September 20th 2008
| A month into the editing now and the beast that is the film IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN makes slow but steady process. I remember the rough-cut of IN SEARCH OF MOZART once topped 11 hours - or maybe even more than that - and now Beethoven has hit double figures, edging over ten hours yesterday. It's not my fault! He just wrote so much great music which I have been fortunate enough, after a lot of hard work, to gain access to film - and I have also been lucky enough to have done 40 or 50 interviews with world experts on him and his music. So the challenge is whittling it down, and down again, until it is more like 2 or 3 hours. So far we've had no really tough decisions to make - except for cutting one world famous violinist who simply felt unnecessary. But I tremble at facing choices between symphonies or not being able to keep in all five piano concertos, etc. And I really don't want to only have 20 second clips - ah well, time will tell. It's Saturday today so the office is quiet and I can spend the day snipping away. I shouldn't take the great Michelangelo's name in vain but it feels like his wonderful unfinished slave sculpture- you know there is a work of art in there somewhere but it involves extraordinary precision in working through the marble until the form is fully realised. We'll see... Meanwhile, my days are accompanied by the performance of, among others, Helene Grimaud, Ronald Brautigam, Vadim Repin, Claudio Abbado, Paul Lewis - and so, so many more. Somebody asked me the other day what is my favourite piece and it's impossible to answer - it's the piece I'm working on at that moment. Yesterday we were editing the Missa Solemnis that I filmed in the Musikverrein in Vienna and we were laying the violin solo over an extract of interview from the conductor Fabio Luisi in which he was explaining how the violin playing over the orchestra was written by Beethoven like that to illustrate the Holy Ghost hanging over mankind. I love that kind of insight, explaining what I am seeing and what it means. The World Premiere is now set for 30th March in the Concert Hall in London's Barbican so I have a tight schedule to keep to now. US, Australian, Dutch theatrical releases are also being sorted out so one can feel the pressure ramping up. No-one has tried to make anything as comprehensive as this (just as no-one has made a film as comprehensive about Mozart as IN SEARCH OF MOZART) and I really feel a responsibility to do a good job not just for the screenings and broadcasts we'll have next year but the screenings and broadcasts we'll be having in 10 years. Mind you, one has to wonder what kind of media environment we'll be living in over the next decade: I went to a UK channel's Commissioning Briefing a few days ago and their Editor of Factual announced how delighted she was with a recent production (that had got just under 3 million viewers) - the title? 'The Woman with Giant Legs'. You can see why I can never raise the money to make films like Beethoven! I don't know what's worse - the broadcaster commissioning something like that or 3 million people deciding that was the best way they could spend an hour of their time. Or, indeed, the fact that, in a public forum, you would declare great pride in having shown such a film. Maybe it was ever thus: poor old Ludwig had to put up with the knowledge that the most popular symphony during his life time was his so-called Battle Symphony - all cannons and rousing patriotic tunes. Maybe human nature simply doesn't change and artists just have to deal with that fact and work around it. Anyway, my edit suite awaits - this morning, it's the fantastic Endellion String Quartet and the late quartets... |
July 7th 2008
| Apologies to those of you who read the blog - and, from emails, I know there are one or two of you out there! - it's been ages since I updated and I can only offer the moderately acceptable excuse that I have been madly busy... The film project IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN has been filming since January and has been a roller-coaster of preparation, travelling and filming. But, as of last weekend, I can now safely say we've pretty much covered 90% -and it's been a great treat. I have been able to film fabulous musicians such as Ronald Brautigam, Paul Lewis, Manny Ax, Janine Jansen, Frans Bruggen and the Orchestra of the 18th Century, Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Fabio Luisi at the Musikverien in Vienna, the Endellion String Quartet, Roger Norrington, Jonathan Biss and the Salzburg Camerata, Gianandrea Noseda, Claudio Abbado conducting Fidelio - and many more (all listed soon on the insearchofbeethoven.com website). It's always a struggle gaining access and then getting to the locations with HD cameras, etc- but once the music starts....I was asked last night if I have any favourites but the problem with Beethoven - even more than