We’re living in a post-satire world The Death of Stalin director Armando Iannucci tells why his political satire days are over.
James Croot
Our interview begins in farcical circumstances that wouldn’t be out of place on either Veep or The Thick of It. While waiting to be connected to the creative mind that cooked up those two hit political TV satires late on a recent Wednesday evening, my callwaiting alarms. After holding on a few more minutes, only to be told they can’t get a hold of Armando Iannucci, I decide to check the answering service – only to discover it was the 54-yearold Glaswegian trying to ring me direct.
Fortunately, he has the nous to ring back and while the publicist continues to flounder in his search for the right number I decide to stay with the man himself.
Given that he’s the one who has helped take the mickey out of politics on both sides of the Atlantic, I decide to open by enlisting his help on behalf of all New Zealanders.
‘‘We’ve got a newly installed pregnant Prime Minister with a fishing show-hosting husband, but we can’t come up with any good satire – can you help?’’
Laughing, the affable Iannucci admits that scenario proves his increasing opinion that what’s happening in reality has outstripped anything he could come up with now.
‘‘The real world has jumped the shark,’’ he jokingly laments.
‘‘We had a Prime Minister who had a coughing fit through a speech and the letters on the slogan behind her fell off. If someone had come up with that as a plot idea for The Thick of It ,I would reject it as being too unbelievable and too crazy. I genuinely do think the real world is a post-satire medium now.’’
That is precisely why Iannucci has ‘‘retired’’ from that world, leaving the increasingly difficult task ‘‘to those younger guys and gals’’.
He does however, offer the advice that the likes of John Oliver and Samantha Bee probably have the right approach for the madness of 2018.
‘‘Becoming more journalistic, I think that is the right way to go. Don’t try to do a fictionalised version of what’s going on – actually just explore the facts and analyse them. The comedy is contained in the truth really. Search for the truth and there you will find a rich seam of comedy.’’
Which is precisely what Iannucci did in order to make his new movie The Death of Stalin.
He admits he had been thinking about doing something about a contemporary fictional dictator and had been researching, ‘‘all the classics – Hitler, Mao, Mussolini’’, when he was, out of the blue, sent a copy of the French graphic novel of the same name that they thought he should make.
‘‘I was slightly reluctant at first, because I never see myself as someone who adapts other people’s works, but I sat down and read it because it intrigued me, and the moment I did I thought, ‘this is it – it’s true, it’s funny and yet it’s terrifying, it’s absurd and yet it’s real’. The moment I finished it, I was on the phone to them saying, ‘yep I’ll do it’.
‘‘That’s because I could instantly see what I wanted to do with it. I could instantly see how it would work as a movie.’’
Depicting the Soviet power struggles that followed the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, Iannucci’s pitch black comedy features one of the best and most-eclectic ensembles ever corralled on to a movie set. It’s probably the one movie where former Bond girl, Olga Kurylenko, lines up alongside indie
‘‘The opening concert [in ]is true, but in real life they went through three conductors – not two... But, I just thought, ‘if I put three in, no one will believe it’.’’ Armando Iannucci
movie favourite Steve Buscemi and British theatre royalty Simon Russell Beale. However, Iannucci dismisses any suggestion that he had his casting all mapped out.
‘‘I cast one at a time. It’s not like I had 12 names for 12 characters and would be happy if I got six of them. I think the cast has to be a puzzle that is put together one piece at a time.
‘‘Each person has to bring something new and yet complement the others who are already there. My first thought for Beria (the scheming heart of Stalin) was Simon. Once we had him, you then think, ‘OK, who is the opposite? Who can be loud and energetic where Simon is still and clipped?’ So, you think Steve Buscemi. He’s got that ability to play comedy and be terrifying at the same time – he can turn. And then you work it out from there.
‘‘Also, I wanted to bring together a cast who have different sorts of acting backgrounds. Simon is stage, Steve is film, and Michael Palin has got his own great catalogue. About a month before filming, we got them all in a room and began by rehearsing the scene where they are all standing, carrying a body around. I looked at them all and couldn’t believe they were all in this room. It was great.’’
I remind Iannucci of a decade ago when he described his first feature (a big-screen version of The Thick of It), In the Loop as ‘‘my big-screen screwball comedy’’. Does that mean