Alan Parker

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 20:08

The programme was originally broadcast in the year two thousand, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:30

My Castaway this week is a filmmaker. His natural creative spark was in evidence from the moment he joined an advertising agency at the age of eighteen. Within six years, his first script was being made into a film. He cut his teeth making T V commercials, the good funny ones we all remember, like Leonard Rossiter spilling chinsano over Joan Collins. Bugs him alone was his first film, then Midnight Express, fame and Mississippi Burning, and in more recent years the commitment Civita and now Angela's Ashes. Without doubt, the most successful British filmmaker of the past twenty years, he today heads the new Film Council, where he'll try, yet again, to develop a strong British film industry. Filmmakers better watch out. The new boss isn't afraid of giving offence. The industry here is flimsy, he said. We're entrusting millions of pounds to people who've never done anything before. He is Alan Parker. Too many people walking around Walter Street in T shirts saying they want to direct is what you've said. Who are they and who's entrusting them with millions of pounds, Alan?

Alan Parker1:29

It's a very sexy business making films, you know. Everybody wants to say action and cut. And I think that that the balance is to obviously to to encourage new talents and make sure that the the best talents come through, but it's not a job for everyone and that's that's really what I was saying.

Presenter1:43

And because everyone has been having a go, which is what you implied, there have been too many dud Brit picks, is that?

Alan Parker1:50

The cycle of films is uh it takes about two to three years to get a film made from the very beginning, someone thinking about it. And I think a couple of years back when uh Lockstock and Two Smoking Barrels was suddenly a c success in this country, everybody thought well that's rather trendy thing to do. So you get a whole spate of those and they haven't been very good. And quite rightly people have criticised it.

Presenter2:07

And you say they've been too rushed, that's the trouble. People trying to get things on the screen, not taking their time to to hone the script.

Alan Parker2:13

Well, that's the most important thing. And I think it's the thing that uh we we can learn from American cinema is that they work a lot harder on the scripts than they do here. Here there's the sort of you know, the old French theory, the auteur theory that uh you know, somebody writes it and no one is allowed to change a word of it is nonsense.

Presenter2:17

Go.

Presenter2:25

Hmm.

Alan Parker2:26

I think get getting scripts better and is is actually means that the film is going to be better.

Presenter2:30

Yes, of course, but time is money, that's the problem, isn't it? I mean, I know you rewrote, I think, the the screenplay for Angela's Ashes seven times, didn't you? But I mean, when you're Alan Parker, you can do that.

Alan Parker2:40

Rewriting it doesn't mean the entire thing has to be rewritten. Usually it's about honing, you know, a scene here, a scene there, shaping and structuring and polishing, I think is part and parcel of writing when you're writing for a cinema, and that's something that we ought to learn.

Presenter2:52

The risk you run, of course, and I'm sure you know this, is that that people will think you're the big I am, you know, coming back from Hollywood telling everybody how to make successful commercial films and not the sort of ghastly box office flops that they set out to make.

Alan Parker3:05

Not really, I mean,'cause I don't know either. I mean, nobody in Hollywood knows what a successful film is. I mean, that part of it is still a mystery. Mystery to everyone. If anybody knew, actually, what would make a great and successful film, then I think that uh they would be very, very rich. But actually, no, I'm I'm just the chairman of uh of a council. The council is made up of very, very brilliant filmmakers, I think, who hopefully have more of a chance of putting things right than people, you know, civil servants or people who who aren't part of the industry.

Presenter3:29

And if you get flack you can feel it because you're used to that.

Alan Parker3:32

Well, you know, it takes two years to make a movie, so by then, hopefully, I'll be back on a film set somewhere.

Presenter3:37

Oh, you're leaving. I see. You're leav leaving him to it.

Alan Parker3:39

No leaving, no, I'm just got get back I've got to get back to my day job, earn some money.

Presenter3:43

Oh well, we'll talk about that later. Let's let's get you onto this desert island. Um tell me about the first record you want with you.

Alan Parker3:48

The first record is Otis Redding, I've Been Loving You Too Long. When I did the commitments I used every single uh Otis Redding song I think ever done, but uh this one wasn't in it actually, and it's my favorite, and the reason that it wasn't in there is I don't think we could ever ever sing it as well as Otis Redding and it's very, very beautiful.

