A new master of British brutality
BULL, which screens at this year’s BFI London Film Festival, sees filmmaker Paul Andrew Williams on savage form
PAUL ANDREW WILLIAMS first burst onto the scene in 2006 with London To Brighton: a gritty, low-budget crime thriller that won a BIFA. In the years since, he’s made comedy-drama Song For Marion, worked on TV shows including Broadchurch, and won a BAFTA for BBC Three’s Murdered For Being Different. His third feature film, the revenge thriller Bull, sees the filmmaker return to his bread-and-butter: a gritty study of brutality and criminality, made on a shoestring.
“We shot it in three weeks,” Williams says. Filmed largely on location in the unglamorous Dartford region of Kent, Williams felt a microbudget was appropriate for a story of this kind. “When you’ve got no money, you get what you find, and you make it work. Sometimes it really works in your favour.”
The grounded approach was perfect for Bull’s brutal tone. Inspired by observing “guys who have got their claws into everything” while he was working in a small-town pub, Williams was keen to depict a criminal world where “things look a bit grimy, a bit horrible. They’re not driving flash cars.” Out of this grime comes Neil Maskell’s Bull, a ruthless hard man not seen in his community for a decade, seeking bloody vengeance. Expect claret to be spilled.
“The violence is not very nice,” Williams acknowledges. But that savage edge and down-to-earth filming style has generated huge early buzz from critics, for brutality that comes from a place of character, rather than just gratuitousness. “The violence is kind of simplistic. It’s instinctual. There’s nothing pre-planned about it.” Naturally, it won’t be palatable for everyone. Including those closest to Williams. “My wife hasn’t watched it,” he says with a laugh. “She starting watching a bit of it, and went, ‘Why would I watch this?’”
Key to Bull’s vicious effectiveness is an extraordinary lead performance from Maskell. “I’ve always wanted to work with Neil,” admits Williams, who says his imposing presence was ideal. “Some people have the ability to look very scary. There were times where I’d give him a note and he looked like he wanted to murder me. He’d say, ‘Sorry, that’s just my face,’” says Williams. “He can be volatile in his performances, but there’s also a real innocence there.” He pauses. “I sound like a wanker saying that.”
Maskell’s casting has inevitably led to comparisons with director Ben Wheatley, who regularly works with the actor — a comparison Williams doesn’t mind, even if it was not a conscious influence. “I know Ben, I’ve met Ben. He’s friends with Neil,” Williams says. “Personally, Ben Wheatley’s films absolutely terrify me. I can’t watch Kill List! Anything that’s really psychological, I’m not very good at watching. But, y’know, at least it’s getting compared to someone who’s good.”