February 22, 2007
It does Bear thinking about
Berlin was a blast. Clare (who's job it was to clear all the music for the film) & myself , landed at 3pm stopping briefly at the hotel before whisking ourselves off to the pre-screening drinks. There we met up with Nick & Alex from Franz & downed a few sparkling wines. We caught up with Gillian & Anna before be shepherded to the Berlin Palast. As we approached the cinema it we were greeted with the frightening & hilarious sight of a full-blown premiere. I assumed, naively, that it would be a slightly more off piste screening. Being a film festival virgin I didn't fully comprehend the concept of being 'in competition'. So there we are walking up the red carpet, with TV crews & photographers. Alex nips off to give an interview to Reuters as we wander in & grab a pre film beer.
The film was screened on an enormous screen, probably the biggest cinema I've been to. Being used to seeing the film on a smaller scale with a much smaller audience it's a rather different experience to see the film in a packed auditorium. We leave the cinema dizzy & lightheaded, 75% the film & 25% with hunger, so after a post film decompression chat I head off in search of Berlins delicious falafel.
The evening ended up at the 8MM bar, where we drank ourselves silly (thanks Oli & staff!). I was introduced to the German distributor & we plotted for the German release of the film & soundtrack. After many a Cuba libre I made my excuses & slipped off in the murky Berlin club world.
It was back home next day, to news that the film had won the Silver Bear for best music.Ffantastic news. Calls & texts zapped their way across Europe. The music is an integral part of the film & it was great for David to get recognition for that.
You can read Alex's reflections on the evening at the Franz Ferdinand MySpace www.myspace.com/franzferdinand
Back on planet earth here is the promo artwork for the soundtrack. It's in no way reflective of how the final artwork will look like, still working on that one...
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IS IT GRIM? THEN BEAR IT.
JAMES CHRISTOPHER FROM THE TIMES SHOWS STRONG SUPPORT FOR HALLAM FOE
The Berlin Film Festival may have developed one of the biggest markets outside Cannes, but the lack of a single outstanding film made a mockery of this year’s competition. A good Berlin can set the agenda for the entire international circuit. This, though, was desperate. Who knows what devils beset the jury on the final day, but it seemed clear that the wrong Chinese film walked off with the Golden Bear.
Tuya De Hun Shi (Tuya’s Marriage), directed by the 42-year-old Wang Quanan, is a worthy melodrama about a nomadic Mongolian family under pressure to leave the steppes and move to a grim industrial town. Moving, sure, but hardly novel in terms of subject matter or craft.
The more spicy contender was the 33-year-old Li Yu’s controversial Ping Guo (Lost in Beijing , pictured above right) — a film destined to be cut to ribbons by the Chinese censors, if and when this female director (an oriental rarity) is allowed to release it back East.
Ping Guo is a sour and bracingly modern comedy about two couples on either side of the financial chasm in down-town Beijing. Lin Dong (Tony Leung), the owner of the Gold Basin Foot Massage Palace, is caught raping his top masseuse by her aggrieved young husband. Rage cools to compromise when Tony Leung promises the couple a huge sum of money in return for their silence, and even more when the childless boss discovers that he might be the father of the girl’s unborn baby. The dodgy politics, murky deals and sweaty sex scenes are very unChinese.
The winners of the Silver Bears made no sense. Julio Chávez won Best Actor and the director Ariel Rotter (an unfortunate monicker) picked up the Jury Grand Prix for El Otro (The Other), an impenetrable Argentinian/French/ German fantasy about a couple of dead strangers on a business trip.
The best films were sadly not in competition, or they were fobbed off with lesser prizes. David Mackenzie’s peeping-tom thriller Hallam Foe deserved far better than a Silver Bear for Film Music.
Jamie Bell is terrific in the title role. The star of Billy Elliot star has been aching for a serious break-out role and they don’t get much stronger than this. Bell plays a loner convinced that his father’s new wife murdered his mother. The more convinced Bell becomes of his stepmother’s guilt, the more she sexually appeals.
