James Mottram

James Mottram is a film journalist and author. He's written several books on film including The Making of Dunkirk, published in the UK by Titan

Latest from James Mottram

Film

Eleanor the Great, review: Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut takes on Holocaust survivor trauma

The Hollywood star’s hotly anticipated film will please the crowds, but despite its material it feels lightweight

1 min read

June Squibb plays Eleanor, a 94-year-old Jewish mother and grandmother

Hand-drawn visions: a scene from The Most Precious of Cargoes. Director Michel Hazanavicius drew all of the characters in the film himself Photo: Ex Nihilo

‘My animated Shoah movie tells truths that kids will understand’

6 min read

Courage and faith: Sophie Nélisse (centre) as Irena Gut, the housekeeper for a Nazi officer

The Polish nurse, the Nazi officer and the Jews in the basement

6 min read

Claude Lanzmann driving into the village of Treblinka, in July 1978

All I Had Was Nothingness review: ‘you will never see a more haunting road movie’

2 min read

September 5 isn’t about the hostages or terrorists of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre, it’s about journalism

The director and Jewish actors in the new movie on the questions it raises about the reporting of terrorism… live

6 min read

February 5, 2025 11:59

Intense: a scene from the cramped gallery of ABC TV's sports division where most of the film is set

The Brutalist director on why he made a film now set for Oscar glory

Brady Corbet’s new movie stars Adrien Brody as a mid-century designer and a Shoah survivor and pays tribute to the beauty of architecture, a discipline rarely celebrated on the screen

4 min read

January 22, 2025 17:37

Design matters: Adrien Brody as the fictional Bauhaus school architect László Toth

Why I’ve made another film about Bob Dylan

James Mangold, the ‘half-Jewish’ director of A Complete Unknown on making one of cinema’s most hotly anticipated biopics

6 min read

January 15, 2025 15:03

Like a Rolling Stone: Hollywood director James Mangold in conversation with Timothée Chalamet, who plays Bob Dylan in the film

The Jewish answer to Fleabag’s ‘hot priest’: Erin Foster on her new Netflix show Nobody Wants This

The actor and writer discusses casting Adam Brody as the ‘hot rabbi’ for her new Netflix rom-com and drawing from her personal experience as a Jewish convert

6 min read

September 26, 2024 12:47

Erin Foster, the writer behind new Netflix series Nobody Wants This, drew from her personal experience of converting to Judaism for inspiration.

The Goldman Case: The new French courtroom drama that puts Jewishness on trial

Cédric Kahn on his reconstruction of the 1976 trial of leftist Pierre Goldman – and the French judicial system’s prejudice against Jews

4 min read

September 19, 2024 12:44

In the dock: Arieh Worthalter as Pierre Goldman in a scene from The Goldman Case

The Jewish rom-com that tells you everything you ever wanted to know about platonic love

I talk to writer-director Nathan Silver about his new film Between the Temples, featuring a cantor who’s losing his voice and faith until his old teacher saves him

6 min read

August 21, 2024 17:34

Screen shot: the cast of Between the Temples Photo: Getty

(Stephen) Fry’s delight: his new film with Lena Dunham

Stephen Fry and Lena Dunham on how they connected with their Jewishness while shooting a road movie in Poland

6 min read

June 14, 2024 16:16

A boy – now 93 – tells his story of incredible survival hiding from the Nazis in the forest

Now a new film is telling Maxwell Smart’s story

6 min read

May 23, 2024 09:43

Maxwell Smart on set with the child actors

How my son’s terminal cancer inspired me to convert to Judaism

Kit Vincent’s film ‘Red Herring’ tracks his family’s devastation after they were told he was terminally ill. His father tells our writer about how life has moved on since

5 min read

May 3, 2024 11:24

Close bond: Lawrence and Kit Vincent in Red Herring

The shameful tale of the Jewish boy kidnapped by the Catholic church

I meet the director of a new film about a six-year-old snatched from his family – after he’d been baptised by the family maid

6 min read

April 26, 2024 12:22

Wrenched away: Enea Sala as six-year-old Edgardo Mortara in the film Kidnapped

Amy Winehouse biopic was the inevitable next step in the commercialisation of the vulnerable star

It’s hard not to think that this film is the latest addition to the cottage industry that sprung up around the late songwriter

5 min read

April 10, 2024 12:43

Marisa Abela stars as Amy Winehouse in Sam Taylor-Johnson's new biopic on the star, Back to Black

Famed filmmaker Ethan Coen on why he’s on a lesbian road trip

He’s made his new screwball romantic comedy with his wife and long-time editor, but if you think this means broiges with brother Joel, you’re wrong

7 min read

March 12, 2024 17:18

Wanderlust: Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathanstar as Jamie and Marian in Drive-Away Dolls Credit: Working Title / Focus Features

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James Mottram

Latest from James Mottram

Eleanor the Great, review: Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut takes on Holocaust survivor trauma

‘My animated Shoah movie tells truths that kids will understand’

The Polish nurse, the Nazi officer and the Jews in the basement

All I Had Was Nothingness review: ‘you will never see a more haunting road movie’

More from James Mottram

September 5 isn’t about the hostages or terrorists of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre, it’s about journalism

The Brutalist director on why he made a film now set for Oscar glory

Why I’ve made another film about Bob Dylan

The Jewish answer to Fleabag’s ‘hot priest’: Erin Foster on her new Netflix show Nobody Wants This

The Goldman Case: The new French courtroom drama that puts Jewishness on trial

The Jewish rom-com that tells you everything you ever wanted to know about platonic love

(Stephen) Fry’s delight: his new film with Lena Dunham

A boy – now 93 – tells his story of incredible survival hiding from the Nazis in the forest

How my son’s terminal cancer inspired me to convert to Judaism

The shameful tale of the Jewish boy kidnapped by the Catholic church

Amy Winehouse biopic was the inevitable next step in the commercialisation of the vulnerable star

Famed filmmaker Ethan Coen on why he’s on a lesbian road trip