World Class Journalist with Impeccable Interviewing Skills Marietta Steinhart

The magic of Marietta Steinhart

                        

        Marietta Steinhart in a TV interview with Jeff Nichols for 'Loving'

How do you become a film journalist? Well, the most obvious requirement - in fact the first and foremost requirement - is that you must love films. Sure, you could probably write about films and all things movies if you didn’t. But you wouldn’t last long in an industry where passion dictates every turn of phrase and captures every nuance and shade of emotion in one of the most popular art forms ever known.

 

Marietta Steinhart, the Viennese film critic, certainly is a keen lover of films. And she has a way with words and an intellectual bent that always keeps her readers coming back for more. A good reviewer, after all, is like a good friend. Once you find a good one, you come to rely on their opinions more and more.

 

Marietta has been working out of Los Angeles for the last few years and has been quietly (and eloquently) staking claim to her own piece of the very colorful motion picture industry on both coasts. She has interviewed some of the biggest names in the business, including Anthony Hopkins, Michael Keaton, Reece Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Drew Barrymore and Amy Schumer.  But was there anyone who struck her in particular?”

 

“Actually, Charlie Kaufman (the screenwriter of Being John Malkovich) was one of my favorite interviews,” says Steinhart, who equally admires those working behind the cameras.  “I’m a huge fan of his work and his unique sense of humor.” She’s also had the opportunity to meet with 40-Year-Old Virgin director Judd Apatow “someone whose impact in Hollywood cannot be underestimated,” she says. “I’ve also met Jeff Nichols (Loving), who is one of the most exciting and intuitive directors working in Hollywood today. I talked to Palm d’Or winner, Ruben Östlund, about his Oscar nominated film, Force Majeure, which was probably my favorite movie in 2014… I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have met them all.”

 

Born and raised in the Austrian capital, Vienna, Marietta Steinhart does love films �" a great deal. But there are other things involved with becoming a film journalist. True, some of her colleagues admit to somehow “stumbling into this business”. Not her. Marietta received her Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Media and Communications from the University of Vienna (her home town), and during that time she combined her study of journalism with history, comparative literature and film. Pursuing her interests in film as a student, she honed her skills as an intern at the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF), the Austria Press Agency (APA), and as a volunteer for the Vienna International Human Rights Film Festival.  So, besides her love of films, which brought her to the doorstep of being a film journalist, Marietta also immersed herself in learning everything there was to learn about her craft, as well.

 

Some of her favorite film critics in the United States today are The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane and Richard Brody; Dana Stevens (Slate Magazine); and A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis of The New York Times. But she also frequently visits the website of The Atlantic and Slant Magazine.

 

As for doing interviews, Steinhart has learned the old fashioned way �" through trial and error. One of her first interviews was with Thomas Brezina, one of the most successful German-language children’s and youth book authors. “It was a phone interview”, remembers Marietta, “and those are always a bit awkward, because you obviously can’t see the other person, but it was fun.”

 

“The more research you do prior to doing any interview, the stronger it’s going to be,” she says. “But something you learn as you go along is how to let all of that go. Yes, you do your homework. Yes you prepare. You over-prepare, only to find out that the real story is something else entirely.”

 

And the best way to prepare for a career like this? “Watch as many movies as you can”, she says with a smile. “Watch all kinds, ‘good’ ones, ‘bad’ ones, the big blockbusters and the movies nobody has ever heard about; keep an open mind”, she says.“ And read. Read a lot. Reading makes you a better writer.”

 

Marietta Steinhart is a frequent contributor to Zeit Online (Die Zeit; Germany), the Austria Press Agency (APA), ray Filmmagazin, and other German-language outlets.