ABOUT
BECKY
Ah!
Vanitas Vanitatum! [Vanity of Vanities!] Which of us is happy in
this world? Which of us has his desire? Or, having it, is satisfied?
-- William Makepeace Thackeray, in his novel Vanity Fair
With
these words, William Makepeace Thackeray closes Vanity Fair, and
it was these lines that in particular inspired director Mira Nair.
She states, "The reasons I wanted to make Vanity Fair are Thackeray's
essential, and in my view spiritual, questions - which of us has
dreams, and when we achieve them, are happy? What is contentment?
What is aspiration? What is the vanity of life? In his novel, Thackeray
created a cinema verit?f its day. It was completely accurate concerning
what was happening and had happened in England, yet the questions
are timeless. The extraordinarily rich characters have resonance
for all of us today, and I think Becky is literature's greatest
female character."
The
director brings her own interpretation to the classic material.
Her Indian childhood complements Thackeray's own (as the Englishman
had spent his early childhood in Calcutta). This fortuitous connection
is at once creative and highly personal, and the new film version
meditates on how much of domestic imperial England was informed
by the cultures across the sea.
Producer
Janette Day first began striving to make a feature version of the
novel a decade ago. She notes, "I've always felt that this
was the period film I would like to make; there's nothing prim about
it, and Becky Sharp is very much a modern heroine stuck in the wrong
time, in a lavish mad world where she is feisty and difficult and
different. The influence of the character is far-reaching and enduring."
For
screenwriters and associate producers Matthew Faulk and Mark Skeet,
adapting Vanity Fair "is a dream come true and in fact a privilege.
The rich and comic array of characters that Thackeray provides is
a screenwriter's dream. This is a novel about us all."
Screenwriter
Julian Fellowes states, "In Becky Sharp, Thackeray has created
a genuinely archetypal heroine, who remains vivid and fresh and
relevant for any period or age group."
Vanity
Fair is the first major adaptation of the author's work since Stanley
Kubrick's 1975 feature Barry Lyndon. Faulk and Skeet admit, "Reducing
a 900-page novel to a movie script was the main challenge. But by
concentrating on the adventures
of
the wonderful Becky Sharp, it became possible. It was a long journey
from inception of the project to the final result, but if we make
this great novel more familiar to the world, it will be worth every
second."
Day developed the picture while at Granada Film and continued nurturing
it once she became an independent producer. Similarly, Donna Gigliotti,
who had been working with Day on the project since 1999 while president
of production at USA Films (where she had worked with Nair on Monsoon
Wedding), set up her own production company, Tempesta Films, and
stood by the project. She notes, "Becky Sharp is one of literature's
great female characters. She recognizes that there is a better life
out there, but the conventions of the time don't allow people to
move across social classes. Still, she figures out a way to do it.
What is so moving is that, ultimately, having achieved what it is
she so desperately wants, Becky discovers that there's a certain
emptiness to it."
In
the spring of 2002, plans for the film coalesced at the newly formed
Focus Features, where director Nair, whose Monsoon Wedding was finishing
up a successful run worldwide, agreed to make and finance the film.
Day notes, "Vanity Fair had to be huge and lavish and funny
and moving in terms of characters and storylines all having to interconnect
and it had to have a real truth and humanity to it. If you watch
Monsoon Wedding, Mira did all that, and you cared about every character."
Gigliotti
adds, "Mira is a great filmmaker with real humanity that is
deeply appealing. Her understanding of her own origins and how she's
layered that into the film is spectacular."
James
Purefoy, cast as the romantic lead Rawdon Crawley, comments, "Mira's
background as an Indian director, attentive to the Indian culture
that was coming into England in the early part of the 19th century,
sets the tone."
Nair's
frequent collaborator, Lydia Dean Pilcher, rounds out the female
trifecta of producers on the film. Pilcher smiles, "This is
the sixth film that Mira and I have worked on together. Working
with Mira is a life experience, because she brings so much passion
and humanity to her vision. In the process of making films, we immerse
ourselves in whatever the culture and subject matter are, live it
a little bit, and then bring it all in front of the camera. Mira
looks for collaborators who can create a synergy with her vision.
She's the fearless leader charging up the hill, and she wants a
team who can keep up with her.
