Writer/Director Neil Marshall talks to The Inside Reel about genre, humor and texture with his new movie, the action thriller “Duchess” from Saban Films.
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00:00♪♪
00:10♪♪
00:14Nicely done, Duchess.
00:16Duchess?
00:19She handled that with grace.
00:20♪♪
00:23Real power...
00:25can never be given.
00:27It has to be taken.
00:28♪♪
00:31You've got some balls on you, Princess.
00:33It's Duchess.
00:34♪♪
00:39Was the inherent challenge for this one
00:41just trying to do it within, sort of,
00:43the bubble it was in?
00:45Or has this genre been of interest?
00:47Because obviously, the reckoning and the lair
00:49are very different in terms of what you've done with Charlotte.
00:51But beyond that, it's very different
00:53than anything you've done.
00:54Was it just sort of like,
00:55this seems like a good thing,
00:57this is something I'd like to do at this point?
00:59Where did the sort of challenge and inspiration
01:02come for you, too?
01:04Yeah, it was certainly exploring a new genre,
01:08a fresh genre for me.
01:10But films that I've loved all my life,
01:12I've always loved gangster movies.
01:14So it was a case of, like,
01:16I've been lucky enough through both the films and TV
01:19to jump around various genres.
01:21I didn't really...
01:22I never wanted to be pigeonholed.
01:24I think if there's one thread that goes through all my work,
01:26it's the action more than anything else,
01:28which I like to put action into whatever I do.
01:31And this was the same thing.
01:33I wanted to make an action movie.
01:35So, yeah, I mean, it's...
01:38You talk about the tiger and stuff before.
01:40It's funny because it wasn't written as a tiger.
01:43It was written as hyenas
01:45because the original concept was to shoot it in South Africa,
01:49but we weren't able to do that.
01:51So we ended up in Tenerife.
01:53We managed to get one hyena,
01:55which turned out to be incredibly subdued
01:58and wasn't aggressive at all
02:00and didn't look particularly scary.
02:02And we did what we could with it.
02:04But then in post, we were like,
02:06this isn't working at all.
02:08And we found a place in the UK that has tigers,
02:11that has various animals as tigers, lions,
02:14all the kind of stuff that they use for movies.
02:16And we went into the tiger enclosure
02:19and we rebuilt a little section of the set
02:22to match what we already had.
02:24And we got the tiger to do that intercut.
02:28I kind of knew what shots I needed,
02:30so we just went in and got those shots, basically, of the tiger
02:33and added that into the film, which lent it a certain...
02:36Yeah, it kind of goes back to Scarface.
02:38It goes back to... I don't know.
02:40There's something more glitzy and glamorous
02:42about a tiger than a hyena.
02:44But that's the whole thing,
02:46is even the diamond trade is somewhat...
02:48It's more glitzy and glamorous, weirdly.
02:50It's still corrupt and horrendous in reality,
02:53but diamonds are way more glitzy and glamorous than cocaine.
02:57So, you know, just...
02:59People still like diamonds to have them on their jewellery,
03:02so it was just kind of bringing bling to the gangster movie.
03:07Hey!
03:14Do you like to play rough?
03:16You little...
03:19Sorry. Can't do that.
03:21Muriel, get behind me.
03:25What? You think I came here for her?
03:49No!
03:59My last question... Thank you, Neil.
04:01It's interesting, you were mentioning that,
04:03and the thing that came to my mind,
04:05even in Scarface or certain things,
04:07the essence of romance, however, you know,
04:10sort of antithetical it is in the moment,
04:13is always in there, but also the humour.
04:16Like, the thing with Lost in Space is, like, there's that humour,
04:19but there's that romance between, you know, the two leads.
04:22Timeless, same thing.
04:24I mean, even Game of Thrones in certain ways.
04:26I mean, but can you talk about the aspect of humour,
04:30bringing humour in, but in that context of relationships
04:34in sort of an extreme circumstance?
04:36Because that's why this also works,
04:38is because when Phil looks at Charlotte a certain way,
04:42you get that sort of humour,
04:44but also you get sort of the underlying heart of what's happening.
04:47Could you talk about that, and humour and romance,
04:50especially blending in this movie?
04:53I think that's just part of life.
04:55I think it's certainly what couples try to do,
04:57make each other laugh all the time.
04:59It's like, you know, that's what we want, it's a great joke,
05:01so we want to laugh.
05:03And I think it's very much a part of life,
05:05and it comes out in the weirdest circumstances.
05:07I've always been interested in exploring that kind of gallows humour,
05:10or trench humour, as they call it,
05:12that people find humour in the weirdest of circumstances
05:15as a defence mechanism.
05:17And I suppose when you're in life-threatening situations,
05:19or these larger-than-life characters,
05:21I think it's something that's very prevalent
05:23in things like Goodfellas as well,
05:25there's a really strong sense of humour amongst these characters
05:28who, if they're not killing people, they're making each other laugh
05:31and having a good laugh about it.
05:33So I love that essence of humour.
05:35I think it's essential.
05:36It's also, like, if you're wanting to get points across,
05:38better to do it with a laugh
05:40rather than try and preach to anybody about anything.
05:42If there's a way of telling stories and bringing humour into it,
05:46I just feel it's more realistic that way,
05:48it's more grounded,
05:50and it's way more entertaining to watch as a movie.
05:52In this kind of film, it's not like an Airplane or a Top Secret
05:56or one of those kind of movies
05:58where the humour's just being thrown at the screen,
06:01and anything can be used as a joke
06:03and becomes a parody, becomes that kind of film.
06:06This isn't like that.
06:08It's all coming from the characters themselves
06:10and how they observe the world and interact with each other.
06:13And that's natural humour.
06:15That's what we do.
06:16So that's the feeling.
06:18Guess what?
06:19I like that you mentioned Top Secret.
06:21Great film, underrated.
06:22Most people, young people...
06:23It's a classic.
06:24Yes, it is.
06:25It's a classic.
06:26I'm going to kill all the men that betrayed me.
06:29They will eat you alive.
06:33Do your worst.
06:36It's not enough to be as good as a man.
06:40You have to be twice as ruthless
06:44and ten times a bitch.
06:46Oi!