Charlotte Rampling

Speaker 30:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Disc's Archive. For rights' reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen seventy six, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:30

This week, our castaway is the English film actress Charlotte Rampling. Charlotte, you've been to some glamorous locations for your movies. Have you ever been to a desert island?

Charlotte Rampling0:39

I guess the nearest I've been to a desert island is Bora Bora in French Polynesia, which is still very undeveloped, and there are two small hotels there, which are made out of um just the reeds.

Charlotte Rampling0:53

The reeds for the roof. So I guess that's really the nearest I've been, and I was.

Charlotte Rampling0:58

ideally happy there, but I did have company.

Presenter1:00

Yes. How could you take learnedness?

Charlotte Rampling1:01

How could you t

Charlotte Rampling1:03

I don't think I would find it as difficult as I really think it is.

Presenter1:07

What would you be happiest to have left behind in civilization?

Charlotte Rampling1:11

The precious, I think.

Charlotte Rampling1:13

Just the normal pressures of life of people perhaps living much too closely together.

Presenter1:17

Is music important in your life?

Charlotte Rampling1:19

Very important.

Presenter1:20

Do you play an instrument?

Charlotte Rampling1:21

I played the piano. I studied the piano while I was a child until I was fifteen, uh then unfortunately gave it up, as one often does, if in adolescence gives up the things and regrets afterwards. I took it up later. I'm not good, but it gives me enormous pleasure playing.

Presenter1:34

Do you play discs a lot?

Charlotte Rampling1:36

Records

Presenter1:36

Yeah.

Charlotte Rampling1:37

Yeah.

Presenter1:37

How did you set about choosing just eight?

Charlotte Rampling1:40

I wanted to choose

Charlotte Rampling1:42

the kind of records that I could listen to for a start again and again, the kind of records that would be company.

Charlotte Rampling1:48

kind of records that would um evoke memories in me of very beautiful things that I'd seen.

Charlotte Rampling1:54

um in the other part of the world that I was excluded from when I'm on the island.

Presenter1:59

What's your first one?

Charlotte Rampling2:01

Beethoven, the Emperor Concerto, which was the first

Charlotte Rampling2:05

classical record that I listened to when I was young. My mother adored it and we used to listen to it all the time.

Presenter3:10

Part of the second movement of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, Vladimir Ashkenazi with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir George Shelte.

Presenter3:18

What's your second record?

Charlotte Rampling3:20

The Beatles. I grew up in the sixties. I was beginning my film career when The Beatles were starting. In fact, they started I think a year before I did.

Charlotte Rampling3:29

And they've made such an impression on popular music, I think, more than anybody well I know more than anybody.

Charlotte Rampling3:38

And the record that I choose here, this Sgt. Pepper album, I think is the best. It's

Charlotte Rampling3:45

I guess it's the poetry of youth, as far as I can see.

Presenter3:48

Which tracks we play?

Charlotte Rampling3:49

A day in the life.

Speaker 43:52

They all

Speaker 43:56

Four thousand holes in Blackton, Lancashire

Speaker 44:02

Though the holes were rather small.

Speaker 44:10

I know how many older jigs to fill it out

Presenter4:21

The Beatles. Charlotte, you've spent most of your very early life moving about, didn't you?

Charlotte Rampling4:27

Yes, I did. My father was in the army, so my homes were two years in different places all over Europe.

Presenter4:33

Hmm.

Charlotte Rampling4:34

Yeah.

Presenter4:34

Your father was a very

Charlotte Rampling4:34

Yes, he was. He has extraordinary legs and energy because he won a gold medal in Berlin in 1936.

Presenter4:42

Was it very unsettling going to a number of schools being shunted around Europe like that?

Charlotte Rampling4:48

It was unsettling, really, because

Charlotte Rampling4:50

I couldn't keep friends very long because I would make friends and then have to leave them. They would remain in the same place.

Presenter4:57

How old were you when you eventually settled down, as it were, as a family?

Charlotte Rampling5:00

In England. My father retired when I was fourteen, so that was when we settled in England.

Presenter5:05

Did you have any ideas then on what you wanted to be?

Charlotte Rampling5:08

I had vague ideas I was attracted towards acting through amateur dramatics because I felt when I was on the stage that I was truly relating to people. I was perhaps rather introverted as a child.

