IR Interview: Jim O’Hanlon For "Fackham Hall" [Bleeker Street]

4 days ago

Director Jim O'Hanlon talks to The Inside Reel about approach, timing and tone in regards to his new comedy: "Fackham Hall" from Bleeker Street.

Transcript

00:00How does anyone know when they're in love?

00:16Maybe there's just something in the air.

00:24You are a bunch of whiny c...

00:29Sorry.

00:30That's the thing is that, you know, yin and yang, night and day,

00:35you know, you've done drama, you know, you've done comedy,

00:38but trying to find the tone with something like this is very particular

00:42because it's both physical, it's emotional, and it's also verbal.

00:47Could you talk about finding those, within those sort of three mediums,

00:51those three ideas, what you wanted to do

00:53and how you needed to approach it this time?

00:55Yeah, I think you're very right that this whole film

00:59is a question of tone.

01:00And the tone was the biggest thing to kind of find and discover.

01:04I came on and I read a script that was full of, as you say, verbal jokes, visual jokes,

01:10pratfalls, clever jokes, sophisticated jokes, background jokes,

01:13and pulling all that together into a tone,

01:17drawing on my own experience, which has moved very much from comedy to serious drama.

01:23So the big thing for me was about playing it straight and finding actors

01:28who would know how to play it straight, but also know where the funny is.

01:33So I wanted actors who you could absolutely have cast.

01:37If we were doing the real version of this and I had Thomas and Mackenzie,

01:41Catherine Waterston, Ben Radcliffe, Damien Lewis, Emma Lair, Tom Felton,

01:46I would be absolutely over the moon.

01:48And so would any producer would be going,

01:49well, this could be an amazing period of drama.

01:52So I wanted people who would get that and be plausible,

01:55but who wouldn't stamp on the comedy and the humour

01:58and would know where the funny was.

01:59Well done, father.

02:08England, 1931.

02:11Welcome to Fackham Hall, home to the Davenports.

02:15Finally, one of our children is to be wed.

02:18After so many years of courting, she's finally found the right cousin.

02:23And part of the funny really is in how seriously you take it.

02:26But in these in these shows or films, everyone takes it very seriously.

02:31When the plots, you know, let's be honest, Downton Abbey can be a bit.

02:34The plots can be a bit big and they can be a bit soapy,

02:37but everyone plays it very seriously, quite correctly.

02:39I would do exactly the same.

02:41So it was about finding that sort of balance.

02:44And also, I think what I hope makes us different as well is you hopefully engage

02:49with the love story at the centre of the film.

02:52You know, it's it's a young couple.

02:54You want them to get together.

02:55They're fun to have together.

02:57You want them to succeed.

02:59So trying to use the drama sort of background and and knowledge to know

03:04where the moments are.

03:05And that carried on, Tim, right through the cut where we cut some jokes.

03:09We're like, is this just a moment where we let Ben and Eric and Rose have

03:14their moment together, have their moment and not undercut it with a joke?

03:19So, yeah, that was the big challenge.

03:21It was a different time.

03:22National Inc.

03:24A simpler time.

03:25You're here for the position of Hallboy.

03:27Is that right?

03:28You've brought all the wine up from the cellar.

03:31Yes, ma'am.

03:31And closed the cellar hatch.

03:35A time of manners.

03:37Stop gulping and do your job.

03:41Did the direction have to be different?

03:43Like, for example, like I've talked to Damien and Catherine many times and,

03:46you know, they're very specific actors, you know, and what they want.

03:49Whereas Thomas and I know she she can sort of roll with it a little more.

03:53I haven't really talked to Ben that much.

03:55But how did you find with this, especially with Emma, Emma, too,

03:59because she just did Mayor of Kingstown before this.

04:01Could you talk about what you needed to do to get them to the spot they needed to be?

04:05I mean, Damien has to go the farthest, of course, it seems.

04:09But can you talk about that?

04:11Yeah, it was definitely it was, you know, it was about rehearsal, rehearsal time.

04:15We didn't have a huge amount of rehearsal time, but it was about talking to them and saying, look, this is the tone I want.

04:20I don't want it to be like absolute deadpan the way, say, something like Naked Gun or Airplane.

04:26It's like deadpan rat-a-tat-tat delivery.

04:28I don't want that.

04:29What I want is people inhabiting these characters as if they are the most important, serious, dramatic role of their lives.

04:37And that's the fun because this silly stuff happens and there's a panda in shot and a bloke falls down a step.

04:43But they are playing it as if their lives depended on it.

04:46So I would often just before a take say, OK, guys, very serious scene coming up here now.

04:51You know, the woman of the house has X, Y or Z.

04:54We're all very, very moved by this and we've got to get very involved in it and then let the ludicrousness play against that.

05:00And so the juxtaposition of that seriousness.

05:02So it was always about bringing them into a place where they're not hamming, I suppose.

05:08A time of modesty.

05:10For God is strong and mighty and made us all hard.

05:15And made us all.

05:16Hard as life may be, he is there to show the way.

05:19And a time of murder.

05:28I'm here regarding the murder of Lord Davenport.

05:31I'm afraid you're too late.

05:32Someone's already done it.

05:34And environment's so important to that because the thing is, is that using these spaces, which we've seen in other things,

05:40but photographing it in that specific way where it feels you're lulling the audience to that point so you can drop the carpet out.

05:48Can you talk about that sort of process and that sort of did a dump element of it?

05:54Yes.

05:54So the look was huge.

05:56And actually, you're very right that that helped.

05:59Because once you got all the actors into this unbelievable, sumptuous drawing room with, you know,

06:04incredible furniture and million pound paintings and this, it does immediately give you, it makes you stand up a little bit straighter, you know,

06:13and it makes you be a bit more polite and it makes you so, so that did, it got us a little bit of the way there.

06:19And then I wanted it to look absolutely beautiful.

06:23I didn't want it to have any kind of TV or sort of sitcom-y feel to it.

06:29I believe the murderer to be in this room.

06:32I shall be watching you all.

06:34And if there's anything out of the ordinary, you can be damn sure I'll notice it.

06:39So Philip Blaubach, who had done 100 Streets for me, the film I did with Idris Elba,

06:47and I loved working with him and I knew he would make it absolutely beautiful.

06:52So it was about saying, how can we use the camera and the lighting to enhance the jokes and that,

06:58but also make this look like a sort of 50 million pound British prestige period drama?

07:05Because that's the fun, right?

07:07That's the hilarity is that it looks like that, but it's so ridiculous.

07:12So that was a lot of hard work and costumes and hair and makeup, you know, to all of them.

07:16I was like, listen, the comedy is going to be in what happens.

07:19We don't need to do comic wigs.

07:22You know, obviously there's the comedy of your man's, the detective's mustache that he takes off.

07:26That was a funny joke.

07:28But by and large, I wanted all that stuff to be as real as it possibly could

07:32to play against the ludicrousness of what was happening on screen.

07:36If you want a real suspect, try looking into that orphan boy.

07:41Tell me your dreams.

07:42Well, I have this dream where my penis falls off, but I can't go to the doctor because I'm late for school.

07:47Insane.

07:49What on God's flat earth is going on?

07:56Oh, well, you made it to seven.

07:58To London's oldest ever chimney sweep.

08:00Yeah!

08:01Don't, don't.

08:02What?

08:02Oh, well.

08:04Cool.

08:07You're out.

IR Interview: Jim O’Hanlon For "Fackham Hall" [Bleeker Street]

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