beast and, of course, Sung in the Fast & Furious movies, so it's really cool to see them in person. They're really nice people in person, which I did not expect. [Laughs] Me and Sung, probably every other night, would go to this dumpling place called Lai Lai. Every other night we'd walk there. And Luke, me and my family would do karaoke with him, probably like five times. He has a beautiful voice, by the way.

EVANS: So do you!

Gwei Lun-mei Is a Big Reason the Family Dynamic Shines On-Screen

"it came really naturally for all of us.".

We're lucky enough to be able to talk to the three of you right now from the cast, but Mei is not here, and she is absolutely phenomenal — a total powerhouse in that role. Wyatt and Luke, it feels like this movie does not work unless you cast the perfect trio to play that family, so can you each tell me the first time that you stopped, looked around at each other, and said, “Wow, I really am with the perfect scene partners for this dynamic?”

EVANS: I felt it the first scene we did. Obviously, we were introduced to each other before we started filming and got a chance to chat and have dinner and talk. Then you're in costume, and then you're on a set, and all of a sudden, the cameras are rolling, and you just hope to God that the chemistry naturally flows and that we all find our place within that little dynamic. And it just happened. Very, very quickly, we just took our roles and owned them, and I felt a protective nature around Mei and Wyatt on and off the set. We all got on.

We just touched on it, but we were in Taipei — none of us live in Taipei. We're from lots of other places around the world. We become our own family. We create this temporary little union of people that we may not see for a very long time after the movie finishes, but that is what we have. And not often, but sometimes, you get a group of people that really want to make an effort and bond, and we all did that. And like you said, when the cameras roll, you hope and pray that that happens on camera, and it did. It totally did.

I mean, Joey hates me for about two-thirds of the film. [Laughs] I kept saying to George, I was like, “When is she going to be nice ?” Because it just feels like every scene, she just hates me. She's giving me so much shit, punching me, and it’s just like, “Okay, I'm sorry! How many more times can I say I'm sorry?” But it works. When she does smile and when she does touch my face in the car when I say I'm gonna go and meet Kwang in the American alley, it's really poignant because it's like, “Oh, wow. She does care.” And she's gone through all that with him. It’s lovely, and we miss her here. I really miss her because she's such a gracious human being and so talented and generous, and really bloody good.

YANG: I think it came really naturally for all of us. Obviously, I have a mom somewhere over there, but there's a scene that really resonated with me when we were all in Popo's house sitting in the table. At the time, obviously, he's not my dad, and she's not my mom, but when the camera starts rolling, I just pretend that they're my mom and my dad. And I know Luke just gave me some really good advice about filmmaking.

'Weekend in Taipei's Kitchen Fight Took Four Days to Film

Between challenging stunts and language barriers, this one was a sequence for the books.

I want to pose this question to the entire group because I am very curious to see how your answers might differ based on what your character goes through. This movie is one ambitious set piece after the next, so when you were gearing up to film, which scene did you think was going to be the toughest for you to pull off, and ultimately was it or did a different one catch you by surprise?

EVANS: I know which one for me: that kitchen fight. I don't know how I got through it. I do not know how I survived it. [Laughs] It was weeks of rehearsal in a cardboard kitchen that we built so we could work within the parameters of what we had that was exactly like the real kitchen. But then, you turn up in the real kitchen, and everything's sharp, and the woks are real, and the rings are real flames. It was, like, four days of being battered and then soaked.

This is an extremely elaborate fight sequence. Is there any teeny-tiny particular detail of the choreography that was toughest for you to master?

EVANS: The stunt coordinator, [Amedéo Cazzella], has worked on many of Luc’s movies, so we were very lucky to work with an incredible team from France and some French stuntmen. Then we had a Taiwanese stunt team, as well, and then we had a translator who would translate between Taiwanese, English, and French. So, the first few days, I’d literally take three paracetamol at the beginning of the day and three in the middle just to get through. It was like, “How are we gonna communicate all of this and not hurt each other?”