Speaker 44:04

It's going way stronger.

Speaker 44:08

As a affair.

Speaker 44:10

There, oh, oh.

Speaker 44:14

I've been loving you.

Presenter4:29

I've Been Loving You Too Long to Stop Now, sung by Otis Redding, the only song you didn't use Alan Parker in The Commitments. Um very successful film about an Irish soul band, Roddy Doyle story.

Presenter4:40

You said before now, your favourite, still?

Alan Parker4:44

I don't know if it's necessarily the best work that I've done, but it was the most fun to do, you know. You couldn't wait to get up in the morning and go to work on it. I don't think it's always so on on certain films that one does. And just being around those twelve kids was was just great. They're ha you know, they weren't movie stars.

Presenter4:57

I don't want you to to encourage you to grumble, but n but you say two years to make a film. I mean, it is two years. It is everything in your life, isn't it? It's kind of seven days a week. It's heavy going.

Alan Parker5:08

That's hard. And then and I think that uh on the other hand, you know, you gotta rest in between. You know, Sam Menders, you know, won the Oscar this year for American Beauty. It's his first film and everybody said, you know, you're not going straight into a new film'cause he could make any film he wants. But he needs time off because it's actually it's very exhausting making films.

Presenter5:23

But when was the first time you had, you know, the big writing up the front Ann Allan Parker film?

Alan Parker5:28

I was very fortunate because the first feature film that I did was Bugsy Milan, which I'd written too. So the possessive, as they call it, was there. But I always remember I was really so pleased because I remember it was the first film that I had shown in Paris. And I was walking down the Champs-Élysées and I looked up and it said Un filmed de Alan Paker. They spelt my name wrongly and I thought, oh that you know, that's a good start. Maybe I should change my name to Alan Paker. And then a bit further on I saw another film and it said Family Plot by Alfred Hitchkick. So I thought, oh well I'm in good company.

Presenter5:58

How do you define an Alan Parker film? I mean, certainly not by subject matter, because you've done everything from, as you say, Bugsy Malone to drug smuggling to dance schools to Evita. So it's not subject matter. What is it?

Alan Parker6:11

I don't know, but I've tried to do different things because I think that that's one way that I've I've been able to stay uh creatively fresh. The hardest film to make is a film that one hopes has creative integrity, that actually says something, but also can entertain and find a wide audience.

Presenter6:18

No.

Presenter6:27

To entertain as many people as you can. You have to be careful with that because of course that can mean that you're coming to the lowest common denominator. I mean, like soap opera as it were, so.

Alan Parker6:36

It can, yes. On the other hand, uh it's also probably the best that that film can be too. Because in the end I think that actually communicating to an audience is actually why we're doing it.

Presenter6:44

So that when a critic says, and I know you're allergic to critics, writes as one did recently about Angela's Ashes, millions will see it and enjoy it, but what are they seeing? What are they enjoying? That's the kind of.

Alan Parker6:55

Uh

Presenter6:56

high-mindedness that you

Presenter6:58

Deplored.

Alan Parker6:59

Uh no, I don't. I'm actually, I don't I'd I'm not allergic to them anymore. I think that uh

Alan Parker7:04

They fulfill a very useful function, and they don't actually always like what I do. I mean, you know what?

Presenter7:08

We are mellowing.

Alan Parker7:09

My fil I'm getting older, yes. My films ran in forty, fifty different countries around the world.

Alan Parker7:14

In every country there's, you know, and a couple of hundred film critics and you suddenly got to realize that uh that's part of the job. And I think that, you know, when you start out, when I was in those allergic days, you're fearful that the film is that you've just done is probably the last film you'll ever be allowed to make if you read somebody's review of it. But then you suddenly blink and you've made, you know, uh twelve, thirteen films.

Alan Parker7:34

And you suddenly realise that you can be judged on that and so, you know, I'm still doing it, still getting away with making movies.

Presenter7:40

But there's a difficulty, I suppose I don't want to sound like a kind of middle aged reactionary, but there are fewer films today of the kind that perhaps in our youth we enjoyed, The Godfather or The Graduate or The Killing Fields, those really good quality films. Where is their equivalent today?

