Stephan Elliot discusses his new film 'Easy Virtue'

12 March 2009

interviewed by Graeme Watson

Reviews

Through ‘The Adventures of Pricilla Queen of the Desert’ Stephan Elliot wrote and directed one of the Australia’s most successful and iconic films. A critical and financial success, it is the high point of the 90’s revival of Australian film. A peak of achievement that is looked back upon with fondness, as an industry laments the continuous failures and disappointments of subsequent years.

Yet the success of ‘The Adventures of Pricilla Queen of the Desert’ did not bring ongoing success to Stephan Elliot, his follow up film ‘Welcome to Woop Woop’ was declared a box office dud and his first overseas film ‘Eye of the Beholder’ garnered little attention.

Elliot forged on in his career, on a New York morning he set off to a meeting to discuss a new film about a giant skyscraper collapsing, he headed to Tribecca to meet actress Hillary Swank, just as the planes flew into the Twin Towers. This project, like many others at the time came to an abrupt halt.

He retreated to France, fulfilling his love of skiing and making films was became something he lost interest in. Then in 2004 he accidently skied off a cliff, shattering his back, pelvis, both legs. The recovery from this near death experience took almost three years and during that time he found a new project that has brought him back to the camera.

‘Easy Virtue’, an updated presentation of a classic Noel Coward play was shot in England and stars Jessica Biel, Colin Firth and Kristen Scott Thomas. It is filled with frivolity and hilarious one-liners that recently sent sneak-peek audiences in Perth into fits of laughter.

The film focuses on The Whittakers, an upper class British family whose eldest son returns home with the unexpected announcement that while abroad, he has married. The family is horrified to discover his new bride is an American.

At first Elliot couldn’t understand why the Producers had thought of him as a Writer and Director for this film, he admits he’s never sat though a period film in his life. Yet that is exactly what they were looking for to bring this antiquated story back to life for a modern audience.

Meeting up with Stephan Elliot in Mount Lawley the morning after the screening I asked him if Noel Coward had much to say to a modern audience,

“Noel Coward, he was cutting edge in his time, and he still is”, proclaims Elliot with great passion, “Drugs, Homosexuality, Alcohol, hatred of the class systems in America and England. Exactly what’s happening in 1928 is exactly what happening now and if that’s not relevance I don’t know what is.”

The film was shot at a rapid pace in just 33 days, using three cameras the Director employed a loose technique which allowed him to change and adapt as the shoot progressed. Elliot notes that the many years he spent as a First Assistant Director before tackling his own films allowed him to see how many different directors worked. He recalls seeing many a Director in a panic when shoots were not going well. He explains his approach,

“You don’t have time to be precise, you can plan a shoot, I use storyboards, but they can lock you in, there’s got to be a B-plan for when there is no time and C-plan too, which is basically just a free for all.”

His approach to getting performances out of actors is also a multi-faceted; he reveals that when you have actors as experienced as Kristen Scott Thomas and the wonderful character actor Pip Torrens, they usually get the performance on the first or second take. While some of the younger and less experienced actors need a few more opportunities to nail the performance. It’s important that you have an awareness of this and make sure the cameras are pointing in the right direction.

Tackling the Noel Coward material is possibly a task that only an Australian Director could take on, it is as if it’s OK for Australians to make fun of both the British and the Americans.

Rewriting the story slightly and updating dialogue to bring the story into a more modern realm was part of the films long development process. Elliot recounts that at first he and co-writer Sheridan Jobbins were reluctant to alter the work of one of Britain’s most acclaimed writers. Eventually they realised that it was essential to soften some of the characters and remove the elements of 1920’s melodrama, if the film was going to work for today’s audience.

‘Easy Virtue’ is an English production and it sees Stephan Elliot joining the growing ranks Australian filmmakers who have gone on to build impressive international careers after their homegrown success. At our meeting we discussed how he had approached his earlier career, the first stepping stones in his journey and what advice he might offer to young filmmakers in Australia today.

It’s almost legendary how Stephan Elliot got his foothold in the Australian film industry through a lot of hard work an incredible amount of bravado.

In the 1980’s a teenage Stephan Elliot began his professional filmmaking career, behind a clunky Beta video camera filming weddings, by the time he was 17 he’d done over 900 weddings, often asking the bride and grooms to walk the aisle several times so he could capture different angles.

‘I knew I wanted to be a Director from when I was seven years old, so that certainly helped’, he notes.

When Stephan finished High School he applied to get into an editing course at a local Sydney Technical College, there were 2000 applicants and only 12 positions. He had lots of practical editing experience but realised that his dyslexia might be a hindrance. So he got a friend to apply too and sit the day of aptitude tests as well. When it came time to put their name on the top of their papers, they wrote down each others names down. Stephan got 95%, he friend got 27%.

Although his Lecturers soon realised that he’d cheated, it didn’t matter – they let him stay in the program, but soon the eager filmmaker was knocking on the doors of production companies.

“They were about to start shooting ‘Mad Max 3’ so I wrote to Producer Terry Hayes and threatened to chain myself to the doors of Kennedy Miller if I didn’t get a job, I went down there one day with the chains to show I was committed.”

I ask if it’s a move he’d recommend to up and coming young filmmakers? His response is direct,

“If you want to work in this industry, it takes pure frickin’ balls, you’ve got nothing, your starting from nowhere, but you got nothing to loose. So what if you get doors slammed in your face, that was it takes.

Throughout the 1980’s Elliot worked as an Assistant Director on a range of projects, formative year that taught him how to make films. In 1991 he made his first feature film ‘Frauds’ starring Phil Collins, Josephine Burns and Hugo Weaving. Though the production was plagued with problems as the financiers went into liquidation, but the film was accepted into competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

His Producer’s asked if he any ideas for other films they could pitch while at Cannes, he had been thinking about a story that was like a Sergio Leone western, but with drag queens. In just 14 days Elliot wrote the script for ‘The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert’.

For a Director who’s films had a great deal of theatricality in them, and given that Priscilla has found a second life on the stage and is soon to open in the West End, I was surprised to see that the theatre is one area that not on his early career resume. Elliot disagrees,

“I don’t think there theatricality in them, there’s flamboyance, lots of music and big colourful things. Movies are about experience, it’s not real life. No offence but I saw a few AFI nominated films last year and there set around kitchen sinks and family dramas, and that’s some people’s cup of tea but it’s not mine.”

“‘Easy Virtue’ could have a gone that way, there’s a straight way of making this film, but it’s not the way I’d make it. I don’t think its theatricality; a low boredom threshold is how I’d look at it.”

I was intrigued to know if the Director of the film that everyone points to as the example of what Australia film should be about had any thoughts on how the local filmmaking industry could break out of its rut?

He contemplates before answering,

“I think basically, you drawn from what your environment is and that’s a good thing, but if the filmmakers come from nice families and nice backgrounds what do they have to draw from? ‘Frauds’ came from a family experience, ‘Priscilla’ came from hanging around the drag scene and seeing these performers who were living walking musicals. All these stories of family life are a bit dull.”

“The only chance you have to get noticed is to stand out. If you’re at the Cannes film festival, you have got 5 minutes to make your career. You have to make a dent. You have get people’s attention.”

‘Easy Virtue’ opens on March 12th across Australia and it’s worth your attention.

FTI thanks Natalie Bell and Taylor Media for their generous assistance with this interview.