Choice Brits - Script Factory

Danny Boyle shouts from a mountaintop about Touching the Void

With 28 Days Later continuing to win audiences around the world with its DVD release, director Danny Boyle joined a full house at The Other Cinema on Tuesday 12 November to introduce the film that many viewers are calling 'one of the best British films of the year', Kevin MacDonald's docu-drama Touching the Void.

DANNY BOYLE ON TOUCHING THE VOID
 
"I’m utterly flattered to be outside on the billboard – it says Touching the Void - DANNY BOYLE .
 
One of the problems with this type of introduction is that if you hype up a film, you’ll be disappointed. That’s a danger - so please bear in mind that everything I say is deliberately understated. This is a masterpiece.
 
You don’t need to think about it being British, or the BAFTA, or any of that kind of stuff at all – Touching The Void is completely out there on its own.
 
Actually I do know Kevin MacDonald (the director) he is the younger brother of Andrew MacDonald (the producer) who I work with quite a lot. So when I was asked to do this I thought ‘well I’d love to do Kevin’s film, I’m sure it will be good’. I saw One Day In September , which was a wonderful achievement. When I saw this about ten days ago…I was absolutely blown away by it. I felt sickeningly jealous - hence the billboard outside - and profoundly moved by it.
 
It’s a story you probably know. It’s about these two guys Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, and a third guy too whose name I can’t remember and that’s not an insult to him, you’ll see what I mean when you watch the film - the guy that they sort of leave behind when they go up the mountain.
 
Your role is very, very, very, important. This is partly a documentary, i.e it’s based on a real story – you’ll see all this when you watch the film. But there’s this whole question of ‘is it documentary, is it docudrama?’ I think what Kevin is doing as a filmmaker, is that he’s kind of breaking that barrier. What was extraordinary with One Day in September was that it was like watching a proper feature film made like a Panorama , except that it had Led Zeppelin music on it and it was just so exciting to watch. Your job, if you like it - and I think you will - is to sell the film to your friends not as a documentary, just as an experience. There’s a ceiling on documentaries, I think you know what I mean. Only so many people will go and see a documentary – good people like you will - but the vast majority of a mainstream audience would tend not to, they would wait until it was on television to see it. Your job is to forget that its British and its worthy and all that, and just try and convey to people the experience of what you are going to go through tonight.
 
The word will ripple out beyond the financial constraints of distribution. It’s a mega, mega film. If you don’t vote for it in the categories of Director, Cinematography, Best Film and Make-Up, I will personally burn down 95 Piccadilly, or wherever BAFTA is!
 
The other thing to say is it’s very funny as well.
 
Thanks very much.”