Mozart perhaps - is that there are simply too many extraordinary pieces to select favourites. The symphonies, the piano sonatas, the string quartets, Missa Solemnis, Fidelio, the piano concertos - how can you leave any out? I feel genuinely privileged to have filmed them all and to have a record of them - and to at least be able to put some extracts in a film. Maybe if we can raise some funds, I can put longer extracts (of some) of the website - or at least the interviews (which have been so interesting). And Beethoven - what kind of man is emerging? Well, certainly someone far different from the caricature of a miserable, unhygienic, loveless, wild man in an attic banging furiously at the piano...he's far more 'rounded' than that - the letters alone reveal also his loves, his humours, his friendships, his optimisms. It's a wonderful story that produces some of history's greatest examples of what we, as humans, are capable of, so I hope the film adequately can pay some little tribute to him. I know there are quite a few of you who read this blog who want to know when the film is coming to your local cinemas - especially in Australia, New Zealand and North America. Well, honestly I haven't had time to pinpoint that but I would expect next Summer or Autumn - and I'll certainly be hoping to attend as many opening nights as possible. But, you know, Beethoven hasn't been our only work. ESCAPE FROM LUANDA had a limited release - I must admit I'm a bit disappointed with how the film has done. We struggled to find cinemas who wanted to show a film on a music school in Africa - and broadcasters too showed a reluctance - one European station was as bold as to say their audience had no interest in black Africans! I guess that's why we make these films - to try and cure such opinions. But, up against the reality shows and cooking/fashion/police/reality shows, it's kind of hard and getting harder. Still, at least those who saw it or judged it enjoyed it - or, perhaps more importantly, were moved by it. I was very touched to receive some donations last week from Australia (after the film was shown on SBS - incidentally one of the best channels anywhere in the world). Away from the feature documentaries, an enormous amount of time has been spent on working on the ever-successful Tim Marlow shows. In a declining cultural environment (on TV at least) Tim and I have repositioned the shows on SkyArts and BBC World - and we've been lucky to have covered some great exhibitions recently - From Russia and Klimt are but two. Coming up are Bacon and Rothko. Plus we're about to make Tim Marlow Meets - a series of shows where Tim meets and talks to cultural personalities - we just shot a super one with Michael Palin which revealed not only a lot about his creative inspirations but his biography too. So we're hanging in there by our fingertips....Funding is still a nightmare and distribution is exhausting but drip by drip we feed the river.... |
January 30th 2008
| 2007 ended well with an excellent screening of The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan hosted by the Canadian Embassy and Afghan Aid. It was a great night for the film to be re-visited, particularly as The Kite Runner was released at the end of the year, re-awakening people's thoughts of just what life is like as a boy to live in Afghanistan. The High Commissioner was fascinating to talk to - and I hadn't realised that Afghanistan is Canada's number 1 foreign aid recipient by a long way. The screening was attended by Ambassadors, Charities and other Afghan groups and was sold-out and extremely well received. I'm happy for the film to be used by other Afghan Charities who might be able to use it for a fundraising screening. Contact us if you are one of these and are interested. Filming continues this year for The Boy Mir (the follow up to The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan) and it's amazing to see him growing from boy into man, although it saddens me to see how slow progress is being made. It also saddens me how hard it is to raise funds for the follow-on film - surely we don't need more films telling us that chicken nuggets are bad for us or that Size Zero is not a size women really need to attain.... 