Alan Parker7:58

I think that uh that isn't quite true and I think if you look at the ratio of what you think of as good films against crass or commercial films, it's probably about exactly the same. Having said that, I think that the the reason that the Hollywood studios concentrate on one area which is actually you know sixteen to twenty five year olds is because for them it's a very reliable market and they will turn up and therefore that's very important to them.

Presenter8:23

Quite. So the films are being made for the under twenty-fives. I think that's really what I'm saying. Wh where are the films for the rest of us?

Alan Parker8:30

It's a good question and they ought to be there. Actually, if you look at the demographics, as people get older, actually, there's a gigantic audience between, for instance, say thirty five and fifty five, and it's not being catered for.

Presenter8:42

Tell me about your second record.

Alan Parker8:43

The second record, Is Blast from the Past as they say, is uh a song I suppose reminds me of when I grew up in Islington, uh Del Shannon, uh, Runaway.

Speaker 48:52

In the rain, tears are falling and I feel the pain Wishing you were here by me To end this misery I wonder

Speaker 49:07

Uh

Presenter9:13

Del Shannon and Runaway. Alan, it's all an accident that you are where you are, it seems, because you meant to be a journalist, didn't you?

Alan Parker9:21

I wasn't quite sure actually. When I was at school I I did pure and applied mathematics and physics. I wasn't really uh doing the things probably that I was a good at or enjoyed.

Alan Parker9:29

Journalism was probably something that I would like to do, so I actually answered an advertisement for a place called the London Press Exchange, thinking that was a whole lot of journalists. It turned out to be an advertising agency. And I didn't actually get the job, but I quite liked uh the look of the offices and uh so I ended up in advertising.

Presenter9:44

And you ended up as a mail boy?

Alan Parker9:46

Advertising was fantastic, particularly in those days because uh it was very egalitarian and uh

Alan Parker9:51

The idea was that if you could start in the mail room and you would and uh I did and I actually um

Alan Parker9:57

I was writing ads in the evening and that's

Presenter9:58

Oh, so it was a recognized ladder that you were go you weren't just kind of the postboy who who made

Alan Parker10:02

I don't think it was recognized by anybody other than me, yeah, but I used I was very lucky in that the people that I worked with used to let me do these ads and they used to it was like a I don't know, it's a strange education really. I used to do the ads in the evening and they used to say four out of ten and uh suddenly the ads got better and then they started to run them.

Presenter10:17

So you were a bit of a pain in the neck to them?

Alan Parker10:20

Not a pain in the I don't well, they probably thought I was, yes, because uh they were very nice and very tolerant actually.

Presenter10:25

But you knew how to behave. You've been to a very posh school, haven't you?

Alan Parker10:28

There was a school at the Angel, I think it was called a Voluntary Aided Public School, but it was a grammar school basically. In the block of flats where I actually lived, I was the first kid from that block of flats to go to this particular school. So I always remember, like, you know, I got kitted out, all the family kind of chipped in,'cause I'd have a uniform and your and your satchel and the geometry instruments, all those things you st have to have. As I I turned back at the corner, I was looking back at the flats to to wave to to my parents who were on the balcony. I suddenly realised half the flats were on the balcony waving, waving for me, going off to school.

Presenter10:58

Sweet. So you eventually became a a fully fledged copywriter. How much did you earn?

Alan Parker11:04

Eight pounds it was to start with. Not very much. Eight pounds a week that is. My first job, the proper job, I say because I was writing this tiny little agency. It was called Maxwell Clark. Actually, we called it Maxwell Who, because whenever you say, Oh, I work for Maxwell Clark, everybody used to say Maxwell Who, so we used to cut it short by just calling the place Maxwell Who. I then got to a very good American agency came here and I got the junior copywriter job there. And they said, How much do you want? I said thirteen, meaning thirteen pounds a week, and it was actually thirteen hundred a year. So I kind of when I got my first pay packet, I kind of kept quiet about it.

Presenter11:36

And then, of course, the next great divide you crossed was from the writing to the directing. How did that happen?

