Her Brilliant Career: Gillian Armstrong on Four Decades of Filmmaking
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1 Her Brilliant Career 2 GILLIAN ARMSTRONG ON FOUR DECADES OF FILMMAKING 3 Gillian Armstrong belongs burgh and knew it very well, and he started to that ‘first generation’ of off writing a story about a Scottish psychic I think it’s a clever Australian filmmakers, which and her daughter. But we’re talking about idea. It was a ‘what- the very early genesis of an idea, about ten if’ story, though in a also includes Peter Weir, years ago, well before I was on board. lot of ways we were 4 Fred Schepisi, Phillip Noyce very true to the char- and Bruce Beresford. Like Few cities have looked so wonderful on acter of Houdini. them, she has also gone on screen as Edinburgh looks in this film. A lot of the events are ‘real’: Houdini was to a successful international The first thing I wanted to do when I got obsessed with his mother and with trying to involved with the film was to go and see Ed- find a psychic who might be able to contact career. She spoke to Brian inburgh. And it is amazing! I’ve been to other the other side. I thought that was an inter- McFarlane about her most cities where there’s a central area that’s care- esting way to come up with the story idea. recent film, Death Defying fully preserved, like Prague, but then you look But the Edinburgh psychic and her daughter Acts (2008), and other to the right and there’s a giant high-rise are wholly fictional characters. development of Russian housing, and [in] aspects of her career. most cities where there is a well-preserved I’ve recently read a novel about Howard historical area there is also a section that is all Hughes [God of Speed by Luke Davies, Tell me about the genesis of Death Defying modern. But there was none of that in Edin- Allen & Unwin, 2008], and what fascinates Acts. I’ve read that initially it didn’t involve burgh in the areas where we wanted to film. me about these stories is how the novelist Houdini at all. When you became interest- We could do all those wide shots from the or filmmaker imagines this real-life figure ed in the project, was Houdini already part top of the hill, with maybe a crane visible in might behave in other circumstances. of it? the distance, but really it was a great place Yes, that’s what I mean by the ‘what-if’ That’s a writer talking about how he started for [the writers] to set their period story. It’s element. In the end, you still try to be hon- ten years ago. It’s like Peter Carey saying, ‘I a beautiful city and it still has a real Gothic est about creating that real character and saw a little white church on a hill and I won- sense which was perfect for the story. how he might behave and what his life was dered what the story behind it was.’ It’s a like and so on. writer talking about the very beginning of What fascinates you about the idea of a their [creative] process. One of our writers, fiction film woven partly around a real-life Where does your main interest in the film Brian Ward, is Scottish and he loved Edin- figure? lie? Is it with Houdini [Guy Pearce] as a 16 • Metro Magazine 156 2 ▐ My Brilliant Career obviously put me on the map internationally, but looking back I think it was One Hundred a Day that made people take notice of me. ▐ 7 But it’s also a film are behaving. She’s caught between two about a strong, deter- worlds. She’s an incredibly strong character. mined woman … We always thought it was a story about four Yeah, but the thing I people, including the Tim Spall character like is that these two [Houdini’s manager, Sugarman] who has be- characters have in come a sort of father figure to Houdini. So some way built up a that was another element in the story 6 protection and a mask that attracted me; I thought it was a fantas- around them, but un- tic group of characters: these two people derneath, both are who need love, Houdini and Mary, and both frightened of love and of them have a sort of protector who loves need love from another human being. them, but no one’s connecting. 5 There are two lots of parents and children, A film needs a point of view … aren’t there? Houdini and his mum; Mary Yes, and in this film it’s Benji’s. and Benji [Saoirse1 Ronan]. What would world-famous figure, or with his romance you say to my idea that, in the end, it is I notice you allow only very limited time to with Mary McGarvie [Catherine Zeta- neither Houdini nor Mary but Benji who is show Houdini’s exploits: was this deliber- Jones]? the centre of the film? ate on your part? What attracted me to the script was that it is You’re right, I think Benji is the film’s centre, Yes, there’s no story in endlessly watching about three lives and trickery, and about love and I think the actors would agree too. and money. I’m interested in the moral di- lemma. It is a story of love, and, if you think She is given the voice-over: does this give 1: GILLIAN ARMSTRONG CONFERS WITH STARS about it, most of my films have been love sto- her a specially privileged function in rela- DIANE KEATON AND MEL GIBSON ON THE SET OF ries. There’s a whole theory that I’m an ex- tion to the film as a whole? HER FIRST AMERICAN MOTION PICTURE MRS. tremist feminist filmmaker, and I’ve decided I In some ways the film is seen through her SOFFEL. 2: ARMSTRONG ON THE SET OF DEATH DEFYING ACTS 3: JUDY DAVIS IN HIGH TIDE 4: want to debunk this myth, and confess that, eyes. She’s the one who can see both sides DEATH DEFYING ACTS 5: OSCAR AND LUCINDA 6: MY truly, all I really am is a big soft romantic. and the strange ways these two adults BRILLIANT CAREER 7: STARSTRUCK Metro Magazine 156 • 17 Houdini’s exploits. That’s not what it’s like the stuff at the Savoy or in the giant No, not at all. People forget I did films like about; it’s about a man who’s reached a headquarters of the Officer Training Corps Starstruck [1982] and The Last Days of Chez point in his life where he’s really playing with in a mansion about forty minutes outside Nous [1992]. I get sent a lot of [scripts for] pe- death. That’s where the title comes from. London near the airport. We used this for riod films because whatever your most suc- He’s dancing on a fine line and the only person Houdini’s hotel. We were all over the place cessful international films are tends to brand who knows how dangerous his behaviour and only used Ealing for the last three days you, and it’s something I fight against. Period has become is his manager, who we see for some smaller sets. films are much harder and more expensive: looking anxious when Houdini is too long in you can’t point the camera left or right with- the tank. He knows that there’s a weird sui- Like many films today, this is a co-produc- out wondering what you’ll pick up; you’ve got cidal impulse at work here. tion. Do you think this is the way for Aus- to hold up traffic; you’ve got to re-do sound tralian filmmakers to go? to make sure you’re not getting wrong city The film is shot in a mixture of locations I think it’s the way for everyone around the sounds; and so on. No, it’s not a preference, and studios. What was it like to be work- world [to go]. Look at the latest batch of but, having said that, I’d have to agree that a ing in the old Ealing Studios – and, I think, Academy [Awards] nominations: they’ve all lot of good stories come out of the past. in Pinewood [Studios] for the [water] tank got several contributing countries. Produc- sequences? I understand the Ealing Studi- ers are doing it all over the world, taking I wondered if they called specially on your os have been rejuvenated … a piece of money here, another piece there. earlier interests in costume and production They have and they haven’t. The offices The studio system is now mainly just for design. As I understand it, your earliest are all pretty shabby. There’s an incredi- backing the big action, popcorn movies, ambition was in costume design and a lit- ble sense of history when you’re working in though even with those now sometimes two tle later in production design. Britain. I shot some of Charlotte Gray [2001] studios will share the load. When I was a teenager, I wanted to do some- at Twickenham [Film Studios] too. Ealing’s thing in the arts, but that was a long time ago, a great place, actually; it’s a nice little vil- How difficult is it to set up such deals? when we had no film industry in Australia. I lage around the studio on the Ealing Green It’s terribly tricky.