60 | Sight&Sound | April 2013

Danny Boyle is an openly populist filmmakerwhoworks on amodest scale. Though hehas stayed in Britain, he has internationalreach: SlumdogMillionaire (2008)won eightAcademyAwards, including Best Picture, not tomention an incalculable amount of audiencegoodwill. This can only have increased afterBoyle impersonated Tigger during his BestDirector acceptance speech. Evenwith thenovelty doorstop of anOscar to his name,he has shownno desire to throw in his lotwithHollywood. Instead of capitalising onthe Slumdog razzle-dazzle hemade a filmabout aman sawing off his arm (127Hours).Thismay sound perverse, but it is consistent.

Boyle’s background is theatre (he returned lastyear for a production of FrankensteinwithBenedict Cumberbatch and Jonny LeeMilleralternating the roles of doctor and creature) andtelevision (he producedAlanClarke’s Elephant).Cinema audiences got their first hint of Boyle’sunpredictabilitywhen he followed anelectrifying adaptation of IrvineWelsh’s smackodysseyTrainspotting (1995)withALife LessOrdinary (1997), which included elements ofcomedy, fantasy, roadmovie andmusical. Sincethen, it’s been anything goes.Whynotworkwith LeonardoDiCaprio (The Beach) ormake azombiemovie (28Days Later…)?Whynotmastermind the opening ceremony of theLondon 2012Olympic Games?The latterwas awidely adored extravaganza

crammedwithmasterstrokes: Kenneth Branaghas IsambardKingdomBrunel, J.K. Rowlingreading Peter Pan to bedridden children hauntedby a giant Voldemort, RowanAtkinson asMr Bean playingVangelis’s ‘Chariots of Fire’andDaniel Craig as James Bond escorting aparachute-packingHRHElizabeth II to thestadium. Boyle’s national-treasure statuscould only have been boosted by turningdown a subsequent OBE to remain aman of

the people –which he then proceeded to do.Politicians, companies, even entire countriesmust look upon his PR skills andmarvel.But as he suggests below, it is no accident

that this joyful period has also producedhismurkiest film, the psychological thrillerTrance. It features Cronenbergian violence,amosaic-style structure indebted toNicolasRoeg and an approach to characterisation thatverges on the kamikaze – even Boyle calls the

film “cruel”. The location is still London, butthe tone couldn’t be further from celebration.JamesMcAvoy plays an art auctioneerwhocolludeswith a gangster (Vincent Cassel) inthe theft of a painting byGoya (“the first greatpainter of the humanmind”), only to developamnesia after hiding the canvas. The only hopeof retrieving hismemory, and therefore thepainting, lieswith anAmerican hypnotherapist(RosarioDawson).What she finds in hissubconsciouswouldmakeGoya shudder…RyanGilbey: ‘Trance’wasmade in quite anunorthodoxway.Did you shoot it all, thencomeback to edit it after theOlympics?DannyBoyle:We shot it and did a very roughcut, which you do anyway as you’re shooting tomake sure there are no enormous gaps. Thenweput it to bed almost immediately, and effectivelytook eightmonths or so off from it beforegoing back.When I got offered the openingceremony, I’d already committed to do the playFrankenstein at theNational. The ceremony tooktwo years to prep, and it was so enjoyable doingFrankenstein thatwe decidedwewanted to shoota film aswell, ie to take another little sabbaticalfrom theOlympics. TheGames just drive youinsane: it’s all so committee-oriented, so slow,andmost of the time you’re notworking. I wasworkingwith the same people sowe thoughtwe’d take a little time out andmake this film,whichwe’d beenworking on for a number ofyears. [Screenwriter] JohnHodge had done afantastic draft, andwewere going to shoot it inManhattanwith an English actress, because thatcharacterwas alwaysmeant to be an outsiderso her voice had to have a separateness.WithRosario [Dawson] in the part and thewholething in London, it’s got these connotations ofCalifornian therapists who believe that as longas you keep talking you’ll find the solution. Sowewent off and shot this, butwe couldn’tleave theOlympic Games completely, so