Charlotte Rampling5:21

And

Charlotte Rampling5:23

This, to me, was a marvellous form of communication to people. It was like a distant communication, but I know I felt what I could do to people. I could make them laugh and happy and cry and enjoy me.

Presenter5:34

You worked in advertising for a while? Yes, I did.

Presenter5:37

And then you took off and wandered in Spain.

Charlotte Rampling5:40

which I guess was in my nature having wandered really as a child and I I also wanted to learn another language because I speak French fluently because my father was at NATO in Frontimble.

Presenter5:50

And then you did some fashion modelling.

Charlotte Rampling5:52

three months of it. It wasn't really good.

Presenter5:54

And how did films come into it?

Charlotte Rampling5:56

The Bolting brothers saw a picture in a magazine of me when they were looking for a young girl to play the lead role in their film Rotten to the Core, and it was one of those miraculous lucky chances I was launched into the film business.

Presenter6:09

Playing a big part straight away.

Charlotte Rampling6:10

Yeah.

Presenter6:12

It's said that you left the cinema in tears when they showed you that film.

Charlotte Rampling6:16

Yes, I did. I've never done it again, but I did then.

Charlotte Rampling6:19

It was, I guess, just the shock, the embarrassment of

Charlotte Rampling6:25

revealing myself to such an extent. Because uh as I said before, I didn't like to reveal myself, but it was I guess the greatest challenge to me that I just did

Presenter6:36

And just

Charlotte Rampling6:37

The best I could, and it seemed to work.

Presenter6:39

Let's have your third record. What's that?

Charlotte Rampling6:41

And the third record will be Tchaikovsky and Sleeping Beauty.

Charlotte Rampling6:46

I've always loved ballet. I studied ballet as a child and I could, I think, have happy times dancing around the desert island to the very beautiful music of Tchaikovsky.

Presenter7:48

An excerpt from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, Pierre Monteu conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.

Presenter7:55

So you started your film career.

Presenter7:58

Quite near the top. What was the next step? What was your second picture?

Charlotte Rampling8:01

Well the next step after Rotten to the Core was a training at the Royal Court Theatre because I felt almost guilty.

Charlotte Rampling8:09

of um having been chosen.

Charlotte Rampling8:12

from amongst a lot of actresses who trained for a long time to do a lead part in a in a big film. So I thought that if I went to the Royal Court Theatre where they had an improvised school, which it doesn't exist anymore, but they had this improvised school

Charlotte Rampling8:24

I could perhaps learn a few things, um like voice control or improvisation or just losing one inhibitions.

Charlotte Rampling8:33

And while I was doing that I did television plays and the next step was

Charlotte Rampling8:37

Getting roll of Georgie girl with Leonard Grave.

Presenter8:39

And a very successful film. You had a very showy part.

Charlotte Rampling8:42

Yeah, she was, um

Charlotte Rampling8:45

I guess the first

Charlotte Rampling8:47

example of a truly liberated woman to the extent that

Charlotte Rampling8:51

It made people very angry because the character I played didn't want the baby that she had in the end. I mean, she was prepared prepared just to give the baby away to her friend because she wanted to lead her own independent life.

Presenter9:03

You've got rather the image of of the tough, hard girl. Was there a danger that you'd be typed that way?

Charlotte Rampling9:09

There was after Georgia girl an enormous one and it was a very good thing.

Presenter9:11

Did it happen?

Charlotte Rampling9:12

Yes, oh yes people were terrified of me.

Presenter9:15

Yeah.

Charlotte Rampling9:17

In fact, I remember when I went on the next film I did was The Long Duel and when I went when I went onto the set

Charlotte Rampling9:23

People told me afterwards they were expecting I don't know what but some kind of

Presenter9:26

Watch out for this one.

Charlotte Rampling9:27

Alright, she's gonna be a real demon.

Charlotte Rampling9:30

And it wasn't until Visconti that people were shown another dimension of my personality, because I was the only good person in the dam that he made.

Presenter9:38

Yes, Visconti is the damned with with Dirk Bogart.

Charlotte Rampling9:41

Yeah.

