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Michael Radford, the director of Il
Postino, who was nominated for a Best Director’s Oscar and who won
several BAFTA Awards, is back in the film business. I interviewed him at
BAFTA in London.
When I shot 1984, based on George Orwell’s book, I had to shoot a big scene at Alexander Palace in North London. We used 2000 extras, five cameras, cranes, dollys, etc...I thought “this is it!” Now I realise it isn’t. The more mediocre you are as a director, the bigger spectacle films you make. It’s strange to see what an Oscar nomination can do for your career. For five years I couldn’t make a film, and now since the nomination I get about 200 phone calls a day. Hollywood even offered me to direct the new 15 million dollar movie, written by Joe Esterhaze (Basic Instinct). I turned it down, because I’m not an in-your-face film-maker. I want to tell something with my films and try to be as simple as possible. People who influenced me strongly were the Nouvelle Vague film-makers like Truffaut, Godard, Rohmer and Chabrol. Il Postino hasn’t got an Italian Tourist Board look. The film is more a tribute to the Neo-Realism period: De Sica and Rosselini, etc. We used some of the same locations where Stromboli by Rosselini was shot.
I first wanted to be an actor. I played in Alice in Wonderland. And a dormouse in a Christmas play. Then I taught in Edinburgh, where I did psychodramas with my students. After studying film at the National Film and Television School, I made a documentary, which was shown on the BBC. My first feature Another Time, Another Place was shown in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival and I received positive calls from Godard and Bertolucci. The interesting thing is that I asked Massimo Troisi, the star of Il Postino, to play in Another Time, Another Place, but he didn’t want to go all the way to Scotland. After he saw the film, he regretted his refusal very much. That was one of the reasons, he asked me to direct Il Postino. I immediately felt ‘that’s me’ that film is me.” Radford, who has directed Another Time, Another Place, 1984, White Mischief and Il Postino, all based on books is a typical European film-maker, but he lives in Los Angeles. Hollywood is in a mess at the moment. They don’t know what direction they want to go. I think people there are obsessed with the technique of film-making, and don’t know how to make a simple film anymore. I got more hopeful after visiting Robert Redford’s Sundance Festival. It’s a barometer of film-making. More and more films shown there deal with real people and emotions. Michael Radford has now got four new projects lined up: B Monkey taken over from Michael Caton Jones (Rob Roy); The Rationalist a sexual drama set in 18th Century England; The Swedish Cavalier with Gerard Depardieu and a project in the USA with the screenwriter of The Deerhunter. This interview originally appeared in Talking Pictures, No. 16, Autumn 1996. Web References Michael Radford's latest projects, news and views are posted on his official website at: http://www.michaelradford.com/index4.htm
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The
most difficult thing in making Il Postino was the fact that I’m
not an Italian, although I speak the language. You miss details and nuances
in language and culture. I realised this even more, when I was in Rome
and saw two British women ordering a cup of tea. From the way they spoke
and were dressed I knew immediately from which part of England they were
from.