This month in our Directors’ Showcase we celebrate the varied and experimental career of British director Michael Winterbottom.
This month in our Directors’ Showcase we celebrate the varied and experimental career of British director Michael Winterbottom.
A graduate of Oxford, Bristol University and the Polytechnic of Central London, Winterbottom began his career in the cutting room at Thames Television. He soon transitioned to directing television dramas and two documentaries on Ingmar Bergman, who along with other European film directors Jean-Luc Godard, Wim Wenders, and François Truffaut, was a great influence on him.
In 1994 Winterbottom joined forces with Producer Andrew Eaton and set up Revolution Films; they have since produced an unpredictable and edgy collection of films. When it comes to story telling Winterbottom is concerned with authenticity more than budget, and quite prepared to be on location with a digital camera and to use real people instead of actors. The result is a prolific 17 films in 16 years (not including a couple of documentaries), which is a remarkable feat for an independent filmmaker.
It’s hard to categorise Winterbottom’s style as it varies in each film depending on subject matter and genre, but he does love a good journey fuelled with hope and despair.
His wonderfully eclectic career is reflected in the films we’re screening this month, which include working class drama Wonderland, the irreverently bold literary adaptations Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story and Jude, and the rock-music-driven chaos of 24 Hour Party People.
To launch our Directors’ Showcase though we’re screening for the first time on television the very powerful The Killer Inside Me. Winterbottom’s first American production, this stylish and beautifully shot film is based on the pulp thriller by author Jim Thompson.
Set in Texas during the 50s, The Killer Inside Me tells the story of small town Sheriff’s Deputy Lou Ford (Casey Affleck). Lou presents as handsome, charming and unassuming, but behind the calm and friendly façade is a sadist, a psychopath and a killer.
It’s a dark twisted tale and Lou is a complex and violent character. Winterbottom, though, believes the drama of this story will still appeal, “This story is dynamic, very extreme, full of sex and violence, the sort of staple things that attract people to plays, books or films... even newspapers are full of stories exactly like that. People are interested in lives that are an extreme version of their own”.
Winterbottom adds “this is a big ambitious, full-blooded template that captures something of life. And I guess that was the stimulation for me, that it’s not simply about women and nasty violent men, but also a story that makes you think about the world and your own life”.
Keep that in mind, this Saturday 3rd December at 8.30pm.