The English stage has recently provided the British cinema industry with some of its brightest young directorial talents: Danny Boyle, Antonia Bird and Nick Hytner are among those who came to film from a theatrical background. Now another leading stage director, Sean Mathias, has turned to the cinema with an adaptation of Martin Sherman's Bent, the classic stage play about the treatment of gays under the Third Reich.
Mathias brought one distinctively theatrical element to the film in his preparation of the actors: "We workshopped the film for six weeks with the writer and the actors, all working on the text together. The actors were excited by this approach: it was a great discovery process, and it comes through in the performances."
The cast is headed by Clive Owen (Close My Eyes), Lothaire Bluteau (Jesus of Montreal) and South African newcomer Brian Webber. Sir Ian McKellen, who starred in the original production of the stage play in 1979, has a smaller role here, as does Mick Jagger, who plays Greta the nightclub hostess. Philip Glass provides the music.
From the theatre, Mathias brings an affinity with actors, but on the film, as he admits, "the relationships with the DoP, the production designer and the editor, for example, are just as important."
So is this departure into cinema a permanent career move for Mathias? "I loved doing it! I couldn't feel more enthusiastic about film." But he is determined that this is not pigeonholed as a 'gay' movie or as an 'arthouse' movie: "I want it to reach as big an audience as possible. I want to test it in the marketplace, and Cannes is a pretty good place to start." Nick Thomas
Prod co: A Bent Production for Nippon Development Film, Channel 4 and the Arts Council of England
Prods: Michael Solinger, Dixie Linder
Dir: Sean Mathias
Scr: Martin Sherman, from his own play
Ph: Yorgos Arvanitis
Prod des: Stephen Brimson Lewis
Cos: Stewart Meacham
Ed: Isabel Lorente
Music: Philip Glass
Cast: Lothaire Bluteau, Clive Owen, Brian Webber, Ian McKellen, Mick Jagger
Running time: 110mins
Int sales: Film Four International