Alan Parker11:42

Well, I worked in a very creative agency.

Alan Parker11:45

And it was the beginnings of commercials and most commercials were really awful. So I asked for some money to experiment in the basement and um the art director was doing the lights and someone else was working the tape recorder and everything. I was the only one who actually couldn't do anything. And so they said, Well, you've written it, so you better say action and cut. So I remember saying action and cut, then being rather bossy about w how I wanted it done and then everybody looked at me like suddenly, Oh, you know.

Alan Parker12:08

And I suddenly realized I quite enjoyed doing it.

Presenter12:10

You sense the power.

Alan Parker12:11

It was probably it was power, yes, I suppose so. You know, I always say that directing's a crash course in Megalomania, but um

Presenter12:18

Next piece of music, what is it?

Alan Parker12:19

The next piece is Le Mystère de Voir Bulgare. It's a very beautiful, very odd, very painful piece of music, but I always play it every time I'm writing for some reason. Whatever the script, I always listen to this.

Presenter12:53

Priterissa Planinata, chant from the Thracian Plain, performed by Le Mister Devois Bulgar.

Presenter13:00

I uh mentioned the Leonard Rossiter, Joan Collins Cincano ads, Alan.

Presenter13:06

Humour was quite new to the art of selling stuff then. Was that partly your invention to bring humour to them?

Alan Parker13:12

It wasn't uh I mean, we were the first to probably do it in this country. I mean it had been done very successfully in New York. The idea was that uh you know you had like thirty seconds in those days and in those thirty seconds you can tell a little story, actually make make someone laugh and actually by chance perhaps sell them something as well.

Presenter13:28

But how do you say, Joan Collins, can you come in?'Cause we're gonna p I suppose if you pay somebody enough money, but you know we're gonna pour pour alcohol all over you.

Alan Parker13:32

Yeah.

Alan Parker13:35

I actually the original script that she agreed to do didn't have that. It was uh we went uh to Leonard Roster's house to talk about the script and Leonard was trying to liven it up and he said well we could do the old musical gag of looking at your watch and he was holding his cup of tea at the time and he said we could do that joke. And so that's how it came came about and then the entire campaign was then rewritten to take in this one joke.

Presenter13:55

The point about it is, and why it presumably gave you such a wonderful grounding, is that absolutely every frame counts in a thirty-second ad, doesn't it? And I wonder if you can.

Presenter14:06

See that sometimes in your films. I was watching Midnight Express the other day, and when you get that pan across the courtroom, you know, to the guy in the dock who's going to be sent back down again, and it's all terrible.

Speaker 414:16

Hey.

Presenter14:16

Every face as you go, you know, you you've really kind of made it very specific, haven't you, in that moment?

Alan Parker14:23

There there is a certain craft about trying to tell the story in a very short period of time and that you don't waste moments. And every moment, as you say, has to be quiet has to be polished. And I think that uh someone said that when you know as a criticism I think it was, you know, that I'm fearful of boring the audience for one second.

Presenter14:38

But I wonder if uh again, looking at Evita, whether those skills didn't come to the fore there, because there it was sung through, wasn't it? So you didn't have any dialogue. So with with a song which is by its very nature repetitive for the chorus and so on, you've got to tell a story. And that's exactly those skills that you were employing there, isn't it?

Alan Parker14:57

Well, it's a I mean, a visitor was difficult'cause it was sung through. And so visually every single second does have to count. And I think actually when you combine images with music, you communicate to people in a very uh very immediate and very special way.

Presenter15:10

But again, two years in the making and you even managed to get onto the balcony of the the Casa Rosada to sing the Don't Cry for Me, Argentina, a bit like getting on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, really, a feature film. It doesn't happen. How how did you manage it?

Alan Parker15:22

I I went to the president of the country to uh to beg for the use of the balcony. They said no all the way through. And then suddenly uh Madonna got a call.

Alan Parker15:31

And then she went to see him and uh for some reason she persuaded him, but I wasn't there on that occasion.

Presenter15:36

But you fail I wonder why she succeeded where you failed.

Alan Parker15:38

I think she was uh uh infinitely more persuasive.