Determined to break this weird spell, he flees to Edinburgh and finds work in a hotel. He promptly starts stalking the personnel manager (Sophia Myles), who bears an uncanny resemblance to his dead mother. The queasy tension is cleverly turned into an unlikely romance when Bell tries to save her from another admirer. A splintering comedy lies between Bell’s naivety and the director’s mordant camera.
Morgan Spurlock’s brilliant idea for creating a super-sized buzz was to screen a few precious minutes of his next documentary, The Hunt for Osama Bin Laden , to a select audience of buyers who had to sign a 98-page confidentiality agreement not to discuss it with a soul, living or dead. Harvey Weinstein, naturally, bought it.
There are a handful of other gems coming this way. Sparkle , a romantic comedy by Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger, the duo who made Lawless Heart (2001), is a serious charmer about love and how to lose it in the slippery world of public relations. Shaun Evans finds his loyalties tied in knots by Stockard Channing, Amanda Ryan, Lesley Manville and Bob Hoskins.
Jacques Rivette’s compelling period drama Ne Touchez Pas La Hache (Don’t Touch the Axe), based on a Balzac novella, creaks like a pair of starched britches. But Guillaume Depardieu (who recently had a leg amputated after a motorcycle accident) is utterly compelling as an angry French general who has his affections rudely toyed with in various ballrooms and boudoirs by a beautiful aristocrat (Jeanne Balibar).
James Christopher, The Times, 22 Feb 2007.
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Dear Blog.... A Message From David Mackenzie
I have only just plucked up the courage to read these reviews. Wow they are really quite nice! I think that's the first time the Hollywood Reporter has said anything nice about one of my films. Phew!
This is of course the trade press. They are usually very pithy and aimed at the industry - and can be pretty swiping in their insults as I have learnt personally! Most of the normal press will hold back their opinions until the time comes to release the film.
Well Berlin was pretty intense! After a gentle warm up, we hit the day of the screening with a big wall of press and TV interviews. Some of them were what is called 'round robins', where you have 8 or so journalists sitting round with their microphones asking you questions, and some were one on ones. Most of these were video interviews. Jamie, Sophia and myself worked our way through each group or individual, getting circulated by our lovely PR folk (big thank you to the ever calm and sweet Matt Sanders) every 15 minutes or so.
I don't know what it is like for an actor - where lots of the questions are more personal and tabloidy - but I tell you it is pretty damned relentless and you start to lose all sense of what you've said before. I am so glad I decided to have an early(ish) night the day before because last time I did this with my previous film was on 1 hours sleep! Too painful to repeat.
While all this was happening, the film was being screened at the main press screening in the big Berlinale Palast cinema (1600 seats - only a few years old and one of the best cinemas in the world). Just as that was finishing we were whisked away to attend the press conference for people who had just seen the film. After a couple of well needed glasses of champagne, we went out to face the banks of photographers.
The experience of being almost blinded by the hundreds of flashguns is so intense - what it must be like for the big stars is unimaginable. For me it is almost overwhelming. But fortunately they were more interested in Jamie and Sophia, so I was able to sidle away after a short while to let them get on with it. Stepping back to watch, it was lovely to see the two of them together arm in arm with huge and genuine grins for the cameras - they looked so good together.
Then we had to face the press in a different room - by far the scariest part of the whole process for me. We walked out into this room with about 400 people in and sat down. They were clapping like mad - so maybe they liked the film , or maybe they were being polite. I hate all this stuff because I don't feel particularly articulate in that environment but the questions were not aggressive (they can be) and luckily Jamie was on top form and answered 80% of them. He was so funny and endearing and articulate (and I am not just saying that) that it all seemed easy.
Then time to prepare for the big premiere screening. Time to get the suit on (I had to pay for it btw - not one of those designer freebies that actors get to model! - ugly directors aren't going to sell any clothes) and head down to the prescreening drinks. Fantastically so many members of the Friends of Foe society had made it out to Berlin to be there for the film. It was lovely to be surrounded by so many friends for this brief moment of sanctuary.
