LONDON AFTER DARK: An interview with Dirty Pretty Things director Stephen Frears. By Warren Curry 7/27/03

(Read the review of Dirty Pretty Things)

"I have a low threshold of boredom," comments British director Stephen Frears about his varied body of work while promoting his latest film, Dirty Pretty Things, at a roundtable interview in Los Angeles. This much should be obvious to even a casual follower of the man's career. From the satire of Sammy and Rosie Get Laid to the hard-boiled crime fiction of The Grifters to the contemporary relationship comedy/drama Hi Fidelity, Frears has mined diverse territory in a filmmaking career that has now spanned over 30 years. Dirty Pretty Things is a more than worthy addition to his impressive resume -- an intelligent horror/thriller made by a consummate professional.

Much like his newest effort, which stars Audrey Tatou (Amelie), Sergie Lopez (With A Friend Like Harry), and a new face in Chiwetel Ejiofor, Frears' answers are a study in economy. His responses are uniquely succinct -- the lack of excess and elaboration makes you forget for a moment that this is a filmmaker you're speaking to. "You're more optimistic than I am," says Frears when it is suggested that his films -- and Dirty Pretty Things in particular -- are socially influential. "It's been received very well, but I didn't notice them changing any laws."

Dirty Pretty Things paints a bleak portrait of immigrant life in an eerie, unrecognizable modern London. Stephen Knight's (who, believe it or not, is one of the creators of the game show Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?) first feature script focuses on an appalling black market where illegal immigrants sell their organs in exchange for forged passports. Whether its director cares to acknowledge the fact, the film has a markedly pro-underdog stance, and given the movie's context, it would appear as if Frears has a political agenda in mind. "I don't think it is a very political film," he counters, apparently bewildered by the fact that he is the only person in the room who holds this opinion. However, when pressed further about the living conditions for immigrants in London, he shares some opinions. "London has changed a lot in the last 10 years. There's now this sort of huge underclass," he explains. "A lot of things in Britain sort of rest on the fact that there is this pool of immigrant labor. They're doing the jobs that British people won't do, and they're coming from all over the world." He continues, "Britain has this complicated, contradictory position. It's thought of as this rather tolerant country, which seems to be a good quality, and at the same time it's very unwelcoming. It creates situations in which people can only live very difficult lives." Part of his motivation for creating an indistinguishable London is to illustrate that this issue is not in any way exclusive to the city. "It could have happened anywhere in Europe -- Paris or Milan or Madrid. It's sort of the biggest problem that Europe has."

Audrey Tautou, who the world gets to see speak English for the first time on screen in the film, was cast by Frears before he had a chance to see Amelie. Making the role more difficult, one would assume, for the French actress is that her character, Senay, is Turkish; therefore, she wasn't even allowed the luxury of speaking the foreign language with her natural accent. "I thought that made it easier for her," offers Frears, disagreeing with the above assumption. "If she was playing a French girl speaking English, she wouldn't quite know where she ended and the character began." Given that Sergi Lopez speaks even less English than Tautou, Frears had quite a task on his hand, but he credits the talents of his voice coach, Penny Dyer, and a careful shooting schedule as the primary reasons why this hurdle was relatively minor.

Tautou's Senay and Chiwetel Ejiofor's Nigerian-born Okwe forge an interesting, ambiguous relationship. Although it's strictly forbidden, Okwe lives in Senay's apartment, but whether or not they're just friends or actually lovers isn't ever clearly answered. To Frears, the nature of the relationship is somewhat beside the point. "They were engaged in survival, and I do think that survival is more important than falling in love with people." But before one can slap the label of pessimist on Frears, he reassures, "I'm all for happy endings -- I wanted the ending to be as happy as possible." Grounding himself, he asserts, "But you couldn't simply betray the people you were making the film about. What I liked about the film is that they weren't treated as social problems -- they were treated as living people. I guess there's a point when you think that if they go to bed together it somehow devalues them."

The political overtones, real or imagined, are only an element of the film's script. It is also an exciting, accessible story, building layers of unnerving tension in the tradition of the most memorable thrillers. " I like it being told in a popular form. I liked it being told as a thriller," notes Frears. "If you're going to make a thriller," he adds, "you describe people who are in trouble. You want people who are in conflict, who are frightened for their lives." Given the work of a rather legendary countryman, perhaps it's no surprise that Frears embraces the thriller form. "I guess that goes with being English," he says. "Certain bits of it seem to read like Hitchcock films. I have tremendous admiration for Hitchcock. He, in a way, dealt with rather complex ideas and was able to put them in these popular forms."

Having made films in both the U.S. and the U.K., what does the director see as the differences between working in the two systems? "You get paid better in America," he states firmly. "You have a film industry. The atmosphere is completely different. It sort of makes sense in America whereas it never makes sense in Britain." Being more active that most filmmaking veterans, what contemporary directors impress Frears? "There's a terrific Chinese filmmaker, Wong Kar-Wai -- I think he's great. Paul Thomas Anderson is terrific." And reflecting on his own career, are there any personal favorites? "I have no idea; I can't be that objective," he remarks honestly. Asked then about whether or not there are any unifying themes in his work, Frears the artist disappears, leaving Frears the artisan to answer. "I was trained to direct what was in front of me," he insists, making you realize that the word "pretentious" isn't in the man's vocabulary. "I was trained like an old studio director must've been trained. I've really only ever done things that have interested me, like a spoiled child. I found something that interested me and then got on with it."

Miramax released Dirty Pretty Things on July 18, 2003 in New York and Los Angeles, and it will be playing in more cities throughout the country in the following weeks. At the very least a cleverly executed thriller, the film also brings to light a handful of socially important issues…even though Frears, himself, would probably be the last person to agree with that perception.

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