CHICAGO– The scariest aspects of a Simon Rumley picture aren’t in the form of ominous monsters or buckets of blood. They are instead hidden within the corners of a tormented human psyche. It’s the impulse for destruction that haunts every one of his characters in “Red White & Blue,” a deeply unsettling drama that transforms into a galvanizing horror film during its final act.
The lives of a mysterious outcast, Erica (Amanda Fuller), an aspiring rock star, Franki (Marc Senter) and a war veteran, Nate (Noah Taylor), intertwine in ways both shocking and unexpected. The Austin-set indie is the first feature made by the British filmmaker in America, who made a big splash at the 2006 Fantastic Fest with his harrowing thriller, “The Living and the Dead,” about a disturbed man caring for his sick mother. Rumley’s latest effort was “Bitch,” one of three shorts in the horror anthology “Little Deaths,” which debuted at SXSW. Hollywood Chicago spoke with Rumley about his efforts to mine the humanity in genre tropes.
HollywoodChicago.com: Your work has always been character-driven. What attracted you to the horror genre?
Simon Rumley: When I was eleven, my math teacher brought in a bunch of “Video Nasties,” and I remember seeing “Zombie Flesh Eaters.” Not really sure what I thought about it, but it’s always stuck with me. A lot of my contemporaries grew up watching horror while I was watching “Taxi Driver” and films like that. I always preferred darker dramas over out-and-out horror. When I did my first trilogy of features, I was really inspired by Richard Linklater’s “Slacker.” I saw the film, and thought I could do [something like] that for next to no money. So that’s what I did when I made “Strong Language.” My first three films all came out in the U.K., got pretty excellent reviews and generally got compared to Richard Linklater and Éric Rohmer, which was very nice. But nothing really happened with them. The industry didn’t care and they weren’t massively financially successful.
So after making three features over six years, I thought that if I carried on, I should change my ways and do something a little more commercial, which sounds like a stupid thing to say after having done “The Living and the Dead,” and to a lesser extent, “Red White & Blue.” I decided to go back to my short films, which I did before my youth-culture trilogy. They were all psychologically darker, and tended toward the unexpected. As I was going through all this in my mind, both of my parents died within the space of six months. After watching my mom die of cancer, that’s when I came up with “The Living and the Dead.”
Director Simon Rumley and actor Noah Taylor have a bloody good time on the set of Red White and Blue.
Photo credit: IFC Films
My mom found out she had cancer in December 2001 and died in March 2002. My aunt looked after her, and I was there for the majority of the time. “The Living and the Dead” was more of a response to my experience and an effort to recapture it for other people. I wanted to capture the array of emotions that you go through when you’re watching someone very close to you get struck down by disease…Having never seen cancer firsthand, it was very disturbing to realize, bit by bit, just how ill she was. My mother was in her mid-60s, but she had always been an incredibly healthy, fit, robust woman, both mentally and physically. Just seeing someone go from being a normal human being to this sack of skin and bones in such a short period of time, and not being able to combat it, was an incredible experience that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. That’s what “The Living and the Dead” was about. It was after I had rewritten the script for “Red White & Blue” that I realized the subplot [involving Franki’s mother] was kind of similar to “Living and the Dead.” I wondered whether I should take it out, but in the end I thought it [fit] and I left it in. I hopefully won’t be writing any more cancer-ridden mothers anytime soon.
HollywoodChicago.com: Did your experience of screening “Living and the Dead” on the festival circuit inspire you to shoot a film in Austin?
Rumley: Yeah, completely. “The Living and the Dead” played at Fantastic Fest, which is the genre festival started by Tim League and Harry Knowles. They set it up in 2005, and Tim invited “The Living and the Dead” out in 2006. I’d actually been to Austin once before. Some friends had a film play there in 2005, so I went there for three days with them. I thought it was pretty cool but kind of overwhelming in a way, especially without having a film there. When I went back with “The Living and the Dead,” it played at the Alamo Drafthouse and I hung out at Sixth Street and did all the things that you do in Austin. I thought it was a great place and a really fun festival. Tim and Karrie [League] were great hosts and great fun. I stayed at their house and we became friends.