Then the official world premiere of Hallam Foe! We had to get into cars to go to the red carpet - kind of odd considering it was less that 100m from where we had gathered, but I guess one has to arrive in style!! So we get out with the flashes and the bright light (so bright the flashes are kind of irrelevant) and walk the gauntlet of the red carpet and into the Palast.
In the press conference we had posed for big formal pictures and they were up on the walls of this enormous cathedral of cinema. We had to sign our pictures. (last time I was here I tried to thank Dieter Kossick who runs the festival in writing and I spelt his name wrong - I asked him how to spell it and he said like Pieter which of course is not like we spell Peter here, so it's only partly my fault. But I still cringe about it 2 years later) I decided to tread carefully and just signed my name in the bad scrawl that is my handwriting. Jamie meanwhile scrawled in huge lettering 'Hallam Foe was here' over his portrait.
We took our seats with big spotlights on us and enthusiastic applause and the film started. Help!!
The screen is huge and the print looked great, the sound was perfect and the audience laughed in all the right places and went silent in all the right places and the one and a half hours went by really smoothly and I only cringed a bit (I normally cringe a lot more which is a good sign). And then the last image of the film cut to black and the audience exploded into applause, cheers and whoops. We had to leave our seats in the middle of this and get ready to go on stage. The credits rolled (with the lovely Franz track going on) and when they were over more applause and I had to go on stage and introduce Pete Jinks (writer of the book), Matthew Justice (executive producer), Gillian Berrie (producer) and then my two stars Sophia Myles and Jamie Bell. The clapping was huge and felt great and someone came on with flowers for the girls.
But any thoughts I might have had about making a speech or thanking the Friends of Foe in the audience evaporated. I was like the proverbial rabbit in the headlights (as I always am in these scenarios - we should have had Jamie and Sophia do some talking, they at least know what to do in front of a crowd!). So we all gave a quick bow and modestly walked off with applause ringing in our ears.
After the clapping subsided we gathered ourselves and went off to a small Berlin music dive bar called 8mm (appropriate name for our roots I think) to drink and be merry. Which we did!
But I think now is the time on this intimate little blog to do what I should have done on stage while the audience were cheering and clapping and thank all those people who made the film possible. And in particular on this occasion to that all those people who were with us that night who worked on the film.
Pete Jinks, writer of the book, Ed Whitmore, co-screenwriter, Tom Sayer, production designer, Campbell Mackintosh, gaffer, Sean Gascoine, my agent, Alexandra Ferguson, line producer, Neil Cairns our production accountant, Jeremy Gawade, our lawyer, Alastair Mackenzie, (my beautiful brother and) exec producer, Matthew Justice, exec producer, - as well as just about all the films financiers - Peter Carlton and Katherine Butler from Film 4, Peter Touche from Ingenious, Carol Sheridan from Scottish Screen, Lenny Crooks (formely) from Glasgow Film Finance (And Hamish Walker) and the entire team of our sales agents Independent, Luc Roeg, Ana Ayesta, Andrew Orr, Sarah Godwin and our UK distributors BVI led by Robert Mitchell with Lee Jury and Charlotte Tudor. Jonathan Rutter and Matthew Sanders from Premier PR, Bart McDonagh, Clare McKinney and all the Domino Records team, Nick McCarthy and Alex Kapranos from Franz as well as Anna Duffield and Brian Coffey from Sigma, Tiernan from Film City Glasgow, Colin Kennedy, Lee Thomas and many of our long suffering partners (plus anyone who I have been stupid enough to forget - sorry)
Thank you guys for being there and for being part of the team Hallam. Sorry I was too tongue tied to say so when I was on stage, but I was enjoying the clapping. Thank you very, very, much.
'It really is all glamour!' as my brother used to say when we were picking up cigarette ends off the wet ground on our first jobs in the industry as runners.
