The Woman in Black and Shame

This week there is Daniel Radcliffe’s first film after Harry Potter as well as the large part that has everyone talking Michael Fassenbender in Shame.

 

The Woman in Black and Shame Podcast

 

Mark Romanek

Mark Romanek is a polite soft spoken man from Chicago and is probably a name many of you won’t recognise. At the moment he only has three films to his name: ‘Static’ with Keith Gordan; ‘One Hour Photo’ starring a dark and twisted Robin Williams; and recent release ‘Never Let Me Go’ with young actors Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield. However, many readers might be familiar with Romanek’s music video history. He has got to work with some of the greatest artists of a generation including Iggy Pop (Beside You), Madonna (Rain) and Jonny Cash (Hurt) to name just a few;  of course his most famous music video is ‘Scream’ with Michael and Janet Jackson, which the Guinness Book of World Records has as the most expensive music video ever made. Strangely Romanek is not happy with this achievement and constantly protests that he doesn’t like ‘…being known as the guy who makes all the big budget things…’, and that in fact the ‘Scream’ video has been incorrectly labelled by Guinness and it is in fact not the most expensive music video of all time, ‘Michael Jackson’s ‘’Black and White’’ was $10 million (while ‘Scream’ was $7 million) and there  is a Guns n Roses video as well for the same amount. I am waiting for one of these interviews to get back to the Guinness people so they can correct it.’ No, Romanek brought up on avant  garde and independent film makers such as John Cassavetes, is much more proud of his less expensive projects ‘I did a music video for Beck of about $200,000 and it is one of the best things I have ever done.’

After about ten years in the music industry that were ‘a lot of fun’ Romanek had developed enough of a reputation to get on the radar of the studios and get into making films which as a self confessed ‘film brat’ was his true calling. He may only have a few films under his belt, but it is clear from the way that he talks about them that he holds a soft spot for each one. His first major production was ‘One Hour Photo’, which was released in 2002 and starred Robin Williams as mini-lab photo technician who becomes obsessed with the Yorkin family whose pictures he prints for over ten years.  The film got overall positive reviews and demonstrated a darker side to Williams that the audience had not seen much of before. Of course Romanek, who comes across as tirelessly modest, takes no credit for William’s transformation in the film ‘[Williams] felt a really deep connection with the character and understood him intimately’.

Romanek’s new release certainly has a lot to live up to and has been gaining a steady amount of buzz around it since its first premiere back in the summer of 2010. Adapting an emotional story like Kazuro Ishiguro’s ‘Never Let Me Go’ for the silver screen is a risky move since many people will have strong opinions about what is left in and what is taken out (just look at all the arguments on those Harry Potter film forums), but Romanek doesn’t seem intimidated by any of this. ‘Alex Garland did a great job with the adaptation…I wept at the end of the script like I did at the end of the book, so he successfully transferred the emotional mechanism of it.’ Romanek certainly has a lot to be confident about because not only did he have a great screenwriter involved (Garland has wrote the novel ‘The Beach’ and also the screenplay for films like ‘Sunshine’ and ’28 Days Later’), but Ishiguro himself was on board to help out ‘[Ishiguro] visited the set once or twice and always thought he would just be in the way, but it was a tremendous moral boost…’ The author even gave the film the ultimate praise by having tears in his eyes when he saw the final product. For Romanek this was a huge relief as ‘it would have been horrible if he had hated it.’

As well as a strong team working on the script, Romanek was fortunate enough to get an equally strong cast in front of the camera. Andrew Garfield, who has quickly come to the public eye thanks to being in ‘The Social Network’ and also being cast as the new Spiderman, was Romanek’s first choice to play Tommy, ‘I wanted Andrew because I saw his performance in ‘Boy A’ ,which was astonishing, but not widely seen, which is a shame’. They also had Keira Knightley‘s agent approach them for the part of Ruth and that just left the part of Kathy to be filled.

‘We were having trouble finding a Kathy because we just couldn’t get the right person and at the time we knew about Carey, but she couldn’t get a film financed with her as the lead. But then the head of the studio at the time saw the world premiere of ‘An Education’ at Sundance and sent a text to all of us saying ‘’Hire the genius Mulligan’’’

Carey Mulligan was then cast as Kathy and ended up giving one of the strongest performances of the film.

All these factors make Romanek sure that his film will be well received here in Britain ‘…we have screened the film and it seemed like British audiences were deeply moved by it, even though British people don’t like to admit when they are moved by something.‘ In fact at the time of the interview, Romanek was more nervous about the speech he had to give when the film opened the London Film Festival than how the film will be received ‘I have to get up and speak in front of 2,000 people, my friends and family are there. I have my little spiel but it is still terrifying. Public speaking is the scariest thing-people are more afraid of it than death, which means they would rather die than give their own eulogy.’

 

 

Never Let Me Go

Production companies 20^th Century Fox, DNA and Film 4 have recently taken on the difficult task of adapting a popular and highly acclaimed novel. This is always a challenge, but when your source material is Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘Never Let Me Go’ which has been called the greatest novel of the decade by Times:London the task is made even harder. However, with the help of some great young British talent and a team clearly passionate about the story, director Mark Romanek has managed to pull it off.

