Olly Blackburn meets Nic Roeg

Nic Roeg is the director of ‘Performance’, ‘Don’t Look Now’ and, most recently, ‘Puffball’. Olly Blackburn is the man behind ‘Donkey Punch’, a thriller about a holiday gone wrong. We sent Olly to meet his legendary colleague

Nic Roeg inspires me. He’s one of the greatest British film directors. His work is bold, challenging, cinematic and full of mesmerising ideas. He’s made films in almost every genre – horror (‘Don’t Look Now’), sci-fi (‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’), gangster (‘Performance’), kids (‘The Witches’), wilderness epic (‘Walkabout’) – and always managed to be unique, burst conventions and challenge us to think. Roeg is also a sinew of British cinema past, present and future.

Born in London in 1928, he apprenticed for many years after the war before becoming a cinematographer in the early 1960s. In this centenary year of David Lean let’s remember that Roeg shot one of the famous sequences in ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. He continued to work with the most pivotal directors of the time – Truffaut, Schlesinger, Dick Lester – and went on to direct an impressive body of work all the way up to his latest film, ‘Puffball’, an adaptation of a Fay Weldon novel released next week.

Just before I embarked last year on the crazed 24-day shoot for my own first film, ‘Donkey Punch’, my assistant director – who was the AD on Roeg’s ‘The Witches’ – gave me two words of advice he’d learned straight from Nic: ‘There is what is right for the money and there is what is right for the film. Remember, the film lives forever.’

And, when disaster strikes: ‘Consider it a blessing.’ So when tough times hit – and there were many on ‘Donkey Punch’ including unexpected tidal surges, clinically hypothermic actors, and sundry other madnesses – my AD would growl, in his thick Bronx accent, ‘It’s a blessing, boss.’

‘Yes,’ smiles Nic when I tell him.

‘I believe that’s so. God laughs at people who make plans. If one does too much planning… You’re not seeing the gold beneath your feet.’
We’re talking in his study in Notting Hill, which overflows with books, memorabilia and pictures. Almost 80 now but sharp as a blade, Nic has a twinkle in his eye that can suddenly focus in and hold you when he wants to deliver a point.

We talk about ‘Puffball’. Based on a novel about witchcraft and fertility, it’s spearheaded by an ensemble of female characters played by superb actresses like Kelly Reilly, Miranda Richardson and Rita Tushingham, backed with a strong debut from newcomer Leona Igoe.

‘Puffball’ links to Roeg’s work through many of its themes – of identity, memory, time and a uniquely complex, intelligent approach to sexuality.
Why is sex so important to his work? ‘It’s life,’ he responds, simply. ‘Sex and love don’t always go together. A lot is desire, enjoyment of the state of life… I mean, what is life? I don’t know. I know that it begins with something quite extraordinary, doesn’t it? And by accident as well.’

This is the man who shot probably the bravest sex scene in cinema – between Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland in ‘Don’t Look Now’.
But what’s just as bold is the way Roeg cross-cut the scene with what happens next: the two of them getting dressed for dinner afterwards. Time and intimacy. Between the moments, we feel like spectators into the interior life of these people. And it’s quite beautiful.

‘When the BBC first broadcast “Don’t Look Now” they cut the sex scene out. And so many people wrote in because it wasn’t the same. You see, I didn’t want it to be gratuitous.

I wanted it to be like reality – I always felt there was something more that was happening. And when it was cut out, Sutherland and Christie seemed to be arguing all the time, you know, “Don’t move in there!” and “Oh no, you’ve thrown up!” and “Oh, shut up!” ’

We move on to other work – ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’, ‘Bad Timing’ and ‘Eureka’ – all of which are challenging, dark, experimental and,
I suggest, break all the rules. He answers, quick as a spit: ‘It’s all about understanding that there are no rules.’

But these films were made for handsome budgets, with marquee stars and inside an ultra-conservative studio system. How did he pull it off?
‘I honestly don’t know. I think it was because I fell in with a bunch of executives from another time that were still plunging into daring things and looked at the product differently. There’s that wonderful line in Elia Kazan’s “The Last Tycoon” when they sit at a studio board meeting saying, “People don’t want this”, and De Niro says: “The studio needs this movie. If we make this movie, actors will want to work with us. This is important.” ’

That was the attitude to him in the 1970s and ’80s? He shrugs, imagining the thoughts of executives about him: ‘“We’ve got a nutcase” and “I dunno whether these films are any good or not”.’ He laughs. ‘I don’t want to be arrogant, but did I think I was different? No. I thought I was right
on the ball.’

His films are so exacting physically and emotionally. Are they overly demanding on actors?

‘That’s so interesting that you should say that. I always try to take the work ethic out of the acting. That they somehow are able to find their own truth. I often use the expression, “There’s too much acting going on.” ’

He remembers how his ex-wife Theresa Russell, an actress in five of his films, wanted to leave two days into the filming of ‘Bad Timing’ in 1979. ‘Then suddenly things tumbled for her and she said, “I’ve changed my mind. Can’t we rehearse it?” But I hate rehearsals and would rather keep it close to the moment. We don’t rehearse how we’re going to behave – I can smell artificiality all the time.’

This is a continuing theme in the conversation: artificiality, mistrust of the familiar. ‘People find safety in the familiar and of course that’s when you’re trapped. You think it’s safe in the familiar? You’re gonna get a big surprise, son. You be careful of that “familiar” – it’s gonna kick your ass!

‘Life begins in a way that we don’t know anything about except physically. I’ve always been aware of time. It baffled me for years. When
I was about 12 my father said, “You know, Nic, the day you are born is the only time you have today and tomorrow. After tomorrow you have today and yesterday.” ’ I have to pause to get my head around that.

‘Will we see the sun come up tomorrow? You know you saw it come up yesterday. That sense of time and immediacy… People are baffled by the time inside a movie. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be so bound to the rigours of the conventions of time as people are.’

Sitting in his packed study, it feels like Roeg’s still hungry for knowledge. He’s a polymath. Suddenly he bounces up and grabs a collection of Cocteau essays, reading one aloud: ‘ “The work of art must make contact, be it even through misunderstanding but at the same time it must hide its riches to reveal them little by little over a long period of time.” ’

That’s exactly how it is rewatching Roeg’s films – they’re so dense and full of ideas, you make new connections each time. I tell him it’s like drinking a fine wine – the first glass is nice, but after it’s been left to breathe it reveals structure and complexity and gets even better to drink. He seems to like that.

Right now I’d like nothing more than to crack open a bottle of wine and hear more stories, but time is getting on and I’ve hung around long enough.

It’s been a great conversation: Nic encapsulates all the reasons I made ‘Donkey Punch’ – to try to push the genre. Be bold – because you might never get another chance! And – this is a word we use several times – community is everything. Nic is part of a shared film culture and, through him and my assistant director, all of us on ‘Donkey Punch’ are too.

Just before I go he shows me a recent photograph of him in a baseball cap in Powis Square, W11, standing next to a piece of kinetic, Gorillaz-style graffiti which reads: ‘Push – Memo to Turner’. It’s a reference to ‘Performance’, a film part of which he shot in that same square in Notting Hill, with Mick Jagger and James Fox, in the late 1960s.

And, right there, 1968 meets now. Past, present and future.

‘Puffball’ and ‘Donkey Punch’ both open on July 18.

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