Island Screening.

[magog_83]

I thought I should finally do my Island post, since I was talking about it just last night AND I’ve finished my bibliography corrections today (whoever thought it was a good idea to have a 37 page bibliography is a MUPPET, just saying, and yes, I do know it was me).

SPOILERS AHEAD, and some scans.

Anyway, I really enjoyed my cinema excursion to Cardiff! I walked to the Chapter Cinema and got there in plenty of time, so I had to do that ‘hanging around in the foyer’ bit for twenty minutes, reading posters. Fortunately, this allowed me to meet colacube who was there too, so I ended up sitting with a fellow LJ-er, which just goes to show you should always chat to people because you never know who you might meet (as I found with blondielox at Our Private Life too).

There was a slightly awkward moment before we went into the cinema, when a very nice older lady asked if we were social workers because she’d heard it was a film about a woman who’d been in care so she assumed it was mostly going to be of interest to social workers. I looked at colacube and said, “er... actually I think a few people are here because it has Colin Morgan in it, from Merlin.” She had NO CLUE who that was. Luckily at the end of the film she commented to Brek Taylor that she’d particularly admired to care system aspect, SO PHEW.

Anyway, on to the film. I thought it was very good. Very atmospheric and faithful to the book in most respects. The opening and getting Nikki to the island was very short. There was none, or very little, of the backstory from the book, just the voice over of Nikki talking about wanting to kill her mother and footage of her travelling on the train, then ferry. So the main story kicked off really quickly, and in fact I thought I spotted Colin right at the start of Nikki’s arrival on the island, when she was walking down the main street. It certainly looked like him.

The thing that impressed me most was how right all the settings were, they were all so much like I’d imagined from the book. The house, Nikki’s room, Calum’s house, the post office, the woods and roadways, it was all beautifully shot and very atmospheric.

The first proper entry of Calum is very well presented. He just appears at the door to Nikki’s room saying hello with his almost goofy smile and he just LOOMS over Natalie Press. I don’t know if she really is that short, or he’s that tall, or what, but all the way through the height difference is marked and it adds to the undertone of threat with Calum because of what we know (from the book) he is capable of. I noticed it particularly in that first scene though. His Scottish accent also sounded flawless to me, very soft and easy on the ear, with little inflexions every now and again that reminded me this was actually Colin and Merlin.

The main events stayed close to the book, although I did miss all the inner narration we get from Nikki in the novel. I understand why they couldn’t put it in, but it meant Nikki’s motivations were always a little more ambiguous/unclear on screen. There was a bit more obvious humour though, in Nikki and Calum’s relationship. For example, in the scene where Calum tells Nikki there used to be a monastery on the rocks, that was only reachable at low tide, and that the islanders used to come to hear mass there, Nikki points out that they wouldn’t have been able to hear anything from the mainland. Then there’s a pause, where you see Calum actually working this through and he looks back and forth to the rocks a few times, all frowny and adorably confused, and everyone in the cinema laughed. I felt the film definitely played up the idea of Calum being blindsided and fascinated with this strange girl very well, and her shaking up his world a bit.

The stories were well done as well. They didn’t feature all of him, and with the table rock story they actually incorporated Nikki’s inner narration into her rant at Calum. I felt rather sorry for him there, because she really does overturn his beloved story. But then she tells him the story of Fir Apple and he’s transfixed once more.

A couple of things they did change. The rape scene came off differently in the film, I thought. It was left completely ambiguous as to what had actually happened. I assumed in the book that Calum tried to have sex with Nikki, but only succeeded in coming on her jeans (she says she’s glad he had only managed to get it on her jeans and not in her, although even that might not mean he didn’t succeed). Anyway in the film he says he’s really likes her, she says “I know” and he starts kissing her, just a few tentative kisses, then suddenly really goes for it, just as she changes her mind and is trying to push him away. Colin’s height really worked in that scene and made him seem a real threat and one that Nikki, much smaller, couldn’t really fight off, however much she tried. Then the camera pans away and the scene stops, and opens again on Nikki stumbling along the beach, upset and with her coat gone and her shirt unbuttoned, Calum behind her, leaving the audience to assume she had been raped. [on a frivolous note, and before the scene takes a turn for the traumatic, I have to say Colin’s kissing was rather mesmerising].