They brought all their different styles to the table. John is clearly a character. You can see what he can do. He's not a trained fighter. He doesn’t do Krav Maga or jiu-jitsu — all the other boys were doing that stuff. So, he just does what he does and picks up a wok or a knife, and we brought his character very much into the choreography that he does. That just organically grew by the days that we were rehearsing, and after three weeks, we had the whole thing set.

10 Movies That Prove the Oscars Need a Stunt Category

Seriously. It's time.

Wyatt and Sung, do you have an example of a scene that wound up being more challenging than you ever could have imagined to film?

YANG: Obviously, the scene where Sung is beating the shit out of me, that was definitely the hardest scene to shoot. Obviously, it's my first time shooting a movie, and George gave me really good advice. He was like, “He's gonna kill you, he's gonna kill you!” [Laughs] I really understood that when he told me that, so then I just started crying. That was probably the hardest scene to shoot.

KANG: I thought that scene was going to be very hard, but it actually came really naturally for me. That’s actually my favorite scene of any scene I've ever done in any film. [Laughs] As I get older, all the action stuff becomes harder and harder, so I knew it was going to be hard, and it turned out to be harder. But I give credit to our amazing stunt team. They put their literally blood and broken bones and hearts into that, so they deserve the credit. We get to come and play, and they go home and…

EVANS: Ice bath. [Laughs]

George, I'm not leaving you out with this question, especially from the directing perspective!

HUANG: As the director, I was terrified. You think, every day, “Oh my god, it's gonna be a nightmare.” We're always facing some obstacle. Our first day of filming was supposed to take place inside Popo’s house, but the set burned down. All of sudden, it’s like, “Oh my god, what are we gonna do?” So, we're scrambling, and every day, it’s like, “Okay, what disaster are we going to have to face today?” But again, when you have Luc and Virginie [Besson-Silla] as your producers, they've done it, they've seen it all before. And like Sung said, we’d meet at the hotel, we’d meet in the morning, and I’d be going, “Oh my god, the weather is horrible. We can't afford to be like Terrence Malick and wait for the perfect light!” Then Luc would be like, “Oh, I did a movie with Terrence Malick. I produced The Tree of Life …” And he tells the anecdote that would not only show you how we're going to get through the day but calm you down. So, I thought all of them were going to be hard, but again, having the perfect cast, the crew that we had, and having Luc and Virginie Besson helps a lot . It really does.

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That will pave the way to my last question quite nicely because I love hearing collaborators give each other flowers. For each of you, whether it was a member of the cast or the crew, can you each recall a time someone did something on the set of this movie that made you stop and go, "That is something else, and I'm so proud of you?”

YANG: Mei, probably, like, once a week, would come to set and give us a present, whether it's a mug or whether it's some cookies. She'd always just come to set with something to give. She's a really kind soul. I would say on set, she was like my second mother.

That’s a beautiful answer.

KANG: I would say daily it was George. I call him Happy Buddha. You just want to go up to him and rub his belly for good luck. On a film set, especially in a foreign country, people speaking different languages and the weather and the unknowns, there's always something, and when the leader is always level-headed and always positive — I never heard George complain, I never saw him or heard him point fingers, even to this day. He's a special, special, special person. Sometimes on a set or in life, you learn what not to do from the leaders, but with George, every day I'm around him, I learn what to do and what kind of human being to be.

Another beautiful answer. I have to follow up with one silly question though. Does George have a monitor dance, something he does behind the monitor that signals to you, he's really loving a take?

KANG: His voice gets us in a lot of trouble. He's so loud. The first evening that we all hung out at the night market, his laugh is so loud we almost got in a fight. It's so loud it's offensive.

EVANS: Not us . Somebody at the restaurant started to tell us to shut up. [Laughs] It was George’s laugh.

KANG: They're trying to eat. The family's trying to eat their shaved ice, and he's like [laughs loudly], and everything starts to shake.