Presenter15:42

I want to ask you some more about Madonna, but let's pause for your next piece of music, number four.

Alan Parker15:45

Number four is a Leonard Cohen song, a typical Leonard Cohen apocalyptic nihilistic song. I think he wrote this before he became a a nun or a monk or something. But I think if you're on a desert island you'd probably want to hear about how horrible the outside world is and it's probably okay to be there on your own.

Speaker 416:00

I wonder what we mean?

Speaker 416:09

Bernie Wall, give me stone, hence all, give me Christ, oh give me Hiroshima.

Presenter16:21

Leonard Cohen and the future. So back in the seventies, the next divide for you to cross Alan Parker was between commercials and feature filmmaking. How did you and what was the break you got?

Alan Parker16:32

I was very lucky in that when I worked in an advertising agency I met David Putnam.

Alan Parker16:36

Who wanted to get into film?

Alan Parker16:38

I was persuaded by him to write a screenplay, even though I'd never written one before, and he was an extraordinarily effective salesman and he got it made. I didn't direct it, I just wrote it as a sing called Melody.

Presenter16:48

So you discovered you could write. How did you discover then you could direct a feature film? Where did you get that opportunity?

Alan Parker16:55

A proper feature film. Actually, the first work that I ever did on feature film was for David Putnam when he was making a film called Attleboro the other day, and the director was ill. So Putnam phoned me up and said, Can you come down tomorrow and direct? I went down there and I said to everybody, I'm from Renta Director. And I directed three or four scenes, and it was really odd, really. And I suppose Putnam to this day actually still hasn't paid me for doing it, although I think he did send me some wine or something. But

Presenter17:21

But he didn't send you the right one. Come on, listen to the story.

Alan Parker17:21

But he didn't say

Alan Parker17:23

Yeah.

Alan Parker17:24

Well no, he said to me, I will insult you if I pay you for doing two days' work. And I thought to myself, well you won't insult me at all actually. But I was too proud to say anything. So he said, so I'm going to send you a case of Chateau Lafitte. He said something that you wouldn't buy yourself. I said, that's very nice of you. And then actually Lafitte didn't turn up. It was Chateau La Lagoon or something. So I said obviously, you know, I sent him a note thanking him for the wine. Obviously he realised that a working class boy like me wouldn't know the difference.

Presenter17:50

That was uh where chippiness began, I suppose. Um it's one of those words that crops up with you, isn't it?

Alan Parker17:57

I don't know, I hate chippy because chippy is a very middle class concept actually of how middle class people think of working class people actually speak their mind. But uh no, I think yeah, compative probably.

Presenter18:07

I I think you've said before now that you're programmed if somebody throws a brick to throw it back again.

Alan Parker18:12

Well, it's true, yeah. I've always thought that growing up as a hooligan in Islington, if someone throws a brick at you, you probably would throw a brick back, but uh I don't any more, and uh, as you say, I've mellowed.

Presenter18:25

So then you got your big break with the evacuees which you made for the BBC, the Jack Rosenthal story of his experiences as small a heart breaking piece actually, being evacuated to Lytham St Ann's and having a terrible time.

Presenter18:38

Working with children, interesting. Then came Bugsy Malone, as you go into feature films, children. There've been a lot of children in your film making. What's the knack? You obviously like it. You like working with them.

Alan Parker18:50

At the time when I was doing evacuees and Bugs in Malone, I had four very young children of my own. So in a way, it was part of my life. Bugs in Malone I had written actually for my own children. At the time, there's nothing you could take your kids to at all in the way of, you know, pre-Star Wars and pre-Disney getting their act together. So actually, it was a very unusual film in that regard. And so I made it for my own children. So when working with children, I suppose you get the best out of them if you make it fun. Although I am at times I'm kind of a strict school teacher, but most of the time they're only going to be of their best if you make it an enjoyable experience.

Presenter19:28

Joe Breen, who's just starred in your film Angela's Ashes as the as the young Frankie McCourt says, um it was quite a sweet quote actually in one interview, he says, I don't think Alan means to lose his temper.

