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seat so he could look through the lens and watch the performance that way.”
Best of all, though, were Withnail And I and A Handful Of Dust. “With Withnail, the script was the film. All of us on the film somehow knew it was something special and for my part I couldn’t get to work fast enough. Bruce Robinson knew exactly what he wanted the players to do. As far as camera- work and setting up atmosphere was concerned he never mentioned that at all. But then, he didn’t have to... it was
all in the script. All I had to do was lit- erally visualise the script.
He rates A Handful Of Dust, Charles Sturridge’s peerless adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s romantic tragi-come- dy, as “perhaps the prettiest work [Dance with A Stranger he adjudges the “best”] I’ve ever done. There were wonderful sets and beautiful costumes so the photography already had a lot of things going for it. When we were shooting in Venezuela I ended up with an old local gaffer who didn’t speak any English at all. Everything was done with hand signals and he was an absolute joy. I’d say ‘put something there’ and I’d interpret his reply as being ‘what a wonderful idea.’ Now he probably did that with every camera- man he worked with but it certainly gave me confidence.”
Co-starring Michael Gambon and
Jeremy Irons, Longitude, based on Dava Sobel’s bestseller about a two century obsession with time, sees Hannan reunited with writer-director Sturridge and it also comes after near- ly eight years away from big-time film- making. The first major glitch was “the worst experience of my life” while making a film in Israel which found him caught in the crossfire between a husband-and-wife producer team and the beleaguered director. That night- mare and the realisation he was becoming something of a stranger at home led him to decide he would not go away again for a while.
“In fact I stayed away too long, much too long. So much so that I got out of the swing of things altogether although, luckily, I had a good run on commercials. As far as films were con- cerned I was basically forgotten. I cer- tainly wasn’t on the first division list any more and I’m still in the process of finding my way back.” Now, says Hannan, “I want to work, work and work,” a philosophy perhaps com- pounded by the fact that just a year ago, he was tragically widowed. Milk , written and directed by William Brookfield, is touchingly dedicated to Anou Hannan’s memory.
As with so much of his previous work, he has shot both Milk and Longitude on Fuji: “I know what it’s going to look like. I’m not surprised by it. I know what’s going to be bright
and I know what’s going to be dark. I like its latitude and the stocks are get- ting better all the time. I love the way it ‘gives up.’ When it thinks it’s black, it is black. It’s a rounder look and alto- gether more pleasing. It particularly suited Longitude [a speedy four-hour TV production filmed in the studios and on locations as varied as Cornwall and the Caribbean]. On a cold, grey, dark day Fuji will find saturation; it still gets luscious greens and blues even in dreadful conditions.”
The quietly-spoken Hannan, who back in the summer shot the solar eclipse on IMAX, only begins to thun- der mildly when it comes to the ongo- ing debate about use of camera opera-
tors. His stance is absolutely clear:
“I wouldn’t work without an operator. Not having one slows everything down and basically both jobs suffer. The BBC did a survey at about the same time Disney came out with the same findings - that it cost roughly two hours a day by not having an operator.
“A couple of years ago I lost three pictures in a row because I wouldn’t agree to operate as well and they all, after the first two weeks, ended up with an operator. It would be a great shame and loss, not to mention a huge danger, for the industry if that grade were to disappear.”
You’d think that by now Hannan, even with his endless acknowledge- ment of “luck” must have got it all down to a fine art. No such overconfidence. ‘The hardest thing still,” he admits, “is turning on the first lamp on any set. I’m still scared. No shot’s easy. As soon as you think it’s easy, you just somehow know it’s going to be hard.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
Longitude, along with Dance With A Stranger, Withnail And I, A Handful of Dust and Milk,
PETER HANNAN BSC
“No shot is ever easy. As soon as you think it’s easy, you just somehow know it’s going to be hard.”
Photos top: Peter Hannan and crew on location with Longitude; left: James Fleet and Clotilde Courau in Milk above: Miranda Richardson and Ian Holm in Dance With A Stranger; right: Withnail And I (courtesy BFI Stills & Posters).
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