Page 15 - Fujifilm Exposure_3 Michael Winner_ok

cover story
Larger Than Life
Larger Than Life
Here, there and everywhere,
that’s Michael Winner... and, yes, he still makes movies too.
I n his weekly News Of The World column he advocates shooting paedophiles, while Murdoch’s marginally more upmarket Sunday Times records his rage at some ‘poor to downright dreadful- restaurant service’ in his Winner’s Dinners slot. The TV schedules list a repeat of his gentle grilling by Mrs Merton on BBC2 and, if that wasn’t enough, London’s single evening paper carries a book review describ- ing an author, witheringly, as “the Michael Winner of letters.” Not so much a film-maker, more a cross-cul-
tural British phenomenon. Meanwhile, in a once tranquil
tuck in the Chilterns, the man himself yells, “Let’s go ... stop poncing about!” Yes, it’s business as usual on the rural set of Parting Shots, Winner’s 35th and latest film (if you don’t count shorts and featurettes). Among all British post-war directors, perhaps only Lewis Gilbert, some 15 years Winner’s senior, has been as prolific.
Whether you deem him an irasci-
ble eccentric or the rudest man on
Earth, silver-haired, rosy-cheeked,
Winner, now 62, has remarkable stay-
ing power apparently undiminished
by a triple heart by-pass operation.
This required a rapid cut down of those huge Havanas and common sense in his diet. Plus, and he spells this out piecemeal, “half an aspirin a day.”
The crew might want the film’s T-shirt to pro- claim: “I’m a f@*!<&!? Moron”, because that’s what they say he’s always shouting at them, but Winner, for all his colourful on-set reputation, retains an extraordinary ability to attract top notch casts from both sides of the pond.
Movie greats such as Orson Welles, Burt Lancaster, Faye Dunaway, Sophia Loren, Robert Mitchum, Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Irons, Charles Bronson and Michael Caine have variously passed before his camera down the years and a quick glance at the line-up this time round also confirms the best. Ben Kingsley, John Cleese, Joanna Lumley, Bob Hoskins, Felicity Kendal, Diana Rigg, old spar- ring partner Oliver Reed and singer Chris Rea.
Photo: Michael Winner in usual relaxed mood!
Rea was originally going to do just the music, “That was all,” said Winner. “Then I found I needed a leading man, someone looking very much like Chris, worn out, lugubrious, face falling apart... He told me that in Germany they call him Walter Matthau. So I asked him if he could act and he replied, ‘I don’t know, never tried.’ After a full day of tests with some very good actors in five or six scenes from this script, it became imme- diately clear that he was going to be excellent and I signed him.”
PartingShots, nottobeinter- preted in any way as larger-than- life Winner’s last stand, is about a man who’s told he’s got six months to live. Looking through photos of all the people he’s loved and liked he also begins to think of those who have crossed him. Why not kill the five people who most annoyed him? Then he meets a loving woman (Felicity Kendal) who gives him a reason to live.
As if all this wasn’t complicat- ed enough, he’s also hired an assassin (Oliver Reed) to “see him off” because his insurance speci- fies that a violent death will result in lots of money for the nice lady.
And that’s when the fun really begins ...
Winner, who shares the screenplay credit with newcomer Nick Mead, also dreamed up the yarn inspired by distinctly hostile feelings to an old flame: “I once had an awful girlfriend, actually the only really awful girlfriend I’ve ever had. She behaved atrociously, screwed around with other people, looked like Mary Poppins and left me very nastily. Frankly, I wanted to kill her; in fact I still continued over
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