DANNYBOYLE

The Interview

Following his glittering successwith theOlympics opening ceremony and consequent elevationto the status of national treasure, Danny Boyle has returned tomuch darkermatters. Inspiredby thework ofNicolas Roeg, his newfilmTrance is set in London, but it’s not a celebration ofthe city – it’s a film that even the director describes as “cruel”. Interview byRyanGilbey

ONTHE BOYLE

“The energy you see on screen is theenergy in life. Like any world-classdirector, he’s an obsessive. He’s obsessedwith film, with music and with family.”AndrewMacdonald, 1999

“I would jump through hoops of firebackwards for Danny Boyle. I woulddo ‘Porno’ [IrvineWelsh’s sequel to‘Trainspotting’] tomorrow for nothing.Begbie was probably the only characterI would ever want to revisit, becauseI do believe that there’s an awful lotmore mileage there. Danny seems to beedging towards it. After his success atthe Oscars, he should be able to do prettymuch as he wants.”RobertCarlyle,2009

“Danny Boyle and Stephen Daldrycreated something very special... thatlevel of approval is not what mostopeningceremonies get. The creativityDanny brought, and the filmmaker’s eyewith which he saw it, set it apart.”SebastianCoe,2012

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wehad to do a day aweek on that. Andthenwe came back toTrance afterwards.

Given how complicated the story is, it wasprobably a good thing, because you did forget itall. It’s the first time I’ve forgottenwhat I’d shot.RG:That’s appropriate for a filmpartly about amnesia.DB: It was very fitting.We did it for ourconvenience and to keep us all sane during theOlympics. It just workedwell in our favourbecause of the sort of film itwas. Usually yougo straight into editing unless you’re doingCast Away orRaging Bull, where the actor goesoff to lose or gainweight. Normally there’snoway your financierswant theirmoneytied up for a year. TheOlympicswas veryuseful there because itmesmerises people abit and they take their eye off the ball. Yousay: “Yeah, we’re gonna shoot this film, thenwe’ll go away and do the opening ceremonythen come back and edit it.” Somehownoone realises they’re going to have towait ahell of a lot longer before they see anything.RG:Howsoondid youget back to‘Trance’?DB:Almost immediately. I stayed in Londonfor theOlympics because I had some tickets.RG:Did youmanage to blag a few freebies, then?DB:No, I’d actually applied for them! Someonegaveme a tip that you should apply for farmore than youwant and then you’d getsomething. I applied for £20,000 of tickets orsomething, and got £1,500worth. So I stayed,and it was amazing going as a punter. Thepeople had really taken it all over, this groupmentality, andwhen they booed politicians,it was away of saying, “Don’t fuck aboutwiththis. This is ours. You can be part of it, butkeep yourmodesty about you.” Then Iwentaway for a fewweeks on holiday after that,thenwe started straight back onTrance.Weedited fromSeptember for threemonths.RG:Howdid it look to you?

DB: I thought it was good. The storyworked.It’s weird doing this sort of filmbecausedirectors usually think they’re giving toomany clues, and everyone else says, “No, you’renot giving enough!” There’s a story aboutM.Night ShyamalanmakingThe Sixth Sense andworrying thatwhen the kid says “I see deadpeople” it was giving away thewhole film. Soa significant part of editingwe didwhenwecame back toTrancewas putting clues back inthat I’d taken out.We did aweek of pickups andreshoots inmid-Octoberwherewe just droppedin little clues to try and help you steer yourway through it. The idea is that you shouldn’thave towatch the film twice to understandit, but that if you do, it’ll stillmake sense.RG:Yougave awonderful speech atNicolasRoeg’sBAFTAtribute, and therewere clipsfromhis films in the opening ceremony.‘Trance’ is yourRoegfilm, isn’t it?DB:Absolutely. That’s exactly it.When you’repreparing the publicity, everyone’s going, “It’sMemento, it’s Inception, it’s Eternal Sunshine ofthe SpotlessMind.” You go, “Yeah, yeah, yeah,it’s all those films.” But the godfather of allthat is Nicolas Roeg, the great iconoclast, whotook time and twisted and stretched it. Thepoint about film editing is that it’s so fluid. Ifyou get into amesmerising film, get into theright rhythmwith it, youwill accept a fluidsense of past, present and future; it all becomesinterchangeable, as you can see in Roeg’s films.There are various tropes inTrance: the heist,the stolen painting, the amnesia, the femme

