I’ve mentioned it briefly before, but last fortnight I had the opportunity to chat with Daniel Barber, aka the director of bad ass film Harry Brown (reviewed a few posts below). He was seriously hilarious and so bloody honest! I get so used to speaking to media-trained poodles’ everyday and Barber (above) was like a breath of sufficiently awesome fresh air. He was more than happy to be frank and drop the occasional f-bomb, which was just fine by me. Anyway, to celebrate the films release, here is the highly entertaining interview transcript.
DB: So where are you calling from Maria?
MM: From this quaint little place called Australia, have you been?
DB: Yes, my brother lives in Sydney, I love Australia. I’ve filmed there a few times and what I’ve found is that the people there work to live and I like that. I came there with my family and we took my son to learn to surf at Bondi.
MM: Well, that makes sense. It is our most famous surfing beach after all. So, about the film, what was it like going from your short film The Tonto Woman to a full length feature?
DB: It was wonderful actually because The Tonto Woman was quite a long short film so I really enjoyed it. The difficult thing for Harry Brown was not the story or the acting, but pacing…to try and get the pacing correct. I wanted to increase the pace subtly as we went along. A lot of people think directors cuts are overlong and I wanted it to be right, so we worked quite hard with the editor to get the length of the film perfect. As much as the film makes important social and political comment, I wanted it to be entertaining as well. I don't want to be ramming messages down people's throat. At the core of it it talks about important things and we need to help understand why we have a whole generation of youth in Britain who are disenfranchised. In modern British cinema there is more of a gentrified view you might see in some period drama, but there's an underbelly in England's society that's growing which is fed up, angry and brutal.
MM: Yeah, that definitely comes across. Is this what attracted you to the Harry Brown screenplay?
DB: It’s my first film and I wanted to make a film that would make an impact. I don't want to go unnoticed, I want to be a filmmaker who has something to say and who knows how to say it. It spoke to me, I read it and I got really excited about it. It has become a famous British film whether you like it or not, it does divide opinion. But one thing you can't disagree with is that it is popular and it has brought discussion.
MM: One thing I noticed in the end credits was you had Matthew Vaughn as a producer, who of course has worked with Guy Ritchie and is having a lot of success at the moment with Kick-Ass. During the making of the film was he able to impart some good advice or give you some tips, British filmmaker to British filmmaker?
DB: To be honest I never met him or had anything to do with him. He never had any input and we never had a conversation, how fucking Hollywood is that? I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think he even read script.
MM: (Laughs) Righto. A lot of the American critics have been calling Harry Brown Britain’s answer to Gran Tarino, how do you respond to comments like that? Do you see it as a compliment?
DB: I don’t think Gran Tarino is a very good film. Firstly, it’s about racism and we’re not. And he’s no good in it, he’s a bit schmaltzy. I don’t respond badly to being compared to Clint Eastwood film but Harry Brown is a very different film, it has something to say. People love to pigeon hole something don’t they? We’re something much different
MM: You’ve substituted Clint Eastwood for Sir Michael Caine (below) for starters.
DB: (Laughs) Yeah, that’s right.
MM: So how did Michael Caine become involved with the film?
DB: He read script and he really liked it. He doesn't need to do things for the money and he just did this because he wanted to do it and said `I want to work with you and I loved The Tonto Woman’. On one hand he's working with Chris Nolan on Batman and on the other he's working with little old me on a low budget British film. In truth, no one else could play the role as well as he does and give such an amazing performance.
MM: And what was it like working with him on set? I mean, he’s such an icon of the business.
DB: What experience, what an amazing life experience. I'll always have that memory of working with him on set and him asking me if I liked what he was doing. I really loved it. He’s really cool isn’t he? He’s the fucking king of cool.
MM: You’ve won and have been nominated for several awards for Harry Brown, what has that experience been like? I mean, you won best British film at the Empire awards and came up against films like Moon, it must have been gratifying winning awards from critics and fans alike?
DB: I’m not a big fan of Moon really, it didn’t speak to me.
MM: What? Really? I’ve got to say I absolutely loved it. I thought it was a really clever take on an overused element of sci-fi.
DB: Good, I’m glad you like it. But what’s great about the Empire awards is that they’re voted by the general public and they are by far and away the most honest awards out there. There are no political shenanigans or political committee for it, or people who think they know more than everyone else. It’s just the general public. I’m so proud we won that award because it’s the ultimate; the best British film decided by the British public.
MM: So, I know you guys have to be pretty secretive about this kind of thing but what can you tell me about your next project Devotchka? Have you cast it already?
DB: I can’t actually tell you a lot about it. It’s a film about a female protagonist who has had a very tough upbringing and it’s the part of her life where she travels from Russia to America. It’s very commercial and exciting. We’ve had a lot of interest in it from very successful female actors, but I can’t really say who.
MM: Oh fair enough. Finally, what are some of your favourite films? Whether they are ones that inspire you or you can just watch over and over again?
DB: That’s tough, but I would have to start with Star Wars, Jaws, Raging Bull, The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, 2001, Debbie Does Dallas…
MM: (Silence)
DB: Okay, that was a joke. That was a fucking joke (laughs).
MM: (Laughs) Oh, um, righto.
DB: There’s too many to mention really, those are the kind of films that blow me away and when I saw them they were life defining moments. It’s like when you listen to a piece of music and think `wow, that’s amazing.’ Like the first piece of music that really affected me was David Bowie’s Space Oddity. I love comedies too, Mel Brooks films, Ben Hur, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, it goes on.
MM: Fantastic. Well, look, thanks so much for chatting to me and being so honest. It’s really refreshing to get some opinions from someone who’s not media-trained to answer a specific way.
DB: Thanks, it was really lovely chatting with you and yes, I like being honest. I don’t really remember the press notes. anyway
Harry Brown is in cinemas now.
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