Amit Kumar’s ten year long journey culminates in a midnight screening at the 66th Cannes Film Festival. Amit first pitched Monsoon Shootout to the UK Film Council in 2003 but waited for eight years to start shooting in 2011. In an exclusive interview to DearCinema.com, Amit Kumar talks about his film, working with international co-producers and his decade long struggle to make Monsoon Shootout happen.
How does it feel to have your film in the official selection at Cannes?
It’s a great honour. Waves of excitement interspersed with tonnes of work!
For the two years while I was hunting for finance, it was by and large the same story- okay we love your short film and your script but…let’s cast some star in it. I just wanted to work with good actors; I wanted to make a certain kind of film. So, it took much longer
How...
How does it feel to have your film in the official selection at Cannes?
It’s a great honour. Waves of excitement interspersed with tonnes of work!
For the two years while I was hunting for finance, it was by and large the same story- okay we love your short film and your script but…let’s cast some star in it. I just wanted to work with good actors; I wanted to make a certain kind of film. So, it took much longer
How...
- 4/22/2013
- by Nandita Dutta
- DearCinema.com
Lenny Crooks, former head of the UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund, is moving across the pond to set up a consultancy service. Crooks, who also used to run the Glasgow Film Fund, says he wants to act as a bridge between both sides of the Atlantic. Features that the Ncf backed during Crooks’ tenure included Cannes Special Jury Prize winner Fish Tank and Bright Star. The Ncf wound up at the end of March, replaced by a consolidated £15 million Film Fund.
- 5/10/2010
- by TIM ADLER
- Deadline London
Lenny Crooks, former head of the UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund, is moving across the pond to set up a consultancy service. Crooks, who also used to run the Glasgow Film Fund, says he wants to act as a bridge between both sides of the Atlantic. Features that the Ncf backed during Crooks’ tenure included Cannes Special Jury Prize winner Fish Tank and Bright Star. The Ncf wound up at the end of March, replaced by a consolidated £15 million Film Fund.
- 5/10/2010
- by TIM ADLER
- Deadline Hollywood
Screened
Locarno International Film Festival
LOCARNO, Switzerland -- Irish director Gaby Dellal's first feature, "On a Clear Day", is the kind of drama that British television used to do so well, a well-constructed, smartly observed story of ordinary people learning how to communicate with one another.
With a Scottish setting and a cast led by veteran experts Peter Mullan and Brenda Blethyn and featuring ex-Hobbit Billy Boyd, the story of a laid-off 55-year-old who attempts to swim the English Channel should find an appreciative audience in sports fans and baby boomers.
It's not really a sports movie, but the challenge that laid-off Glasgow shipbuilder Frank (Mullan) takes on is one that all athletes and would-be athletes will respond to, and the family drama is wryly told.
Made redundant when building at his shipyard dwindles, Frank discovers that a lifetime of hard work has left him unable to communicate with his devoted wife, Joan (Blethyn), and especially his son Robert (Jamie Sives).
Key to their alienation is the death by drowning of another son, Stuart, when he was 7. Robert is a very un-Glaswegian househusband, looking after his own two sons responsibly while his wife works, and he thinks his father looks down on him for it. He also believes his father blames him for his brother's death.
Fit and strong, Frank decides on a whim that swimming the English Channel is something he could do, and he is encouraged by his mates, stalwart co-worker Eddie (Sean McGinley), meek Norman (Ron Cook), stoic chip-shop manager Chan (Benedict Wong) and happy-go-lucky Danny (Boyd), who sees him as the father he never had.
As he goes into serious training, Frank elects not to tell his family, but that furthers the number of secrets held and makes worse his relationship with Robert. Joan, meanwhile, has a secret of her own as she tries to pass the test to become a bus driver.
Screenwriter Alex Rose crafts his portrait of working-class life with affection but without gloss. The underlying theme of Frank's guilt over being unable to save his son is played in sensible tones. The subtleties in the emotional ties between Frank and his wife, his son, his grandchildren and his friends are calibrated and portrayed with insight and humor.
There are potential pitfalls in one or two scenes in which Frank observes a handicapped child spending every ounce of determination to complete one lap of the swimming pool, but they are shrewdly navigated.
