Unlike many other great filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and David Cronenberg there are no common themes that run through all the films of Michael Winterbottom. But all of his films from his early works like Butterfly Kiss and Jude to more recent works like The Claim and 24 Hour Party People are all rich and fully realized films that often come out of improvisation.
His latest film is Code 46 starring Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton. Its his first science fiction themed work though it was shot on a budget of only $6.5 million. Its a love story set in a near-future where cities are heavily controlled and only accessible through checkpoints. Outside these cities, the desert has taken over and shanty towns are jammed with non-citizens - people without whose lives are severely restricted. William [Tim Robbins] is a family man who works as an insurance investigator. While on a case of fake passports, he meets a passport forger named Maria [Samantha Morton] who he falls completely in love with. He hides her crime and they have a wild, passionate affair that can only last as long as his temporary passport.
One thing about Winterbottom is that he talks faster than the Micro-Machines guys along with his heavy accent.
Check out the official website for Code 46
Daniel Robert Epstein: How do you and Frank Boyce first meet?
Michael Winterbottom: He was a friend of a friend at university so it was a quite a long time ago. When I first got into directing TV I got to do a half hour show so I asked Frank to write that script. Weve together for a long time.
DRE: Did you suggest to him about doing something with a science fiction theme?
MW: We had discussed that together along with [producer] Andrew Eaton. Weve all worked together on 24 Hour Party People and after that we wanted to do something together again. We thought that something science fiction would be interesting but I also wanted to keep it very simple and it became a sort of [Garden of] Eden story set in the future.
DRE: I spoke with Tim Robbins earlier in the week and he said that he almost died during a driving scene.
MW: I think thats an exaggeration but he did drive.
DRE: He didnt really seem like he had the best time making the movie.
MW: Youd have to talk to Tim about that.
DRE: What made you pick those foreign locations to shoot in?
MW: I hate working in studios because its hard to imagine a story without imagining the culture where it takes place. The characters are shaped by their environment and society. We wanted to find places to film where the society would create an interesting world. We traveled to many places like Dubai, Shanghai and Hong Kong. We eventually decided to shoot in Shanghai and Dubai taking elements from each of them to combine them in a way to make the story work.
DRE: Tim mentioned you might not have had permits to shoot in all of those places.
MW: No. in Shanghai we were working with film studios there so it was all very organized. Chinese culture is very different than British and American culture but it was a completely normal shoot.
DRE: How was it directing all those sex scenes?
MW: In a normal film sex scenes are quite tricky. I try to make it as comfortable to allow the actors as much freedom as possible. I wanted to make it as though I was recording something that was actually happening. Normally when you do a sex scene in a movie its very organized and artificial so when you watch the film you know its an artificial setup. In fact Ive just made another film called Nine Songs where the actors are really making love, which is a much more satisfactory way of doing it if the actors are into it.
DRE: Whats your opinion on cloning?
MW: The reason we use cloning in the film is because I like the idea of taking a romantic story and finding a new way of doing it. The relationship in the film seems adulterous but it is actually a mother/son relationship. Cloning was a way of us doing incestual relationship but have it actually not be his mother.
DRE: How is the film personal for you?
MW: I dont know. Obviously any film that you do becomes personal by way of working on the script, choosing the actors and where you film becomes a collaboration. As a director I am very involved in that process so it becomes personal in that way.
DRE: Are you a fan of science fiction?
MW: Im not a science fiction buff at all. This gave me the chance to put a love story and put it into a science fiction context as a way of simplifying it so we could focus on the relationship in a specific social setting. Before we made it though we did a film called In This World which is about two refuges who leave a refuge camp and cross various borders illegally.
DRE: What made you cast Tim?
MW: We tried to find two people that would be interesting to watch because the film focuses so much on the relationship. So we needed two people that one could believe could be in love and two people you could believe could be related.
DRE: Was the film improvised at all like many of your previous films?
MW: There are so many different things that attract these two to each other. The situations had to be there to draw them together but the dialogue wasnt scripted.