fatale. But they’re allmacguffins. They’rebollocks, basically. It’s not really about stolenpaintings at all; it’s about someonewhosememories are stolen. The painting is there justas an object of desire for different people.RG:HasRoeg seen thefilm?DB: I wouldn’t show it toNic!What if hehated it? I remember going to see Eurekaat the Screen on theHill in London on aWednesday afternoon, it was practicallyempty but the air was just sucked out of thecinema. I wasmesmerised. That’s what Roeg’sfilms do tome; I’m a rabbit in the headlights.This is reallywhat film is: it’s a hypnoticallyinduced trance. Those people on screen arenot reallymoving, you know. You just thinkthey are. Your brain is telling you they are.RG:One connection thefilmhas toRoeg andto theOlympics isDavidBowie.Therewererumours hewould be in the ceremony.Buthe’s there in spirit in ‘Trance’, isn’t he?WhenJamesMcAvoy is injured,he looks likeBowieon the cover of ‘Lodger’; there’s a snatch of‘BeMyWife’from‘Low’on the soundtrack; anda key line about people not being heroes.DB:That’s right. I had to bring in the Lodgercover, becausewhen I said, “I want him to liedown like on the cover of Lodger,” everyonelooked atme blankly. ‘BeMyWife’ is thereas a sample on theUnkle track.Whenwestarted doing themusicwith [composer]Rick [Smith], it was very Low-influenced,but it ended up beingmore of a pulse – amix of electronic and strings, rather thanthe distorted guitarswe had planned.I got tomeet Bowie for the first timewhen

wewere prepping the opening ceremony.Growing up, hewas everything, so I can’t tellyou hownervous Iwas. Hewouldn’t do liveperformance sowe couldn’t get him, but he gaveit his blessing. Therewas a lot of hassle involvedin doing the opening ceremony, butmeeting

1997: ‘A Life Less Ordinary’1995: ‘Trainspotting’1994: ‘Shallow Grave’

2001: ‘Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise’2001: ‘Strumpet’2000: ‘The Beach’

When youmake those big films,the degree of certainty you’vegot to have is enormous, andIwould not be good at that

DANNYBOYLEINTERVIEW

BFINATIONALARCHIVE(7)/BBCPHOTOLIBRARY(2)/RONALDGRANTARCHIVE(1)/KOBALCOLLECTION(1)

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April 2013 | Sight&Sound | 63

himwas one of the joys. If onlywe couldhave got him there, it would’ve been great.RG:Themusic holds thefilm togetherwhenthe narrative is at itsmost complicated.DB:Yes, Rick does a fantastic job holdingyou, particularly in theMRI scan scene,which shifts backwards and forwards intime; themusic is absolutely the glue there.That particular sequence is actually threesubstantial scenes intercut; that’s verymuch our Roeg tribute. Every time thatcomes on, I always think: “This is for Nic.”RG:Hypnosis is important to the plot,but howclinically sound is themovie?