The other thing they changed was that Nikki’s father was Phyllis’s brother, not her father as in the novel. I assume they changed that to echo the sexual undercurrents between Calum and Nikki? I actually didn’t like that change, because I thought it made Phyllis’s story seem less tragic. Not that incest isn’t tragic, but we’re told nothing about her and her brother. When it was her father, it was very obvious Phyllis was a victim, when she just says “your father was my brother”, well that could be a harrowing tale of an abusive older brother, or it could be a more consensual relationship, or a strange and slightly unsettling one like Nikki and Calum. It’s totally unclear, and whilst that makes for a good parallel, I felt it took away from Phyllis’s story and the fact that she turns out to have been just as much a victim of other people’s decisions and actions as Nikki was.

But I digress! So, after the scene where they try to leave the island, Nikki confronts her mother and gets a similar reaction to in the book, although it’s played like Phyllis is disbelieving but maybe cautiously happy too, then Nikki (falls down? Faints? I swear I glanced away for a SECOND), and Calum comes in and just immediately pulls his arm back and just swings at his mother and the screen goes black. It was a very effective moment, very dark. Then the film ends with Nikki trying to walk into the sea and Calum running in after her, pulling her back to the beach where she comes up with the plan to take the blame for it and protect Calum. They are sitting together, Nikki wearing Calum’s jacket, and they do the Fir Apple bit, “Do you never leave me, and I’ll never leave you.” “Not now, nor ever.” LIKE SO.



And that’s the end! I would have liked to have seen the fallout and the way they both finally do find happiness there together, but sadly not.

.....

There was a Q and A afterwards with Brek Taylor, and I made a few notes, though there were only fleeting mentions of Colin.

Brek Taylor talked about the process of getting the script together and finding the actors. She said that they were workshopping the ’10 key story points’ very early on in the scriptwriting process, just trying them out, seeing how much dialogue was necessary and working with a landscape artist. The script was constantly redrafted.

Apparently Elizabeth Mitchell read the book twice and then put it away and just wrote the script. The tone had to change a lot, losing that ‘inner voice’ of Nikki’s and putting the stories in a different order. They shot for 3 weeks before they ran out of money, and then it took a year to bring things back together because the cast were busy and Colin was doing Merlin.

Originally the film started with longer scenes in Kent, but this was cut.

The cast were combination number 4. Other actors seemed too nice, they needed more edge. Colin was recommended by a friend who had seen him on stage in London.

The tour of the finished film has been really good. Reactions largely positive, with people commenting on the story world and stylised dialogue.

Their next project is a rom-com that will be filmed in Russia, based on the book ‘Soviet Kitchen’.

.....

LASTLY. Does anyone know if those pictures of young Calum in the film were actually of young Colin? I couldn’t see them clearly enough to tell!

And here are my scans of the hand outs :)







In a final weird twist, I ended up walking behind Brek Taylor all the way through Bristol Temple Meads on my way home, and we exchanged that totally awkward "I think I just saw you at the screening" smile (she couldn't have missed me, really, I was the only only making notes in a tiny cinema and right at the front).

THE END of my loooooong report :D

Comments

[a8c-sock.livejournal.com]

YAY REPORT!

I agree totally with you about the changes. What a shock ;-) I do prefer haing Nikki be the product of father rather than brother incest.

Well you know my long tl;dr thoughts on that ;-)

The Q&A answers sund very similar to the ones I heard. All interesting stuff.

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I bet they get asked the same things constantly! I wish they would give out a few Colin anecdotes though, JUST A FEW. COME ON GUYS. They must know they have a few Merlin fans there, and there were only 3 cast members really.