Presenter9:42

It was about that time following a a family tragedy, the death of your sister.

Charlotte Rampling9:45

Do

Presenter9:46

You took a year off, a a sabbatical year, to think things out.

Charlotte Rampling9:50

Obviously I was very close to my sister.

Charlotte Rampling9:53

and then my mother becoming very ill, and I felt perhaps that life was coming too easy, and I wanted to see how other people lived, I wanted to stop thinking about myself.

Charlotte Rampling10:02

I wanted to explore.

Charlotte Rampling10:07

Other thinkings, other philosophies.

Presenter10:10

Where did you

Presenter10:11

Uh

Charlotte Rampling10:11

I wandered to Afghanistan and lived with the gypsies up in the hills near the Russian border and I stayed there for about a month and then I went to a monastery.

Charlotte Rampling10:20

Do not laugh, there were women there too. But it was a Tibetan monastery where they

Charlotte Rampling10:25

The Tibetan monks had taken refuge when um they could no longer remain in Tibet.

Charlotte Rampling10:32

And there I learnt meditation and just read a lot of books and just led a very quiet life for a year, in tranquil thought.

Presenter10:41

Did that year produce a lasting and permanent change in your personality?

Charlotte Rampling10:45

Yes, because I think there are a lot of ways out of that particular situation through a psychiatrist or through

Charlotte Rampling10:53

um tranquilizing drugs, sleeping pills, but I was determined or drink, I was determined to do it myself.

Charlotte Rampling10:59

without any assistance except my

Charlotte Rampling11:02

My own self.

Presenter11:04

A year's a long time to be away for for someone quite new to the business. Was there work waiting for you when you came back?

Charlotte Rampling11:07

Was there web

Presenter11:09

Yeah.

Charlotte Rampling11:09

Yes.

Presenter11:10

One

Charlotte Rampling11:11

It didn't stop. I mean, well I went to America then to do a film called The Ski Bam, which wasn't a an enormous success, but it got me out of England, it got me into a change of scenery and I loved to ski.

Speaker 411:20

Uh

Charlotte Rampling11:20

Hmm.

Charlotte Rampling11:21

And it wasn't really until, um

Charlotte Rampling11:24

I married Brian that I felt secure enough to truly

Charlotte Rampling11:29

Go right into the business and not be afraid any more.

Presenter11:31

Yeah. Brian Southcomb.

Charlotte Rampling11:33

Brian South Korea my husband and um

Charlotte Rampling11:36

Our Sam Barnaby, who's three. So we all travel together and we have fun in the business rather than letting the business take over us.

Presenter11:43

Good.

Presenter11:44

Let's have your fourth record. What's that?

Charlotte Rampling11:45

My fourth record is The Great Elvis Presley.

Charlotte Rampling11:50

who I listened to. I was from the age of fifteen, and found all my first boyfriends and my first parties had Elvis in the background. I think he's just fabulous.

Speaker 412:00

You know I can't be fine Sitting home all alone

Speaker 412:07

Can't come around At least please telephone and don't be crude

Speaker 412:14

The whole is true

Speaker 412:18

Baby for you for me to you on that?

Speaker 412:20

There's something I might have said Please not forget my past The future looks bright ahead

Speaker 412:31

The whole heart is true.

Presenter12:33

The voice of Elvis.

Presenter12:35

You made two costume pictures straight off,'Tis Petit She's a Haw and The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Do you like working in costume?

Charlotte Rampling12:43

I think my favourite period, in fact, is not quite so far back into history.

Charlotte Rampling12:48

I feel it's a little difficult to relate.

Charlotte Rampling12:51

to those people, mainly in the way they lived, in the castles they lived, the kind of lives they lived, the kind of relationships they had with each other, I feel a bit encumbered by the costumes.

Charlotte Rampling13:02

and uh by the sets

Charlotte Rampling13:05

My favourite period, I think my best work has been done from say the twenties to the forties.

Presenter13:11

You made a film in Rome which had a great impact, a very outspoken film. In fact, it was held up. It wasn't shown here for a while.

Charlotte Rampling13:18

The night porter you're talking about.

Presenter13:19

Oh yes, with with Dirk Beargard again.

Charlotte Rampling13:20

That's right.