2008 then began with the launch of Escape from Luanda. We held a Houses of Parliament screening for MPs, including members such as Clare Short MP. Ironically (given Angola's history and Britain's involvement in that) this took place in the Thatcher Room! The theatrical release of Escape from Luanda then began took at a sell-out screening at London's Barbican Cinema. The Q&A was great fun - I'd forgotten how many funny stories there were from that shoot. The film is now being rolled out to other selected cinemas across the country. Details of all screenings can be found at www.escapefromluanda.com The film was also featured on Film 2008 with Jonathan Ross which was of course a thrill - especially as we followed In The Valley of Elah. The reviews have been great but it remains tough to get cinemas to take a doc about a music school in Luanda. But we'll keep pushing it as best we can. In Search of Beethoven is now in full production. Filming has already taken place in Sweden, Canada, London and Salzburg with the highest class of musicians and exponents including; Leif Ove Andsnes, Sir Roger Norrington, Louis Langrée, Salzburg Camerata, The Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Ronald Brautigam to name just a few. I'm sure that In Search of Beethoven will be bigger and better than the Mozart film with venues already signing up to film screenings for the beginning of 2009. Watch this space! Finally I thoroughly recommend Maggie Brown's book on the history of Channel 4. Fascinating. |
October 4th 2007
| Well, just back from USA & Canada. First place visited was Seattle where Mozart was playing in an art house cinema under the banner of the Seattle International Film festival (year-round screenings programme). We got great press from Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer (gave the film a Grade: A) though the audiences were modest the 3 screenings I attended - about 70 folk in a 300+ seater. However those that did brave the pretty miserable weather seemed to really enjoy it. And I was interviewed by the local classical radio station but the i/v wasn't going to be broadcast until the next day so that will have helped seat sales subsequently. Anyway, well worth the journey. Then I travelled up to Port Townsend (which is a ferry ride and drive north from Seattle). There we had Half Life in the festival competition. It's a small festival that runs over the weekend - and the film was projected onto a wall of a room in a local school. But there was a good audience and an interesting Q&A afterwards - especially as just over the hills from this area is a major US nuclear waste dump which preys on people's minds. Then one last drive up to Vancouver where Mozart was playing in the Vancouver International Film Festival. I was really impressed with this festival - it was my first visit. Excellent cinemas, organisation, accommodation and , above all, programme. And each of the 7 films I managed to see over 2 days were packed. I have to say that the best film, by miles, was an animation about Iran entitled Persepolis. Go see it - a work of genius in my humble opinion. The Mozart screening was a great success - and I must admit I was pretty nervous how the film would do in a big festival like this. What was really nice also was how many people remembered The Boy..which played there in 2004. The Q&A was as much about how he was as about Mozart! Oh - and while on this trip I managed three excellent interviews for In Search of Beethoven…And I managed to run off all the bagels I ate…(most anyway….) |
July 5th 2007
'Beautifully lensed' - 'lensed'?? I don't believe that word exists - and that from a reviewer in Variety. Oh dear. Anyway, he more or less liked the Mozart film which is still rating 90% on the Rotten Tomatoes site. The world of blogs, internet sites, MySpaces, etc, is bottomless…. Whenever I 'Google' In Search of Mozart, I am amazed at the scope of who's talking about it and where. My favourite so far though are the Singles' dates that met at screenings in LA. Excellent. I'm off to screenings in 2 weeks in New York, Newport, Chicago and Boston - I'll keep an eye out for singles on blind dates… I'm sure Mozart would have thoroughly approved. I'm certainly looking forward to those screenings - especially, I have to say, the Opening Night at Cinema Village in New York. It's a special cinema at one of the true hearts of cinema anywhere in the world - and so to have a documentary on a classical composer play there is, for me, a thrill. Hopefully, I won't be sitting on my own - but, if I am, I'll still be humming along. Meanwhile, the whole distribution juggernaut is beginning to kick into gear for ESCAPE FROM LUANDA - it was only finished days ago but already we have festivals chasing us for copies. I'm very level-headed about all that. We'll see how it does and then go from there. Interestingly enough, only today, Angola have refused to allow BA to fly into Luanda any more in retaliation for the British banning Tagg airlines (due to an EC report that concluded they were too dangerous for the European air corridors). What a mess. And just as we were planning how to show the film to the school and students. Talking of students, I ran the gauntlet of thousands of screaming kids last night when I went to the European premiere of the latest Harry Potter. The film is tremendous - each graphic wonder costing more than my entire annual film budget! You have to hand it to them - they do what they do supremely well. I wouldn't know where to start. It too, by the way, was 'beautifully lensed'…. |
May 9th 2007