Do people not like joy? What's wrong with them?

HUANG: There's nothing to complain about when you're working with a cast like this and making a movie like this. Every day is a happy day. It's great. You’re always like, “I can't believe I'm here. I can't believe we're actually doing this! I can't believe I'm working with Luke Evans, with Sung Kang, and Wyatt Yang, and Luc Besson.” It was just like, “Oh my god!” I still don't believe it's real. I think I'm gonna wake up from some weird coma because that guy at the restaurant beat the crap out of me. Then I wake up, like, “It was all a dream”

That's a cool movie idea, actually.

Luke, you want to take us home with this one?

EVANS: On a film set, there are a lot of people that you never meet, you never hear their names, or you never see them, but without them, we can't make movies. They are the people behind the camera. They're often the people you spend the most time with. You're there in the morning in the chair, and it's the hair and makeup, the wardrobe, the people that are around you all day long, making sure you look the way you look, making sure your hair is nice and the blood is in the right place and the clothes are just about hanging on. You spend a lot of time with them. And my team, they were all young Taiwanese girls, and one didn't speak any English and did my hair every day, and I'd learn a little something every day with them. They were the people I remember. When I think of my experience, I remember these three girls from Taipei who were with me every single day, wherever we were. On top of a mountain or in the back of a car or in a Chinese restaurant next to a fish tank, they were always next to me. I always remember that group that I'm always solid with.

Weekend in Taipei hits theaters on November 8.

Weekend In Taipei

A former DEA agent and a former undercover operative revisit their romance during a fateful weekend in Taipei, unaware of the dangerous consequences of their past.

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2 jours en salle seulement : vous n'avez qu'un week-end pour découvrir Blitz, le film de guerre de Steve McQueen !

"Blitz", le nouveau film du réalisateur de l'Oscarisé "12 Years a slave", Steve McQueen sortira en salles de manière exceptionnelle les 9 et 10 novembre prochain avant une diffusion sur Apple TV+ dès le 22 novembre.

Un an après son documentaire Occupied City, le cinéaste Steve McQueen est de retour avec le drame historique Blitz .

Porté par Saoirse Ronan , Harris Dickinson , Benjamin Clementine et le jeune Elliott Heffernan , le long métrage raconte l’épopée de George, un garçon de 9 ans vivant à Londres pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Sa mère Rita l'envoie se réfugier dans la campagne anglaise. Mais George, déterminé à retourner chez sa mère et son grand-père Gerald (Paul Weller) dans l’est de Londres, se lance dans une aventure extrêmement dangereuse, tandis que Rita, folle d'inquiétude, se lance à sa recherche.

La musique de ce film qui se déroule durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale est composée par le légendaire Hans Zimmer (Le Roi Lion, Pirates des Caraïbes, la Ligne rouge, Gladiator…). Il s'agit de la troisième collaboration du compositeur avec Steve McQueen après 12 years a slave en 2013 et Les Veuves en 2018.

Une sortie en salles limitée

Prévu pour une sortie en streaming sur AppleTV+ le 22 novembre prochain, Blitz sera visible en salles sous visa exceptionnel les 9 et 10 novembre. L'occasion de découvrir cette fresque écrite par le réalisateur de l'Oscarisé 12 Years a Slave, Shame et Small Axe sur grand écran. 

Si AppleTV+ avait un temps décidé de sortir ses films dans les salles françaises à l'instar de Napoléon de Ridley Svott, le géant du streaming a finalement récemment changé de stratégie en sortant directement Wolfs avec Brad Pitt et George Clooney sur AppleTV+. Une sortie dans les salles françaises oblige en effet la plateforme à attendre 17 mois avant de pouvoir diffuser le film en France. Ainsi, Blitz sortira durant 2 jours dans le cadre du décret sur les visas temporaires. Ce dernier rend possible la programmation d’une œuvre sur 500 séances maximum pour une durée de deux jours d’une même semaine cinématographique.

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