Fellowes,
an Academy Award winner for his Gosford Park screenplay, signed
on to collaborate with Nair for the first time. He reflects, "The
challenge of any adaptation is knowing what to leave out and this
is doubly so when working on a novel both as long and as loved as
Vanity Fair. You want to feel that the key moments have all survived
but, at the same time, that you are making the story new for a modern
audience."
Pilcher
adds, "Mira likes to have creative energy around her, from
people who want to really collaborate. When that happens and you
can sustain it and keep working together, you can further that energy."
Sure enough, a number of other previous colleagues joined Nair on
the new movie: director of Photography Declan Quinn, editor Allyson
C. Johnson, sound mixer Drew Kunin, and composer Mychael Danna,
among others.
Fellowes
enthuses, "I absolutely loved working with Mira, whom I found
to be as creative as any director I can remember. She always gives
notes that stimulate, instead of flattening, a writer's ideas. Like
Robert Altman, she has an extraordinary visual imagination."
Despite
the filmmakers' considerable commitment to the material, the film
would not have been made without the charismatic leading lady who
could bring to life one of the most well-known female characters
in English literature. Following in the footsteps of Myrna Loy and
Miriam Hopkins some seven decades prior, Reese Witherspoon came
aboard and the new movie finally had a confirmed start date. "With
the casting of Reese, this picture came together," states Gigliotti.
Day adds, "Reese and Mira had been looking for something to
do together, and Vanity Fair was the perfect match."
Witherspoon
confirms, "I was so excited when I got the call from Mira that
she wanted me to do this film with her. We had met a couple of years
ago because I was a big fan of her work and were discussing other
projects. We got to talking, and we discovered we have similar sensibilities
about women, among other things. I thought she had such an amazing
take on this material, wanting to explore the roots of Indian culture
in English society. She has this way of explaining things and making
them come alive."
Becky
Sharp is not always a likable character. The late Alistair Cooke
once described her as "poor, but pretentious...genteel, but
on the make."
Witherspoon
offers, "In my opinion, Becky Sharp is an early feminist. She
is really a very modern character. She'd been deprived of parents
and has no place to go in the world - yet she still manages to succeed.
Every success she has in her life is based on her own merit, which
is a modern idea for a period story.
"I
think she absolutely has a heart, even in an environment where people
care very little about other people, a society of buying and selling
people. You can buy your way into society and then fall from grace
because you lose money. In a world that's so hard to negotiate,
she does a fantastic job of managing. She figures out how to negotiate
her way through society."
Faulk
and Skeet comment, "We root for Becky because she speaks for
all outsiders, denied their proper place in society through accident
of birth. She is
one
of the great survivors - her resilience and never-say-die attitude
are what make her so attractive."
Fellowes
adds, "Reese has that marvelous quality in an actress of being
able to play several emotions at once. Her Becky Sharp is always
interesting, always intelligent, always complicated. On one level,
she is ambitious and practical and hard-headed, and yet we never
doubt that her heart is also involved in the process somewhere."
Nair
states, "Reese was extraordinarily engaged and committed, as
am I to her. She really wanted to play Becky. She certainly has
the kind of wit and intelligence, the guile, the enticing quality,
and the fantastic quality that makes movie stars. You cannot help
but love her. She has that appeal which I had to have for Becky
because I didn't want to see a movie where you hate the person -
and it's easy to dislike Becky because she can be so manipulative
and scheming. So there has to be this irresistibility to the actress
in order that the audience is with us for the rise and fall of Becky.
This is also Reese in a way she hasn't been seen yet - sensual,
womanly. It's a lovely journey Reese and I have been on."
Bob
Hoskins plays the wily Sir Pitt Crawley, whom he describes as "not
a bad old stick, actually." He adds, "I've never found
Becky Sharp hard to like. She's a survivor who uses her head and
marries rich. She couldn't have a career at that time, could she?
So she's got to get herself a husband. If she were my daughter,
I would be very proud of her!"
Academy
Award winner Jim Broadbent, who plays the obstinate Mr. Osborne,
also admires Becky Sharp: "She is a classic minx who has entered
into the national consciousness as the epitome of that particular
type of self-seeking attractive girl. She's a very modern character
who knows exactly how to manipulate men and manipulate society -
and now you would include manipulate the media."
