Director Joe Wright was determined to honour the spirit of Ian McEwan’s acclaimed novel as he adapted Atonement for the big screen.The 34-year-old Londoner was a huge fan of the writer’s work and approached his film adamant that he would remain faithful to the structure of Atonement’s complex story. With key collaborators from his successful adaptation of Pride and Prejudice alongside him, including Keira Knightley, producer Paul Webster, crew and designers, Wright set about recreating period England and France, including a pivotal World War Two scene when British forces retreat from a devastated Dunkirk as the Germans advance.Atonement, set in three time periods, 1935 and 1940 and modern day, is an epic tale of the tragic consequences of a lie, told by a young girl, Briony Tallis, a compulsive story teller with a vivid imagination, and the havoc it can visit upon so many lives, not least her own - as they are caught up in momentous events.The first part of the story is set in a Gothic country house in Surrey on a stiflingly hot summer’s day and crackles with sexual tension between Robbie Turner (James McVoy), the housekeeper’s son who has been sponsored through school and Cambridge by the wealthy family his mother works for, and the upper crust daughter, Cecilia Tallis (Knightley).Remarkably, the stunning Dunkirk scenes were actually filmed in Redcar in the north of England, where the seafront was given a detailed make-over as Normandy 1940 and 1,000 local lads were given a short back and sides and kitted out in the olive green uniforms of the British Expeditionary Forces.
The film has received glowing reviews and many critics have mentioned the four and a half minute sequence, filmed as one shot on a steadycam, as an extraordinary piece of filmmaking.
Wright, a graduate of St Martin’s School of Art in London, made his first short film, Crocodile Snap, in 1997. He directed several mini series for British television, including Bodily Harm and Charles II: The Power and the Passion, before directing Pride and Prejudice, which starred Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfadyen as Mr Darcy, in 2005. Atonement is his second feature film.
But do you like DVD as a format and maybe as a way to look at the film in a different way?
Very much so and I think it’s important. I think they are useful for people who really love cinema that they can enjoy the film for a second time and maybe get more from it and also listen to the commentary and see where the ideas are coming from, it opens up more of a dialogue in a way.
There are many vivid scenes in the film. But how challenging was the Dunkirk sequence?
It took balls, really. And it was a case of necessity being the mother of invention. I only had those extras for one day and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to cover the 40 odd shots that I would need if I was to do the scene as a montage so I thought we would do the scene in one take.
So it started out as a bit of a joke really but became rather serious. It was like creating a bit of theatre it was rehearsal and rehearsal and placing the people and working it though and you don’t really look at the enormity of it when you are doing it, you just look at each decision as it comes and that’s the only way you can get through it really.
You’ve worked with Keira before; did she surprise you this time
?
Keira always surprises me which is why I love working with her. I love being surprised by actors, I don’t want them to just do exactly what I’m telling them to do, asking them to do, I like them to come to me with ideas.
Keira is very much a collaborator and she comes to me with a lot of ideas and she comes with a very open mind and that’s extremely important.
And James? That casting is absolutely crucial. What led you to him?
I’ve always wanted to work with James and I think he is one of the best actors of his generation. I think he’s an extraordinary actor. I felt very strongly that Robbie Turner needed to feel working class, he needed to have a strong sense of his roots.
And also in the book there is a lovely description of Robbie having ‘eyes of optimism’ and I thought James had those eyes of optimism, he is focused on a very bright horizon. And that’s a storytelling decision because then obviously that optimism is crushed.
So then we put James and Keira together in a room and we did some scenes and saw how they worked together and that chemistry really comes from a mutual respect for each other’s craft.
Keira had been an enormous fan of James and vice versa. That chemistry is a strange kind of respect and also just fun, just getting on together like you do with friends.
Do you know you’ve got that chemistry until the cameras start rolling?
No and you don’t really know you’ve got it even when the cameras are filming. But you know when they are having fun together and that’s what’s important, that they are able to communicate and talk to each other, they’ve got to like each other and they’ve got to get on.
How important was it to you to honour the spirit of Ian McEwan’s book?
Vastly important. Ian McEwan is the God of this film and the genesis and I’m a huge McEwan fan and so the challenge is really to take this book and see how we could make a very faithful adaptation.