With May only just beginning we have one production commencing, one coming to an end, one touring cinemas, another entering festivals and a couple seeking funding – what a busy month we have ahead! Escape from Luanda – the end, or should I say beginning, is now in sight. Next week I will be travelling back and forth to London for the final online edit. Then it will be full steam ahead as we crack on with festival entries and the planning of our premiere, watch this space… Tuesday 2nd May we held a private screening of Heavy Water: a film for Chernobyl at the Tate Modern’s Starr Auditorium – a great venue for any of you who are yet to go there. Tim Marlow asked David Bickerstaff and I about our experiences of Chernobyl and future plans for the film. A thank you to all those that sacrificed half of the Chelsea – Liverpool match to join us; we even managed to catch the crucial penalties afterwards. David recently visited Gdansk in Poland for a similar screening, and on May 21st we have a screening as part of the Brighton Festival, this time a chance to hear a Q & A afterwards with David, Mario the poet and myself – there are a few tickets left. In Search of Mozart continues to be a big success in the USA & Canada, with cinemas booking extra dates to keep up with the demand – now covering at least 20 different cities and cinemas. Almost everyday I hear of a new screening or a new newspaper review, in fact just yesterday I was sent a link to a podcast from an interview I did with a journalist. Mozart (you really have to be careful what you say – as all of a sudden it’s on the internet as a podcast!) Finally, the follow-up to The Boy is well under way with another trip to Afghanistan under our belt; we have now edited together a pilot with which we’re trying to pull together enough funds to enable the final shoot to happen and the expensive post-production stages. The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan continues to be a success with DVDs selling well and new screenings being arranged all the time. And lastly, for all of you in New York, do check out Janine Jansen’s Carnegie Hall debut this week. |
April 17th 2007
| April 16th 2007 It's time to take stock - it's been a hectic few weeks, not least because the weather has been so beautiful that one really shouldn't be writing blogs when you live next to the South Downs. Anyway, the bike is back in the garage and it seems like a good time to explain what we've been up to. We're pretty well through with the editing of our film about the music school in Angola. Entitled ESCAPE FROM LUANDA, we're now ready to move to post-production. I love this late stage - the grading, the audio mixing, even the last-second tweaks to subtitles - it all makes a huge, quick difference - and hopefully improvement. The editing has certainly been the most complicated of any film I have ever made, trying to intertwine three life stories as well as give a real sense of life generally in Angola. I'm now at a stage where I personally can't think of anything to improve it - so it's up to you out there to decide for yourselves how well we've done. Certainly the film has already generated an awful lot of interest from film festivals and film distributors. I guess some of that is because we were lucky enough to get some Sundance funding - and word gets round. We'll see... At the same time, we've been excited by the modest but significant US cinema release of IN SEARCH OF MOZART - I think it's a 15 or 20-city release. Last night I did a live telephone Q&A to a packed audience in Chicago where, after four top ratings in their press, the first week of tickets completely sold out before the first night. Needless, to say, we're delighted - but let's see what happens next. Once again though, it confirms my enduring belief that there is a cultured, intelligent audience out there which TV in particular has by and large abandoned. The audience last night was happy to hear that two years from now they'll be able to watch IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN! We've started another long-haul project and already I'm gripped by the man and his music. Watch this space. |
January 20th 2007
January 20th 2006 : it's been a busy few months ; it's certainly never dull making docs ! November was largely focussed on the start of the edit for ANGOLA MUSIC SCHOOL (wt) and pitching it at the Amsterdam Forum (during one of the best film festivals IDFA).  