Scratching a personal itch

10 April 2012

To say that Michael Radford relishes a challenge is one of the understatements of the year. The Indian-born British film director has made a habit of taking the hard road when easier opportunities beckon. This is the man who followed up his charming debut movie Another Time, Another Place with 1984, a film that had to be ready in time for the eponymous year or all bets were off; the man who, following the high-profile criticism of White Mischief, went to Italy and spent two years developing a movie that failed to materialise rather than heading for Hollywood where he could have walked into a major studio production; the man whose comeback movie, Il Postino, starred an actor with such fragile health that he died within days of the wrap party.

And this is the man who, having made just six movies in 17 years, has decided to direct a stage play for the first time just for the hell of it. Not only that, but he has chosen a play better known as a movie and cast an American screen actress who, like him, has never before worked on stage. Is he mad or what?

At the end of a long day of rehearsals, Radford remains amazingly energetic, his enthusiasm for his latest, unlikely, venture bordering on the boyish. The play is The Seven Year Itch; the star, Daryl Hannah.

"It's proved to me that people in this country are infinitely more interested in the theatre than films," he says, wandering around the kitchen of his Chelsea studio. "People have rung me up and asked me about the play who have never asked me about my films."

Radford, whose position as a film-maker is inclined more towards the artistic/sensitive side of the business than the commercial/ ruthless one, admits he has surprised himself (yet again) by directing in the West End rather than at the National.

"It's like doing a studio picture; and I would never make that decision in film. I am just trying to make it entertaining, which is very liberating. I don't have to worry about it being meaningful. In fact, I've seen several 'meaningful' things recently that are quite meaningless. I was feeling a bit cheesy about doing it in the West End. Now I don't care."

In spite of the pressures of getting together a major production with a theatrically untested star in the absurdly short period of four weeks (with time out for a trip to the Venice Film Festival), Radford is clearly enjoying himself.

"I will probably fall on my face and get terrible reviews but it is much easier than directing a movie because there are fewer things to think about. In film you have a huge back-up crew to do everything for you. In the theatre you are on your own; you're naked. But it's fabulously social. I'm having a wonderful time and I'd like to do more."

The Venice jaunt was to promote his latest movie, Dancing at the Blue Iguana, which also stars Hannah. Here, too, Radford made a leap in the dark. Having successfully pitched the idea of a movie without a script, a major star or even a story line, he then proceeded to audition actors, inviting them to improvise characters who might work in a strip club.

"They would come in character," he recalls. "The auditions became famous in themselves. Actors would come knowing they wouldn't be available to do the film just to go through five hours of improvisational audition."

Having decided on his cast - which includes Elias Koteas and Jennifer Tilly alongside Hannah - Radford then broke down the situation with his group in order to establish an artistic blueprint from which they might work. The experience has proved so refreshing that he's now thinking of making all his films in the same way.

Radford can see the amusing side of his experiment. During a long discussion with the film's potential Argentinian distributor, he wound himself in knots attempting to explain its purpose and philosophical motive. After some time, the distributor interrupted him. "Does Daryl Hannah get her kit off?" he asked. Radford answered in the affirmative. The Argentinian didn't hesitate: "I'll buy it."

Having spent six years in the not-making movies wilderness, Radford is inclined to take stock of his career from time to time. He has grown up without growing old; he seems very fit having given up alcohol (temporarily) and taken to cycling.

His personal life has been eventful. He married Iseult St Auban de Teran - daughter of the novelist Lisa St A de T - when she was 16. They had a son Felix and not long afterwards were divorced. Felix, now nine, flits merrily between the two, accompanying Radford on shoots and trips to America when not staying with his mother, who now lives in Paris and has written her first novel. Radford declares that he would certainly consider marriage - and more children - again. "In fact, there is someone I would like to marry," he confides. "But it's kind of complicated." For a moment he looks like a mischievous little boy.

"It's funny, the one person my ex-wife hated was my long-time girlfriend, Jana Bokova. The girl in the Cartier-Bresson photograph she chose to illustrate the cover of her book is, in fact, Jana." He laughs. "She doesn't know it yet."

She does now.

The Seven Year Itch is at the Queen's Theatre, W1. Box office: 020 7494 5040.

The Seven Year Itch

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