David Mackenzie On Asylum

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Crazy in Love
Source: Edward Douglas August 11, 2005
http://www.comingsoon.net

Scottish director David McKenzie is not that well known this side of the Atlantic, although his last film Young Adam, starring Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton, got a bit of attention because its sexual content got it stamped with an NC-17 rating. With his latest film Asylum, McKenzie shows that the memorable performances he pulled from his actors in that film were no fluke.

Based on the novel by Patrick McGrath ("Spider") and adapted by Patrick Marber (Closer), the intense drama set during the late '50s involves an affair between Stella, a psychiatrist's wife played by Natasha Richardson, and Edgar, played by "The Lord of the Ring"'s Marton Csokas, a patient at the mental institution where her husband works. Their illicit affair deeply affects those around them, especially her husband Max, played by Hugh Bonneville, and the institution's top physician Dr. Cleave, played by Ian McKellen, who has his own agenda for both Stella and Edgar.

It's quite an astounding film, not only because of the fine performances, but also due to the complex nature of the story, depicting a year in the lives of these four characters, is so full of plot twists that it never gets as dull as these talking heads dramas tend to be.

ComingSoon.net had a quiet sit-down with McKenzie to talk about the movie, as the director was trying to find ways to alleviate his smoking habit while staying in a non-smoking hotel suite.

CS!: How did you originally get involved with this project?
McKenzie: I think somebody had seen the rushes from "Young Adam" and they thought I might be appropriate, so they sent me the script, and then the book, and I just thought, "Okay, I can handle this."

CS!: Had Patrick Marber already written the script or was this an earlier draft?
McKenzie: Patrick had already written one script, and then him and I worked quite heavily together on the script for the next six or seven months.


CS!: It's an interesting follow-up to "Young Adam" because it's another adaptation of a difficult novel. What's the appeal of doing these adaptations?
McKenzie: Well, I don't even think of themselves as difficult. In a way, I tend to think of them as themes that interest me, and therefore, things worth exploring as a filmmaker. I don't really want to be doing the same films as everyone else. When I was presented with "Asylum," I thought here's an interesting opportunity to do something fairly hard. It's probably slightly more accessible than "Young Adam" because it's more of a romance, but it's essentially about people doing things for their own reasons. It's about an upper middle class world, and it's fairly universal. I was just drawn to the idea of doing something with some proper drama in it, that wasn't a genre piece.

CS!: Being set in the late '50s, it's also your second period piece. Is there something about that era that interests you?
McKenzie: It's a coincidence that I've done two in a row there really. I wasn't around during the time. I do think it's interesting when you deal with period in that you sort of automatically create yourself a story world whereas if you're dealing with a contemporary film, somehow or other, your world is a lot more spread out. Somehow or other, it's sort of fabled space and yet the '50s are not far enough away to be unrecognizable. I guess you're allowed to play with metaphysical times in a way that you wouldn't do if you were making a contemporary movie.

CS!: But then, you also have to find these location which look like they're from the era.
McKenzie: Yeah, it's always tougher and tougher. We were very lucky with that asylum in that it was still a functioning asylum when we requisitioned it, and it closed down just before we started shooting. I think now it's been made into housing or something.

CS!: The passage of time is an interesting part of this film. It's not a particularly long movie compared to similar dramas, but a lot of stuff happens to the characters.
McKenzie: When you're involved in the script, you do start worrying about these things. Passage of time is a really something that gives you a lot of anxiety. When you watch films, you sort of daydream your way through it, and passage of time becomes something that you don't question if people like me have done our jobs properly.

CS!: How long did it take to shoot the film, because it seems like Hugh Bonneville lost a lot of weight over the course of the movie.
McKenzie: Eight or nine weeks. Yeah, he's a great actor, Hugh. No, I just think it's about the performance and by the way you carry yourself.

CS!: Did you shoot the film in chronological order?
McKenzie: Not at all. I would love to shoot a film in chronological order, but that only works with a special type of film, and it costs a lot more, because you have to go back and forth and back and forth, particularly with a period movie. I mean, half the movie we shot in Ireland and half of it was shot in England. It would have just been a logistical impossibility, I would think.

CS!: Marton was a pretty interesting choice to play Edgar, because he hasn't done many leading man parts.
McKenzie: I really think it's much better to see a person on the screen who you don't immediately recognize. Otherwise, you're giving the game away a bit too early. But also, I think he's a good actor, and I really wanted someone with a real physical presence, and I think Marton has that.


