The rock ’n’ roll queen
Screenjabber's Justin Bateman talks to Jean-Marc Vallée, director of The Young Victoria, about the lack of decent scripts in Hollywood, the influence of Sigur Ros and the rock star queen.
When Jean-Marc Vallée’s debut feature C.R.A.Z.Y. was released in 2005 it won critical acclaim and numerous awards, including 11 Genies, the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars. But until the recent release of The Young Victoria, it had been eerily quiet from the 43-year-old French-Canadian. Was it difficult second film syndrome? Or was he secretly working on bringing cult Canadian 1980s TV show Degrassi Junior High to the big screen?
“Er, no,” says a partly bemused, partly amused Vallée. “Actually, for about 15 months I was travelling the world promoting C.R.A.Z.Y. which was a lot of fun. Meanwhile, I’d signed up with a Hollywood agency and they were sending me scripts to read. But a lot of the time I was stopping after about twenty pages because they just weren’t right for me.”
Vallée is probably not alone in feeling that it’s rare to find a good script. Perhaps more than ever, he gets the impression that the money men in Tinseltown are throwing cash at script development in a bid to get ideas produced quickly.
“So, they tend not to come from the soul, from the person who has a story to tell,” explains Vallée. “But then just as I was thinking that Hollywood wasn’t for me, they sent me Victoria. Julian [Fellowes, screenwriter of Gosford Park] is very passionate and knowledgeable about the subject and it’s beautifully written, with humour and of course the romance. I even suspect him of writing it to get closer to the Royal family.”
He’s joking and it seems that Vallée and Fellowes shared a sense of humour if not an innate love for the subject matter. Not being a fan of period dramas or even knowing much about the British monarchy meant that Vallée could come to the project with a fresh perspective. Having acquainted himself with the genre he set about trying to work out what he could do to be different.
“But in the end I just decided to be humble and let the story and the characters be the star. I still tried to have fun with the editing and the camerawork, like the focus pull in the scene with the wine glasses.” The shot Vallée refers to shows a member of staff lining up the final glass in a row on a dining table at least a hundred feet long. It’s not only a neat visual trick but also serves to illustrate the precision with which everything needs to be done in this setting.
“It was a pleasure to explore this world, and the locations are so grand and magnificent that they almost became a character. The Royals have to set an example and so everything has to be perfect. There was a beautiful line from Julian that we had to cut in the end which was ‘The prison of monarchy is that everything has to be perfect’ and this shot with the wine glasses shows that attention to detail.”
Music is the answer
A former DJ, Vallée knew how important it was to find the right music to reflect the passion of the relationship between Victoria and Albert. Composed by Ilan Eshkeri, the film’s soundtrack is inspired by the opera and waltzes popular in that period of the 19th century. But for the director, music is not just about the score that features in the finished film.
“I made compilation CDs for each of the actors to show them how I felt about their character. So Conroy had some Led Zeppelin, the Duchess had some Leonard Cohen, Albert had a lot of Schubert, and Victoria had almost all Sigur Ros. Their music is all finesse and nuance, which is exactly what I wanted from Emily [Blunt]’s performance. I also designed the camera shots with the moody, mystical songs of Sigur Ros playing so the film really has the DNA of the band running through it. At one point they were even going to do the score.”
The music analogy continues with Vallée’s assessment of the young queen.
“I saw Victoria as a rebellious, rock n’ roll kind of queen. Rock n’ roll is all about making a noise, doing it your own way, not how your parents or the authorities say and that’s Victoria. She was a modern girl, appreciating the hip Italian composers of the day ahead of the more classical Mozart and Schubert. When she had to make her first speech as sovereign, we treated that very much as a rock star going on stage. So we see her getting ready ‘backstage’ and then the steadicam follows her from behind and then she’s announced and bang! It’s time for the performance.”
Vallée saw similar qualities in Emily Blunt but also knew that she would be able to play inexperience as well as cockiness. So alongside this rock star confidence we see Victoria swallowing nervously before giving her speech and then giving a sigh of relief before literally running off afterwards.
“That actually happened, Victoria really did that!” says Vallée. “She had a big smile on her face after the speech.”
This is one of many subtle touches in the film that give such humanity to the characters and thus the freshness that the director felt was important for a modern period drama. It also helped that as well as the talents of Blunt, the cast list reads like a who’s who of British actors with Jim Broadbent, Miranda Richardson, Mark Strong and Rupert Friend as Albert completing a fine ensemble cast.
“The actors were just as enthusiastic as me, Julian, the whole crew. The positive spirit on set was contagious and I think it shows because it feels like the film was made by people who were on the same mission. I’m very proud of how the film looks.”