Writer/director Fred Schepisi is a Melbourne, Australia, native best known for his classic Australian-set films “The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith” and “A Cry in the Dark,” as well as two films firmly rooted in British history and culture, “Plenty” and his new “Last Orders,” which opened Friday.
An ensemble film that offers a virtual who’s who of acclaimed contemporary British actors, including Michael Caine, Helen Mirren, Bob Hoskins, Tom Courtenay and David Hemmings, “Last Orders” is based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Graham Swift.
Schepisi [pronounced Skep-I-si] labored for four years on the screenplay plus financing for the film. “Last Orders” examines the tangled lives of a group of Londoners from youth to old age, and serves as a kind of overview of 70 years of British history. Schepisi — soft-spoken and boyish-looking at 52 — was interviewed during a publicity tour for the film.
Q. “Last Orders” spans 70 years in the lives of these characters, and serves as a summing-up of 20th Century England. Was that something you were conscious of as you wrote the script?
A. I tried not to be conscious of that. I think that certainly was in the novel. I prefer to just show the of reality people’s lives. The more you go into tiny details, the larger themes emerge. If you talk to the larger things, you don’t succeed. . . . From a very young age, I’ve always loved what they used to call `continental pictures,’ from Europe, India, all over. I went to see them because I was hoping to see naked women. Of course, I saw extraordinary films about worlds I knew nothing about. I was transported every time to some wonderful new place. They were making those films in their own small environments, but they spoke to larger issues.
Q. The casting of the actors who play the characters as young men and women is quite remarkable. How did that process work?
A. Mary Selway got most of the principals but she was not available 2 1/2 years later when we finally got going. So she got her best friend, Patsy Pollack, who scoured England, went to every theater, every drama school, even boxing gyms.
I remember one day, Helen [Mirren] and I were talking about finding someone to play her as a girl. Helen has a distinctive look, she’s got a bit of Russian in her, she’s a kind of sexy beauty. She said, `Don’t worry about looks. We can fix that. Just make sure she’s a good actress.’ And she was right; they had to have the charisma.
Q. Even with this strong cast, was it a struggle to raise money?
A. I could have raised $8 1/2 million right away, but I didn’t think that was enough. I wanted $15 million. So I hung on for 2 1/2 and I got $9 million. The actors didn’t get their usual salaries. But I got ’em like that (he snaps his fingers).
The film is about them, it’s from their soul.
As Michael Caine said, `Damn. I knew I’d be playing my Dad one day.’ They were so glad they weren’t playing gangsters or comic versions of themselves. These were real people, with real lives in all its complexity. . . . So there I am in England 17 years after “Plenty” with a more complicated film, a huge list of stars, and less money to make it. And I am doing two more jobs than I did on “Plenty” and I’m getting less for those too. I told this to Bob Altman and he said, `Welcome to the club.’ You succeed and get less, and the [movie] executives fail and get more.
Q. You sound a bit cynical about the Hollywood system.
A. The first couple of pictures I did were good, but aspects of them fell foul of the kind of testing system they do in Hollywood. They tend to want to broaden things for an audience, and take away the things that would have pleased the audience that was going to see them anyway.
If you’re doing something like “Russia House” or “Six Degrees of Separation,” there isn’t much interference — although mind you I had Alan Ladd Jr. as studio head and he had a better attitude toward film.
If you’re doing a romantic comedy like “I.Q.” or “Mr. Baseball,” you tend to get a lot of help. And it doesn’t work.
The business changed. In the last five or six years, it really polarized. The midrange budget film has almost disappeared. Films now fall into “classics” or “art house” and they’ve pushed the price way down. If I was doing “Six Degrees of Separation” today, I would be lucky to get $8 million. I got $16 million, which wasn’t a lot, believe me, for what I did. But I’d get $8 million now and I could not make the same picture.
Q. As the producer of “Last Orders,” you had control. Despite the difficulties in getting this movie made, is it more satisfying?
A. Nobody told me what to do. It was an absolute joy. Some people don’t like the movie, but they hate it for the very same reasons everybody else loves it. The picture has a voice. And you’re either tuned to it or you’re not.
It’s been said that I make movies about outsiders but I say, it’s about humanity. I love making you laugh and then turning the screw so that the laugh catches in throat and turns into a sob.