David Mackenzie
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February 20, 2007
Press Cuttings
Daily Variety / 17 February 2006
By Derek Elley
Tip-top performances, led by young British thesp Jamie Bell, and a deftly handled tone reflecting all the title teen's confused emotions make "Hallam Foe" a viewing delight. Left-of-centre rites of passager, marbled with comic moments, confirm writer-director David Mackenzie ("Young Adam") as one of Blighty's most distinctive talents, with a real feel for emotional intimacy and a cinematic way of presenting it...... Bell plays Hallam Foe, 17-year-old son of apparently wealthy Scottish Highlands businessman Julius Foe (Ciaran Hinds), who's retreated into a semi-fantasy world following the death of his beloved mom. Still convinced she was murdered by his stepmother, Verity (Claire Forlani), rather than drowning by accident in the nearby loch, Hallam amuses himself by spying on people and living like a pesky monkey in a treetop cabin that doubles as a shrine to mom.....
Hallam feels isolated, and also suspects Verity wants him out of the stately manor. A chance exchange of bodily fluids between the two turns into Verity's big kiss-off to her troublesome stepson.
With Hallam's background succinctly sketched, pic follows him as he hops a train to Edinburgh in search of some kind of new life. But a chance spotting of a striking young woman in the street turns him in another direction. Following her to her workplace, he finds she's the personnel manager of a large hotel and manages to charm his way into giving him a menial job in the kitchen.
But the real reason Hallam followed her was because Kate (Sophia Myles, from "Tristan & Isolde") is a dead ringer for his mom in her youth. That's the start of a funny, quirky, romantic and lightly dramatic love story in which Hallam, spying on her apartment from his new nest in a clocktower, becomes entranced by the business-like and forthright Kate.
However, when Kate's married lover (Jamie Sives) finds Hallam is playing Peeping Tom, and an 18th-birthday drink between Hallam and Kate leads to her taking him back to her apartment, Hallam finds himself on an emotional roller coaster beyond the control of either of them.
Straight sex as a spiritual placebo was one of the driving forces behind the main character in "Young Adam." Mackenzie proves again he's an ace handler of such material, but the sex in "Hallam Foe" has none of the dark joylessness of the earlier pic. Chemistry between Bell and Myles is especially good, with the former radiating a mixture of angelic charm and manipulation, and the latter sending out subtle signals that Kate, underneath her business suit, simply needs regular servicing.
Tightly honed script, from the novel by Peter Jinks, is backed by equally tight editing..... with Hallam's return to the Highlands and the exorcism of his animosity towards his father and stepmom. But a beautifully played coda between him and Kate ends pic on a moving and satisfying note.
Performances are all on the money, from Hinds' essentially weak paterfamilias to Forlani's coolly upper-class stepmom and Sives' thuggish lover. Scottish accents are light throughout, apart from Ewen Bremner's inpenetrable turn as a jokey bell captain.
Widescreen lensing by Mackenzie regular Giles Nuttgens is equally textured and well-composed the Highlands and Edinburgh, and a bouncy pop-rock score keeps things largely on the lighter side. Lively graphics for both main and end titles also add bounce.
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February 19, 2007
BRINGING HOME A BEAR!
Well Berlinale 2007 is over, Hallam Foe has had it's World Premiere and come away with two prizes! We won The Silver Bear For The Best Music In A Film and also an independent jury award, the Prize Of The Guild of German Art House Cinemas!
Friday was an incredible day, we were all very anxious and excited. The morning consisted of press interviews and then the main press conference. It all ran very smoothly and Jamie was a hit at the conference, entertaining the audience of international journalists. Brian and I spent the morning finalizing arrangements for the premiere and after party at the infamous 8mm Bar.
Team Hallam met at the Mandala Hotel for a pre screening drink hosted by Indpendent looking gorgeous and glamorous in a brilliantly low key Berlin way. Jamie, Sophia, David and the core Hallam Team then worked the red carpet much to the delight of the reporters clamoring behind the barriers. The blog master Colin had his video camera out so I am sure he will post some footage of this soon!
The screening itself was hugely successful, there was a real buzz in the cinema and David and Gillian were delighted with the reception the film received. After downing a glass of champagne we were whisked off to the 8mm Bar where the party got started and went on and on and ........
