While I love helping to promote the big Hollywood releases, it’s times like this when I really love my job.

Many years ago I discovered Whit Stillman. He’s a filmmaker who has only done 3 films, but all of them are great. Perhaps you’ve heard of “Metropolitan, “Barcelona” or “The Last Days of Disco”? If you haven’t, they’re really worth checking out as Whit has a unique and special voice.

Anyway, there’s a reason why I’m talking about Whit Stillman in a Chris Eigeman interview. And it’s because Chris starred in all 3 movies. Of course Chris has been in many other TV and film projects, but I’ll admit to first discovering his work in “Metropolitan” and Whit’s subsequent films.

So when I found out Chris had made his first feature and he was going to be doing interviews in Los Angeles to help promote it…needless to say I wanted to not only meet him, but help him promote his work. Thankfully, “Turn the River” (his movie) is a great debut and one that shows a lot of promise.

The film is about a small time pool hustler (Famke Janssen) inupstate New York. She ekes out a living playing poker, periodically driving into Manhattanto check up on her mentor, Quinn (Rip Torn), who runs a pool hall. Kailey(Janssen) then decides toraise $50,000 so she canwrest her son Gulley (Jaymie Dornan) away from her alcoholic ex-husband David(Matt Ross) and his domineering mother (Lois Smith).In order to win the money, Kailey must score a match with the best player at Quinn’s, Duncan (John Juback). With this as her only hope for afuture with her son, Kailey starts to playand the stakes have never been higher.

<spanface="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As I said, it’s a great debut and it’s nice to see Chris feature a woman as the hustler and star. As you know, it's not the norm.

Anyway, the film opened today in New York and it’s coming to Los Angeles next weekend. Since many of you might want to see some footage…above the interview is a trailer for the movie. And speaking of the interview, since it’s pretty long I divided it up into two parts. As always, I listed what we talked about above each part.

Finally, since many of you don’t live in New York or L.A., I’d make sure you make a note of “Turn the River” so when it hits Netflix or your local video store you can check it out. And with that….here’s the trailer and Chris.

Turn the River Movie Trailer

 
Chris Eigeman
  • Was he ever thinking about putting himself in the movie
  • What was it about the material that got him to finally write and direct
  • Was he friends with everyone in the movie and how was it working with all of them
  • He gives a synopsis of the film
  • What was the writing process like for the movie
  • How was it raising the money for the project
  • I ask if he ever thought about using the Upper East Side in his movie
  • How did it help him as a filmmaker working on all those independent movies

 

Chris Eigeman Part 2

  • We talk about the 90’s film movement
  • Has the process of making this movie got him hungry for making another one
  • Whit Stillman talk – Chris says he has two projects in the works
  • Criterion talk – we start with Metropolitan
  • He then tells a funny story about the Criterion softball team
  • Next project talk – he says it takes place in 1943. A New York City film with jazz.