Alan Parker19:40

That's true, yeah. I think I did well, I say so most of the time I was uh pretty kind. And a couple of times I think I did probably raise my voice just a bit too loudly and

Presenter19:50

Would you normally do that with grown-ups though? I mean, is that you know, the the the the onus of being the director, of being in control, much as you love it and you love the power?

Alan Parker19:58

Yeah.

Presenter19:58

Just the responsibility of getting it right and

Alan Parker20:02

You know, your gut is always churning because you're always fearful that what you're doing isn't going to be good enough, is how I feel anyway. I happen to believe that the person who should be in control of a film is the director. You know, I'm usually working on it 18 hours a day, every day for seven days a week. Actors don't, and therefore sometimes one has to remind them actually what it the kind of film that you are making, you know. But having said that, I think that actors like the security of feeling that somebody actually is in control of the thing. There's nothing.

Presenter20:31

Someone else has the ultimate responsibility actually and that's yours.

Alan Parker20:31

But what's

Alan Parker20:33

Well, yes. I've always said that sometimes it's not about being right in what you're doing all the time as a director, but you must be seen to be right.

Presenter20:41

Somebody knows what he's doing.

Alan Parker20:44

Will appear to be, even if you don't.

Presenter20:46

Next one, number five.

Alan Parker20:48

This is a song by Tom Petty really. It just reminds me of uh the really nice and happy times that I I spent when I lived in California and it's called uh Free Falling.

Speaker 420:58

And all the bad boys are standing in the shadow And the good girls are home with broken hearts

Presenter21:19

Free Falling sung by Tom Petty. A lot of the films you've made, Alan, have been controversial. Midnight Express got you accused of being racist, anti-Turk, and Mississippi Burney of being anti-American. Shoot the Moon wasn't publicly controversial, but perhaps it was your most autobiographical film. It was, wasn't it?

Alan Parker21:38

Yeah, it was my I wouldn't say it was autobiographical, I mean it was written by a wonderful writer called Beau Goldman, but I worked with with him quite closely on the screenplay and we kind of uh put a lot of our own lives into the story, so it's it's the most personal even though it actually doesn't reflect completely my life.

Presenter21:54

It it was about a divorcing couple, Albert Finney and Diane Keaton. People said that they even looked rather like you and your then-wife Annie.

Alan Parker22:02

I suppose so, yeah. I think that uh a a lot of what I was probably going through I put into the story. In that regard it is personal. And I think that uh it's very odd because a lot of the time, you know, as a filmmaker you're an observer of other people's lives and other people's pain. And sometimes it's necessary to put your own up there on the sc on the screen.

Presenter22:19

But what you had there, what you portrayed there, was actually quite a difficult, bad tempered husband, and quite a sort of strong woman.

Alan Parker22:26

Yes.

Presenter22:27

I mean, it was it was pro the wife, really.

Alan Parker22:29

Oh yeah. I think that uh and that's probably exactly right. Well, uh in my own personal relationship. I mean I think that uh

Alan Parker22:35

I would never be never been critical of her. It was bas basically uh the the man who was uh the problematic one.

Presenter22:42

He had a terrible temper, and he kind of bust things up.

Alan Parker22:45

Oh, I didn't physically do things like that, but uh I I suppose I do have a temper, yeah.

Presenter22:49

But b bust up friendships. I mean, you you've you've bust up a few in your time, haven't you? And have bust up with David Putnam for some time and

Alan Parker22:56

Oh, that one, yeah. Well, no, Putnam and I we argue all the time. I think that's healthy. That's probably why the friendship was as good as it is still.

Presenter23:03

Alan Marshall, your producer, you worked with Rachel's bust up?

Alan Parker23:05

Not really bust up. I think that uh most directors never work with the same producer more than once, you know. I made many, many films with Alan Marshall'cause it was a fantastic relationship. He was a very good producer. But I think that uh film relationship, producer-director, writer s relationship sometimes, I mean there they are, there are creative marriages and uh you probably just get fed up with one another, which is what happened with Alan. But uh no, I th I he's still my friend.

Presenter23:30

Record number six.

Alan Parker23:32

It's actually also a Leonard Kynes song, but it's uh sung by Jennifer Warns. It's just a song that I play a lot, I think, that uh because it's uh it's a song story and I like song stories. Anyway, it's called Famous Blue Raincoat.