copyright Luke Holland. The Forum is an intimidating arena of 20 or 30 commissioning editors seated in a semi circle with filmmakers and supporting commissioning editor at one end with 14 minutes to show a trailer and make the pitch. There are so many ideas, so many film-makers that to get the chance to pitch is great but it's harder still to make an impact. I'm glad to say that Angola went down well with some definite confirmations from some and serious interest from others. Good news but now starts weeks of contracting and working out who can have X rights and who can have Y. Perhaps more significantly from a creative perspective is that the editing has started and what a complex process it is proving to be. As always. But it helped to have done six or so weeks before what will be the last shoot which I did in Angola just before Christmas. The last shoot is often the hardest because you have that added pressure of knowing you have to cover all the bases - especially in interviews. Any background information or personal recollection you have to get because there's no going back. We had the added pressure of organising a farewell party, with special gifts for the characters (importing pianos for the main characters which, thanks to British Airways, cost more in excess baggage than from the shop!), and a piano for the school - all that was arranged in Luanda itself only for the music shop to sell 'our' gift 30 minutes before we were due to pick it up! All this and trying to film too... Anyway, managed to get back on Christmas Eve and be home for Santa's annual visit. Since Christmas, it's been a focus on editing - with a hope to complete by the Spring and hit the Autumn festivals. The first confirmed theatrical release is due for Xmas 07. Elsewhere chez Seventh Art, we're busy making more Tim Marlow shows for Five. There was a change of Director of Programmes just before Christmas who immediately imposed a commissioning stop but that starting to ease now and we're about to make 2 films - one on Hogarth and one on Gilbert & George. Both should be fascinating though the Gilbert & George has to go out late (11.30pm) due to the material. It will be interesting to see how it does at that time. Finally, IN SEARCH OF MOZART continues to have screenings internationally, especially in the USA and Canada. It's been a quick Mozart Year and I wonder if the interest in him will wane in 2007. Somehow I doubt it - I still find myself being stunned by the versatility and ability of the man. It's been tough for us to keep up with all the requests to show or buy the film but, when it all seems a bit overwhelming, I remind myself that Mozart was doing it all - and more, much more - essentially on his own. |
September 22nd 2006
| Welcome to the new website - God Bless her and all who sail in her! It's cost a small fortune to bring it up to date so I hope you like it. Things are changing so fast in film-making that it really is a dawn-to-dusk effort to keep up. We'd been having so many hits on the website, plus daily & increasing demands for TV or DVD sales, that we had to streamline the process a little. Of course, this is all good news but a little daunting too. While it's clear that traditional broadcasting is fracturing - and broadcasters are paying less for programming - the possibilities for alternative funding and distribution are improving all the time. And the website helps faciliate all that, as well as helping many well-wishers or interested parties keep upto date with our projects. So, anyway, one feature of this new site will be an occasional blog. Feel free to ignore this and explore the site instead. For those of you still with me, here's a shortish update of what we've all been up to. There have been many exciting and sold-out screenings of In Search of Mozart recently but I have to admit my favourite was the Lincoln Center in New York. To see people almost fighting at the door to get tickets was kind of fun - and a little bit scary. Elsewhere, across the globe in Australia and New Zealand, the film is still playing after more than 26 weeks. Hopefully this success can be replicated now in the USA and Canada now that we have a distributor, Direct Cinema. (Sorry to those in North America who have been after the Mozart DVD but Direct Cinema will not be releasing it until next year). For those of you who enjoyed Mozart, you may be interested to know that, almost despite myself, I've started filming In Search of Beethoven. It strikes me that he is equally as fascinating but how much do we really know about him and his music? So, after many deep breaths, here we go again. While in the US, I flew down to LA for the excellent Docuweek screenings in Hollywood. These are seven straight days of programming at the Arclight Cinema. Qualification to be one of the 12 Docuweek films qualifies you for Oscar nomination and so we were thrilled that our Half Life - a Journey to Chernobyl was one of those selected. It was tremendous seeing it on the screen there (claimed to be the best screens in the world) and the reaction was very strong. The film has now been sent to those who choose the doc shorts nominations so, while it's all an extremely long shot, we must admit we have a few fingers crossed here and there to maybe make the shortlist. I've sat on enough juries to know what a lottery that process is and most certainly the best films don't always qualify but who knows what can happen? More importantly, the film is now being picked up for other festivals and special screenings. This