Tony Grisoni Q&A

The writer of the 'Brothers of the Head' screenplay discusses his work.

Oct  6 2006

Since his first feature 'Queen of Hearts' back in 1989, London-born Tony Grisoni has established himself as one of Britain's most imaginative screenwriters, working with directors such as Michael Winterbottom ('In This World') and Terry Gilliam ('Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas', 'Tideland'). During Gilliam's ill-fated Don Quixote project he met 'Lost in La Mancha' co-directors Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, who subsequently shot Grisoni's adaptation of Brian Aldiss's novella 'Brothers of the Head', released this week. 'The Lives of the Saints', from Grisoni's original screenplay, marks the photographer Rankin's directorial bow and screens at this year's London Film Festival.

Given that you first optioned Brian Aldiss's 'Brothers of the Head' back in 1984, what was it about it that's fired your enthusiasm through all that time?

Brian's story about conjoined twins on the north Norfolk coast being exploited by a music business impresario was audacious enough to begin with, but what was extraordinary was the way each chapter would interview a different character who'd relate what happened, in a way that laid claim to these 'freaks'. That seemed to me an exciting way to proceed, so from the very first outline in 1984 I suggested a cinematic equivalent to the literary device, which was to use the techniques of documentary.

So in effect you predated the 'mock-doc' framework that's since become so prevalent?

Well, actually we're all rather cross about the 'mockumentary' label that's been put on the film, because we didn't set out to mock anything. We set out with extraordinary seriousness.

Which is what helps the audience through the 'freakshow' aspect of the material.

If you see Tom and Barry as two young men who just happen to be joined by a band of flesh and gristle which affects how they view the world, then you're not treating them as 'freaks' but real people who can perhaps show us something. Yes, they're surrounded by these individuals who want to sell them as a freakshow, but since this is also very much a proto-punk story, they appropriate that supposed freakishness and spit it right back at the audience. And it comes out as this searing rock music!

The film's another example of your work which uses realism as a base for take-off – how do you go about freeing your imagination to reach these strange places?

Given a choice, I'll want to start writing something without really knowing what I'm doing, in the way I might set out on a journey without knowing what the place is going to look like when I get there. What you want to do is immerse yourself in the world of your characters and not over-intellectualise it. Then again, producers are within their rights to ask you for an outline so they know what it is they're paying for. It's always difficult to get them to buy into an original idea. It's a negotiation, let's say.

So are you surprised to find yourself in a happy situation with 'The Lives of The Saints', where a 20-year-old script suddenly acquires a new lease of life?

It's good to know that the shelf where all the old scripts rest is a dark but warm place. It's a bit like growing mushrooms! What's funny about 'The Lives of The Saints' is that it seems like it was written by a very different person. Yet that was really the energy that it had, so even though we reworked it a little bit we really didn't want to lose that.

If 'Queen of Hearts' was your Clerkenwell film, then 'Saints' is your Green Lanes film.

I was living in Haringey because it was cheap, and I loved the way the Greek-Cypriot community at that time made it feel like you weren't in England. It was really about me doing what writers do, which is talking to people, going drinking at the wrong time of day, and collecting stories. At the same time, I was falling in love with early Italian Renaissance painting, where these miraculous things happen in the midst of ordinary lives, so the grand idea was to put these things together. Through that script I met Terry Gilliam and Michael Winterbottom, and Alex Cox was actually going to do it at one point. But all power to Rankin and Chris Cottam for taking on this strange tale and giving it a whirl to see what would happen.

'Brothers of the Head' opens on Friday. 'The Lives of the Saints' screens at the London Film Festival on October 20 and 22 and opens next year.

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