 |
HBO:
Tell us about this story and why you came on board to direct it.
 |
David Yates directs Bill Nighy in a scene from The Girl in the Café.
|
David Yates:
Well, it was in one sense to entertain and take on a very engaging little love story, but at the same time to kind of inform about the tragedy that is global poverty. And the consequences of that poverty which I've never quite been aware of before. And the script seemed to be precariously balanced between these two very fine things.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"The issue is always keeping the audience plugged into these characters and their journey through the story, and the issues that we want the audience to be left with, and be aware of, by the time the final credits rolled."
|
|
|
|
— David Yates
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It's kind of a romantic comedy and it's this extraordinary series of statistics which I had to read twice because I wasn't sure if I was overly tired because I was in the middle of post-production of something else. The fact that thirty thousand children die a day from completely treatable causes, and that this could be prevented if only the resources or the will was there to actually deal with them.
HBO:
How did you balance the message with the character-driven love story. Was that a challenge?
David Yates:
I think it was always quite a delicate balance, right from the first, when I saw the script it was a second draft and between us, Richard Curtis, and Hilary Bevens, the producer and I, and Katrina, our script executive, we saw through about two or three further passes on the script.
And the issue that we're always returning to is that balance between keeping the audience involved emotionally, and plugged into these characters and their journey through the story, and the issues that we want the audience to be left with, and be aware of, by the time the final credits rolled.
I think the earlier stages of the script - because Richard is extraordinarily passionate about the politics behind this film - the activist side of him came more to the fore in those early drafts. And what I was encouraging him to do was to just put the activists on the back seat for a bit and let the story kind of come more to the fore.
So it was really about making sure that the piece wasn't in any way overtly political but ultimately first and foremost it was a story that held you and engaged you. And I suppose in terms of directing the piece, my ambition for it was always that, even though it's a kind of romantic comedy that whenever I approached the scenes that we were shooting, that we always really nailed the emotional truth of the scene, even if it meant losing some of the characters.
It was always about making sure that there was a poignant, gentle, and subtle humor rather than big laugh humor, if you like. Given the context of the subject matter. That was my principle.
So it's a very sort of careful balance between the kind of truth of it and always wanting to make sure that the audience is having a good time on the journey before we get to all the truth and poignancy of those statistics that we eventually get to.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Iceland is a delightful, mysterious place mainly because the light is so unique. We shot during the time of year where the light sits on the horizon. It's very low, so everything is side lit in a very beautiful, haunting, quite poignant sort of way." |
|
|
|
— David Yates
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HBO:
What was it like shooting in Iceland?
David Yates:
Iceland is a delightful, mysterious place mainly because the light is so unique. We shot during the time of year where the light sits on the horizon. It's very low, so everything is side lit in a very beautiful, haunting, quite poignant sort of way.
And it was perfect for our story, which certainly by the time they get to Iceland becomes quite poignant and tender and gentle. And so you've got this very odd sense of place with Iceland.
And all the interiors were all kind of hard and shiny and slightly Scandinavian, lots of glass and marble and surfaces were just not comfortable. And with these two people, with two people who at beginning of the story aren't particularly comfortable in their own skins, let alone comfortable in each other's space to begin with. These Icelandic interiors just kind of really accentuated that sense of discomfort and made it even harder for Lawrence and Gina to sort of relax in a way.
During the very first script meeting, I said why on earth did you set it in Iceland, what was the reasoning behind that choice? And he just said well it felt right. And actually when you get to Iceland, you suddenly realize it was perfect in a sense because it's like this little isolated island miles away from anywhere, quite displaced and odd and unique. And a bit like Lawrence as a character, it's just a kind of cut adrift from everything else in the world. And it just proved to be quite a special place in lots of ways.
HBO:
There's a bit of a mystery as to what exactly happened with the girl in her past. Can you talk a little bit about how you approached that.
David Yates:
It was really interesting. It's a difficult film to pull off in a sense because you don't want the audience to feel cheated at the end of it. You don't want them to feel like that they just launched a party political vote cast on behalf of the poor. There needs to be something that has value in terms of the story turning on its own terms as well and the characters you're sharing an hour and a half with.
And Gina, as a pivotal part of all that, had this mysterious quality, she's a character with these very hidden dark little corners and you're never quite sure who she is completely because Lawrence is a character that rarely asks very probing questions because he's completely shy and it's a kind of momentous achievement to ask her to come to Iceland.
And to just cover the ground he manages to cover and to cover in the time that they're together.
And I remember having lots of conversations, Richard and I and the team at HBO about how much we should discover about Gina and Richard and I always felt that it was a stronger instinct to kind of reveal less about her, to keep her a little bit hidden, because in a way she's any one of us because she's a complete outsider in a political summit. She's given access that few of us would ever be given.
And she says something, or is moved to say something that I think any sort of rational person would probably choose to say given what she discovers, which is the horror of thirty thousand children dying each day. And once she absolutely engages with that very simple awful truth, she's moved to actually speak out and say what she absolutely feels.
And so in a way she's every one of us, and she's saying something that just seems so straightforward in one way, and it seems so incongruous in that political context because all of those people who are negotiating and have agendas which are littered with things to deal with, so that one can't see the forest for the trees.
And in a sense it takes someone from the outside who can just see completely cleanly and honestly what the real tragedy is to just point to how simple it is, the simple horror of what's happening. And it was important that we didn't quite know too much about it. We felt that, and it's difficult to articulate sometimes but it just felt right that she remained a little bit of an enigma up until the end of the film.
HBO:
What do you hope the audience will take away from the film?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"It would be lovely if people came away and felt empowered in some small way to do something about this issue."
|
|
|
|
— David Yates
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
David Yates:
I hope they come away with an understanding of the scale of the tragedy that is happening right now in Africa. You know I think what you do is you tend to think that you know everything there is to know about that issue, it's so easy to just kind of marginalize it into something. And so I hope it kind of just brings on the reality of what's happening. And also the fact that - even if it's a tiny gesture - we can all make a difference.
You know, when you look at apartheid in South Africa, it looked as though at one point that was something that would always be around, that could never change. And it was people in Europe and in America choosing not to buy South African goods. It was the small little gestures. It was people becoming active and deciding that this wasn't right that meant that ultimately apartheid came tumbling down. And I think what I love about this story is that someone can say what they feel and say what they think and make a bit of a difference. It would be lovely if people came away and felt empowered in some small way to do something about this issue.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
HBO Store NEW!
Something the Lord Made starring Alan Rickman and Mos Def. Buy the DVD now at the HBO Store!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
