A day before the world premier of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” Steven Spielberg dropped by a media event for select journalists after outright refusing to give interviews at the Cannes Film Festival. KP’s Stas Tyrkin took the opportunity to ask the director a few questions about his latest film. Spielberg’s security guards surrounded him like a pack of vicious wolves and prohibited journalists from recording him on tape. KP has recounted his answers from memory.
Q: “Mr. Spielberg, why did you decide to make the Russians Indiana Jones’ enemies?”
A: “First off, I am Russian,” said Spielberg, an American Jew, with a straight face. He was wearing his long-familiar baseball cap with the stitched motto: ‘Relax.’ “My descendants were from Ukraine. However, when we decided the fourth installment would take place in 1957, we had no choice but to make the Russians the enemies. World War II had just ended and the Cold War had begun. The U.S. didn’t have any other enemies at the time.”
Q: “Why did you give Cate Blanchett such a nonsensical name like Irina Spalko?”
A: “I had nothing to do with that. That was the screenwriters!”
Q: “Your next film will be based on the Belgium comics, ‘Tintin?’”
A: “Yes, we’re making an animation trilogy. I’ll shoot the first film. The second will be shot by Peter Jackson (‘King Kong’). And we’ll shoot the third film together.”
Unfortunately, Spielberg couldn’t finish telling us his future plans as a crowd of Japanese journalists took him by storm.
The new Indiana Jones flick is a painstaking compilation of Spielberg’s prior achievements — executed with masterful precision but lacking inspiration. Indiana Jones fans will surely be taken by the film, although the fourth episode lacks the humor and lightness of the earlier three films.
The events unfold around a mystical crystal skull in the remote Peruvian forests. Soviet Commissar Irina Spalko chases the prized skull to help the Communists conquer the world. Together with her partner, circus actor Igor Zhizhikin, they take on a slightly older Indiana Jones.
Blanchett plays the role of the malicious Russian evildoer. She cunningly borrowed images of beautiful Russian patriotic workers from old Hollywood films. (Her hairstyle and makeup belong to Greta Garbo in Ernst Lubitch’s “Ninotchka.”)
Blanchett is familiar to Russian roles. In Sally Potter’s film, “The Man Who Cried,” she made a magnificent performance as a Russian prostitute. Ingeborg Dapkunayte taught her Russian words to use during the film. This time around, though, it seems they couldn’t find a suitable Russian teacher for the star and she had to stick with a thickly accented English. READ MORE
