FILM OF THE WEEK
this too silly? And is this too heightened? No, I think Genet might film Paddington Station like this. And if you can hold onto that sort of smell of it, I think that’s really important. You are the custodian of the tone as the director, and there are a million ways of filming London. To just hold in your head, well I think it should be this angle rather than that angle, is really what it’s about.”
Did he suffer a crisis of confidence at any point? He smiles wryly. “I think I am in perpetual crisis, so I don’t think I ever get confident about everything.”
It must be nice then, to be bolstered and supported by the talented people who surround him. He is married to the milliner and artist Eloise Moody, who designed Paddington’s hat for the film. “She made all the bear hats. Deep nepotism,” he quips before thinking better of it. “That sounds terrible, like she didn’t deserve it! She’s also a world-class hat-maker,” he hurries to add.
King’s route to film was through comedy and theatre. “I always fancied being a film director. I didn’t really fancy acting for some reason, and it sounded like a cool job. I definitely grew up reading film magazines and watching lots of films and thinking it was a very exciting world. But at the time there wasn’t a huge British film industry and it seemed very alien and unachievable.
“I fell in love with theatre as a teenager and started doing school plays and going to see lots of plays and then did that through university. And then did comedy afterwards,” he says.
He studied English at Cambridge. There, just like the creators of Monty Python decades before, he fell in with a little clique of future talent, including Richard Ayoade, Matthew Holness and Alice Lowe, all of whom have gone on to build successful careers in comedy. Together, they devised a show, Garth Marenghi, which became a Channel 4 TV series. He became a known face on the comedy scene at the time, through which he met Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt of The Mighty Boosh. “When they were looking for a director for their TV show, they asked me. So the first thing I got to direct was the Boosh really, who were absolute comic heroes of mine and whose material I loved. And obviously they are a boundlessly inventive pair of writers. So I was very lucky at a comparatively young age to work with real talents on a project which let you let rip with your imagination. And went from there.”
He came of age as a director in a special little pocket of talent emerging at the time. “There was a cross-fertilisation of ideas, and you see each other’s stuff and you talk to each other... and that’s a very nice collegiate atmosphere I think, and very good for being funny, to feel like you are with like- minded souls and trying to build a world view of things that you find funny and strange. And it was a good time for BBC3 as well who were taking risks. There was a little pot of money to make these quite strange shows. It was a good time.”
Paddington 2 Cert: G; Now showing
So often with cinema for younger viewers, an emphasis is placed on slapstick and mayhem in order to hold the restless eye of youth.
The odd time, however, something comes along that has been lovingly, meticulously crafted to mine the very essence of childishness, your Toy Stories and Finding Nemos and what have you. Do that, and no demographic is immune.
This was precisely what Paddington pulled off in 2014 when it took Michael Bond’s childhood staple and spruced it up for a new era. It did huge box office business through sheer quality alone. Incredibly, this sequel is even better again and marks director Paul King and his co-writer Simon Farnaby (Mindhorn) as a formidable partnership.
Still in leafy London bliss with the Brown family, Paddington spots a mysterious book in an antique shop. He decides this will make an ideal gift for Aunt Lucy and duly bungles his way through odd jobs to save up for it, only to be framed for the item’s robbery. The culprit? Hugh Grant’s superbly narcissistic thespian who wants a treasure map hidden inside the book. Behind bars, Paddington is met with rough inmates and Brendan Gleeson’s grizzled cook. Genius ensues.
The CGI bear (voiced by Ben Whishaw) is almost a side-act next to the cast’s dexterous mugging — Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins (as Mr and Mrs Brown), Grant (a very good sport about sending himself up), Gleeson, etc. Bellylaughs come thick and fast but there is enough magic and heart here to grant it Christmas-classic status.
In fact, between its athletic wit and overflowing invention, Paddington 2 is arguably too good for kids. Maybe consider booking a babysitter for this one.