“The Living and the Dead” won a bunch of prizes, and I kept bumping into [Tim and Karrie] on the festival circuit. I always wanted to make a feature film in America, so at one point I asked them, “If I’m ever to make a film in Austin, would you be able to help me with your contacts?” They said yes, and I think it took about a year and a half, maybe even two years to write the script. But as soon as they said yes, Austin was always in the back of my mind. It was a really amazing experience spending the summer of 2009 there—prepping, hanging out and shooting it. It’s such a positive, happy place. Every time I go there I have a great time.
HollywoodChicago.com: How did your experience of production in the U.S. contrast with your work in the U.K.?
Rumley: Honestly speaking, I have to say that we came away from Austin having had such a positive experience, and were overwhelmingly impressed by the entire crew and how easy everything was. It’s funny because everyone wanders around wearing T-shirts and shorts. There’s a very laid back vibe, but we ran a pretty punishing schedule. We shot the film, which in the end was 103 minutes, in three weeks and we had 27 different locations. I think one day we shot 70 set-ups, which is kind of crazy, but everyone was able to keep up. They were very focused.
We had a guy named Paul Knaus, who was initially our line producer. He single-handedly line produced it, coordinated it and production managed it. He was a really lovely guy and did it all without moaning—making it seem like it was the easiest job in the world. It was very interesting going back to London six or seven months afterward to shoot “Bitch,” the second film in “Little Deaths,” with Milton Kam, the same DP [from “Red White & Blue”]. Everything was a little bit more of an effort. Everyone was a bit more precious. So “Red White & Blue” was really a fantastic experience. I hope to shoot again in America and I hope all my American experiences are like that.
Amanda Fuller and Noah Taylor star in Simon Rumley’s Red White and Blue.
Photo credit: IFC Films
HollywoodChicago.com: Have you enjoyed the opportunity to fluidly move between directing short films (such as “The Handyman” and “Bitch”) and features?
Rumley: Yeah, but it’s not a conscious decision. It’s the way it happens. What’s funny about “The Handyman” is they asked me to direct it and I wasn’t sure if it was a bit of a step down after doing three features. But in the end, I really liked the script and I really wanted to shoot something in America. Actually, at one point, they were talking about shooting the film in Whales, which I personally think wouldn’t have worked. But when I was ready to shoot in America, I thought it would be ridiculous for me to say no. “Bitch” was something that came out of meeting people at Fantastic Fest, and it’s something that took a long time to evolve. I don’t have any shorts that I’m planning on doing. There’s a film that hasn’t been announced yet that I think will be interesting, I’ve been asked to participate in a project [“The ABC’s of Death”] where 26 directors each make a five-minute short. They’re announcing it at Cannes, so I probably shouldn’t say much about it. But it’s a fun idea and there’s some cool genre directors involved. In an ideal world, I guess I’d be comfortably busy working on features, but I still find it not as easy as I’d like it to be to get financing for my films.
HollywoodChicago.com: You’ve referred to “Red White & Blue” as a political film with a small “p.” How does this film relate to 21st century America as you see it?
Rumley: I guess the film is very much a commentary on the futility of violence, the lack of communication between people and the immediate frustration and anger that people feel with their own life and sense of helplessness. The film isn’t necessarily about America so much as it’s about life in the western world. But having said that, I think the whole Iraq thing was scandalous. Tony Blair will probably go down in history as one of the most deluded prime ministers we’ve ever had. I think all that was nonsense and tragic, so [the film] was partly about that as well. But it’s more about people’s lives and the inability to integrate with one’s neighbors.
HollywoodChicago.com: How did you go about casting Amanda Fuller in the role of Erica? It’s the sort of performance that, in my mind, deserves to be star-making…
Rumley: Yes, she’s amazing, and it’s crazy because so many people say that and think that, but she’s still struggling to find work. I know she’s been talking to one agent in L.A., and they were saying, “We don’t really want to represent any films like this,” and she said, “I’m an actress, I can do lots of different things.”
We actually had problems casting the role [of Erica]. I spoke to about three reasonably well-known younger actresses who read the script and kind of liked it but in the end didn’t want to do it for various reasons. We tried casting in and around Austin but that was a complete non-starter, to be honest. It was two weeks before principle photography and one of the executive producers was like, “What if you don’t cast the character?” And I said, “We will.” We got an L.A. casting agent onboard and saw about 50 girls for the part. The producer and I were in Austin and we watched the auditions every night online. There were a couple girls who did interesting readings, but Amanda was the one who really stuck out.
