Love, art and betrayal
Justin Bateman talks with Little Ashes director Paul Morrison about iconic Spaniards, and actor Matthew McNulty, who plays Luis Buñuel, about forgetting how to dance.
Justin Bateman: Given that Salvador Dali died 20 years ago, why has this story not been told until now?
Paul Morrison: It’s actually a bit of a mystery to me that nobody – and no Spanish filmmaker – has told this story. Maybe it has something to do with the iconic status of Buñuel, Lorca and Dalí. Lorca in particular I think, because although he was known to be gay, the Spanish wouldn’t really dwell on that aspect. Talking to Javier [Beltran who plays Lorca in the film], doing Lorca at school, it wasn’t really talked about. So maybe it took us coming from Britain, coming from the outside, to tell this story back to the Spanish.
JB: Matthew, how did you get on with the rest of the cast?
Matthew McNulty: Rob [Pattinson, who plays Salvador Dalí] was so dedicated to Dalí and I knew nothing about Lorca and Javier’s knowledge of Lorca became encyclopaedic so it felt like we were in a bubble. And the fact that the subject was so dear to Javier and Marina [Gatell, who plays Lorca’s girlfriend Magdalena] we felt we had to give everything to it.
JB: What were the biggest challenges for each of you?
PM: Shooting it in the time we had was a huge challenge. But perhaps a bigger challenge was taking these historical figures and telling a story that feels real, authentic, contemporary, human, dramatic and we believe in their love and that we believe in them as people. And that we forget that this is Dalí until he turns up right at the end with his moustache. So maintaining that level of intimacy and finding ways of shooting it to keep it young and vital was key.
MM: We had some time before we started shooting to learn the Charleston which helped us to bond and I think that youthful enthusiasm translates onto the screen.
PM: Yeah, it was great except you forgot how to do it when it came to shooting the scene!
JB: So in fact, that was your biggest challenge?!
MM: Yeah, I think it was actually! But also with the time we had and the budget, there was no room for error so we had to get every take right. In the end that helped to make the film turn out as well as it has.
JB: It’s not clear in Little Ashes what’s going on in Dalí’s head. Is that something you wanted the film to reflect?
PM: Yeah, we didn’t want to give any glib answers to that and in fact I don’t think Philippa [Goslett, who wrote the screenplay] or I had any. And that was tough on Robert but I think he did a great job of letting us know there was an inner distress in Dalí. And what I think is terrific about Rob’s performance was that over the film you see him begin to inhabit the persona that Dalí created, the clown and the artist who shocks and that being his defence against his vulnerabilities. It’s the only film I’ve ever seen that’s shown Dalí as a human being so I’m very proud of it and it’s a testament to Rob that he manages to do that.
JB: And how do you think Robert’s teen fanbase who have seen him in Twilight will react to this dramatic change of role?
PM: We screened the film at the Belfast Film Festival and maybe a third of the audience were his fans and they loved. They totally bought into it, and Marina, Javier and Matthew as well. And for us of course it’s a piece of good fortune because with a film as small as ours needs a bit of help.
• Read Justin's review of Little Ashes