- Title: Food of Love
- Date: 8th August 2000
- Description:A bitter-sweet romantic comedy set in the contrasting worlds of London's urban landscape and en idyllic English village in which a man reunites a group of friends to recreate a past event which changes the course of everyone's lives... Cast List Alex RICHARD E. GRANT Michel NATHALIE BAYE Sam JOE MeGANN Madeleine JULIET ALTBREY Mary PENNY DOWNIE Robin MARK TANDY Luke LORCAN CRANITCH Donald JOHN RAMM Jessica HOLLY DAVIDSON Mrs Harvey Brown SYLVIA SYMS Alice TAMEKA EMPSON Mick JOI IN WATERHOUSE Fincham IAN LINDSAY William RICHARD BEALE Diane PAULA BACON Angela NICOLA DUFFET Head Office RUPERT PENRY-JONES Bank Manager BARRY McCARTHY Royal Theatre Director SCOTT RANSOME Brian RICHARD DIXON Sarah JULIE TEAL Louise ELIZABETH BANKS Fincham's Brother ALEC LINSTEAD Hospital Doctor AMER1IT DEU Prison Warder IAN PECK Village Women LIZ MOSCROP DEDDIE DAVIES Madeleine's Daughter JADE DAVIDSON Nanny SARAH HOWE Secretary CHARLOTTE EMMERSON Red Faced Man HUBERT REES Crew List Written and Directed by STEPHEN POLIAKOFF Producer KARIN BAMBOROUGH Co- Producer MICHEL PROPPER Executive Producer DAVID ROSE Line Producer JOHN DOWNES Director of Photography WIT DABAL Editor ANNE SOPEL Production Designer MICHAEL PICKWOAD Original Music ADRIAN JOHNSTON Costume Designer PAM TAIT Casting Director ANN FIELDEN Camera Operator PETER VERSEY Gaffer PAUL CRONIN Chief Make-up NATACHA BERNET JULIANA MENDES-EBDEN Chief Hairdresser ANNEMARIE HUCK First Assistant Director MIKE HIGGINS Script Supervisor CEM EVANS-COOPER Art Director JEREMY BEAR Location Manager BILL BARRINGER Production Co-ordinator PAMELA ALLEN French Production Representative CHRISTINE RASPILLERE Sound Recordist IAN MUNRO Boom Operator COLIN WOOD Focus Puller JOHN FLETCHER Clapper Loader SPENCER NTURRAY Grip MALCOLM SMITH Second Focus Puller JAY JAY ODEDRA First Assistant Editor JAY COQUILLON Second Assistant Editor LIONEL JOHNSON Sound Editor ZANE HAYWARD Dialogue Editor PHIL BARNES A.D.R Editor PHIL ROTHAMLEY Dubbing Mixers HUGH STRAIN CUVE PENDRY Production Buyer DAVID FYSON Property Master DAVE MERCHANT Standby Props MICHAEL WOOLFE ELISE MENGHINI HILL Dressing Prop GERRY BOURKE Art Department Assistant PAUL SMITH Wardrobe Supervisor ELEANOR APPLEBY Wardrobe Assistant RUTH KIRTON Assistant Make-up CLAUDIA CASTELLANI Assistant Hairdresser SIMON MARKS 2nd Location Manager IAN AEGIS Second Assistant Director KATE HAZELL Third Assistant Director MATTHEW PENRY-DAVY Production Accountant NITA PATEL Assistant Accountant MARK EDWARDS French Accountant MONIQUE EYDEN Production Secretary SUZIE SHEARER Production Runner HOLLY PHELIP S French Production Assistant CATHERINE DEVILLE Dialogue Coach SALLY GRACE Casting Assistant AMANDA NEWLEY Unit Nurse MARCIA BAMIGBOYE Unit Publicist DEEPOKU Publicity COWAN SYMES & ASSOCIATES Stills Photographer CHRISTINE PARRY Best Boy TERRY TOWNSEND Electricians ALAN GREYLEY RONSHANE Genny Operator PAUL MURPHY S/By Carpenter GARY KEOGH S/By Painter BOB MASON S/By Rigger PAUL HARFORD Construction BRIAN WEBB SEAMUS O'SULLIVAN BARRY SMALLS COLIN WRIGHT DEL WALKER Transport Captain DICK MOORE Unit Car JOHN ATKINS 'FOOD OF LOVE' Production Notes Stephen Poliakoff believes FOOD OF LOVE will have wide appeal. "I want to strike a chord with young people and with people in their late thirties/early forties because the world is moving very, very fast and we're all affected. "There are three groups of people in the film - thirty-somethings, kids, and the young twenty- somethings. Ironically, it's the twenty- somethings who have control over the thirty-somethings. The power these younger people possess lies in their being fully immersed in this fast-moving world, whereas I think people in their thirties were brought up with books and a slightly more stable technology, so they feel slightly vulnerable". As actor Mark Tandy (who plays Robin) explains, In the cast the doctors and people in the banks, all those sorts of people, are younger than the principal characters. This is quite a cunning move by Poliakoff because you would think that they would be played by people who are older, but these people are all in their twenties and they are the decision makers, the people in control of the older characters' lives". Richard E. Grant, who plays Alex, sums it up; I think it deals with the panic of things - how could these things have changed, even in banks, the so-called bastion of things that never change". For Poliakoff, "It also strikes