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canal zone
Writer-director David Mackenzie on how he brought Young Adam to the screen
academy profile
David Mackenzie wanted to make a film of Scottish ‘beat’ writer Alexander Trocchi’s controversial novel, Young Adam, ever since he first read it ten years ago. “It’s been my passion,” he declares, firmly.
Previewed at Cannes earlier this year where it was an invited entry in Un Certain Regard, writer-director Mackenzie’s long- time “passion” is now fittingly indulged as this year’s gala opening film at Edinburgh.
Set during the 50s in and around the Forth and Clyde canal which runs between Glasgow and Edinburgh, Trocchi’s dark edgy existential tale centres principally on the sexual adventures of Joe, an amoral would-be writer.
Before and since Cannes, Young Adam been attracting the kind of publicity which can only add – some might suggest a little unfairly - to the huge weight of expectation already surrounding a clearly important new British film.
This ranges from star Ewan McGregor’s much-publicised out- bursts about some aspects of its native funding to several positive- ly leering reports concerning the film’s sexually frank content.
And when you’re being hailed by critics and producers alike as the British Film Industry’s Next Big Thing, the pressure would seem to be even more intense.
For his part, Mackenzie, 36, reacts to all the hype with a dis- armingly cool detachment. To be fair, his mind is mostly on other things because as Young Adam is chewed over in Edinburgh and later digested by UK cinema audiences from the end of September, he’ll be hard at work on his third feature.
An adaptation by Patrick Marber of Patrick (Spider) McGrath’s powerful fourth novel, Asylum co-stars Natasha Richardson, Ian McKellen and Marton Czokas. Mackenzie will be been reunited with some key members of his Young Adam crew for the film set in a mental hospital (“we’ve found this great place outside Leeds”) around the turn of the Sixties.
“You know,” he muses, “I haven’t really connected with this Next Big Thing stuff. I haven’t noticed the pressure yet. It might be different if Asylum gets slaugh- tered by the British media. The thing is you don’t want deliber- ately to set yourself up for a fall. I’m just happy to keep on making movies... Next Big Thing or not!”
Mackenzie, raised with his actor brother, and regular collab- orator, Alistair in North Perthshire, has been making films for the past decade. After a series of award-winning drama shorts like California Sunshine, Somersault and Marcie’s Dowry, he finally made first feature, Last Great Wilderness, which was released last year.
But throughout, Young Adam always remained in the back of his head: “I was aware it was rel- atively dark material, not easy to finance and all that, and I also knew I had to build up a bit of a track record.
When the project did finally come together, “we looked around for a suitable writer but couldn’t find anyone. I don’t actually consider myself a writer but I said I’d do it. Funnily enough, years ago people had said, ‘you should write it yourself.’ All I know is that as soon as I’d started, I found I was really up for the job.
“I wrote the script in two months. With the exception of some cuts we had make to satisfy the bond company in terms of the schedule, we ended up pret- ty much shooting the first draft.
“Yes, the project had a long period of gestation but there was no development ‘hell’. It was a quite remarkably smooth process. I’d had a great deal of freedom on Wilderness and I somehow expected nothing less on Young Adam,” recalls Mackenzie.
According to producer Jeremy Thomas: “His script is beautifully written. It’s lovely and sparse. Like all good scripts it’s not over-writ- ten. It evokes the period well with- out too much flowery description. You can really feel the atmos- phere in this screenplay.”
The book is in the form of first- person narration. “I decided not to do that and I suppose then it’s different way of telling this story. However in terms of the charac- ters and events, it’s fairly faithful. I certainly hope fans of the original novel won’t be disappointed.
And as for the sex? “That cer- tainly comes from the novel. I told the actors that I wanted the film to be relatively bold and uncoy about it. It was not that we were trying to push any sexually controversial boundaries rather just trying to present it in as hon- est a way as possible. The actors kind of understood that very easi- ly and I very much put myself in their hands.
“Before we started I was, cer- tainly in the weeks leading up to the shoot, extremely nervous about it. British cinema is, after all, littered with terrible sex scenes. I was very anxious but Ewan, who I spoke to a lot about it, worked very hard at re-assuring me. We rehearsed what I guess you’d call the choreography of those scenes then just got on and did them.”
Mackenzie has said of Trocchi’s searing narrative: “He’s pointing a finger at a society which he portrays as a bitter, gos- sip hungry, repressed lynch mob fed on sham morality by the newspapers and eager to equate sex with crime... the more cynical among us might notice a contemporary parallel.”
He tells me: “I don’t want to sound like I’m copping out here. Yes the parallels are there for the audience to grab if they wish but I didn’t direct it specifically to have those parallels. It’s a story of its own time.
“Actually, a lot of people have said that they don’t know what period it is, that it could be anytime between 1920 and 1960. In a way, I’m quite happy about that.” Quentin Falk
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