CS!: Do you think that audiences should feel sympathy for Stella or is it okay not to?
McKenzie: I think you should, given that she's in a world which is not exactly a world that most people would enjoy being in. She's in a relationship that's clearly not giving her very much. I never know how to define sympathy, and I know that's a big thing that people get into in terms of films. In this last film I made, you were supposed to sympathize with somebody who is a character that doesn't do anything. I'm quite interested in the idea of characters who you question your sympathy with, but then also, to the extent, you also have to project onto the characters, even if you disagree with what they're doing. What Stella does is not necessarily what most people would necessarily do, but it's a character with a heart, a soul and desires and human forces running through her. If you're not sympathizing to some extent, then you're probably in denial.

CS!: Has Patrick McGrath had a chance to see the movie?
McKenzie: Yeah, he saw the movie in Berlin and at Tribeca, and I hope he's there tonight, as well. That would be nice to see him. His quote is always "It's very nice that all the right people died." I think he loves it. Like all literary adaptations, it's impossible to directly translate, so it's not the same as the book. The most particular thing is that Ian McKellen's character is the narrator of the book, and we decided very early on that we wouldn't have any voice-over. It's a different narrational game to play with or without that. Ian's character Peter is a presence throughout the book in a very different way then he's a presence in the film. The challenge was to keep his presence, particularly in the areas like London when he's not there at all.

CS!: "Young Adam" got a lot of publicity because it received an NC-17 rating. Did you have any of these problems with this movie?
McKenzie: No. I mean, I wish we hadn't had an NC-17. In Britain, we have an 18, and I think we're tougher with giving films 18's then you are in America. The result is that there are more 18's, and therefore, there's less stigma attached to it. Whereas, in America, I think in the last 8 years, only about five or six NC-17's have been given. The result is that people think it's a major event. It was never my interest to cause sexual controversy in "Young Adam," and I did make a small cut in the film to make it an "R" for the DVD, and having done so, I kind of wish I had done that anyway, because it didn't really hurt the film that much. It's the scene at the beginning where there's oral sex going on and that's what caused the problem.

CS!: Oh, really? I thought it was because of Ewan's full frontal nudity.
McKenzie: No, no, it had nothing to do with that. It was just that one scene that went on for too long, so I chopped that out, and there's no oral sex. It slightly spoils Tilda's character, because it was her asking for it, but the film still stands up there, and I would rather have done that in retrospect and allowed the film to be seen by more people. If I wanted to make a film that was a proper NC-17, I would have made a film that was a proper NC-17 rather than making the film that I made. I didn't really have any knowledge about how the censorship or ratings system worked.

CS!: Did it have any affect on the making of "Asylum"?
McKenzie: No, it didn't really. To some extent, it had a small effect on us in the editing. We were aware that there were one or two things that we were better to cut out early because we didn't want to go down that line. I mean, it's taking it a bit close to the edge. It wouldn't be much further to go to NC-17 with this film, but I'm much happier with an R.

CS!: Was this film financed independently before Paramount came on board?
McKenzie: Originally, it was a big Paramount project, and then it sort of filtered out indie with involvement from Paramount Classics. So no, it wasn't independently financed at all. To be entirely fair to everyone involved, I was very much allowed to do what I wanted to do.


CS!: How was it directing a movie based on someone else's script?
McKenzie: It's alright. It's not the first time I've done that. Patrick's a great writer, and we had a lot of fun doing it together. I have just done a script myself just now and finished it a couple days ago, and having done so, I think I'd rather not work on another script again, to be honest. If you're a writer, you have rhythms to write, you have a system and you have a way of doing it. If you're a director, coming into write occasionally, it's sort of a mode change. And I have two young children running around the house, and it's quite stressful basically.

CS!: Can you talk about this new script you just finished?
McKenzie: Yeah, it's called "Hallam Foe". That's the name of the character, and it's based on a book by a friend of mine. I'm calling it a stepmother revenge movie. It's sort of a story about this kid who's withdrawn from the world because his mum died a couple years ago, and he sort of spies on people to see what's going on and becomes increasingly obsessed by the notion that his stepmother murdered his mother. It's actually got a lot of comedy in it, but I guess it's sort-of a f**ked up coming-of-age movie.

CS!: How old is the character?
McKenzie: He's 17, to be played by Jamie Bell. He's a bit older than that now. I think he's 19, but I think we'll get away with it. We're planning to shoot in mid-to-late October.