Choice Brits - Script Factory

Schuman's Revenge

A blustery winter afternoon and the fierce elbows of pre-Christmas shoppers in Piccadilly didn't stop BAFTA members from turning out to view the latest film from the director of Repo Man and Sid and Nancy.
 
In a rare treat (because he’s so busy with his own screenwriting duties), Howard Schuman joined us for our final Choice Brits introduction and lamented the fact that British cinema enjoys a far more generous and appreciative appraisal outside the UK than by Brits themselves. Schuman applauded Cox’ individual style and raved about his iconoclastic filmmaking genius, and he also shared a story about his first encounter with the director many years ago...

Howard Schuman introduces Alex Cox’ Revengers Tragedy
13 December 2003
BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly
 
It’s a pleasure to be a part of something that celebrates modern British cinema despite funding battles, distribution battles and incredibly negative press – I can’t think of any country whose press is less helpful to filmmakers, especially the idiosyncratic and original low-budget filmmakers. So it’s great to be part of this, which demonstrates how many good interesting British films have been made in the past year and beyond that the last ten years. You go to other cities and this is recognised; the range, diversity and daringness of British cinema in addition to feel-good commercial comedies - it’s a good tribute to British filmmakers and their ability to endure.
It’s a particular pleasure to talk about Alex Cox. Years and years ago I had a script which I wanted a director for about Brits in boom-town New York in the early eighties and I was granted an audience with Pauline Kael. I don’t know if the audience know her, but she is one of the most influential American critics and she said ‘you really should see a movie by a guy called Alex Cox, he’s British but he’s made a film set in America called Repo Man’, and a screening was arranged and I was completely knocked out by this kind of whacko, pot-drugs fantasy comedy, and I thought ‘ this is a new voice, an original voice’. I pursued his agent and said I want to send Alex a script, and he replied via his agent who said ‘well, Alex doesn’t know who you are actually’ and that was the last I ever heard of it. So the fact that I am introducing an Alex Cox film is either a tribute to my generosity or my massive disappointment.
As the years went by, Repo-Man was followed, as you know, by the explosive Sid and Nancy; a great punk-meets-punk love. And then fans of Alex Cox became something like UFO spotters, waiting for the next sighting of an Alex Cox film.
It was his punk-western Straight to Hell, then Walker, a radical historical film about American imperialism which didn’t go down well in America during the Reagan years for some strange reason… And then there was the noir Mexican film Highway Patrol, a film for the BBC called Death and the Compass based on the short story by Borges but the sightings were few and far between. Then he presented Moviedrome for BBC2 which some of you may remember; really a treat for anyone who appreciated cult cinema being presented by a wit - someone who loved these movies - and really the greatest movie presenter there has ever been, and I say that through gritted teeth but he really was a great, great presenter.
And so we arrive at Revengers Tragedy and it’s interesting that this Jacobean play should be the perfect vehicle for Alex Cox’s talent, and I think it’s his best film, personally. The bleak comedy, the electrifying poetry, the moral purpose and the ultra-violence perfectly suit Alex and his team: Frank Cottrell Boyce, one of our best screenwriters has updated it to the year 2011; brilliant cinematography, haunting costumes and direction and a fantastic cast of British actors which again reminds you of the pool of talent we have in this country in case you forget it, and people who are able to do stylised comedy of the darkest variety whilst keeping the poetry which Frank has maintained, this great Middleton poetry in the middle of this modern take on Revengers Tragedy. It’s a stylish, idiosyncratic film which couldn’t have been made by anybody else even though it has influences from Derek Jarman’s Jubilee, Clockwork Orange, it’s like no other film, and, of course, it has superb music, another Alex Cox hallmark.
So if you like it, try and get in touch with him via The Script Factory website because he needs all the encouragement we can give him. We can keep the Cox fires burning.
 
For more about Revengers Tragedy, click here.
For more about Howard Schuman, click here.