Page 21 - Fujifilm Exposure_24 Stephen Fry_ok

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Consortium, Vision View and Icon, as UK distributor, started shooting on location and at Pinewood Studios last November.
Sitting in a corner of production designer Michael Howells’ wonderfully realised and extremely intricate Pinewood set of Shepheard’s Hotel, a set with carefully built-in obsoles- cence thanks to one of the director’s
original plot twists, Fry explained his vision for the film.
“There’s often a clarity that’s lent by things being set in the past – so long as one understands that most period films tell you a great deal more about the period in which they’re made than the period in which they are actually set. Take the 1973 version of The Great Gatsby [with Robert
Redford and Mia Farrow]. I think it tells you a lot more about the 70s. It doesn’t, I think, tell you anything at all the 20s, to be honest.
“I’m sure this film too will tell peo- ple very little about the 20s and 30s, but you can tell them a lot about our age, our obsessions and interests. We haven’t modernised it, indeed the more you go for authenticity, the righter it is.
But one’s kidding oneself if one says it’s not about our own time because, why else would one want to make it?
“Yes, it’s about the young set at a time when everything became trivial. It’s about parties, about fun, about drink, drugs, fast cars, incredibly fast music and about being photographed in the newspapers. That obviously has immense resonance with us.
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Above: Scenes from Bright Young Things and Fry behind the camera
Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video • Exposure • 19