In-Conversation with Andrew Dominik

Andrew Dominik’s latest film Blonde, about the troubled life of Marilyn Monroe, has been the talk of the film world ever since it launched at the Venice Film Festival. Now available on Netflix, the biopic confirms Dominik’s status as one of the leading auteurs working today. He is a visionary willing to experiment with form and aesthetics to add extra depth and dimension to the stories he tells. The result is inimitable works that look stunning and leave the audience questioning their own preconceptions when the credits roll. Blonde can be seen as another rung of the Australian director’s probing and readdressing of complex real-life protagonists such as criminal-turned-author Mark Read in Dominik’s rousing debut film Chopper (2000), starring Eric Bana and also, Jesse James, who is reconfigured in the epic revisionist Western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck. Born in New Zealand but living in Australia since he was 2, the 55-year-old auteur also ventured into documentary filmmaking with the fascinating and poignant One More Time With Feeling. It documents the recording of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album Skeleton Tree, made during the aftermath of the death of Cave’s 15-year-old son. Dominik also has a penchant for crime thrillers. His striking 2012 neo-noir thriller Killing Them Softly, starring Brad Pitt, Scoot McNair and Ben Mendelsohn, played in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. He also directed two episodes in the second season of the highly acclaimed crime series Mindhunter. The director will be talking to audiences in Jeddah about his career thus far, working with some of the top names in the film industry across a range of mediums. Dominik is a fascinating character with strong opinions and insights, and this In-Conversation is sure to be one of the talking points of the Red Sea IFF.