DRE: Your last film, 24 Hour Party People, has really become a classic. Did it change your career at all?
MW: Nope [laughs].
DRE: Its very popular with young people while your previous works didnt really connect with that audience.
MW: Unfortunately people tend not to mention it to me. When people do approach me about my films it is usually to tell me how much they hate them.
DRE: Were you already a fan of the music from that period?
MW: Im a fan of music from all over the world. The attitude that came out of the film is similar to the way the music developed, it became punk. Its about doing it the right way, having the right attitude and not giving a shit about anything else. That feeling that comes through in the music is very appealing to me.
DRE: Have you had the opportunity to do studio films?
MW: Ive been offered films in America but not $100 million action movies.
DRE: Do you not have the desire to do bigger budgeted films?
MW: I think its just finding something you want to do. Most of the work I do is stuff that originated from me working with other people. By the time I have a script Ive already been working on it for a couple of years so I tend to want to make them. I have to justify leaving my home for six months to shoot a film.
DRE: How is it possible you were able to make 11 films in eight years?
MW: Working quickly and cheaply. I also enjoy it. If you dont enjoy it then there is no reason to keep doing it.
DRE: Has your personal life suffered as a result? I read how one of your ex-wives is writing a book about living with a workaholic film director.
MW: [laughs] Well, obviously when you make films you do tend to go away but thats just the life.
DRE: Did you always want to be a filmmaker?
MW: I think Ive been interested in films since I was 14. I really enjoyed watching them but it wasnt until later that I wanted to make them. I think I still enjoy watching them more than making them. Some of my favorite filmmakers came out of the New Wave like Fassbinder, Truffaut and the Italians like Fellini and Bertolucci.
DRE: Do you feel like films today have lost a bit of the artfulness to them?
MW: The thing is that like almost all the art forms there was a golden age that doesnt encompass this time. The truth is that when you start be enthusiastic about whatever it is you like then that is the golden age for you.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
His latest film is Code 46 starring Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton. Its his first science fiction themed work though it was shot on a budget of only $6.5 million. Its a love story set in a near-future where cities are heavily controlled and only accessible through checkpoints. Outside these cities, the desert has taken over and shanty towns are jammed with non-citizens - people without whose lives are severely restricted. William [Tim Robbins] is a family man who works as an insurance investigator. While on a case of fake passports, he meets a passport forger named Maria [Samantha Morton] who he falls completely in love with. He hides her crime and they have a wild, passionate affair that can only last as long as his temporary passport.
One thing about Winterbottom is that he talks faster than the Micro-Machines guys along with his heavy accent.
Check out the official website for Code 46
Daniel Robert Epstein: How do you and Frank Boyce first meet?
Michael Winterbottom: He was a friend of a friend at university so it was a quite a long time ago. When I first got into directing TV I got to do a half hour show so I asked Frank to write that script. Weve together for a long time.
DRE: Did you suggest to him about doing something with a science fiction theme?
MW: We had discussed that together along with [producer] Andrew Eaton. Weve all worked together on 24 Hour Party People and after that we wanted to do something together again. We thought that something science fiction would be interesting but I also wanted to keep it very simple and it became a sort of [Garden of] Eden story set in the future.
DRE: I spoke with Tim Robbins earlier in the week and he said that he almost died during a driving scene.
MW: I think thats an exaggeration but he did drive.
DRE: He didnt really seem like he had the best time making the movie.
MW: Youd have to talk to Tim about that.
DRE: What made you pick those foreign locations to shoot in?
MW: I hate working in studios because its hard to imagine a story without imagining the culture where it takes place. The characters are shaped by their environment and society. We wanted to find places to film where the society would create an interesting world. We traveled to many places like Dubai, Shanghai and Hong Kong. We eventually decided to shoot in Shanghai and Dubai taking elements from each of them to combine them in a way to make the story work.
DRE: Tim mentioned you might not have had permits to shoot in all of those places.
