Putting on a billionaire’s party (on a budget)
How director Michael Winterbottom staged a megabucks bash in new satire Greed
Michael Winterbottom is used to filming steve coogan at fancy restaurants, for their tv comedy The Trip. but for their new collaboration, satirical drama Greed, he had to think a lot bigger. the film is a study of a venal high-street-fashion tycoon who tries to distract from the controversies swirling around him by throwing a massive party on a Greek island. that meant Winterbottom was faced with mounting a convincingly luxurious shindig. “When a retail billionaire throws a party, they spend more on the party than we spent on the whole film,” he laughs. here’s how he went about it.
THE THEME
sir richard ‘Greedy’ Maccreadie (coogan) is not a subtle man. “The Great Gatsby meets Gladiator meets The Godfather” is his vision for the event, leaning heavily towards the middle movie. so he makes guests put on togas, while he decks himself out as a cut-price commodus. “[topshop boss] Philip Green had thrown roman-themed parties in the past, and that subconsciously lodged in my mind,” says Winterbottom. “i have a boy and he loves Gladiator, so i’ve sat through it many times. it felt like we could get some mileage from that.”
THE ENTERTAINMENT
in the centre of an amphitheatre (hurriedly knocked together by beleaguered bulgarian builders) is a lion. named clarence. “he came from an animal-trainer’s private zoo in oxfordshire,” Winterbottom explains. “steve and i had actually worked with the same lion before — we did a thing about Paul raymond [The Look Of Love], where there was a lion-tamer and naked women in the same circus ring. this time we did a lot of digital. it’s harder than working with a real lion!”
THE CELEBRITIES
there are celebrity cameos, with the likes of stephen Fry and Pixie lott gracing Maccreadie’s revel. Winterbottom admits a few others didn’t work out: “to be honest we didn’t have the pulling power the real things have.” but one of the funniest scenes sees art mirroring life, as Maccreadie, furious that famous guests are dropping out, orders lookalikes to be couriered over. “those were real fakes, rather than fake fakes,” the director chuckles of the guest stars who really play George Michael, shakira et al for a living. “that idea was our own invention. it would be too depressing it if wasn’t.”
THE GATECRASHERS
While Greed is often funny, Winterbottom is also making serious points — not least about the exploitation of female workers in sweatshops far from the high street. this manifests in Greece in the form of a band of syrian refugees who turn up on an adjacent beach, enraging Maccreadie. “We were coming up with problems to throw at him, as he tries to make the party a success. and these refugees are invisible in the same way that those women workers are invisible.” Maccreadie should have learned from Gladiator: even an emperor can be undone by an underdog.