was a film we financed largely ourselves because we desperatley wanted to make it - so there is a sense of pleasure in seeing it finished and being appreciated. Mind you, I had a screening last night which left a good few people in tears - that's quite hard to deal with actually every time you have a screening. But the poetry of Mario Petrucci is so strong and the stories are sad & shocking. I've also been busy on the main project at the moment which is my feature doc being shot in Angola. I had an exhausting but rewarding shoot in Luanda a few weeks ago -and the characters (4 key ones) all continued to round out and become increasingly engaging. We'll be heading back in the next few days to see how things are getting on. Back in Brighton, it continues to be hard work raising the funds and agreeing contracts, etc, but you just kind of keep your head down and slowly, slowly, you get there. But never be fooled into thinking it's easy! We're also continuing to film Mir in Afghanistan. The family were visited by a collague of mine two months ago and they are all well, though their living conditions haven't improved much. Nor will they. Afghanistan is sadly drifting away from reconstruction and back towards conflict, pain and suffering. It's far worse in the south but the north (where MIr and his family now are) is being affected to. But we'll keep filming and still hope to release an updated film in 2008. We're also stil getting in donations for Mir which go into an education account he can access when he hits 18. This has been particularly noticeable after the US Sundance channel screenings. So thank you to anyone who has sent us a cheque (made payable to Seventh Art Productions, not Mir - he obviously can't have an account in the UK). Every little bit helps. Finally, in this brief overview, we've also been busy making arts film for Five. We really enjoy making these and Ben Harding (director) and his colleagues (especially production manager Julia Wilkie) do a great job. Holbein and Velŕzquez are two forthcoming exhibition films. Ben and I have been working together on a couple of other interesting films too - one on Modern Art Oxford and the other on Carsten Höller at Tate Modern. Both are fly-on-the-wall process films and it's been fascinating seeing both galleries and artists at work. Watch this space - both will be finished in a few weeks. So, it's been busy! |
March 25th 2006
| My air-miles are clocking up nicely. I've divided the last three days between Washington D.C and New York where I have been promoting In Search of Mozart and attending screenings. The Austrian Embassy in Washington has just hosted its third screening of the film and it was packed with over 400 guests. In New York I visited the Lincoln Center to finalise the arrangements for its showing of the film in August. I'm hoping the DVD will soon be readily available in the shops throughout the USA too. Mozart fans based in Brazil will be pleased to know that It's All True - 11th International Documentary Film Festival is showing In Search of Mozart in Săo Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and Brasilia (April 3rd to 16th) and Campinas (April 24th to 30th). We've also secured a festival screening in Turkey which will be followed by a theatrical release and hopefully a TV broadcast. After all this globe-trotting I mustn't forget to mention the most recent UK screening on my home turf of Brighton. On 12th March many of the city's classical music fans gathered to watch the film at the Brighton Dome and judging from the feedback at the Q&A afterwards they all enjoyed themselves. More again soon, Phil |
March 7th 2006
| I've been back in the UK two weeks now and things don't seem to be calming down too much. In Search of Mozart is still playing to good audiences in Australia and has it seems now entered the Top 50 All-time Grossing Docs in Australia. We've had two serious offers from the USA for cinema & DVD distribution but nothing confirmed yet. And other countries are nosing around too - so there's a lot of administration involved in seeing that the film gets seen by as many people as possible. The one area that I particularly like is the special screenings we've been having in concert halls - we're up to 50 now and some have been 1000+ plus. They are very exciting and I have one in my home town of Brighton this weekend (March 12th). Fingers crossed it goes well - they'll be no escape if it doesn't. The only cinema that the film seems not to have done well is, oddly, sadly, Salzburg where if an email has been correctly understood the film was seen, over a period of a week, by...wait for it...4 people. Oops. Maybe the lovely Salzburgers are bored of him - or feel they know it all already. I love that town so it's a shame if things don't go well for the film but we'll see. Only 4 in a week does seem like a misprint.... Although the above smacks over all of success, it still barely covers our costs so life moves on and I'm working on three other films - Half Life: a Journey to Chernobyl, Tim Marlow on...Highlights of the Tate Modern, and a film in Angola. All of which means life is very varied right now - though almost certainly still not as busy as Mozart! Best wishes, Phil |