I went to L.A. the weekend before the shoot to meet the top five girls, and Amanda seemed like the right one. Her questions, intelligence and instinct in her understanding of the role were head and shoulders above anyone else. When I asked her if she had any questions about Erica, she was still talking twenty minutes later. The great thing about Amanda is her physical demeanor—she has this vulnerability but absolute strength as well. What we agreed on without frankly discussing it very much was that Erica should be a character that we could all feel empathy for. Amanda treated her with absolute respect and dignity. I think that’s probably the key to her performance. Without that strength, her character would’ve merely been downtrodden and pitiful, and would’ve made the film a lot more depressing.
It was very brave of her to do the nude scenes. We sat down, discussed them, walked through them, and when it came time to shoot them, she did it without batting an eyelid. At the time, she had worse skin than she usually has, and was happy to let that be seen on screen because it was part of the character. She’s a very lovely person and a world-class actress. To be able to stand your own against Noah Taylor—who I believe is another amazing unsung actor—is an absolute indication of her talent.
Simon Rumley’s Red White and Blue was released on DVD on May 17, 2011.
Photo credit: IFC Films
HollywoodChicago.com: Why do you make the sudden jumps in chronology, leaving out key scenes while lingering on the moments before and after?
Rumley: There are three films that stuck out for me—Sam Peckinpaw’s “The Getaway,” Nicholas Roeg’s “Don’t Look Now” and Steven Soderbergh’s “The Limey”—that use those devices in similar ways. I’ve always liked messing with structure to give my films a unique identity. It’s something that I instinctively wanted to do at the beginning of “Red White & Blue” to bring the audience into the film. Not that much happens during the initial fifteen, twenty minutes, so by giving it that extra intrigue and “fracturization,” I think it makes the audience work that little bit harder. I guess you run the risk of alienating [viewers], but I’ve seen it done in other films, and I’ve always liked it. It seems to extend the world that your characters inhabit. With a linear chronology, the story wouldn’t have seemed as expansive.
HollywoodChicago.com: Richard Chester’s score takes an unusually subtle approach to certain sequences. Was there an effort made to bring out the tragedy within the horror?
Rumley: Richard is someone I’ve worked with about four times now. He’s a key collaborator, and the stuff we do tends to not take your average type of [approach]. I wanted to make the music a reflection of Nate’s inner feelings. The music begins in the first sequence with Erica and the band members, but everything else is structured around [Nate]. When he goes to the family’s house for the first time, the music is slightly off-kilter and mysterious. You’re not sure where it’s going. His character is on a fact-finding mission, and he’s not sure whether to be angry or sad. The next music [cue] occurs when he goes to the band members’ house, and it’s very overbearing and off-kilter, which reflects his violence and rage. But the final, climactic scene is a sad moment more than anything. In the script, there’s a moment at the end of that scene where Franki actually apologizes. He says, “I’m sorry,” and Nate says, “I’m sorry too. I wish I didn’t have to do this kind of thing.” It’s his tragedy really. It’s the sadness of that lack of communication between people.
HollywoodChicago.com: Has this film been a difficult sell in the U.K.? What are your thoughts regarding the Trinity X label, which is set to distribute the film in September?
Rumley: We shook hands on it in the end of January, so it’s taken a while as all these things do. I met up with Mark Sandell, who’s the main guy there. He’s a pretty cool guy, very smart. He has one eye on the product and one eye on getting it out there. It seems to be a pretty exciting venture, so hopefully they’ll do a good job with “Red White& Blue” for all our sakes and hopefully we’ll be able to do more interesting films. In the U.K. market, we don’t even have [distributors] like IFC or Magnolia or Magnet. Even though there are companies that tend to do schlocky horror, the whole distribution scene in the U.K. has always been tough. Globally, the distribution scene becomes harder to pin down as all technology is progressing and changing. It remains tough for films like this that ten or fifteen years ago would probably have played in one of the cinemas and would’ve gained a pretty strong following. Hopefully that will happen with this. It’s great that they’ve picked it up. I know they’ve been doing new artwork for it and a new trailer. As an English person, it’s great to have this stuff going on.
 | By MATTFAGERHOLM |