MW: No. in Shanghai we were working with film studios there so it was all very organized. Chinese culture is very different than British and American culture but it was a completely normal shoot.
DRE: How was it directing all those sex scenes?
MW: In a normal film sex scenes are quite tricky. I try to make it as comfortable to allow the actors as much freedom as possible. I wanted to make it as though I was recording something that was actually happening. Normally when you do a sex scene in a movie its very organized and artificial so when you watch the film you know its an artificial setup. In fact Ive just made another film called Nine Songs where the actors are really making love, which is a much more satisfactory way of doing it if the actors are into it.
DRE: Whats your opinion on cloning?
MW: The reason we use cloning in the film is because I like the idea of taking a romantic story and finding a new way of doing it. The relationship in the film seems adulterous but it is actually a mother/son relationship. Cloning was a way of us doing incestual relationship but have it actually not be his mother.
DRE: How is the film personal for you?
MW: I dont know. Obviously any film that you do becomes personal by way of working on the script, choosing the actors and where you film becomes a collaboration. As a director I am very involved in that process so it becomes personal in that way.
DRE: Are you a fan of science fiction?
MW: Im not a science fiction buff at all. This gave me the chance to put a love story and put it into a science fiction context as a way of simplifying it so we could focus on the relationship in a specific social setting. Before we made it though we did a film called In This World which is about two refuges who leave a refuge camp and cross various borders illegally.
DRE: What made you cast Tim?
MW: We tried to find two people that would be interesting to watch because the film focuses so much on the relationship. So we needed two people that one could believe could be in love and two people you could believe could be related.
DRE: Was the film improvised at all like many of your previous films?
MW: There are so many different things that attract these two to each other. The situations had to be there to draw them together but the dialogue wasnt scripted.
DRE: Your last film, 24 Hour Party People, has really become a classic. Did it change your career at all?
MW: Nope [laughs].
DRE: Its very popular with young people while your previous works didnt really connect with that audience.
MW: Unfortunately people tend not to mention it to me. When people do approach me about my films it is usually to tell me how much they hate them.
DRE: Were you already a fan of the music from that period?
MW: Im a fan of music from all over the world. The attitude that came out of the film is similar to the way the music developed, it became punk. Its about doing it the right way, having the right attitude and not giving a shit about anything else. That feeling that comes through in the music is very appealing to me.
DRE: Have you had the opportunity to do studio films?
MW: Ive been offered films in America but not $100 million action movies.
DRE: Do you not have the desire to do bigger budgeted films?
MW: I think its just finding something you want to do. Most of the work I do is stuff that originated from me working with other people. By the time I have a script Ive already been working on it for a couple of years so I tend to want to make them. I have to justify leaving my home for six months to shoot a film.
DRE: How is it possible you were able to make 11 films in eight years?
MW: Working quickly and cheaply. I also enjoy it. If you dont enjoy it then there is no reason to keep doing it.
DRE: Has your personal life suffered as a result? I read how one of your ex-wives is writing a book about living with a workaholic film director.
MW: [laughs] Well, obviously when you make films you do tend to go away but thats just the life.
DRE: Did you always want to be a filmmaker?
MW: I think Ive been interested in films since I was 14. I really enjoyed watching them but it wasnt until later that I wanted to make them. I think I still enjoy watching them more than making them. Some of my favorite filmmakers came out of the New Wave like Fassbinder, Truffaut and the Italians like Fellini and Bertolucci.
DRE: Do you feel like films today have lost a bit of the artfulness to them?
MW: The thing is that like almost all the art forms there was a golden age that doesnt encompass this time. The truth is that when you start be enthusiastic about whatever it is you like then that is the golden age for you.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
alpha_hazard:
hehehe...talks faster than the micromachines guys....heheheh....
koenigsegg:
i saw 'code 46' back in march at the florida film festival and i didn't enjoy it very much. i hope that someday somebody makes a better sci fi movie that is set in shanghai, though, because damn. talk about a city that looks 30 years ahead of the curve from the rest of the planet