Australian-born director Fred Schepisi has a varied filmography, spanning Roxanne, Six Degrees of Separation and Fierce Creatures, among other credits, but one of the steadiest through-lines in his work is a keen grasp of human imperfection. It’s interwoven into his latest effort as well, Words and Pictures, which stars Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche as New England prep school teachers — he’s a rakish if blocked writer and functional alcoholic, she’s a prickly abstract painter stricken with rheumatoid arthritis — at odds over which mode of expression can convey greater meaning. I recently had a chance to speak to Schepisi one-on-one, about his movie, the educational inspiration he found in a monastery, and the keys to directing on-screen drunkenness. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read.