Michael Winterbottom: interview

For almost 20 years director Michael Winterbottom has made filmmaking look easy, even in locations like Iran, Pakistan and Sarajevo; a natural choice for one of our 40th birthday heroes

See all Time Out's 40th birthday London heroes

Who are your London heroes, past or present?
‘Lindsay Anderson. He was one of the first people I worked with when I came to London. He was doing documentaries for Thames TV on Free Cinema. I spent about six months being his assistant – running around getting cups of coffee. He was a hero before I met him and after I met him.’

What’s the biggest thing that’s happened in film in the past 40 years?
‘There are a lot more films being made now. I know it’s not fashionable to think that cinema is healthy but I started ten, 15 years ago and there were very few films being made. Now there are a lot of people making their first films. And that’s a very good thing.’

What’s your favourite place or thing in London?
‘Let’s say the Heath. Hampstead Heath. Where I take the kids. If they read this, I know they’ll say “We never go on the Heath”.’

What’s the future for film in London? What are your hopes, and what needs to happen?
‘You can make a film but where are you going to show it? Obviously there’s the internet, and that’s great. But there needs to be places – not necessarily traditional cinemas even, but bars or galleries – where it is easy to show the film. And where there might be some people to watch it. The Film Council, with its Digital Screen Initiative, should absolutely not be putting them [digital projectors] in multiplexes. They should be putting them in other places to try to get other audiences.’

What does Time Out mean to you?
‘I used to read it all the time and I’m still reading it. What’s amazing is that wherever you go these days, there’s a bloody copy of Time Out. Time Out Istanbul, Time Out Barcelona. Wherever you go, you feel you’re always in London.’

See all Time Out's 40th birthday London heroes

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