The film, like the book, is broken up into three acts, each one set at different times at the end of the 20^th Century on an alternate timeline; before you make any wrong assumptions this not a sci-fi movie with space ships and chrome, but a sci-fi fable set in the English countryside. The science-fiction that is a crucial part of the story is simply used as a metaphor for what the film is trying to put across, which is not that medical advances are scary, but that life is fleeting and difficult.

The first part takes place in Hailsham boarding school and it is in this ‘Just William’ like setting that we meet the three central characters, Kathy, Ruth and Tommy, as children; played by Isobel Meikle-Small, Charlie Rowe and Ella Purnell, who must carry the film for the first third. All three are incredibly engaging and each give phenomenally mature performances. While at Hailsham all the children, are given everything they need: food, clothes, exercise, companionship, the lot, but there is also something sinister we are not told about. Many of the adults act uncomfortable around them, while those that don’t describe the children as special and use words such as ‘donations’ and ‘carers’, which is not made sense of till much later. In the second two parts the adult cast of Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley are used and the more grown up dynamics, such as duty, jealousy, love and despair are brought in as they all get close to their ‘completion’.

Ultimately story deals with the issue of growing up and realising how fleeting life truly is. It seems we only have a second or two with the ones we love before it is all over and this is what Romanek and Ishiguro are opening our eyes to. With watches and clocks in almost every scene the audience are constantly reminded how short life can be, especially for the poor students from Hailsham.  This massage is also made more tragic by having us watch young people grappling with ideas that they should not be grasping until they are 80-years old. Don’t go into the film expecting a rom-com, but this bleak drama is touching non-the less.

In order to work the film relies on the love triangle that forms between Kathy, Ruth and Tommy so it was the right move of Romanek’s to bring on such amazing British stars. Both Garfield and Mulligan show that they are worthy of the term ‘rising star’. Garfield’s performance has great passion and one of his scenes later on in the film will break your heart and send shivers up your spine. Mulligan gives a much more reserved performance that perfectly fits with her character Kathy who on the surface may seem to accept her fate, but is struggling against it as much as any of them. The two seem to have an adorable, down played chemistry that makes their relationship seem real and believable. Knightley is also exceptional as Ruth, the girl who is blocking Kathy and Tommy’s love. With ‘Never Let Me Go’ she increases her impressive literary pedigree by this time playing the unlikable character, so it credits her ability that she can make the audience sympathise and pity Ruth by the end.

Not only are the actors beautiful to watch but also the scenery surrounding them is stunning. With the film being shot all over England, Romanek captures some beautiful images of the countryside such as Holkam Beach and Clevedon Pier. To give the film an extra feel of strangeness the visual palette was made completely devoid of primary colours, leaving behind only muted browns, greens and blues. The purpose of this was clearly to add to the atmosphere, but it also makes the film seem very dreary, which was not helped by its slow pace. Although the fate of the characters is not explained right away there are enough clues for most to guess what will happen and this predictability, along with the slow pace and subdued colours, might bore many and have them miss the overall meaning that Romanek is trying to put across.  However, those that feel that way will likely have missed what really makes the movie effective. It tugs subtly at our emotions and the fact that Romanek avoids using obvious tear jerking motifs or crowd pleasers is to his credit.

The film sticks very closely to both the original message and dialogue of Ishiguro’s book. This may mean that it is not the right thing for some people, but for others it will be a delightful and haunting watch. Thanks to the superb acting of the leads and the layered source material, the experience will stick with you long after it has all ended.

Degree: 2:1

This is a film that will divide people, even I was umming and ahhing about

what to give it. In the end it is well acted, beautifully shot

and deserves to be recognized, even if the subject matter

isn’t to everyones taste.

(If you are confused about the rating system please click on the ‘About This Blog Page’ which will explain it all)

Never Let Me Go

The film is based on the highly acclaimed novel ‘Never Let Me Go’ by Kuzuo Ishiguro and is set in the english countryside, at a boarding school called  Hailsham. The children at the school are called ‘special’ and kept on a very strict routine. They are given all the food they need, clothes to wear and friends to play with, but they are forbidden to leave the grounds. This all strangely changes when they reach 18 and have given their ‘3rd donation’. This baffling ritual, as well as the feel that the kids are being bred for something, shows the film has more to it than originally meets the eye. The film has gotten great reviews from critics at many film festivals, including the one in Toronto.

The three central characters are Tommy, Ruth and Kathy who are played by Andrew Garfield, Kiera Knightley and Carey Mulligan. It is exciting to see the love triangle that will form between them and also to witness the rising of two new stars. Both Mulligan and Garfield have shown their acting talents in previous films and I can’t wait to see them sink their teeth into these ones. Is also great to see Knightley  doing what I think really shows off her talent by taking part in a gritty drama, such as she did in ‘Atonement’ and ‘The Hole’.  I am greatly anticipating the release of this film in January 2011.

Here is an extra feature; an interview with Keira Knightley on her character Ruth and her dynamic within the film.