Ten Things With ‘Blitz’ Director Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen

boss Raid He talks us through the choices he made to create a dream-like love letter to wartime London

1 — Don't look back

None of my films were like any other film, who Occupied city to Hunger to Small axe to shame. I mean, they're all very, very… very various. And it's not just because I You want to be different, it's because of the topic He asks For it to be like this. It's all about the topic, and then doing work that can reinforce what I want to talk about. with RaidI wanted to look from a child's perspective. Like the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, it's very dark, but almost dreamlike – and I think seeing these things from a child's perspective is what gives them a dreamlike quality. Because I'm putting you in a situation where you're feeling things for the first time. It is a landscape we are all familiar with, but at the same time it is unrecognizable.

2 — Dare to be different

What is radical about Raid is that each image on the screen has never been displayed before. Every image on the screen. You've never seen women in a factory making bombs. You've never seen firefighters work the way they do to put out fires. You've never seen [4ft 6in bomb shelter marshal] Mickey Davies, you've never seen the Paris Café bombing, and you've never seen the aftermath of a London Underground station flood like this. Every photo is revolutionary, if only because people chose not to put it in photos before. I was immersed in research, because I knew questions would be asked about it, especially about how—as my historical consultant Joshua Levin, who wrote The secret history of the attackHe explained that London was very cosmopolitan at that time. I knew it had to be steeped in research because a lot of questions would be asked: Was it really like this? So, every picture is something you've never seen before in the history of British cinema.

3 — Be true to the story

It wasn't about ticking boxes. It's a story about a boy, and it started with a picture of a boy that I found while searching for him Small axe A black child being evacuated, with a hat and a bag. I wanted to know who he was. I felt so protective of him when I saw that picture. He was just a sweet little boy. But in contrast, he is in a war environment. So how did he get to this state? Who were his parents? Where did he live? Then George's story [played by Elliott Heffernan] And he got out of it, taking him to wider and wider situations, as soon as he left his bird's nest. Most people didn't leave their neighborhoods in those days, their four or five streets. So, the fact that he's going out into a broader and broader environment is going to be very unusual.

4 — Give credit where it's due

George's mother, Rita, played by Saoirse Ronan, is a figure in the war who has never before been given a platform. never. Half of the war effort went to women in preserving the country's unity. They took care of elderly parents, evacuated their children, worked in munitions factories, and worked in airplane hangars. They were holding the fabric of the country together. This is what women did. It was half the war effort. But they were never given an on-screen platform. If they were, they would be a girlfriend or wife, offering someone a cup of tea.

5 — The music is great

I love radio. I discovered a BBC talent show in the 1940s called… Works wonders. I love the fact that Rita is not just a mother to a child. She has a solo life, and the song she sings in the show, “Winter Coat,” is something she wrote with Nicholas Britell. The idea of ​​the lyric, “My father left me his winter coat,” suggests absence, but it is also about absence. presence. The hug of the coat, the feel of it. I thought this could really connect, and Saoirse did a great job. For the English at that time, the idea of ​​feeling emotion through song was very important, I think. There was oil in the engine.

We wrote it at Studio Three in Abbey Road – where the Beatles recorded – me and Nicholas. It then passed to another writer, Tora Stinson, who refined it. Nick and I, we worked together very quickly. We had the same dynamic duo from 12 years old Slave. If it ain't broke, don't fix it: Hans Zimmer is the one keeping score; Nick does the music that appears on screen. But it was just one of those things that I really wanted to connect with. I think everyone has a memento of someone who died. It's a very personal situation. It's a song about a coat that's warm when it's cold, like a hug from someone who's no longer there.

6 — Chemistry is key

I believed [musician] Paul Weller [who plays George’s grandfather] It seemed unbelievable. I thought this was someone who could actually write his own songs and perform, so I assumed he could act too. But at the time, Paul was having none of that. He was like, “No, I'm not too sure.” It took a little convincing. But then I got it with an acting coach, and it was incredible, absolutely incredible. namely, Beautiful. I can't tell you how beautiful he was as an artist. You had a 66-year-old man, you had a 29-year-old woman in Saoirse, a nine-year-old boy in Elliott, and they were all fine. They loved being with each other. They loved it Playing. They loved it communication. So, what you see on the screen is real. I mean there was no hierarchy. It was like family.

7 — Build a solid foundation

I loved working on an image of this size. But again, I loved it because, as a British director, we usually work in abandoned warehouses or something. Suddenly, I was working in the studio. With an office and phones that actually work! I thought about cutting off one leg of the table and making it a little wonky, since we're not used to things being made or things being brand new. We're not used to that. So, you're a fish in water, my friend. The thing that worried me was the essence of the image. Everything else, I loved doing. In all the stills, I live and breathe things like this. But getting that foundation of love was the thing. Because if the foundation is not right, everything will collapse.

8 — Trust your composer

The result came straight from the heart. Hans Zimmer's mother was in London, in Mayfair, during the raid. She was evacuated from Germany, and after five years of war, she returned to Germany and became a translator for the Americans. She met her father there. Five years after Hans was born, his father unfortunately died, and Hans then went to boarding school. When I showed him the film, he understood it immediately. It was a miracle. He said: I know what I have to do. Because he understands this situation. Feeling swept up in the war. I was sitting shoulder to shoulder with him – literally – when he wrote the score. It was flowing. I think his mother and his relationship were at the heart of this. His mother was big in his life.

9 — There is light at the end of the tunnel

After World War I, there were many avant-garde filmmakers and artists working with abstraction. They were trying to deal with what had just happened. Many avant-garde films draw on the horrors of World War I, and attempt to deal with them in one way or another. There's a short film by Man Ray that I discovered. I thought, “Okay, wow, I can take it.” [inspiration] From that and put it in the picture. At first, you see this kind of abstract image… and you don't know exactly what it is. At the end of the picture you will find out. It's a reflection. But the black and white things that come next are X-ray images of salt crystals, of the sea floor. Then we cut some daisies. Tulips really symbolize, in one way or another, nostalgia for the way things were, or how things could be. Think “Imagine” by John Lennon. I would have jumped off the bridge a long time ago if I didn't believe that there was still a possibility that we could get our hands on the wheel and change the course of history. You have to believe it, otherwise we have no hope.

10 — Keep moving

I have been working for 18 years in a row. I've been working like crazy on my film work and my artwork. Raid It's kind of the end of the book, in a way, and I'm ready to move on to the next chapter. I think I have two more chapters left. For 18 years I've been booming, boom, boom, never stopping. And it was cool because…look, I'm a black man. There is an urgent need. there urgency. I have to get him out of there. I have to move. But it's also exciting. Working with great people and collaborating. I'm very lucky to do what I do. A lot of people I grew up with didn't have that kind of opportunity, so I know I'm very lucky. I don't take it for granted. So, I am He owns To work. It works in capital cities. It's exciting, it's exciting, it's dangerous, and it's necessary.