Scottish director David Mackenzie has an affinity with strange, outsider characters that can’t help but serve him well in the creative endeavours of writing screenplays and directing films.
His feature-length debut The Last Great Wilderness developed a cult audience; a curious thriller with a dark sense of humour and a soundtrack courtesy of The Pastels made it a most unusual proposition. But it was his next film Young Adam, featuring soundtrack contributions by David Byrne, that really put him on the map. Capturing the desperation of the underbelly of a Fifties Glasgow hindered by high unemployment, Young Adam was bleakly naturalistic. Mackenzie was successful in creating an atmosphere of crushing, psychological torment, helped enormously by Ewan McGregor’s fine performance as lead character Joe Taylor. Young Adam picked up a succession of award nominations including four wins at Scotland’s BAFTA Awards – with Best Director going to Mackenzie. 2005’s Asylum was similarly intense with Mackenzie and star Natasha Richardson once more amongst the honours.
Hallam Foe continues that trend for outsider figures
Hallam Foe continues that trend for outsider figures. Based on the novel of the same name written by his friend Peter Jinks, Mackenzie was drawn to its finely tuned and complex lead characters. Although elements of the story have had to be adapted for the demands of the big screen, the characters have remained true to the spirit of the book. Hallam (Jamie Bell) is a teenager suffering from the usual teenage traits of awkwardness and self-doubt – but in a far more extreme fashion. Devastated by the death of his mother, he has developed “a habit” of voyeurism. Hallam is quite a fantastical character, utterly believable yet capable of physical feats (dragging himself up drain pipes, hurtling across rooftops) beyond most people’s general ability. This demanded a performance of high physicality from Bell.
“Well, Jamie’s a pretty fit lad,” ponders Mackenzie. “But he had to work hard on the training for it.” When you see Bell’s performance, this feels like a huge understatement. But a couple of videos featured on the film’s thoroughly detailed blog show Bell accelerating up a wall at a training centre with consummate ease. I ask Mackenzie if such vigorous scenes are fun to work on. “I’m not the one doing the climbing!” he concedes with a chuckle.
It’s another skill to add to Bell’s phenomenal talent. Already a truly famous name, Hallam Foe is perhaps his finest role to date and continues his recent trend for picking challenging, quirky roles, following Thomas Vinterburg’s superlative Dear Wendy and Arie Posin’s eccentric satire The Chumscrubber.
“I think he’s interested in pushing himself,” agrees Mackenzie, pointing to his role in Doug Liman’s (Swingers, Go) upcoming movie Jumpers. “And I think that Hallam Foe will be good for him.”
And Hallam Foe will be good for Mackenzie. It’s a personal film in so many ways; his passion when speaking about it conveys that this wasn’t simply a project for him, it was a true labour of love. There was the desire to make a film that Jinks would appreciate, but also a direct personal connection with the film’s principal setting, Edinburgh’s Caledonian Hotel. It was here that Mackenzie worked in room service at a similar age to Hallam who commences work as a kitchen hand.
“I think there is probably a lot of Hallam in him actually,” said Sophia Myles, who plays Kate, the figure of Hallam’s obsession. “I suspect he might have been quite similar when he was younger. They’ve both got a kind of intensity. And I know that Jamie has copied a few of David’s mannerisms to work into his character!”
Mackenzie is amused but pleasantly dismissive of the comparison, sheepishly accepting that he, like Hallam and teenagers throughout history, shared certain traits. His confident articulation and subsequent industry success make it hard to think of him as ever possessing any typically uncomfortable teenage characteristics.
Following his previous work with The Pastels and David Byrne, Mackenzie again wanted to do something special for Hallam Foe’s soundtrack. Admitting to having a long standing desire to “DJ the score” for a film (a concept previously hampered by budgetary requirements), a deal with Domino’s Laurence Bell to provide music exclusively from their back catalogue made that desire a reality.
“I always had a few songs that I wanted to include,” he explains. “But two or three didn’t make it as the music has to fit the film rather than the other way around.” But there’s no regret in his voice and that’s hardly surprising when the soundtrack swoops from Orange Juice to King Creosote, from Clinic to James Yorkston.
The soundtrack’s real coup came “halfway through the process” when Bell mentioned the possibility of Franz Ferdinand contributing an original track. The situation was helped greatly by a chance meeting (“a mutual fan club” says Mackenzie with no sign of exaggeration) between Jamie Bell and the band’s guitarist, Nick McCarthy. The end result is the personality ballad Hallam Foe Dandelion Blow, as perfect a musical encapsulation of the Hallam Foe character as one could hope for.
It all adds up to a remarkable film, one that’s a million miles away from the contemporary reworking of Peeping Tom that I’d initially expected. It’s a point that Mackenzie to keen to accentuate, despite jokingly calling Hallam Foe his “Peeping Tom rom-com.”
The co-founder of Sigma Films, the production company that has delivered the likes of Red Road and Manderlay, I ask Mackenzie how he identifies projects of such quality that also reach an audience. “A bit of educated guesswork!” is his self-deprecating answer, but he also points to Sigma’s links with Denmark’s renowned Zentropa team as key.
With an apparently never ending list of upcoming projects, it’s a cinematic version of James Young’s book Songs They Never Played On The Radio that sounds the most exciting. Young documented his days as keyboardist touring with the ill-fated Nico. If Mackenzie can make that half as impressive as Hallam Foe, it will be well worth the wait.