Speaker 423:42

It's four in the morning, the end of December, I'm writing you now, just to see if you're better.

Speaker 423:55

New York is cold but I like where I'm living.

Presenter24:01

This music.

Speaker 424:01

Music on Clinton Street all through the

Presenter24:07

Jennifer Warne singing Famous Blue Raincoat. Did you fall out with Madonna?

Alan Parker24:13

No, I don't fall out with everybody actually. You seem to you're on this theme, yes. I think I'm on news tonight instead of Desert Islanders.

Presenter24:17

Good theme, Media.

Alan Parker24:23

Um

Presenter24:23

Uh

Presenter24:23

You were frightened of her, though, weren't you, in the beginning?

Alan Parker24:26

I think that uh most people were. She's actually she's she's quite and down a lot lately, but um she's very, very intelligent woman and very sh strong in that uh she's always controlled what what she's done with regards to her career. So making a film was going to be r quite difficult because she would have to give up a lot of the controls that she normally has uh to me.

Presenter24:45

And so you were intimidated, as it were, by the the image in the first place, but

Alan Parker24:50

Well, the h the hard part for me to begin with was that uh on on a vita we we spent four months doing the music first.

Alan Parker24:57

And all the decisions that that had to be made, dramatic decisions, had to be made there because the whole thing was done to playback.

Alan Parker25:03

So for the first four months I wasn't on a film set, which is my world. I was actually in a recording studio every single day for every single minute of of of the work that she was doing. And that world, the recording studio world, is her world, very much so. But I mean

Presenter25:16

But

Alan Parker25:17

Ultimately we worked out who did what and uh

Presenter25:19

You got control in the end.

Alan Parker25:21

Not really, I think I mean, in the end the film I made the film I wanted to make and she acknowledged that and I think and she likes the film. And uh I like her. She's uh you know, I'm I have nothing but admiration for her.

Presenter25:31

You apparently sent her a cartoon in which she's practising her singing and she's singing me.

Alan Parker25:37

Uh there is a cartoon that exists like that, yes. Uh and the the singing co coach says uh no, it's Do Ray Me. But uh she was uh I think since she's uh had a child she's probably uh you know less selfish.

Presenter25:51

Hmm.

Presenter25:52

You mentioned just now that the the studio isn't your territory, the film set is. But having said that, you only spend kind of three months every few years on it, don't you? It's a very peculiar job in that extent to that extent, because you don't do what you do very often.

Alan Parker26:05

Stop.

Alan Parker26:08

That's absolutely true. I mean, most people have a regular job

Alan Parker26:11

If anybody's good at anything, they probably they do it every day.

Alan Parker26:14

But uh if you make films uh you know I can only you know, I can say action and cut for three months j every every other year.

Alan Parker26:22

And therefore uh you you you miss it because do you?

Presenter26:24

Do you?

Alan Parker26:25

You know, a lot of people like uh the sort of civil world of editing uh but I I've always enjoyed the the camaraderie of the film set. I love the madness of a film set. It's much more fraught and in a way funny kind of way I I enjoy the the electricity that that generates and I I I wish that I made more films and uh you know with my other responsibilities, you know, you you you you you tend to make fewer films than one would like.

Presenter26:49

Well, quite how can you get out there again? You've got to make a film here if you make one. You're you know, you're in charge of regenerating the British film industry. You've got to do it here, haven't you?

Alan Parker26:58

Well, I'm not solely in charge of doing it. I'm chairman of an organisation which puts together structures that hopefully will encourage a sustainable film industry. That's actually what I do.

Presenter27:07

So you can't go to Hollywood, May.

Alan Parker27:08

Well, no, that but I'm also I'm I haven't stopped making films. If and when I start I do a new film, which hopefully will be quite soon, uh I'm I'm gone and there've plenty of people who actually can can uh you know, step in for me whilst I'm away.

Presenter27:21

So it needn't necessarily be a British film.

Alan Parker27:24

I've never ever divided it up, British American or whatever, I've never thought of it in that way. It's if you have a story to tell, then you go wherever that might be, it doesn't matter where it is in the world.