a universal chord because it is asking, can you go back to the past, can you make up for past mistakes, do you get a second chance at relationships, can you rediscover past happiness by going back to the same place, but it's not a moral fable, you don't get tidy answers to things". The idea for FOOD OF LOVE came to Poliakoff when he hit 40 and started "...having late-30-something sort of feelings. The world is changing very, very fast, technology is affecting everybody's lives as it has - relentlessly - over the last five years, and it seemed the right time to write something about a group of people who want to go back to find a little oasis of time in a hurtling world. That's where it sort of evolved." Pollakoff had known producer Karin Bamborough for many years as an executive at Channel 4 and indeed had made CLOSE MY EYES and an earlier film, HIDDEN CITY, under Karin's auspices. "When Karin crossed over to set up Intrinsica with DavidRose, also of Channel 4, it seemed natural for us to work together because she had always shown an interest in my work." FOOD OF LOVE, starring Richard E. Grant, Nathalie Baye, Juliet Aubrey,Joe McGann, John Ramm, Lorcan Cranitch, Penny Downie and Mark Tandy, and introducing Holly Davidson, Meka Empson and John Waterhouse is "a bittersweet comedy set in a pastoral landscape ... it's about people trying to find an idyll. The modern world makes that very difficult, but through the hurly-burly of the film, and the various things that happen to them, they do achieve an idyll of sorts - a nightmarish idyll. What they thought would be a reflective holiday - a happy time - turns out to be quite traumatic, although in quite a funny way. It's also about these Thirty-something's facing up to the first twinges of mortality, The fact that life is not forever,which is something that you begin to realise in your late thirties. The characters are after nostalgia but they don't get nostalgia, they get something very much more febrile." FOOD OF LOVE has very sensual qualities - the landscapes are sensual, the relationships are sensual and there is a rich visual texture to the film. Unusually for Poliakoff, he hasn't used lots of establishing shots. "Things are experienced in quite a vivid, non-geographical way, so that it's quite subjective - the countryside is very, very lush, the urban landscape is quite hard - but these contrasting visual experiences sometimes leak into each other and get mixed up and the urban world itself becomes rather beautiful and the countryside becomes spiky, rather dangerous. I hope one is surprised by the visual texture of the film, 't is not quite as one imagines '...jolly pretty and what a pity that we have to go back to London' - that's not what happens." Filmed entirely on location in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and London, the emphasis lay in finding genuine looking locations and big landscapes which hadn't been filmed before: the beautiful Georgian house, decorated by Colefax and Fowler, and the garden built by Nancy Lancaster, are at Hazley Court. Michael Pickwoad, Production Designer, suggested -Hazley Court as it "...was exactly right for the script - the garden has a highly visual quality, and inside, where we did some of the flashbacks it looks very smart, but notjust smart. It's also lived in as a family home. It will make the film very rich visually, a quality we've tried to maintain throughout the film." Pickwoad describes the first time he saw the field where the production of Twelfth Night is staged as "walking into a Stubbs landscape - the sun was setting and it had terrific grandeur and majesty". Pollakoff was struck by "...quite how rich and dramatic home counties landscapes are. Apart from places like the Lake District, we tend to think of the English countryside as being quite gentle, but it isn't ... although we're in such a small country when you actually look at landscapes they are quite big and you get fantastic views and skies. We tried to catch that - it's quite visually voluptuous". Filming also took place at a prison, where, for security reasons, real prison officers appear in the film; at Paddington Station, where for bureaucratic reasons the crew weren't allowed to use any lighting; and at a hospital which for Pollakoff provided one of the most interesting moments during the filming. "There were real surgeons doing the operation and before we started shooting we were awe-struck by their preparations. But when we came to shoot, the