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September 03, 2006
Mr. Frears has no talent for making films on my doorstep
As The Queen begins its royal festival tour, Stephen Frears chats with the FT's Tobias Buck. "Ensconced pacha-like in his Paris hotel room, Frears pours himself the first of several cups of tea. A sort of waiting game is under way, which will end only once the director arrives at the Venice film festival, where The Queen is showing in the main competition. 
. "Making a movie about the Queen is almost like making a movie about your mother – and in England, the Queen really does serve as a kind of symbolic, emotional mother of the country. So you don’t want to be in any way perceived as unfair or facile. But how do you do that? You do it by instinct, I suppose. You’re more attentive to not leaning on your prejudices and you stay away from anything that might be unsupportable.” ... When I suggest that the “never mind the bollocks” sensibility of his earlier films has taken a bit of a battering, Frears visibly winces. “You’re right: I wasn’t capable of making a film like this irresponsibly. Perhaps I’m growing senile and respectable. Oh God! How depressing!” he exclaims and busily pours himself another cup of tea. “But it’s true you can’t make a film like this carelessly. The whole time you’re measuring it against some test of believability. It’s slightly because people are alive, so you have an innate sense of responsibility.” ... Would Frears ever consider making [film] that painted [PM Tony] Blair in a less sympathetic light? “No, it’s too depressing... I can’t watch Citizen Kane, once Kane starts to collapse I can’t bear it, it’s too upsetting.
Or when you read about Welles where it all starts to go wrong, or Fitzgerald, or Preston Sturges... If I make a film about the Queen I’m like a tourist: ‘Oh gosh, isn’t that interesting or isn’t that interesting.’ I’m not interested in making films on my own doorstep, or I have no talent for making films on my own doorstep... If you make films about yourself you don’t have any sense of what people know and don’t know. I prefer to make films where I’m the first member of the audience.”
Posted by Ray Pride at September 3, 2006 08:26 PM
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