Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
2 appearances
A film director who won Oscars for Midnight Cowboy and also directed plays and operas.
On the island
Eight records
Far From the Madding Crowd
No quote available in transcript; disc not explicitly named in this segment.
Theme from Far from the Madding Crowd
he did an absolutely spectacular score for Far from the Madden Crowd … I would like to have a piece of that and part of England with me
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
I love it … I'd like a little bit of a Broadway show
I want to take him doing something with me … to the desert island
Piano Quintet in A major (slow movement)
one of the most beautiful slow movements that I'd encountered in chamber music
Zueignung, Op. 10 No. 1Favourite
I've always loved Elizabeth Schwartzkopf's voice … a great interpreter of Lieder
Symphony No. 2 in C minor 'Resurrection' (finale)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Simon Rattle
a great work … I take him and the orchestra and Marla with me
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:40Do you prefer to work out of the studio?
Yes, I think that there's an atmosphere like a factory in a studio which is inescapable. And I was fortunate and [in] far from the Madden Crowd, although it gave us many, many difficulties, in having a marvellously cooperative, creative team of people who seemed, I think, to be influenced by the fact that we were making a film as a sort of cooperative venture. In the place about which it had been written, I found that working, for instance, with local people mixed in with the actors, in the very, very small parts … was enormously helpful in creating a realistic feel of the country.
Presenter asks
1:28What do you think should be ideally the director's relationship with his actors? To what extent is he dictator and to what extent collaborator?
Well, fortunately … Finally, he can be a dictator, because once everybody's gone and you're left alone with your celluloid in the cutting room, you can virtually do almost what you like with it. I personally, having been an actor, I think feel rather strongly about … allowing space for performances in my films. I don't regard actors as marionettes and I like very much to work in a spirit of collaboration with them and to allow them room for spontaneous performances.
Presenter asks
2:11The keepsakes
The book
the biggest dictionary of English quotations
Because I think I might get bored with reading the same novel over and over again, and I'd like to take something which I can actually feel that I'm doing some constructive work with.
As an actor, you're not tempted to demonstrate how you think each part should be played?
Oh, sometimes. … oh yes, I think I hope less and less there are other means of getting performances.
Presenter asks
10:54You began your career at the BBC. Is that really where you were discovered?
Yes, it was there that I was discovered. I was very fortunate. I'd made a little amateur film … and it was seen by people at the BBC and I got into the Tonight programme … I got to make about twelve films … for little tiny snippets, three minute, two minute films
Presenter asks
15:55You've said before now that in making films you like to 'make one for them and one for me'. What do you mean by that?
I remember when I had made Day of the Locust, which was quite a controversial film and wasn't a success at all, so when I was offered Marathon Man, I thought, 'Oh, good, the studio want me to do something for them, I'll try it.' … So Susatsuka was for me and Pacific Heights was for them
Presenter asks
24:21You put your signature, along with others, to a letter to the Guardian earlier this year, John, in support of Ian McKellen accepting his knighthood. Why did you feel it was so important to write that letter?
Because I think that Ian has done a great deal for different causes … I felt very strongly that the attack that was made on him by Derek Jarman was totally unwarranted … I thought it was terribly important that he should be allowed to do this and receive his knighthood with all the right honour and glory for it
Presenter asks
25:19Was the signing of the letter an important move for you? Did you feel that was your coming out or were you out?
I've always thought I was out, but perhaps not. It was certainly the first time that I'd ever put my signature to a letter of this kind, but I felt very strongly about it
Presenter asks
25:54Did you find it difficult early on to admit to your homosexual attitude to your family or to yourself?
No, I remember … obviously one was not prepared to talk about it quite as readily as I'm quite able to do now … My father did say once on a country walk … 'Tell me about this Sunday Bloody Sunday … What is all this?' … he said … 'I think it's very sounds interesting. But does he have to be Jewish as well as everything else?' Which was lovely
Presenter asks
30:32Tell me about you on a desert island. Do you think you'd enjoy it?
I'd hate it … I think I would be terribly lonely on the desert island, but maybe one would … I don't know, there are things that one might adapt to do because we're all adaptable human beings
“I have always felt completely free to make the film in the way that I've wanted to, and to finish it in every way.”
“Personal style is a difficult thing for me to answer about. I always have a sneaking feeling that my films are never personal enough and um it's something that I can't talk about.”
“I personally, having been an actor, I think feel rather strongly about … allowing space for performances in my films. I don't regard actors as marionettes and I like very much to work in a spirit of collaboration with them and to allow them room for spontaneous performances.”
“It's wonderful to be able to dip one's toe in different kind of deep ends. I hate being labelled in one particular groove.”
“I love magic. My father took me when I was aged eight to … the Egyptian Hall … And that was the first magic show the first theatre I ever went to. I remember it very well.”
“I hated school. Because I wasn't very good at all the things that I was expected to be good at.”
“They sat in absolute silence through the film, and afterwards I knew that we were at that moment, sunk. But they found it offensive.”
“I'm a woolly minded liberal, and I've never really thought of myself as a very political animal.”