Presenter13:21

Now that takes you into rather into the period you were talking about. It flashes back to the war, doesn't it?

Charlotte Rampling13:27

Yes, it does, when the character I play is sixteen and then we meet up again with the two people, the Nazi officer.

Charlotte Rampling13:35

and the girl who is now older.

Charlotte Rampling13:38

Ten years later.

Charlotte Rampling13:39

And the film, the subject matter, we all realized was going to be very deep and very difficult to do.

Charlotte Rampling13:45

But it's something that I believe.

Charlotte Rampling13:48

so strongly in as Dirk did and the woman director.

Presenter13:52

Who was the woman director?

Charlotte Rampling13:53

Liliana Cavani

Charlotte Rampling13:55

It eventually came to England because some of the British critics, for instance Dylas Powell and Margaret Hinksman,

Charlotte Rampling14:03

wrote so much about

Charlotte Rampling14:05

The power of this film that it must be seen, especially by young people.

Charlotte Rampling14:09

Who

Charlotte Rampling14:11

or born after the war like myself, that it did eventually come here and was an enormous success. Obviously some people loathe it, but a lot of people were very, very affected by it.

Presenter14:22

Recently you've made a very successful picture in the United States with Robert Mitchum. Farewell, my lovely. Did you feel that doing a remake of a very successful film of so long ago, of the thirties, um was a kind of challenge?

Charlotte Rampling14:36

Well funny enough it wasn't such a successful film as people think, because a lot of people mistake it for The Big Sleep, which was uh Lauren Bacall and Bogard's first film together.

Charlotte Rampling14:48

The challenge there, apart from it being a remake, yes, which is always difficult because

Charlotte Rampling14:53

You never know whether it's going to be as good and people are going to say, Oh well, you know, she wasn't like so-and-so.

Charlotte Rampling14:58

was that I was playing an American and most of the American actresses wanted to play that part.

Presenter15:04

Recently we've been making a picture.

Presenter15:07

With Peter O'Toole we haven't seen yet. That's in the pipeline.

Charlotte Rampling15:10

What'd it go?

Presenter15:13

What a core.

Charlotte Rampling15:14

It's called Foxtrot, which again is my favourite period. It's 1939, just before the outbreak of the war.

Presenter15:20

There was a piece in the paper the other day that you're going to take another year off from films.

Charlotte Rampling15:24

Well, it was

Charlotte Rampling15:26

really slightly misquoted and all the papers seem to um catch on to it.

Charlotte Rampling15:31

What I in fact said that it was physically impossible to work, say, after six months, because I didn't think

Charlotte Rampling15:37

There are that many pregnant women parts.

Charlotte Rampling15:40

And I was working five weeks after Barnaby was born, and I was working solidly, non-stop. And I think that I, you know, do deserve a little bit of time to get to know the next child.

Presenter15:52

Barnaby's gonna have a brother or sister.

Charlotte Rampling15:53

Hmm, doesn't Zizzy doesn't want a baby, because babies are very boring.

Presenter15:57

Yeah.

Charlotte Rampling15:58

says

Presenter15:58

Yeah.

Presenter15:59

Where's your base? Where's home?

Charlotte Rampling16:01

We have a house in Santa Bay. That's the only house we own at the moment. We rent a house when we're working in Los Angeles.

Presenter16:07

So you can indulge in water skiing. That's your your great hobby, isn't it?

Charlotte Rampling16:10

Snow skiing really is my great hobby, but water skiing is

Presenter16:14

A reasonable substitute.

Charlotte Rampling16:15

A reasonable substitute.

Presenter16:17

Let's have your next record. What's that to be?

Charlotte Rampling16:20

The opening title music of Two Thousand One Space Odyssey. This film I think had an enormous impact on the young people and older people alike. A powerful, powerful film, and the music is as powerful as the visual.

Presenter17:32

The title music of the film Two Thousand One, Richards Drice's Alzos Brach Darastostra.

Presenter17:39

Uh record number six next. What's that?

Charlotte Rampling17:41

This is a musical guard spell.

Charlotte Rampling17:44

which originated in England and became an enormous success and I adored it. It seemed that it had a fresh new look at religion. It made Jesus Christ

Charlotte Rampling17:55

appear as one of us, a young man, a young good man, who was trying to

Charlotte Rampling18:02

Make other people feel the way he did.

