kviff.com
News
Festival Guide
  • Tickets and Festival Pass
  • Accommodations
  • Transportation
  • Festival cinemas
  • No Barriers project
  • Kids at the festival
  • Festival Shop
Program
  • Catalogue of films
  • Accompanying programme
  • Archive of films
  • Audience award
  • KVIFF Talks
  • Film Entry
Film Industry
  • Industry accreditation
  • Film Industry at KVIFF
  • Industry Days Programme
  • KVIFF Eastern Promises
  • KVIFF Talents
Press
  • Press accreditation
  • Press Service
  • For download
  • Press releases
  • Photogallery
  • Videogallery
About the festival
  • Festival description
  • Programme sections
  • Awards
  • History
  • We support non-profits
  • Photogallery
  • Partners
  • Why We Support the Festival
  • Contacts
CZ
Sign in

Interview: Keitel on Youth and being Wes's dog

July 11, 2015, 6:00

Actor’s Studio alum Harvey Keitel worked in theater for a decade before landing roles on the silver screen. He has been in six films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar – Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, Barry Levinson’s Bugsy, Jane Campion’s The Piano, Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds, as well as Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. He also won an Independent Spirit award for his starring role in Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant and was given the inaugural Rebel Award for his commitment to indie movies. In his new film, Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth, he plays a director looking to make his swan song, opposite his friend Michael Caine, a composer refusing to perform – even for the Queen.

Were you looking to work with Paolo Sorrentino, or did he have you in mind?
I’d seen Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo and The Great Beauty [which won a Best Foreign Picture Oscar] and I wanted to work with him. Those are two of the most beautiful movies I’ve ever seen. The script came along, and I said to my new agent, John Burnham at ICM, “I’d like that part.” And I got it – or rather he got it.

In Youth, your character and Michael Caine’s have been friends for decades. In preparing for the role, did you draw on your...
Let me say that – I always have a difficult time talking about a movie like this for a few reasons. One, it hasn’t been released yet, really, just in Italy and it screened in Cannes [in competition for the Palme d’Or]... I don’t like to influence people with my perspective on the movie. I’d like them to see it fresh, so I don’t encumber their relationship with the story Paolo wrote. It’s a very beautiful story and a complex one, in terms of the way we live our lives. There’s plenty to think about when you see it.

You can read the whole interview in today's Festival Daily.

Related news

VIDEO: Interview with Harvey Keitel
10/7/2015
Harvey Keitel introduced Youth and chatted with visitors
10/7/2015
Interview: Richard Gere on embracing higher qualities
4/7/2015
Other partners
Newsletter

First-hand brews throughout the year.
Be among the first to learn about upcoming events and other news. We only send the newsletter when we have something to say.

Follow us on the web:

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
is part of the KVIFF Group family, which covers other projects as well:

© 2025 KVIFF GROUP

Rules for Visitors / Website visitors privacy policy / GTC / Personal Data Protection / Rules for Claim / Rules and Regulations / Contacts