Little Ashes
Salvador Dali is an icon of the Spanish art world best known for his surrealist pieces of work. This week Little Ashes, which looks at his time in Madrid, reaches the big screen.
Paul Morrison's movie looks at Dali's relationships with writer Frederico Lorca and filmmaker Luis Bunuel during a time of political upheaval and uncertainty in Spain.
I caught up with British filmmaker Morrison and Matthew McNulty, who takes on the role of Bunuel, to talk about the movie, relationships on set and the future.
-Your new movie is Little Ashes so what is it all about?
Matt: It’s about three very close friends in 1920’s and 30’s Spain, Luis Bunuel, Frederico Lorca and Salvador Dali, and it’s about their time at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid and their relationships.
-The script was penned by Philippa Goslett so Paul what was it about the story that made you want to take on the project?
Paul: The great thing about Philippa's script is it never tried to be a biopic or tell a whole life story it just focuses on one part of these three people's great relationships in this extraordinary moment in history.
There are so many themes; love, art, revolution and, for me, you can’t have one without the other and they all work together, particularly surrounding the central relationship at the time they are inseparable.
So this really was a story where you could separate the personal from the political.
-Matthew in the movie you play Luis Bunuel what was it about the script that drew you to the part?
It was an exciting time for Spain, and Europe as a whole and I think that the story really encapsulates there fight for freedom and the central characters are so very interesting and that came across in the script.
So the fact that the script encapsulates that also drew me to the character. But when someone asks you to play the character of Luis Bunuel you don’t say no.
- And what kind of research did you both do into the time and into the characters?
Matthew: Well I watched as many Bunuel films as possible and read his autobiography as well as talking to the Spanish crew and the people who knew more about the characters while I was on set, so I was just drawing on as many sources as I could.
Also when the film started shooting we spent as much time together talking about the characters and how they interact with each other so the rehearsal process was very useful for me.
Paul: For me it was very important, apart from doing the normal research, to spend some time in the places that were important to them. I spent some time in Andalusia looking at the character of Lorca, and also where he died. I also visited Cadaques, which to me was Dali’s spiritual home.
Shooting in the places such as Cadaques, which were important to Dali, were important to me and to the film and it was also very important to open out this very intimate story.
-Paul you have a background in documentaries so does that help when taking on real events and real characters and how much pressure did you feel under on taking on the real story of Dali, Bunuel and everyone else?
Well particularly because we were making the film about a Spanish icon we had a lot of responsibility to stick to the real story but at the same time I came out of documentary because I wanted to liberate myself.
- What’s great about the film is its cast so how did that process work; I read that Robert Pattinson was cast as Federico?
Paul: He originally auditioned for the part of Federico but it became clear very quickly that he was more of a Dali and then he came back and read for the part of Dali. But he has got that character and vulnerability and intent, it just felt right.
And then Javier, we auditioned a lot of young actors for the part of Federico, his English wasn’t great and I was nervous that he was going to have to long pieces of dialogue in English put he pulled it off.
And this young man next to me Matt, we actually had someone else in the role, but he found something in Bunuel that I hadn’t seen.
-And Matthew taking on a character like Bunuel is a massive responsibility so how much pressure did you feel under?
From the moment that I was cast it sunk in that I was playing Bunuel, such a massive personality, the pressure was immense, as well as there was only two British cast members I was frightened to death.
When I got over to Barcelona the reaction that I got from my physical presence made it even worse I remember when I went for a costume fitting and the designers were quite expressive let’s say and didn’t really hide the fact that they were surprised that I was playing Bunuel.
So to begin with I just felt like I had to work that little harder to prove myself, but it was nice to be under that sort of pressure to be honest I think prefer to work under pressure I get the best out of myself.
Although it was immense it was definitely welcome it makes it all the more sweeter when you feel like you have won people round, the reaction that I got from the crew and the cast were all positive so it was good to be under that pressure.
-And how did you find working on location with Javier, Robert and Paul?
It was great, everything about the film was fantastic, but obviously the people that you work closely with make experience and how much you get out of it.
Paul is a fantastic director he lets you create character so we felt free in our performances and we all had a good relationship on set we hung out together quite a lot and that help us get into the personas of Dali, Lorca and Bunuel. The whole experience on set and off set was magical it was great.
-Finally what’s next for the pair of you?
Matt: Well I’m going off to do the Cranford two part Christmas special I start shooting that in the next couple of weeks.
Paul: And later this year I am going off to do a movie about an artist Charlotte Salomon in a way she was the Anne Frank of painting.
Little Ashes is out now.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Salvador Dali is an icon of the Spanish art world best known for his surrealist pieces of work. This week Little Ashes, which looks at his time in Madrid, reaches the big screen.
Paul Morrison's movie looks at Dali's relationships with writer Frederico Lorca and filmmaker Luis Bunuel during a time of political upheaval and uncertainty in Spain.
I caught up with British filmmaker Morrison and Matthew McNulty, who takes on the role of Bunuel, to talk about the movie, relationships on set and the future.
-Your new movie is Little Ashes so what is it all about?
Matt: It’s about three very close friends in 1920’s and 30’s Spain, Luis Bunuel, Frederico Lorca and Salvador Dali, and it’s about their time at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid and their relationships.
-The script was penned by Philippa Goslett so Paul what was it about the story that made you want to take on the project?
Paul: The great thing about Philippa's script is it never tried to be a biopic or tell a whole life story it just focuses on one part of these three people's great relationships in this extraordinary moment in history.
There are so many themes; love, art, revolution and, for me, you can’t have one without the other and they all work together, particularly surrounding the central relationship at the time they are inseparable.
So this really was a story where you could separate the personal from the political.
-Matthew in the movie you play Luis Bunuel what was it about the script that drew you to the part?
It was an exciting time for Spain, and Europe as a whole and I think that the story really encapsulates there fight for freedom and the central characters are so very interesting and that came across in the script.
So the fact that the script encapsulates that also drew me to the character. But when someone asks you to play the character of Luis Bunuel you don’t say no.
- And what kind of research did you both do into the time and into the characters?
Matthew: Well I watched as many Bunuel films as possible and read his autobiography as well as talking to the Spanish crew and the people who knew more about the characters while I was on set, so I was just drawing on as many sources as I could.
Also when the film started shooting we spent as much time together talking about the characters and how they interact with each other so the rehearsal process was very useful for me.
Paul: For me it was very important, apart from doing the normal research, to spend some time in the places that were important to them. I spent some time in Andalusia looking at the character of Lorca, and also where he died. I also visited Cadaques, which to me was Dali’s spiritual home.
Shooting in the places such as Cadaques, which were important to Dali, were important to me and to the film and it was also very important to open out this very intimate story.
-Paul you have a background in documentaries so does that help when taking on real events and real characters and how much pressure did you feel under on taking on the real story of Dali, Bunuel and everyone else?
Well particularly because we were making the film about a Spanish icon we had a lot of responsibility to stick to the real story but at the same time I came out of documentary because I wanted to liberate myself.
- What’s great about the film is its cast so how did that process work; I read that Robert Pattinson was cast as Federico?
Paul: He originally auditioned for the part of Federico but it became clear very quickly that he was more of a Dali and then he came back and read for the part of Dali. But he has got that character and vulnerability and intent, it just felt right.
And then Javier, we auditioned a lot of young actors for the part of Federico, his English wasn’t great and I was nervous that he was going to have to long pieces of dialogue in English put he pulled it off.
And this young man next to me Matt, we actually had someone else in the role, but he found something in Bunuel that I hadn’t seen.