Charlotte Rampling18:05

And I think the music is

Charlotte Rampling18:08

Extraordinary.

Speaker 418:11

A bye day.

Speaker 418:14

Hey By Day.

Speaker 418:16

Oh, dear Lord.

Speaker 418:19

Three things I pray

Speaker 418:23

To see thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, follow thee more nearly.

Speaker 418:32

Day by day.

Presenter18:41

Julie Covington from the London cast of Godspell.

Charlotte Rampling18:45

Yeah.

Presenter18:45

Are you a practical person, Charlotte?

Charlotte Rampling18:47

I could be.

Presenter18:49

You would be all right looking after yourself.

Charlotte Rampling18:50

I would be. I mean when I say I could be, um I'd rather not spend time on that and uh in my business I don't have much time to spend on it, but I in fact do enjoy doing it.

Presenter18:55

Um

Charlotte Rampling19:00

I mean looking after the house, looking after my children, but say we're talking about a desert island. Yes, I could cook for myself. I think I'm a survivor, so I don't think I'd have any problem.

Presenter19:00

Yeah.

Presenter19:08

Ever done anything useful like fishing or whatever?

Charlotte Rampling19:09

Yeah.

Charlotte Rampling19:11

He he want to start, in fact, I would I was going to start this year.

Charlotte Rampling19:15

Um, I would like to go scuba diving and swimming underwater. Would you try to escape?

Charlotte Rampling19:21

I guess if I saw a boat I would guess.

Charlotte Rampling19:24

Signal make as much.

Charlotte Rampling19:27

noise as I could to attract their attention.

Presenter19:28

And yes. In other words, you you try and get help, but would you try and help yourself? Would you try and make a raft?

Charlotte Rampling19:34

No.

Presenter19:36

I think you're very wise. Let's have record number seven.

Charlotte Rampling19:40

Record number seven is Mozart, the magic flute, and this is special to me, not only because it's a very lovely piece of music.

Charlotte Rampling19:51

But um in the Night Porter, which we mentioned before, we did a small version of this opera.

Speaker 420:07

I staries in home.

Speaker 420:20

While the later gold shine street, let's build a tear afline of us.

Presenter20:28

Uh

Speaker 420:38

Nicar Nis Nichta.

Speaker 420:50

My whole faith of those minds.

Presenter20:50

My heart

Presenter20:58

Fritz Vunderlicht as Tamino in Mertzart's The Magic Flute. Which brings us now to your last discourse there.

Charlotte Rampling21:04

This is somebody who has very recently come into the music business. His name is Eric Carmen, and I first heard him when I was in Los Angeles two months ago.

Charlotte Rampling21:14

And I feel he has a very strong talent. He has not only a beautiful voice, but the arrangements behind his music.

Charlotte Rampling21:22

evoke a feeling of classical and pop, and I guess this is what I like most about pop music, if the two can be incorporated.

Speaker 421:31

How about myself?

Speaker 421:37

Don't wanna be hard

Speaker 421:44

Anyone

Speaker 421:47

Home save.

Speaker 421:53

But I wanna live hard by

Presenter22:00

Eric Karman singing All By Myself.

Presenter22:03

If you could take just one disk out of the H you've chosen, which would it be?

Charlotte Rampling22:08

I would choose Beethoven, the Beethoven Emperor.

Presenter22:10

And one luxury to take to the island with you?

Charlotte Rampling22:15

A luxury I think would be a painting, one of the very beautiful ballet pictures by Degas.

Presenter22:20

Right. And one book apart from the Bible, Shakespeare and big encyclopedias.

Charlotte Rampling22:26

I think the book would be Dune by Frank Herbert. It's

Charlotte Rampling22:31

basically a science fiction book, but it takes man's mind and projects it in for a very, very far into the

Charlotte Rampling22:40

into the future. And I think on a desert island that would give me

Charlotte Rampling22:44

enormous ideas.

Presenter22:46

Dune by Frank Herbert. And thank you Charlotte Rampling for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Charlotte Rampling22:52

Thank you.

Presenter22:53

Goodbye everyone.

Speaker 323:01

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/radio4.