DB: It’s certainly plausible. There is such athing as post-hypnotic suggestion. It’s one ofthe reasonswhy hypnotismwas discreditedin the 1970s in legal cases, because it wasproved that it didwork. But it’s not a filmthat’s about realism. It’smore the nature of ourminds thatwe’re exploring here. So Iwouldn’tmake any claims for it beingwatertight!But it’s pretty good.Wehad a professor ofpsychologywho read the script and said: “Yes,that’s how itworks.” James’s character is oneof the five per cent of the populationwho arehighly suggestible. These are the people thatDerren Brownpicks out of his audience.We

went to see himbeforewe did the film–he’sabsolutely brilliant. I can judgewhen peopleare acting; I’m sensitive to that because ofmyjob. And those people are not acting. They’renot stooges. They’re lost in hisworlds. Butthe trick is selecting them. If he says, “Thefirst peoplewho, blah-blah-blah…” and fouror five people’s hands shoot up immediately,he knows they’re themost suggestible ones.They’re the oneswhowant to be lost.RG: Is it a risk thatwith somuchof theaction of ‘Trance’takingplace in people’sheads– ie not physically happeningat all – the audiencewon’t care?DB: It is, except that one of the reasons Iwanted to do it is thatwewanted to notmake it stablewho you’re going to root for– notmake it a foregone conclusion. So youhave to go into this filmknowing it’s not aheart-warming exercise in empathy: it’s yourdecisionwhomyou’re going to follow andtrust – and can youwork out the puzzle? It’sa serious question inAmerica, because theytend towant desperately to have that empathy,and it’s not that sort of film. It’s got a slightlycrueller nature. And it isn’t trustworthy.Eventually you’re giving people licence tosay: “Thismay be happening, thismay not.”RG: It’s got the ultimate unreliable narrator.DB:Andhe’s fucking brilliant,McAvoy. It’s animpossible part, and because he’s so brilliant,he’s trying to keep your sympathy for him,make you feel you can trust himdespite allthe stuff that’s going on. He’s a seriously goodactor and hewants to stretch himself; he nolongerwants to play the cute boy, hewants to sosomething darker andhe’s got a number of filmscoming outwhere he does that.WithVincent[Cassel], it was great to use his gangster personaand then put that into something unexpected,because his story here is actually a lovestory. He’s offered the potential in life

2004: ‘Millions’2002: ‘28 Days Later…’

2010: ‘127 Hours’2008: ‘Slumdog Millionaire’

2007: Sunshine

2013: Trance

Roeg trader: Boyle admits ‘Trance’ is his Nicolas Roeg film rather than his ‘Inception’ or ‘Memento’

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DANNYBOYLEINTERVIEW

for love and it shocks him, more thanviolence, power, terrorising people. And I

always thought Rosario was really underused infilms. She did amazing work in John Madden’sKillshot, where she does some proper characterwork – when she gets killed in that film, it’sreally disturbing. I thought it would be fantasticforTrance to take this part that for some peoplewould seem like a femme fatale – and we doplay with that idea – but to cast a modernAmerican rather than some icy blonde.RG:Howdid you approach shooting London?It’s a very science-fiction vision of the city.DB: I wanted it to be like Singapore. But thebasic idea is really similar to the voiceover atthe start of ShallowGrave: “This could be anycity – they’re all the same.” I wanted it to feellike it’s just a modern city, with three verydistinctive spaces where the characters live.One is attached to the club Analog – a nameI never thought we’d clear, but remarkablythere isn’t already a club with that name! ThenRosario’s character has a space that’s hollowedout of an old traditional Regency buildingin London. She’s modernised it, given it thissheen; it’s supposed to be a bit like the inside ofJames’s brain. And he lives above the DocklandsLight Railway, and that all looks a little likeSingapore. We wanted to try to make Londonmythical. It was obviously easiest on 28DaysLater…, where you have this great conceptof the deserted city. I wanted to use the cityhere, but not in any stodgy, landmarky way.RG:Do you seemuch cross-pollinationbetween‘Trance’and the opening ceremony?DB:There is in the sense that when we cameback to the film after the Games, I saw howfucked-up it was towards the end. The filmgets very violent and deranged. It starts outplayful – you’ve got the heist, the Bowiemusic, the humour – and then it’s like “Woah!”and innocent people are being killed. [With]the Olympics you have this responsibility,because it’s a family show – it’s the Britishequivalent of a Disney movie. People shouldn’tcome toTrance expecting the openingceremony! All the dark stuff that we couldn’tput into the Olympics has ended up here.We were finding a release for that instinct.RG:So‘Trance’ is the openingceremony’s evil twin?DB:That’s a good way of putting it. I’ll use that.RG:You said earlier that therewas a lotof hassle involvedwith theOlympics.DB:When you get close to it, you realise itdoesn’t really deserve its mystique, I have to say.There’s a side of it that is in no way admirable.And I found it difficult a couple of times tokeep going. That I didn’t stop was because ofpeople’s belief in it, which became to me moreimportant than the corporation that runs it. Imean, the corporation is like Coca-Cola, andfinancially it’s so powerful, that there are allsorts of things that it’s difficult to interact with.The sinister side to it was the Rapier missilesmounted on rooftops in London – fuckingground-to-air missiles! You think: “This is afestival of peace!” The purpose is to put downarms. That’s the origin of it, bringing nationstogether. You cannot justify protecting the