power between the two professional groups, us and the surgeons, shifted. They were suddenly looking to us for instructions - they were like marionettes". For the cinematographer, Wit Dabal, who shot THE TRIBE with Poliakoff, the most challenging thing was the predominance of outdoor shooting and the weather, "...continuity is a problem when you're shooting outside, with a changing season, and, as Poliakoff describes it, 'God doing the lighting'. But by shooting with the early morning sunshine we got the very lush, rich, autumn colours." The costume designer, Pam Tall, worked closely with Michael Pickwoad and Stephen Poliakoff to create the right degree of idiosyncrasy and modernity, especially for Nathalie Baye's character Michelle. "Michelle designs the Shakespeare costumes and the set for Twelfth Night which are expressions of her own creativity. The flashback Shakespeare costumes are completely traditional, but for Michelle's designs we decided that there would be little accuracy in terms of Shakespeare. We've painted and gilded the very fine cloth which, because of the script, needed to be transparent and it has worked out very neatly with Michael Pickwoad's set. Michael is very keen on the 18th century and the Indian influence at that time, so Michelle's set is very latticey and silvery whilst the flashback set is rather more heavy and traditional. Her costumes, like her set, are influenced by the 18th century and it is a very French interpretation of the 18th century - I think the French have a hold on the 18th century that we don't, it's their era, so she mixes colours which the British wouldn't subscribe to, like for instance a very dark red corset with a bright lemon skirt. FOOD OF LOVE is not, stresses Poliakoff "another Shakespeare film - there is actually very little Shakespeare in the film. Twelfth Night is particularly believable because it is - especially for Shakespeare - a play with a small cast and it divides between old and young characters. Its bittersweet nature is suitable for FOOD OF LOVE, but I -have made very little of the play in terms of Twelfth Night's story, which is very convoluted. I don't think it ever works to shadow the plot of another work, so in fact they are just doing this play and you don't see a lot of Shakespeare". "The characters are just setting out to do a task, which is to stage Twelfth Night, the sort of thing you do when you are young and putting on a school or college production, but it becomes a huge test of courage really. They also have this memory of their village, which is their modern memory and they have turned into a golden memory. In the film you see Alex (Richard E. Grant) watching an Ealing comedy and saying "it was even better than that, but when they go back it is different -it was maybe never like they remember it, but it is certainly nothing like they remember it now". For Poliakoff the most exciting aspect of FOOD OF LOVE was working with the actors; "it was particularly interesting to work with two extraordinarily experienced actors, Richard E. Grant and Nathalle Baye, who have made about 60 movies between them. Unusually for me, I did encourage a little bit of improvisation, as the cast became more at one with each other, but it won't be terribly noticeable in the finished film. On the one hand I don't fuss about every comma and-every word, but I do keep quite a hawkish eye on them, and I am quite demanding of actors, I do direct them an awful lot. I absolutely do not believe that actors, however leading, just turn up and do it. You need to direct even the most experienced of actors and encourage them into areas that they hadn't thought of Similarly, it's a two-way process, they also lead you into areas you hadn't thought of I do have a dialogue with actors. I believe in giving them a lot of time on set, which I try to do over and above anything else on the film. To me, the actors are the most important thing, far more than the technology of the film". For Nathalie Baye, Poliakoff is "...a very, very original, clever and interesting man and he loves actors - he works very closely with the actors and is very attentive. He is sometimes crazy, he listens to your ideas but at the same time he knows exactly what he wants - he has his film in his head. He is a real artist". BIOGRAPHY STEPITEN POLIAKOFF - Director/Screenplay Stephen Poliakoff is an acclaimed scriptwriter and director for theatre, film and TV who has- worked prodigiously as a writer since 1974. In 1976 