Saturday, sore heads in hands, we attended two awards ceremonies. The first, at lunch time, to collect the Prize Of The Guild Of German Art House Cinemas and the second in the evening at The Palast to collect a Silver Bear for the music used in the film. David was joined on stage by Franz Ferdinand to collect the Bear and as you can imagine Team Hallam cheered and whooped with true Glasgee vigor! The rest of the evening was just as fun - the festival hosted a stunning dinner for the award winners and we rounded of the night at a bar called Scotch and Sofa (how fitting!).
Overall the festival was a huge success for us, we all enjoyed our time in Berlin immensely. The festival staff really know their stuff and our publicity team worked so hard to ensure all ran smoothly. Thank you all on behalf of Team Hallam! As well as picking up two awards, the film was well received by various international press critics and won a couple of significant distribution deals. Fingers crossed the next stage will be just as successful.
"An extraordinarily accomplished piece of film-making" The Scotsman
"A superbly tooled rites of passager.... Confirms Mackenzie as one of Blighty's most distinctive talents" Variety
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February 15, 2007
Hallam Foe team at The ...
Hallam Foe team at The House of a Hundred Beers!
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Isabelle & Goetz from Prokino
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David and Gillian at Guglehof
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23 hours and 15 minutes To Go!
Last night was a great first night out on the Berlin tiles - we had dinner at Gugelhof and then drank big drinks in a crazy bar called White Trash. Today Jamie and Sophia arrived and along with David, embarked on the first round of interviews for international print and TV press.
Alastair Mackenzie also arrived in town (via Poland strangely - he got on the wrong train!) as did Tom Sayer (our Production Designer).
Tonight we are eating out at a restaurant called Pan Asia, where Jamie and David first met to discuss Hallam Foe - it seemed fitting to go back there before the big day tomorrow.
Jamie, Sophia and David have a busy schedule of press tomorrow from 10.00 am before the official press screening and press conference in the afternoon.
The excitement is certainly building for the premiere tomorrow so it will be early to bed for most of us, apart from poor Emma Zee ( our Post Production Supervisor) who is doing a technical rehearsal (testing each of the film reels for correct colour & sound) at 3.15am, ouch!
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February 14, 2007
Hallo Allerseits!
We have arrived!
Brian and I stepped off the plane this morning and it's been a non-stop first day. We have met with core film festival staff, collected passes and tickets, checked all hotel details, met with various folk about the big night on Friday and planned what we're all doing tonight... oh and we of course made time for a fine German beer, a Schnapps and a Bratwurst!
Berlin is buzzing with Hallam Foe! David, Jamie and Sophia kick off their press activity tomorrow and more of our party will arrive - including the Franz Ferdinand boys.
Off for dinner now, will post some photos of the Hallam clan at the festival soon....
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February 13, 2007
PROKINO TAKE ON GERMAN RIGHTS FOR HALLAM FOE
Ana (Independent) & Helene (Monopole Pathe) outside the market screening
Independent have sold Prokino the German and Austrian distribution rights for Hallam Foe. Great news ahead of our premiere on Friday.
"We have always been addicted to British cinema, and have been watching David Mackenzie from the beginning of his career. We are very proud to have such a fresh British film as Hallam Foe, as we were to have Trainspotting ten years ago"
Prokino's Ira Von Gienanth
Hallam Foe has also been picked up by Nordisk (Scandinavia), Rosebud (Greece), Monopole Pathe (Switzerland) and VTI / Karantanija Cinemas (Former Yugoslavia).
David and Gillian have had a busy first day at the festival starting the ball rolling on Hallam's launch. Brian and I travel tomorrow morning, next post to come live from the Berlinale!
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Dear Blog.... Tiernan Kelly from Film City Glasgow
So, my first major film festival. In Berlin. Having spent many a lost weekend in this wonderful city, once ending up in hospital and informed I had an life changing disease (thankfully retracted by the only English speaking doctor 24hrs later), and most recently asking my long suffering girlfriend to marry me at New Year at the Brandenburg Gate, when Gillian asked if I would like to come over, join the Hallam team, and represent Film City Glasgow at the Berlinale, I packed my suitcase in anticipation that evening.