whole Olympic experience with missiles.It’s far better to accept the place might bebombed than to protect it with missiles.RG:Howhas the opening ceremonychanged thewaypeople see you?DB:You get some people coming up because ofthe films, but now people from all walks of lifeapproach me, not for a photograph or anythingbut just to say thank you. Then they walk away.It’s not like being congratulated on a film. It’salmost nothing to do with you personally.RG:Does your eclecticism in your choice ofprojectswork against youwhen it comes tofinancing ormarketing?You can’t necessarilysay,“If you liked‘ShallowGrave’, you’ll love‘ALifeLessOrdinary’!”You can’tmarket ‘127Hours’off the back of ‘28Days Later…’, can you?DB:No, but you lie to raise money. You lie allthe time. I remember to sell SlumdogMillionaire,we said it wasAméliewith a bit ofTrainspottingthrown in. It is a problem. Especially now withTrance. In this country it doesn’t matter – peoplewill come along and not feel misled. But inAmerica it matters because they sell Slumdogand 127Hours as warm-hearted redemptivestories and you go, “Er, I’m not sure.” I mean,there are love stories in there somewhere,but it’s not quite right. In America you’re anumber and you don’t have an identity likeyou do here. But then I’ve never really wantedto do the same thing again. Whenever that’shappened in any form, I’ve always come acropper. Whenever you think, “Leave mealone, I know what I’m doing,” it goes wrong.

I’ll give you an example. We did the creaturesin 28Days Later…, which were really good: theyweren’t the usual zombie walking-dead thing,they were much more electric and speedy andaggressive. But when we came to do Sunshine,we had this creature Pinbacker – Mark Strong’scharacter – and I remember saying to the guys:“Oh, I know how to do this.” And I didn’t. Whenyou have that arrogance it’s deadly. I alwaysbelieve you must approach something thinking:“How the fuck are we going to do that?” Itshould grow as you do it, and your ideas shouldcome as late as possible, and as alarmingly andinstinctively as possible. That tends to be whereI work best. The not-knowing is energising.RG: Is onefilma reaction against next?Thecomparativeminimalismof‘127Hours’felt like aresponse to the sprawl of ‘SlumdogMillionaire’.DB:That’s part of the appeal. You get asked torepeat yourself a lot. It’s what the whole systemin America is based on: “He can do that – gethim to do it again and offer him a lot moremoney.” I always pull back from that. That’swhy the contrast with 127Hourswas immense.It threw up technical challenges and I reallylove the technical side of things, the challengeof how to make a story flicker. What comesout of my theatre background is that I tend toleave the actors to do the characters, generallyspeaking; you cast it well with intelligentpeople who have an opinion about whatthey’re doing. That comes from theatre whereit’s down to the actors to inhabit and own it.

