The accidental director
‘I don’t think about style. I’m not clever enough’
Stephen Frears, 72, is an eclectic British film director who got his start as an assistant to Lindsey Anderson (If …) and followed up with an unclassifiable range of interests — from his early film My Beautiful Laundrette (which helped launch Daniel Day-Lewis) to such hits as the dark caper film The Grifters — the movie that gave him the first of two Oscar nominations — and The Queen, Peter Morgan’s story of Princess Diana’s death that earned him his second Academy Award nod.
His latest film is Philomena, a dramatic comedy, based on a true story, with Judi Dench as Philomena Lee, a woman whose out-of-wedlock child was taken from her 50 years earlier, and Steven Coogan as Martin Sixsmith, a journalist who helps her track the boy.
Frears recently talked to Postmedia film writer Jay Stone. This is an edited transcript of their conversation.
I was struck by the balance of tone between comic and tragic in the film. How did you achieve that?
I don’t know. Did Billy Wilder talk about it? Did (Ernst) Lubitsch talk about it? It’s just what you do, really. I see it as rather an immodest thing to say, but you either think like that or you don’t. I happen to think like that. The idea of tragedy and comedy is entertaining.
So I assume that was what attracted you in the first place?
Well, I knew it was there, because the first thing I did was give them a copy of It Happened One Night. So I nailed my colours to the mast, and luckily I got it right. I’m simply saying, ‘It’s a film like this. About two people bumping into each other.’
This is based on the experiences of Martin Sixsmith, who is a wellknown person in Britain. How much is he a part of the film?
What is interesting is that Steve bought this book, which had this terrible story in, and somehow imposed part of his own autobiography on it. And that’s beyond me. That’s sort of inspired. And he did that without blowing any trumpets. He just did it, possibly because he didn’t know any better or who knows? But that’s what I think is really remarkable, just as Peter Morgan, when he was asked to make a film about the events of Diana’s death, came back and said, ‘It isn’t a very interesting story. The most interesting character is the Queen.’ That’s really clever, isn’t it?
So what part of Steve is in this movie?
Well, he’s a funny chap, and of course he’s a lapsed Catholic. So he somehow got that in. I don’t know how people do things like that. That’s what I admire. Start here and end over there. But don’t look at me. I’m innocent, M’lord.
But if you tell me this is a Stephen Frears movie, I see something of you in it.
I don’t. I mean, I’m sure there is, because it seems that it always somehow sneaks in. But I don’t really think about it.
How do you think of yourself as a director?
I think the audience are only interested in stories and actors. I don’t think they’re remotely interested in directors. I grew up at a time when the cinema was much more innocent, when the notion of directors hadn’t been heard of, really. I mean, I’d never heard of directors before 1956 or 1957. So I hark back the whole time to a sort of pre-lapsarian cinema.
So was Alfred Hitchcock or somebody the first director you were aware of?
Well Hitchcock, of course, he was very very distinctive. (Pause) I’m thinking. Could you argue that Hitchcock invented the director? You could, quite possibly.
He was probably the one director everybody would know because he had a television show.
Yes, he made himself famous. I think that was his downfall, personally. I now see that Psycho destroyed him. There’s a controversial remark.
It is controversial. In what sense do you mean it destroyed him?
Well, I read a book about The Birds recently, and all he wanted to do was recreate the success of Psycho. And he never really made a good film again. I’m sure I’m saying terrible things.
“I remember when David Lean died, they asked me to take over Nostromo and I read the script and I thought, ‘ This is just a man trying to find whatever Lawrence (of Arabia) had.’ The success of Lawrence was so phenomenal that he became sort of intoxicated by it and wanted to get back to that. Actually I was just reading ( William) Friedkin’s autobiography and you can see he made two great films and went mad, basically.
After The Exorcist and The French Connection, you mean.
Yes. Tried to do it again and went crazy.
Do you feel like that?
No I’m lucky. I live in a more sober world. But I can see how intoxicating it is.
Nothing cast a giant shadow on your career?
I slightly thought The Queen did for me. It may be that I’ve liberated myself from the shadow of The Queen. I thought, ‘Oh, she’s had her revenge.’
So this film doesn’t relate to anything else you’ve made.
Or it relates to everything else I’ve made. I don’t know. It’s the last film I’ve made.
So you’re not an auteurist.
Well if you knew what the word actually meant, I am an auteur. Auteur was really a description of people who worked in a factory. Hitchcock worked in a factory. They just made films the way they made sausages, or fridges. It came out with distinctive elements. So possibly I am an auteur, although the word became more and more corrupted and came to mean ‘artist.’ I don’t think of myself like that.
What about the question of the style of a movie?
I don’t think about it. I’m not clever enough. I remember Fellini was always nice to watch. Jolly clever. I just think, ‘What clever chaps you are.’ But I can’t do it.