Sally Potter, 60, is one of British independent cinema’s leading lights. A multi-disciplinary creative force, she made her first feature, "The Gold Diggers", in 1983. Since then she has crafted successful commercial features as well as several experimental films. Potter was in Mumbai this week for the premiere of her latest film, "Rage", screened in Indian multiplexes as part of the UK Film Council’s “From Blighty with Love” programme. In this interview with Saibal Chatterjee, Potter throws light on her cinematic vision:
What does cinema mean to you?
It is the ultimate synthesis of image and sound, performance and object. It is profoundly physical and more closely represents the ‘real’ world than any other, yet is ephemeral, metaphysical and artificial. These paradoxes make it a great medium for working with the un-touchable and un-seeable aspects of human experience.
You are a dancer, composer, screenwriter, director. You’ve also acted in one of your films. Is that an advantage?
It is an advantage to know what you are asking people to do. Every director would benefit from some performing experience. Dancers learn how to work and how to embody. Music trains the ear. Writing trains the ear too, to listen to how people speak and also to listen to what they don’t say…the articulate silences. Writing a screenplay teaches one about structure and thematic development, how to distinguish between the necessary and the redundant. There is no real way to train to direct. It’s one of those mongrel skills…a bit of everything. To have a variety of experience is a useful starting point.
Your latest film, "Rage", premiered on mobile phones and the Internet at the same as its theatrical and DVD release. Do you see new media platforms as a boon for independent filmmakers?
Multi-platform release strategies are an inevitable evolution. Independent filmmakers can afford to be more bold and pro-active in this area than established studios which tend to be fearful of risk. Independent filmmakers must be flexible and brave in order to survive.
Your experiments with form and substance, reality and fiction, are at odds with conventions of mainstream moviemaking. Do you ever feel the need to reach out to a wider audience?
Like any other filmmaker, I seek the widest possible audience for my work but not by compromising. I have travelled widely with my films. The audience teaches one the limits of their tolerance. Sometimes, when one presents something unfamiliar, it takes a while for this to become a pleasurable experience for them. But it would be a betrayal of principles to pander to apparent appetites. I try to respect the more profound needs of audiences to recognise parts of themselves and of the world around them by showing things in surprising ways, as if emerging from a deep sleep.
Bollywood’s shadow. What do UK filmmakers need to do to find takers in markets like India?
We need to look around and notice that films have been made for larger audiences and for a longer period historically than Hollywood has reached. There is much to learn from world cinema, including, importantly, India. Cinema tends to gaze west, which is its loss.
What kind of films do you watch? Among filmmakers active today, is there anybody you are particularly fond of?
I have always watched films from all over the world. I recently looked at early Fellini again and found the work very beautiful. Films can seem as fresh as the day they were completed; this is part of their enduring power. I am always interested in work coming out of Russia and Iran. I recently saw "My Name is Khan" I am fascinated by the relationship with epic…The idea that all lives are epic if we look closely enough. Terence Davies is a very interesting British director.
"Rage" is about a murder. But its form and approach go many steps ahead of genre conventions. What exactly are you trying to expose through a tale constructed with a string of monologues?
I wanted to find the most minimal form to express the deepest emotions in the simplest way possible. “Naked cinema”, as some have called it, is a return to the first principles of acting on film; the study of the human face and the nuances of expression that are possible when you work from within. I was also interested in the interface between new technology and the long history of portraiture. Monologues are an ancient form. As a writer, one can work with this form to enter the stream of thought all of us carry silently within.
Which of your films is the closest to your heart – 'The Gold Diggers", "The Tango Lesson", "Yes" or "Orlando"?
"Yes".
What does cinema mean to you?
It is the ultimate synthesis of image and sound, performance and object. It is profoundly physical and more closely represents the ‘real’ world than any other, yet is ephemeral, metaphysical and artificial. These paradoxes make it a great medium for working with the un-touchable and un-seeable aspects of human experience.
You are a dancer, composer, screenwriter, director. You’ve also acted in one of your films. Is that an advantage?
It is an advantage to know what you are asking people to do. Every director would benefit from some performing experience. Dancers learn how to work and how to embody. Music trains the ear. Writing trains the ear too, to listen to how people speak and also to listen to what they don’t say…the articulate silences. Writing a screenplay teaches one about structure and thematic development, how to distinguish between the necessary and the redundant. There is no real way to train to direct. It’s one of those mongrel skills…a bit of everything. To have a variety of experience is a useful starting point.
Your latest film, "Rage", premiered on mobile phones and the Internet at the same as its theatrical and DVD release. Do you see new media platforms as a boon for independent filmmakers?
Multi-platform release strategies are an inevitable evolution. Independent filmmakers can afford to be more bold and pro-active in this area than established studios which tend to be fearful of risk. Independent filmmakers must be flexible and brave in order to survive.
Your experiments with form and substance, reality and fiction, are at odds with conventions of mainstream moviemaking. Do you ever feel the need to reach out to a wider audience?
Like any other filmmaker, I seek the widest possible audience for my work but not by compromising. I have travelled widely with my films. The audience teaches one the limits of their tolerance. Sometimes, when one presents something unfamiliar, it takes a while for this to become a pleasurable experience for them. But it would be a betrayal of principles to pander to apparent appetites. I try to respect the more profound needs of audiences to recognise parts of themselves and of the world around them by showing things in surprising ways, as if emerging from a deep sleep.
Bollywood’s shadow. What do UK filmmakers need to do to find takers in markets like India?
We need to look around and notice that films have been made for larger audiences and for a longer period historically than Hollywood has reached. There is much to learn from world cinema, including, importantly, India. Cinema tends to gaze west, which is its loss.
What kind of films do you watch? Among filmmakers active today, is there anybody you are particularly fond of?
I have always watched films from all over the world. I recently looked at early Fellini again and found the work very beautiful. Films can seem as fresh as the day they were completed; this is part of their enduring power. I am always interested in work coming out of Russia and Iran. I recently saw "My Name is Khan" I am fascinated by the relationship with epic…The idea that all lives are epic if we look closely enough. Terence Davies is a very interesting British director.
"Rage" is about a murder. But its form and approach go many steps ahead of genre conventions. What exactly are you trying to expose through a tale constructed with a string of monologues?
I wanted to find the most minimal form to express the deepest emotions in the simplest way possible. “Naked cinema”, as some have called it, is a return to the first principles of acting on film; the study of the human face and the nuances of expression that are possible when you work from within. I was also interested in the interface between new technology and the long history of portraiture. Monologues are an ancient form. As a writer, one can work with this form to enter the stream of thought all of us carry silently within.
Which of your films is the closest to your heart – 'The Gold Diggers", "The Tango Lesson", "Yes" or "Orlando"?
"Yes".
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