My role in Hallam was peripheral but privileged. Watching it unfold from afar (well, 5m across our fabulous open plan office) has been fascinating, my own personal tutorial in the film production process, and indeed the wonderful circus that follows. Film City has been base camp for the project, from production offices, improvised wardrobe and art departments, to filming in the main studio space here in Glasgow. The facility will be used by many productions over the years to come, but Hallam will always be the first, from green light to premiere in 12 months!
Aside from wrapping up in several layers and trying to look glamorous in communist office blocks now functioning as guerrilla art galleries and cafes (I'm thinking 'Christiane F', in reality more an extra from Elton John's 'Nikita' video), I will be working. Pressing flesh, networking, spreading the word, regaling anecdotes about the highs and lows of film production in Glasgow, and ably assisting the Hallam team (that's everyone, not just you Brian) for what I'm sure will be a successful and prosperous Berlinale 2007.
To get me in the mood, I'll be listening to these tracks on the Schoenefeld express:
Ich Bin Ein Komputer - Der Plan
Liaisons Dangereuses - Peut Etre...Pas
Speed of Life - David Bowie
Lift (Denso) - To Rococo Rot
Suicide Commando - No More
Happiness - Superpitcher
See you at the Palast!
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February 12, 2007
Dear Blog.... A Message From David Mackenzie
Tomorrow we go to Berlin to prepare for our premieres on Friday. There is the big screening in the evening, but first there is the big press screening followed (big dread) by the press conference. This is very scary because I am never too articulate when it comes to questions about my work. Any of course any reviews can go a long way to making or breaking the perception of the film to the audience.
I am very proud of Hallam Foe and I think it is a strong, vibrant and interesting film. But boy am I nervous about this first bit of public exposure - apart from a small bloggers screening and the cast and crew screening (which both went well) the film has never gone before an audience. I'm nervous because I know it is a strange gem of a film, but inevitably it won't work for everybody. My only hope is that those that get it and respond to the film will be the majority and those that don't (the really straight, soul-less ones!!!!) will be the minority. But who knows what will happen come Friday. All I do know is that I have to expose the film to audiences sometime and that time is rapidly approaching!
DM
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February 11, 2007
Dear Blog... Mat Sanders from Berlin
Dear Blog,
Berlin Film Festival 2007: This will be the moment when Hallam Foe is launched internationally and my job, as the film’s publicist during the festival, is to spread the word among the hundreds of international journalists who are here. I’ve worked on many films here over the last 11 years, but Hallam is one I feel a genuine affinity with; it’s not only a beautiful film, but because I also worked on it during its shoot I know everyone involved so it will be great to see them all again in a new context: the film’s world premiere.
My main role in Berlin is to set up interviews for David, Jamie and Sophia with as many international journalists as possible. These interviews will hopefully help create buzz around the festival but also become those features you read in magazines and watch on TV when the film comes out in each country. One problem we face is that there are hundreds of films screening in the festival and each journalist is doing several interviews a day; how do we persuade them that Hallam Foe is one they should make time for? We’re helped by the fact that David is a respected director who’s here for a second time with a film in competition – a useful caché for the high brow film press – and everyone’s waiting to see Jamie in his first lead adult role.
We opened our doors to press on Thursday morning and have spent every day since then signing up journalists to the interview schedule. They’ll all see the film at a press screening this Thursday which will be the first time press have seen it and so our first nig indication of how well it goes down. Among my and my colleagues’ duties here will be taking David, Jamie and Sophia to the festival’s official press conference, photocall and premiere screening on Friday and running all their press interviews. This will invariably also include saying the word “no” a lot – there are way more press than we can accommodate on the schedules so there will always those who go home empty handed.
It’s now Sunday and as the festival is in full swing most of the journalists are out and about watching films and doing interviews so it’s a little slower in our office today. I’m going to take the opportunity to check out our interview venue for Friday and meet some of the festival staff to talk about the arrangements for the Hallam events. We’ve got a beautiful brochure for the film which we’re giving out to press and it’s great walking around the festival and seeing people with it under their arm. The word’s getting out…
Mat Sanders, Premier PR
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