2007 Dec 20 A Day with The Queen – Hanging out with Stephen Frears
I hung out with British director Stephen Frears for over seven hours when he was in town two weeks ago and it was a mentally exhausting experience. For those of you who don’t know, Frears made The Queen. Frears made High Fidelity. Frears made Dangerous Liaisons. All big works that penetrated the US film market – a good-sized achievement for a Brit. But, Stephen is equally famous at home for his gritty, realistic portraits of gay Pakistanis (My Beautiful Launderette), and illegal immigrants selling organs in exchange for passports (Dirty Pretty Things, starring Audrey Tatou). The latter's story is so unique and conceptually magnificent (who's ever made a film about almost every immigrant-race in London?) that I was in an awe-ful state (yes, pun intended) when I shook the 66-year-old director's hand at the Oriental Plaza’s Grand Hyatt.
Smiling, but every inch the ruffled veteran director who has battled away in the film industry for many years, Stephen Frears isn't intimidating. He's terrifying. Stephen is obviously intelligent, and extremely sure of himself – oozing innate confidence. He has achieved something that he calls "self-knowledge" and he knows exactly what he is capable of doing with his abilities.
He can do a lot – storytelling, sourcing fantastic actors (he launched Daniel Day-Lewis, whose lucky break was My Beautiful Laundrette, and cast the thespian Chiwetel Ejiofor (last seen in American Gangster) instead of a better-known black actor to play opposite Tatou in Dirty Pretty Things), and make films others won't or daren't. The Queen (2006), Stephen says, was "a film that no-one else dared to make," and he had a point. Helen Mirren won an Oscar for her role as the monarch, and the film picked up awards at film festivals around the world including winning best film at the British Independent Film Awards 2006.
If you want to find out more about how Alice and Stephen got along keep an eye out for a complete interview with the director in an upcoming issue of that’s Beijing.
Prize: We are offering tbjblog readers a chance to win two tickets to see Frear's Snapper tonight at 7pm if you can tell us: Which Irish author wrote the novel on which the film Snapper is based? Send the correct response along with a contact number to 7days@thebeijinger.com before 3pm today.
The tickets stipulate that only people over 18 years of age are allowed into the theater to see the film.
The London Film Week
Spearheaded by a group of directors and film insiders from Britain, including Stephen Frears, Lynda Myles (the producer of The Commitments) and Andrew Macdonald (the producer of 28 Days Later) the London Film Week began on Dec 5 and will run through until Dec 23. Standout films of the festival (which happens to last much longer than a week) include Snapper (based on a novel by Roddy Doyle) on Dec 20, Danny Boyle's futuristic Sunshine on Dec 21 and the recently departed Michelangelo Antonioni's classic Blow-up on Dec 23 at 3pm. Keep an eye on this site for updates about the program and screening times. RMB 25.
7pm. China Film Archive (6225 4422 ext 1214)
Links and Sources
China Film Archives: London Film Week
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