he won the Most Promising Playwright award for CITY SUGAR and was Writer In Residence at the Royal National Theatre from 1976-1978. His first screenplay for TV came in 1977, STRONGER THAN THE SUN, directed by Michael Apted (BBC). Other Poliakoff screenplays for TV include CAUGHT ON A TRAIN (1979) (BBC), directed by Peter Duffell and starring Peggy Ashcroft which won a BAFTA Award for Best Single Play 1980; SOFT TARGETS (1982) directed by Charles Sturridge starring Ian Holm, Helen Mirren and Nigel Havers; SHE'S BEEN AWAY (1989) directed by Peter Hall starring Peggy Ashcroft, an award winner at the Venice Film Festival. An original television series FRONTIERS, devised with Sandy Welch was transmitted on CarIton TV in 1996. His first feature film as director/screenwriter was HIDDEN CITY in 1988, starring Charles Dance- Since then he has directed and written CLOSE MY EYES (1991), winner of the Evening Standard Best British Film Award 1992, starring Alan Rican, Cliff Owen and Saskia Reeves, and CENTURY (1993), starring Charles Dance, Miranda Richardson, Clive Owen and Robert Stephens Other screenwriter credits include BLOODY KIDS (1980) directed by Stephen Frears and RUNNERS (1983) directed by Charles Sturridge. During 1996, three years of work came together at the same time for Poliakoff. He not only directed his screenplay FOOD OF LOVE, starring Richard E. Grant, Nathalie Baye, Joe McGann, Juliet Aubrey, Lorcan Cranitch, John Ramm and Holly Davidson, but he also wrote and directed another screenplay, THE TRIBE which he finished shortly before FOOD OF LOVE started shooting. He also had a play at the National Theatre, BLINDED BY THE SUN and directed his own play, SWEET PANIC attheHampstead Theatre. Commenting on these two films made in one year, Pollakoff says "FOOD OF LOVE is in complete contrast to THE TRIBE which is a very urban film, with a lot of young people in FOOD OF LOVE is more thirty-something and more pastoral. This is a much more mellow romantic, and gentle work". The idea for FOOD OF LOVE came to Poliakoff about three years ago, "....When I hit 40 - I'm 43 now - I started to think late 30-something sort of feelings the world changing very, very fast, about technology affecting everybody's lives as it relentlessly has over the last five years, and it seemed the right it time to write something about a group people who want to go back to find a little oasis of time in a hurtling world and that's where it sort of evolved". BIOGRAPHY KARIN BAMBOROUGH - Producer Karin Bamborough started work in London Fringe theatre as a stage manager and administraor. In 1980 Barnborough joined Channel 4 to work on both arts and drama development and eventually became Commissioning Editor for Single Films and Plays. Her particular concern was with encouraging writers and directors new to film and TV, resulting in films such as MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE, LETTER TO BREZHNEV, WISH YOU WERE HERE, CLOSE MY EYES, A WORLD APART, HEAR MY SONG. Invited to join the Norwegian State Broadcasting in 1991 as Head of Drama, she returned to the UK in autumn 1994 to set up Intrinsica Films with David Rose. BIOGRAPHY DAVID ROSE - Executive Producer David Rose worked at the BBC between 1954 and 1961. He was Head of BBC Regional Drama between 1970-198 1 , with emphasis on writers directors and actors new to the screen. He joined Channel 4 in 1981 as Head of Drama. FILM ON FOUR came on air in 1982 and until his departure in 1990, more than 180 films were supported. Directors included Theo Angelopoulos; Terence Davis., Stephen Frears; Peter Greenaway; David Hare- John Huston; Neil Jordan; Mike Leigh; Ken Loach, Mike Newell; Volker Schlondorff., Jerzy Skolimowski; Max Von Sydow. Andrei Tarkovsky. Agnes Varda and Wim Wenders. Rose accepted the first Roberto Rossellini Award for Channel Four's contribution to Cinema. FOOD OF LOVE is Intrinsica Films second feature. The first, SOMEONE ELSE'S AMERICA, directed by Goran Paska1jevic, was selected for Directors Fortnight in Cannes 1995 and was awarded the Prix du Publique. BIOGRAPHY MICHEL PROPPER - Co-Producer Michel Propper of M.P Productions in France has produced and co-produced some 21 feature films and documentaries including LE MAHABHARATA directed by Peter Brook, PAS TRES CATHOLIQUE directed by Tonic Marshall and SI D'AMOUR directed by Jacques Dubuisson.
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Entertainment
- Transmission Date:08/08/2000
- Rights:Worldwide
- Decade: 2000s