The book works, I didn’t want to fix it, so it was ‘how do we make a film that works out of this? How do we stay faithful to it?’ That was the challenge.
And Ian allowed me time to talk to him and we spoke a lot about the themes and he kept on reminding me that this is a story about a storyteller, so that I didn’t become too seduced by the whole love story aspect of it.
Atonement is released on DVD 4th February.Director Joe Wright was determined to honour the spirit of Ian McEwan’s acclaimed novel as he adapted Atonement for the big screen.The 34-year-old Londoner was a huge fan of the writer’s work and approached his film adamant that he would remain faithful to the structure of Atonement’s complex story. With key collaborators from his successful adaptation of Pride and Prejudice alongside him, including Keira Knightley, producer Paul Webster, crew and designers, Wright set about recreating period England and France, including a pivotal World War Two scene when British forces retreat from a devastated Dunkirk as the Germans advance.Atonement, set in three time periods, 1935 and 1940 and modern day, is an epic tale of the tragic consequences of a lie, told by a young girl, Briony Tallis, a compulsive story teller with a vivid imagination, and the havoc it can visit upon so many lives, not least her own - as they are caught up in momentous events.The first part of the story is set in a Gothic country house in Surrey on a stiflingly hot summer’s day and crackles with sexual tension between Robbie Turner (James McVoy), the housekeeper’s son who has been sponsored through school and Cambridge by the wealthy family his mother works for, and the upper crust daughter, Cecilia Tallis (Knightley).Remarkably, the stunning Dunkirk scenes were actually filmed in Redcar in the north of England, where the seafront was given a detailed make-over as Normandy 1940 and 1,000 local lads were given a short back and sides and kitted out in the olive green uniforms of the British Expeditionary Forces.
The film has received glowing reviews and many critics have mentioned the four and a half minute sequence, filmed as one shot on a steadycam, as an extraordinary piece of filmmaking.
Wright, a graduate of St Martin’s School of Art in London, made his first short film, Crocodile Snap, in 1997. He directed several mini series for British television, including Bodily Harm and Charles II: The Power and the Passion, before directing Pride and Prejudice, which starred Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfadyen as Mr Darcy, in 2005. Atonement is his second feature film.
But do you like DVD as a format and maybe as a way to look at the film in a different way?
Very much so and I think it’s important. I think they are useful for people who really love cinema that they can enjoy the film for a second time and maybe get more from it and also listen to the commentary and see where the ideas are coming from, it opens up more of a dialogue in a way.
There are many vivid scenes in the film. But how challenging was the Dunkirk sequence?
It took balls, really. And it was a case of necessity being the mother of invention. I only had those extras for one day and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to cover the 40 odd shots that I would need if I was to do the scene as a montage so I thought we would do the scene in one take.
So it started out as a bit of a joke really but became rather serious. It was like creating a bit of theatre it was rehearsal and rehearsal and placing the people and working it though and you don’t really look at the enormity of it when you are doing it, you just look at each decision as it comes and that’s the only way you can get through it really.
You’ve worked with Keira before; did she surprise you this time
?
Keira always surprises me which is why I love working with her. I love being surprised by actors, I don’t want them to just do exactly what I’m telling them to do, asking them to do, I like them to come to me with ideas.
Keira is very much a collaborator and she comes to me with a lot of ideas and she comes with a very open mind and that’s extremely important.
And James? That casting is absolutely crucial. What led you to him?
I’ve always wanted to work with James and I think he is one of the best actors of his generation. I think he’s an extraordinary actor. I felt very strongly that Robbie Turner needed to feel working class, he needed to have a strong sense of his roots.
And also in the book there is a lovely description of Robbie having ‘eyes of optimism’ and I thought James had those eyes of optimism, he is focused on a very bright horizon. And that’s a storytelling decision because then obviously that optimism is crushed.
So then we put James and Keira together in a room and we did some scenes and saw how they worked together and that chemistry really comes from a mutual respect for each other’s craft.
Keira had been an enormous fan of James and vice versa. That chemistry is a strange kind of respect and also just fun, just getting on together like you do with friends.
Do you know you’ve got that chemistry until the cameras start rolling?
No and you don’t really know you’ve got it even when the cameras are filming. But you know when they are having fun together and that’s what’s important, that they are able to communicate and talk to each other, they’ve got to like each other and they’ve got to get on.