The restriction in 127Hourswas veryexciting to me. I love that idea: just a manin a cave. You know you’re going to cheat,which everyone does, but how much areyou going to cheat and how will you makeit feel to the audience like you’re not?RG:There are references in‘Trance’toRembrandt’smissing painting‘TheStormontheSeaofGalilee’,where hepaintedhimself in

Non blonde: Rosario Dawson in ‘Trance’ offers a fresh take on the femme fatale role

I’ve neverwanted to do thesame thing again.Wheneverthat’s happened in any form,I’ve always come a cropper

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Gangster’s paradise: Boyle liked to imagine himself being Vincent Cassel, above, in ‘Trance’

the picture as oneof the faces on theboat.Thatmademewonder: where are you in your films?DB: I do connect with the films on a personallevel in different ways. It’s usually afterwardswhen I think: “Oh, that was probably me, then.”Usually my films are quests. You think you’remaking different films and then sadly it turnsout you’re making the same one over and over!InTrance, what was interesting was that the roleof hero was ambiguous or flexible. So I’m therein bits ofTrance, but the most autobiographicalone I’ve made – and I don’t write any of them,but you try and bring something of yourselfto them – isMillions. I regard that as my mostpersonal film. Partly it’s the Catholicism. Thereare lots of flavours in it. The boy’s relationshipwith his mother. And he’s driven by hisimagination, which is an entirely good thing,while his brother’s driven by money. I’m notvery good with money; even though I’ve beenlucky enough to have made some, it doesn’thold any fascination for me whether I’ve got itor not. So that’s my most personal film in a way.But then no one saw it anyway so what does itmatter? [laughs]A lot of right-wing groups inAmerica loved it: I’ve got all these awards for itthat nobody’s heard about, from these positive-thinking religious groups who say what awarm-hearted taleMillions is. That’s not quitehow I saw it. Other thanMillions, where I ratherromantically imagine myself as the little kid,there isn’t really a staple character in my work;it tends to flop around between different things.There’s bits ofTrancewhere I think of myselfas Cassel – and who wouldn’t when you’re myage? It gets harder and harder to identify withyour young heroes, who have to be there forthe market. Films tend to be occupied withthose guys in their twenties, early thirties,and it becomes more and more remotefrom you yet more and more commerciallyimportant in getting the films made.RG: Is everything easier since‘Slumdog’and theOscars?Can youbasically do anything youwant?DB:To a degree. We have a deal where there’sa cap of $20 million on each film. If we makethe film within that, we have a great deal of

freedom. Not complete freedom but a lot. If youwant to go above that, you’re always answerableto casting, because no one goes to see a film forthe director unless it’s Spielberg or Chris Nolan.So then that has implications for the type ofstory, and then you’re in the dance of castingin America – and it is a dance. The reasons theydo or don’t do your film, you just can’t workthem out sometimes. Then you’re answerableto the studio and how they’re going to promoteit, andwhether they’re going to promote it.It’s a dance all the way through and you’renever completely free. Having said that, we’revery lucky having had a success like Slumdog.And because we refuse to inflate the budgetsunnecessarily, it is more comfortable than it isfor most people. If you stay modestly budgetedyou can make the Oscar keep paying for you.I love Nolan’s films, I love Ridley Scott, the bigmega-budget films, but they’re not where I

would be comfortable operating. I’m better on amore uncertain level; when you make those bigfilms, the degree of certainty you’ve got to haveis enormous, and I would not be good at that.RG:Have you ever comeclose tohaving your head turned?DB:Only afterTrainspotting. I got offeredAlien Resurrection. It wasn’t the money thattempted me so much as the love of the story.Joss Whedon had written a really good scriptusing the franchise in an interesting way, andI got close to doing that. I backed away in theend because I didn’t really feel I could handlethe mechanics of the whole set-up. You’ve gotthis huge operation and I like working withina smaller one. Even within the Olympics,we operated as a small unit, like a satellitewithin it. Or, if you didn’t like us, a virus.

i ‘Trance’ is released in theUKon27March,and is reviewedonpage 107

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Patriot games: Boyle says his hugely successful Olympic opening ceremony was the British equivalent to a Disney movie

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