Films

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“Doing a film like this never appealed to me,” says Australian writer-director Stephan Elliott about his new movie Easy Virtue. “I don't like drawing-room dramas, so initially I wondered why the producers had come to me in the first place! Then I thought, ‘How can we play with this a bit and keep it alive? How can I keep myself entertained?’ It was like making a big mess on a period carpet.”

The period carpet in question is Noel Coward’s Easy Virtue from 1924, a play which Alfred Hitchcock turned into a silent movie just four years later. Set in the 1920s, Easy Virtue revolves around the culture clash which follows young Englishman John Whittaker’s impetuous wedding to glamorous American Larita. Coward’s drama may have provided the starting point for Elliott’s new film, but the writer-director never felt bound by tradition.

Wimpole Hall - home of the stars

“There’s not a lot of Coward left,” he confesses. “We took the characters and the arcs of the story and some of the best lines. Beyond that, everything became very Cowardesque, with our own touches. We have had some criticism from people who've read the play and said it’s vastly differently, but there are no laws to this. Hopefully Coward would have approved. His plays don't have to be museum pieces any more – let’s update them.”

Firth's dance-phobia

As well as bringing a fresh eye to Coward’s script, Elliott also brought a fresh ear to the film’s score, combining classic songs from the jazz era with 1920s-inspired versions of contemporary tracks such as Car Wash and Tom Jones’s Sex Bomb. “Music keeps creeping into my films,” says Elliott. “I made a promise this time that I wouldn't make it too musically orientated, and I failed!”

Some of the film’s cast, notably Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian) and Justin Timberlake’s other half Jessica Biel (The Illusionist), who play John and Larita, even put their vocal chords to use on the film’s soundtrack. But after Mamma Mia, Colin Firth wasn't keen on joining his co-stars in front of the microphone. However, after some coaxing he did take to the dancefloor.

Colin Firth in action Photo : Pathe

“For Colin to sing in Mamma Mia nearly killed him,” says Elliott. “When the day came, he froze. And when we got to the dancing scene here, he said, ‘I can't dance, I've never danced.’ We worked at it for weeks, just to get him fluid. He wasn't comfortable. But it’s an amazing moment around take three when he kicked in. It’s like crossing a fear barrier and I think he just let go. And by the time we got to take eleven, he asked if we could go again!”

Elliott puts his sense of playfulness and lack of reverence down to his antipodean roots: “The convicts have come back!” he proclaims. “It’s kind of fun as an outsider to look in on the system and fiddle with it and be a bit subversive.” But life, both in and out of the movie business, hasn't been all fun and games for the director.

Skiing accident

After his wildly successful The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert in 1994, the pressure was on to produce another hit film. But the black comedy Welcome to Woop Woop and thriller Eye Of The Beholder failed to take the box office by storm.

“I basically made two bad movies,” admits the ever-candid Elliott. “On the last one [Eye Of The Beholder], the financiers took off with the money in the middle of the film and I lost everything. At the end of that, I said I wasn't going to work again.”

Biel and Barnes Photo: Pathe films

Disillusioned with the industry, Elliott retired to the French Alps but ended up breaking his back, pelvis, and legs in a skiing accident. “It took me four or five years to learn to walk again,” he remembers. “But in that period I got my mojo back. It was a good decade off and a perfect way to turn 40, which is on morphine. I don't remember any of my mid-life crisis – apparently I was spectacular!”

So, after his prolonged absence from the director’s chair, is he happy with his latest film? “I'm pretty pleased with the movie, but from a director’s point of view I still see three or four mistakes in there that I absolutely hate, but there comes a point when you've just got to let go!”

As to future movies, Elliott remains circumspect: “Filming again? I actually dont know. I'm going to do the stage show of Priscilla now, then that could be it. That’s the thing I’ve learnt going through major accidents – life’s really short.”