Exclusive Interview Little Ashes Writer Philippa Goslett

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Exclusive Interview Little Ashes Writer Philippa Goslett

Written by Sam Kerbey

Thursday, 18 December 2008 00:00

A couple of weeks ago we launched our series of exclusive interviews via our Interview with Paul Morrison, the director of Little Ashes. Our next interview is with Little Ashes writer Philippa Goslett, who explains to our Administrative Team member, Sam, about how the idea for Little Ashes was conceived, the process of making the screenplay into a film, and even about her favorite Dalí painting. There are still more exclusive interviews coming up, so keep checking back!

- - -

What inspired you to write this story?

I have always really loved Lorca, even at A-Level I did all of Lorca's plays and I just thought he was so wonderful. Plus my background is very theatrical, so I came to screen writing through the theatre. Then, at uni we had to do a special language course on Spanish Literature and I decided I would do Lorca. I became really interested in the effect of Dalí on his work - how profoundly his work changed after he met Dalí. Particularly one play, The Public, - it was never really performed, it's a tricky play, but it is very much about identity and sexuality and it was very much inspired by his relationship with Dalí and a relationship he had with a man after that. It's the search for love and desire, and the fact you can never obtain that. There's a scene in the film where you see the mouths of Dalí and Lorca - and I'm paraphrasing here, Lorca says "If I become (one thing)" and Dalí responds "then I would become (something else)". Essentially, what The Public is about a search for transformation, to try and be with a beloved and the ultimate kind of destructive quality to that.

So I became really interested in that. Then I started looking at Dalí 's work and saw there's a huge presence of Lorca in it - at the time that they met and then after Lorca's death. It was like Lorca was haunting Dalí through his paintings, you see again and again his face, or the silhouette of his head, painted in the landscape.

So that was the beginning of a really interesting idea and it wasn't something that had really been covered. It had been material in biography but hadn't really been covered in film.

Then I became really interested in Buñuel's role within that - the relationship between the three of them. A mixture of friendship which became almost a love triangle - which obviously on Buñuel’s side was platonic.

So that's where the idea came from (laughs) an hour later…

[ Read more of the interview after the cut! ]

- - -

What made you chose ‘Little Ashes’ to be the title? Why that painting?

I wanted to choose a painting that Dalí could conceivably have worked on during the time that they knew each other and showed the impact of the relationship on him.

I think before Dalí came to the Resi he was (and I'm sure he would freely admit this were he still alive) he was very much in the vain of copying other artists. When he came to the Resi he kind of opened up to new and exciting ideas. And to me Little Ashes as a painting sort of sums up the scattered content of his mind, all his little obsessions and then there's Lorca's head lying on the sand. I also loved the feeling that the title evoked - the feeling of loss and intimacy.

Did you sympathize with the characters as you were researching them?

Yes absolutely, I think when you write something there has to be apart of you that does. To me, this level of tortured relationship I could very much identify with at the time I wrote it. What really fascinated me about the relationship was this incredible feeling of, kind of, a moment in time when everything seems possible and never being able to move on from that moment - so there's that regret and melancholy of having missed the chance. I guess in Dalí 's case of being someone incredibly different. I think Dalí very much made the choice to subdue a lot of his fears and real desires and instead try and focus on fame and glory.

Do you think that was the time period?

Well then there's the whole sexuality side, which I totally sympathize with. Why did Dalí make that choice? Yes, in Spain at the time it was incredibly shocking, it was kind of unmentionable. And I think for Buñuel it was more - in Buñuel's character you see the homophobia play out more. I think to Dalí it’s not so much about sexuality but about intimacy - and with physical intimacy. The relationship he eventually had with Gala was not tremendously physical at all. He's on record as saying they only ever managed to have sex once. I think what Lorca represented to him was somebody who was the ultimate draw - on a physical and emotional level and ultimately that is what Dalí couldn't deal with.

Tell me about the process of writing this story and how the budget affected it.

It's a very long process. I wrote the script nine years ago. When I started as a writer everyone said it takes 7-10 years to get a film made and I didn't believe them (laughs). So we looked at various casting options and various budgets. What was amazing about the budget we eventually made it on was that we got actors that were right for the part who were the right age, and the budget meant going for European actors rather than American. We were enormously lucky with the three main actors for the three main roles they fitted perfectly with how I saw the characters and they interpreted them in really unique ways.

Actually, oddly you would think you would want to make the film with a hugely high budget with people who have all the money and can get all the stars on board. The way we ended up making the film meant we kept the integrity of casting people who were 19/20/21 rather than 30/35 - which is the pressure you have if you try and work with actors on a larger budget.

Do you have a favourite scene or moment that you were looking forward to seeing bought to life?

There was one scene which I guess as a writer I'm most proud of between Dalí and Lorca. - which turns into the sex scene with Magdalena and its the scene where, well so much of when you're writing is about subtext, and in this scene they actually say what they really think and as a writer I'm most proud of how that scene turned out. I think the actors put in the most extraordinary performance, really.

The other scene I was enormously interested to see how it would turn out is the last scene in the film. Where Rob basically had the challenge of trying to convey a huge number of very different emotions to go from being completely broken down as a character to reconstructing himself as the Dalí we know. And because of time constraints we had just one shot at it and we did it all straight through. The cameraman had the camera strapped to his body and he was following Rob around, and Rob had maybe ten minutes to pull it off and he did the most extraordinary job. So I'm amazed by that!

What projects are you currently working on?

I'm currently working on a script called Isabella which I guess is a cross between Pans Labyrinth and Bullet Boy (laughs) very magic realism, it’s set on a London Council estate, a refugee community.

I'm also working on a script called Mr. Microscopic which is another biopic. It's about William Wigan the worlds greatest Micro-sculptor. It's set in a year of his life when he's a child. Again it's very magic realism although it’s based on fact, it’s very magical and fun.

Both are quite near [the end of the process] Isabella is hopefully shooting next year and Mr. Microscopic, hopefully, around the same time.

Do you have a favourite Dali painting and if so why?

I went to an exhibition at the National, in the religious part. There was a Dalí painting, I can’t remember the title, it’s the one where St. John is centered on a cross over the landscape of Cadaqués and he's suspended on blocks (I had a look round and I think she means Christ of Saint John on the Cross, 1951- apologies if this isn’t right) I remember seeing that picture and I just stood in front of it for 20 minutes and I couldn't move. I was amazed by the spiritual quality, I guess, in his work - which is quite a thing to say about a man who was completely un-spiritual. But I think that's my favourite painting. There's something quite mystical about it, something quite undefined.