We'd been talking to Victoria Boydell earlier, and she told us that there was more of her in this than any other film she edited (we're becoming like the young Peter Bogdanovich, interviewing the masters!) It's an awesome piece of work, and often had me thinking of Tony Gibbs' work on Petulia, where he telegraphs action - the flash forward. Here. she shows a little bit of the next scene at the end of the previous one. And much more than that - so after the opening assault, we then go back to the daughter and her rape allegation. There's also great use of detached sound (I expect there's a professional term for that), for example when Rory Kinnear learns his daughter is dead. It comes over at times like a Lynne Ramsey film. Also, what's fascinating, is it was Rufus' first film, so how did he and Victoria come together, and how much did her input guide him towards what it is, for a theatre director, a bloody impressive work of visual cinema. The answer, I predict, is a lot - more on this later.
There are two moments of great subtlety in the focus - where Kinnear goes in to pummel Emms, he's in the background out of focus - same trick later where he's standing outside his house, and in the background you can see Denis Lawson (well you can't identify him, because he's out of focus), walk, zombie-like out of the front door.
The ending is very tense, but what becomes (slightly) clear - especially if you pay attention to the credits - that the dream Roth had the night Skunk was born was of her in the future - Lily James, no less.
Eloise Laurence is terrific in the lead role. With Tim Roth (a great character), Rory Kinnear, Robert Emms, Faye Daveney, Martha Bryant (really amazing as the youngest of the terrible sisters) and Rosie Kosky-Hensman (the rape accuser), George Sargeant, Bill Milner (brother), Zana Marjanovic and Cillian Murphy, Denis Lawson and Clare Burt.
Apparently author Daniel Clay acknowledged 'To Kill a Mockingbird' as an inspiration. Mark O'Rowe adapted it (he also did Boy A). To my amazement, it's not particularly well reviewed. I thought it was absolutely fantastic, with a great score from Damon Albarn aka Electric Wave Bureau (the junkyard / fairground music is brilliant, and the scene where a car just drops from the sky, which I've only ever seen before in Eternal Sunshine). Rob Hardy shot it.
Rufus on Eloise: "We saw 850 girls for this role and El came in right at the end, thank god. Working with her was about the easiest experience I have had with an actor. No special techniques or considerations were necessary; she just came in with energy and complete enthusiasm every day. She never once complained, except that it was ending too soon. I thought the greatest challenge would be to keep her natural, to stop her -acting', and I never gave that note once. You worry, of course, that you are in some way corrupting a child who could be spoilt by the experience, the attention. Fortunately, both for her and us, her parents are both totally grounded and I think if anyone can get through it, it is she. She is very musical, and I think it helped that she hasn't acted before, and had no great desire to do anything other than sing."
LipSync (The Nice Guys, Shame, We Need to Talk About Kevin) / Bill Kenwright Films / BBC / Cuba.
No comments:
Post a Comment