January 4th 2006
| I've just returned from The Barbican in London where In Search of Mozart received its world premiere this evening. The press build-up over the Christmas period has been really encouraging with The Times describing the film as 'the most comprehensive and illuminating film about Mozart that you are likely to see, even in 2006', but even so I wasn't prepared for the fantastic reception the film got tonight. After years of travelling around Europe with my camera filming some of the world's greatest orchestras and performers it feels strange in part to be in one place for so long, but also a great relief that the film is finished. It was practically impossible to get funding to make this film, one broadcaster said to me 'arts films for us are at the bottom of our list and beneath that comes classical music'. So I realised that I would have to commit a hefty investment from my company Seventh Art in order to realise this project, but I felt so strongly about it - I was determined to make this film. Over 1,000 people packed in to watch and I was really pleased that among them were some of the artists who had participated in the film. It was great to catch up with Ronald Brautigam , Lada Velasova and Andrew Marriner. Juliet Stevenson, who narrates the film, also came with her husband and daughter. The Barbican had kindly let us use the Fountain Room for a press reception complete with champagne and the requisite nibbles, and despite the fact I'd spent the day worrying that nobody would show up on such a cold January night, I could hardly move for the crowd - and I never did manage to grab a second glass! I've seen my previous films on big cinema screens before, but there was something about seeing this particular film tonight that made it incredibly intimate - especially after working on it for so long on small monitors in the editing suite. I had filmed the musicians very closely and the effect of seeing Lang Lang's fingers literally dance over the piano keys at superhuman speed on such a large screen was amazing. Jonathan Miller's part in the film prompted the audience to erupt into laughter and an appreciative round of applause at his Glyndebourne comment. I must remember to thank my editor, Phil Reynolds, because he did a great job getting the finished film down to just 128mins from hours and hours of footage. I found myself wondering how audiences would react to the pieces of music I'd chosen to include. It was very hard to decide what to use from such an extensive collection of works. I have in fact included over 80 works featured in chronological order, revealing striking parallels between the music and Mozart's own experiences. I've tried to let the music take centre stage, with the jigsaw of Mozart's life fitting around it. I was lucky to work with the actor Samuel West on this project. His voice is very expressive and therefore he was my first choice to read Mozart's letters which form part of the film's narrative. Mozart's letters reveal an extraordinary personal voice, which rings out on an engaging, human level, full of joy, passion, pain, rage, jokes, bawdy humour and sensitivity - those letters are a joy to read and evidently a pleasure to listen to if the audiences reaction was anything to go by. I guess tonight is just the start of Mozart's anniversary celebrations. His birthday isn't until 27th January and the film's got several more screenings before then. And after that ...? My company Seventh Art has been so busy liaising with music festivals all around the world, setting up screenings and press tours that it's too numerous to talk about here. If anyone wants to see if there's a screening in their home town I would recommend you visit www.insearchofmozart.com. While you're there you can also read interviews with some of the stars from the film and buy the DVD if you wish. British broadcaster Five has serialised the film which airs in three parts starting on 10th January so hopefully that will raise the profile of the film too. I'm just delighted that many of the Austrian Embassies around the world have embraced this film wholeheartedly and arranged screenings or purchased the DVD to give away in their host countries. It could have been very different - I mean there's a lot of room for error when one is dealing with another country's national treasure. As a colleague of mine pointed out - imagine if an Austrian production company made a documentary about Shakespeare - there would have to be something very special about it for the British literary world to sit up and take note. I'll be posting again soon when I've returned from a few more screenings. Best wishes, Phil |