LWLies 102: the Chal­lengers issue – Out now!

The Ital­ian writer/​director Luca Guadagni­no caught the eye of the film world with his lav­ish and lux­u­ri­ant 2009 film, I Am Love, in which Til­da Swin­ton plays out a pursed romance set in the world of gourmet food ser­vice. Lat­er, in 2017, he had a deserved mega hit with the wist­ful coun­try romance, Call Me By Your Name, which con­nect­ed with a young, curi­ous audi­ence on a pro­found lev­el. His new film, Chal­lengers, cul­ti­vates his con­nec­tion with that influ­en­tial audi­ence, a spry and sharp roman­tic dra­mady set in the high stakes world of pro­fes­sion­al tennis.

The film stars Zen­daya (who also pro­duces) as Tashi, a charis­mat­ic ten­nis star-in-the-mak­ing who catch­es the eye of two fine prospects, Josh O’Connor’s lairy, louche Patrick, and Mike Faist’s more inte­ri­or and sen­si­tive Art. As both men play­ful­ly jos­tle for Tashi’s affec­tions, she expe­ri­ences a pro­fes­sion­al tragedy that frames her boy­ish sutors in a new light. This tale of roman­tic back-and-forth is told via flash­back from the blue hard court of a low key ​“Chal­lenger” com­pe­ti­tion in which our love rivals meet on court. Their fraught match becomes an out­let for their frus­tra­tions and joys, while Tashi must look on and attempt to make sense of the loaded body lan­guage that’s been sent across the net.

In this issue, we talk to Guadagni­no about mak­ing what is his most kinet­ic and ebul­lient film, but one that retains his com­mit­ment to deep char­ac­ter shades and per­son­al chem­istry between actors. We also speak to Zen­daya, O’Connor and Faist about how their per­son­al rela­tion­ships and intri­cate prepa­ra­tions result­ed in one of the year’s hottest and most nail-bit­ing films.

On the cover

We com­mis­sioned the Eind­hoven-based artist Petra Eriks­son for this vibrant­ly colour­ful, graph­i­cal­ly-inclined cov­er fea­tur­ing the film’s three leads. You can read more about Eriksson’s process here. Else­where in the issue, we have new art­work by Andrei Nico­les­cu, Stéphanie Sergeant, Ruby Ash and Poli­na Jaki­mo­va, plus a spe­cial illus­trat­ed cel­e­bra­tion of Luca Guadagnino’s cin­e­ma by Elise Hib­berd, Eri Aikawa, Stephanie Mono­han, Max Erwin, and Lau­ra Hope.

In the issue

Encoun­ters: The Cin­e­ma of Luca Guadagni­no
Rafa Sales Ross sur­veys the lush cin­e­mat­ic land­scape of this sin­gu­lar direc­tor ahead of Chal­lengers’ arrival.

Hawk Eye: A con­ver­sa­tion with Luca Guadagni­no
The poet­ic and world­ly film­mak­er explains how he came to make a hyper-kinet­ic sports melo­dra­ma in Challengers.

Three’s Com­pa­ny
We meet Zen­daya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist – the stars of Chal­lengers – to divine the for­mu­la of their awe­some screen chemistry.

Emo­tion Sell­er
A con­ver­sa­tion with Chal­lengers’ ace screen­writer and erst­while YouTube sen­sa­tion, Justin Kuritzkes.

Gentleman’s Agree­ment
Lil­lian Craw­ford looks for bisex­u­al rum­blings in cinema’s ear­ly days.

Cinesyn­thia!
Jake Cole lists ten of the most impor­tant and epochal elec­tron­ic sound­tracks in the his­to­ry of cinema.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Movie Stars: A LWLies round-table
Four crit­ics pick and pull at the sinews of the mod­ern movie star over a lav­ish break­fast at The Wolseley.

Ads Infini­tum: A Guadagni­no Port­fo­lio
Five Luca Guadagni­no bangers reframed as clas­sic mag­a­zine ads by a group of indus­tri­ous illustrators.

In the back section

Ethan Coen and Tri­cia Cooke
Han­nah Strong talks dirty with the writer/​director part­ner­ship whose new film, Dri­ve-Away Dolls, offers a sex pos­i­tive throw­back to six­ties B‑pictures.

Rose Glass
It’s two times the charm for the direc­tor of Love Lies Bleed­ing, who dis­cussed her vis­cer­al bor­der­town crime caper with Han­nah Strong.

Vic­tor Erice
David Jenk­ins meets the Span­ish mae­stro whose won­der­ful new film, Close Your Eyes, is his first fea­ture in over 30 years.

Alice Rohrwach­er
Han­nah Strong inter­views this lead­ing light of the new ethe­re­al cin­e­ma on her beguil­ing and emo­tion­al new work, La Chimera.

Sean Price Williams
Anna Bogut­skaya shoots the breeze with the ace cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er-turned-direc­tor on the occa­sion of his down-and-dirty debut, The Sweet East.

Rodri­go Moreno
The Argen­tin­ian film­mak­er behind the lacon­ic crime com­e­dy, The Delin­quents, talks about min­ing clas­si­cal genre to find some­thing new and transcendent.

In review

Ethan Coen and Tri­cia Cooke’s Dri­ve-Away Dolls
Joe Lawlor and Chris­tine Molloy’s Bal­ti­more
Bob­by Moser, Gen­nady Bara­nov and Ben Mullinkosson’s The Last Year of Dark­ness
Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleed­ing
Axel Daniel­son and Max­im­i­lien Van Aertryck’s Fan­tas­tic Machine
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Mon­ster
Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams
Neo Sora’s Opus
Kevin Macdonald’s High and Low: John Gal­liano
Mar­co Bellocchio’s Kid­napped
Sacha Polak’s Sil­ver Haze
Antho­ny Chen’s Drift
Sean Price Williams’ The Sweet East
Rama­ta-Toulaye Sy’s Banel & Adama
Vic­tor Erice’s Close Your Eyes
Mat­teo Garrone’s Io Cap­i­tano
Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera
Ilk­er Çatak’s The Teach­ers’ Lounge
Angela Schanelec’s Music
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist
Elene Naveriani’s Black­bird Black­bird Black­ber­ry
Gia­co­mo Abbruzzese’s Dis­co Boy
War­wick Thornton’s The New Boy
Paul Duane’s All You Need is Death
Rodri­go Moreno’s The Delinquents

Plus, Matt Turn­er selects six key home ents releas­es for your con­sid­er­a­tion. Also, Han­nah Strong sends a post­card from the Berlin Film Festival.

LWLies 101 is avail­able to order now from our online shop. Become a Club LWLies Gold Mem­ber or sub­scribe today to make sure you nev­er miss an issue.