Locations in Glasgow and Dover are put to very good use, and Stephen Warbeck's music appealingly underscores the film's goodhearted intentions.
ON A CLEAR DAY
Forthcoming Prods., InFilm Prods.
Credits:
Director: Gaby Dellal
Screenwriter: Alex Rose
Producers: Dorothy Berwin, Sarah Curtis
Executive producers: Bill Allan, Steve Christian, Leonard Crooks, Nick Hill, Andy Mayson
Cinematographer: David Johnson
Production designer: Mark Leese
Editors: Robin Sales, John Wilson
Composer: Stephen Warbeck
Cast:
Frank: Peter Mullan
Joan: Brenda Blethyn
Danny: Billy Boyd
Eddie: Sean McGinley
Norman: Ron Cook
Chan: Benedict Wong
Rob: Jamie Sives
Angela: Jodhi May
Mad Bob: Paul Ritter
The Observer: Shaun Dingwall
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 98 minutes...
Locarno International Film Festival
LOCARNO, Switzerland -- Irish director Gaby Dellal's first feature, "On a Clear Day", is the kind of drama that British television used to do so well, a well-constructed, smartly observed story of ordinary people learning how to communicate with one another.
With a Scottish setting and a cast led by veteran experts Peter Mullan and Brenda Blethyn and featuring ex-Hobbit Billy Boyd, the story of a laid-off 55-year-old who attempts to swim the English Channel should find an appreciative audience in sports fans and baby boomers.
It's not really a sports movie, but the challenge that laid-off Glasgow shipbuilder Frank (Mullan) takes on is one that all athletes and would-be athletes will respond to, and the family drama is wryly told.
Made redundant when building at his shipyard dwindles, Frank discovers that a lifetime of hard work has left him unable to communicate with his devoted wife, Joan (Blethyn), and especially his son Robert (Jamie Sives).
Key to their alienation is the death by drowning of another son, Stuart, when he was 7. Robert is a very un-Glaswegian househusband, looking after his own two sons responsibly while his wife works, and he thinks his father looks down on him for it. He also believes his father blames him for his brother's death.
Fit and strong, Frank decides on a whim that swimming the English Channel is something he could do, and he is encouraged by his mates, stalwart co-worker Eddie (Sean McGinley), meek Norman (Ron Cook), stoic chip-shop manager Chan (Benedict Wong) and happy-go-lucky Danny (Boyd), who sees him as the father he never had.
As he goes into serious training, Frank elects not to tell his family, but that furthers the number of secrets held and makes worse his relationship with Robert. Joan, meanwhile, has a secret of her own as she tries to pass the test to become a bus driver.
Screenwriter Alex Rose crafts his portrait of working-class life with affection but without gloss. The underlying theme of Frank's guilt over being unable to save his son is played in sensible tones. The subtleties in the emotional ties between Frank and his wife, his son, his grandchildren and his friends are calibrated and portrayed with insight and humor.
There are potential pitfalls in one or two scenes in which Frank observes a handicapped child spending every ounce of determination to complete one lap of the swimming pool, but they are shrewdly navigated.
Locations in Glasgow and Dover are put to very good use, and Stephen Warbeck's music appealingly underscores the film's goodhearted intentions.
ON A CLEAR DAY
Forthcoming Prods., InFilm Prods.
Credits:
Director: Gaby Dellal
Screenwriter: Alex Rose
Producers: Dorothy Berwin, Sarah Curtis
Executive producers: Bill Allan, Steve Christian, Leonard Crooks, Nick Hill, Andy Mayson
Cinematographer: David Johnson
Production designer: Mark Leese
Editors: Robin Sales, John Wilson
Composer: Stephen Warbeck
Cast:
Frank: Peter Mullan
Joan: Brenda Blethyn
Danny: Billy Boyd
Eddie: Sean McGinley
Norman: Ron Cook
Chan: Benedict Wong
Rob: Jamie Sives
Angela: Jodhi May
Mad Bob: Paul Ritter
The Observer: Shaun Dingwall
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 98 minutes...
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