This month saw the 93rd MK3D, our 5th at the IMAX. Mark welcomed five fantastic guests to discuss their work and some exciting upcoming films.
Mark got the show off to a brilliant start by welcoming his first two guests, writer-director Janis Pugh and actress Louise Brealey, to talk about their new feature, Chuck Chuck Baby, released this Friday, 19th July. Describing the film as ‘Ken Loach meets La La Land’, and ‘a love story chicken factory musical’, they talk about the gritty, human love story that’s at the heart of the film, about working class women in the movies, never doing more than three takes of any scene, and securing that Neil Diamond song. Janis also talked about the film that influenced her, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, and Louise talked about her Guilty Pleasure, Flash Gordon.
Next, Mark welcomed the wonderful writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce to discuss Kensuke’s Kingdom, the animated feature based on the Michael Morpurgo classic, which is out on 2nd August. It unites two characters who are very different, but work to find common ground. He discussed the joys and challenges of adapting the book, and about opting for minimal dialogue in the film to produce a powerful story. He made an eloquent point about human nature being essentially good, a much-needed, important reminder. One of the films that influenced him to use visual narrative rather than dialogue was Hitchcock’s Notorious – a sequence involving a key is a classic example of economical storytelling.
Star Morfydd Clark joined Mark on stage to discuss upcoming folk horror film Starve Acre, releasing on 6th September. Morfydd shared some brilliant insights into the filming process, the atmosphere of the film set, and the hilarity of the torrential rainfall that accompanied each one of Matt Smith’s outdoor takes. She reflected on being cast in horror films, including in Saint Maud – and her early love as a three-year old of The Secret Garden, which influenced her to act. She also talked about playing Galadriel in The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings of Power, and her onstage roles coming up at the Almeida theatre in Roots and Look Back in Anger.
Finally, Mark welcomed actor-director Chiwetel Ejiofor onto the show to talk about his second feature Rob Peace, due to release this autumn. Chiwetel talked about the real story of Rob Peace and the process of researching and creating a film about a real person. He also shared some amusing insights into the challenges that come with working as both an actor and director on the film – just when exactly do you say cut?
The thread that combined these films were their central themes: love, community, family, background, class, parenting, social care, social mobility – and humour. But mostly love of cinema, love of stories and love of humanity. Thanks to all our guests and to the great team that pulls the show together, at the BFI and with HLA.