Presenter27:33

Echo number seven.

Alan Parker27:34

And number seven is a song called That's Right, You're Not From Texas by Lal Love It. And again, I've been very, very lucky and I've I've been all over the United States. First thing they say is that you're not from here. This is uh what that song is also probably it reminds me uh of my uh present partner, the beautiful Lisa Moran, and uh so this song's for her too.

Speaker 427:54

That's right, you're not from Texas, that's right you're not from Texas, that's right, you're not from Texas, Texas wants you anyway on the road

Speaker 428:02

It looked so lovely She stood there on the sand And she grew small In my mirror As I watched her wave goodbye

Presenter28:22

Lyle Lovett, and that's right you're not from Texas. You can obviously t take care of yourself in the big, wide world, Alan. What about shut up all by yourself on a on a desert island? Are you a practical chap?

Alan Parker28:33

I am actually in it uh I come from a family of artisans and they're very accomplished with uh hammer and nails and things. So uh I don't know, I'd probably uh

Alan Parker28:43

Would survive okay.

Presenter28:45

What kind of shelter would you build?

Alan Parker28:47

I'm always terrified of uh getting sunburned, so first thing I'd make is a very large umbrella.

Presenter28:52

But would it be well appointed? I just get the impression you you care about your surroundings.

Alan Parker28:57

That's very interesting question. I don't really know actually. Yeah, I don't like being uncomfortable, no. So I'll probably work very hard at making it comfortable.

Presenter29:05

And you're obviously, if I may observe, quite an emotional man. Otherwise, why would you want to make all these films that go straight to our appeal straight to our emotions? It's what it's what you do.

Alan Parker29:15

It's fine.

Presenter29:16

Um how would you survive with no outlet for all of that?

Alan Parker29:20

I don't know, I think it would be very difficult actually, in that uh I don't know that I'm overly good at being on my own.

Alan Parker29:28

I think I'd miss other people a lot. I think I'd do a lot of exploring on the island, desperate to find a holiday inn or something, the other side.

Presenter29:34

I mean get get very miserable. I mean all

Presenter29:37

Would you get suicidal?

Alan Parker29:38

Oh no, and it would never be like that. No, I'm too selfish for s for those kind of thoughts. No, I do a lot of looking on the horizon for a boat, I think.

Presenter29:45

Last record.

Alan Parker29:47

The last record is is kind of sad.

Presenter29:49

Uh

Alan Parker29:49

One really many ways.

Presenter29:49

On really

Alan Parker29:50

My middle son, Jake, attended uh the Conservatory for Music in Boston, and on the week that he was about to graduate, a close friend of his actually was murdered. It was just a random mugging, it was very, very sad.

Alan Parker30:02

And we all went to the graduation and the orchestra played this particular piece of music in memory of their friend who had died. And watching all those kids play this piece of music and tears running down their faces was the most moving experience I've ever had listening to a piece of music. And it's Nimrod from Elgar's Enigma Variations.

Presenter31:22

Part of Nimrod from Elgar's Enigma Variations, played by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Bolt. If you could only take one of those eight records, Alan, which one would you have to have?

Alan Parker31:33

Probably the last piece.

Presenter31:36

And what about your book? You've got the Bible, you've got Shakespeare?

Alan Parker31:39

Well, I I thought actually with all that Shakespeare to read,'cause I'm uh I'm a very slow reader anyway, and I would uh probably concentrate on the Shakespeare. So I thought the book I'd take I've for years I've been compiling this gigantic photo album of uh my kids and now my grandchildren, so I think I'd probably take that.

Presenter31:57

And your luxury.

Alan Parker31:58

Well I thought of to to start with I thought of a toolkit so that I could actually be very useful and make things. And I thought no, I will take the optimistic approach and look for the uh the boat on the horizon. So I I thought what I'd like is uh a nice little uh uh paint box of watercolours and uh and a brush and a pad if I could have that to go with it, if that could be sort of as one luxury. And uh just to do a little bit of painting might be nice.

Presenter32:21

Alan Parker, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Alan Parker32:24

Thank you.

Presenter32:24

Very much.

Speaker 232:33

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co. uk slash radio four.