Faulk
and Skeet report, "We were so delighted to hear that Reese
Witherspoon had been cast. She is a superb actress - and she even
bears an uncanny resemblance to the Becky that Thackeray, a gifted
draughtsman, drew for his own excellent illustrations."
In
support of the film's lead would be several dozen speaking roles.
The casting call in and around the U.K. was entrusted to the best
in the business, Mary Selway. (The finished film carries a dedication
to Ms. Selway; it was one of the late casting director's final projects.)
When
contacted, many of the actors were drawn to the picture by the chance
to work with Nair. Pilcher, speaking from over a decade of experience,
states,
"Actors
love Mira because she understands the craft and the creation of
a character, and because she exudes so much energy and passion.
Gabriel
Byrne, cast as the society kingpin Marquess of Steyne, comments,
"I've worked with some great directors, and I would say that
Mira Nair, in terms of directing actors, is one of the best. I've
loved her movies, and she was somebody that I'd always wanted to
work with. She was once an actor and is a bit of a perfectionist,
in the sense that she's always urging me to try different things,
so that's good. Mira is also one of the few directors I've ever
worked with who tells the extras what's happening. She realizes
that there's not a corner of the frame that's not important, and
that all the details contribute to the whole. Not only is she supremely
technically competent, but when it comes to the little minor details
and the tiny moments where drama is created, she's hyper-aware of
those - a look, a pause, a quickening of rhythm, an overlap."
Pilcher
adds, "Mira's style is, everybody is equally important. It's
a democratic set, and she wants everybody to be in the know. Creatively,
that makes a difference."
Rhys
Ifans, cast as the stalwart Dobbin, says Nair "lets you be,
and then she sidles up after a take and gives you practical factory-floor
notes that improve your performance, as opposed to affable psychological
mishmash that you can't use. She's very straight-talking and practical,
and it's great watching her work with every actor - from the extras
to Reese Witherspoon, everyone gets the same attention and everyone's
appreciated equally. Mira is brilliant. She's a horse whisperer!"
"She
does whisper," confirms Hoskins. "She's very precise on
every single detail, and she comes up [on the set] and whispers,
'Would you - ' and it's something I wouldn't have thought of..."
Nair
herself appreciated the duality of the characters that she encouraged
the actors to create. She muses, "One of the great themes of
the story, which I love, is the sham-and-fa?e element. These people
have so many faces, and they show one - where there is so much behind
it. But we all sort of play this, in our own journeys.
"I
see the center of the film as the great love story between Rawdon
Crawley and Becky Sharp. In James Purefoy, we found the actor who
could best embody the role of Rawdon - the swagger and the dashing
quality of a soldier who loves war, and is later undone by love.
He plays Rawdon with wonderful humor and dash. James has an extraordinary
onscreen presence, and I haven't seen him in roles that have done
him justice - until this one. He's a movie star."
Julian
Fellowes concurs, noting, "I had employed James years earlier,
to be the dashing hero of my BBC adaptation of The Prince and the
Pauper, so it was
especially
nice to see him maturing into a real-life movie star - which he
is now, judging by his performance in Vanity Fair."
Purefoy
sees his character as "a bright diamond - at the beginning
of the film. As the story unfolds, he loses his sheen. He has a
tremendous joie de vivre and a very good heart, but he becomes a
little lost because is he in love with, and marries, a woman who
is a rapaciously ambitious social climber. He doesn't realize how
addicted to that mode of living she is - but he's never been poor,
whereas she has. When he finally discovers that his soulmate has
badly betrayed him, it breaks his heart."
The
other key relationship for Becky Sharp is her friendship with Amelia
Sedley, which begins in childhood. Nair was so keen to work with
Romola Garai that she cast the actress without even auditioning
her, on the strength of Garai's performance in the U.K. miniseries
Daniel Deronda. Garai, in turn, jumped at the chance to work with
a female director.
Nair
confides, "I just phoned her up and cast her unseen. She had
seen my work, and Romola and I met for the first time on set - but
our versions of the character of Amelia were already very much in
synch. Thackeray sometimes describes Amelia as a simpering fool,
whereas we felt that although she is maybe too devoted to George
Osborne and is definitely lost in love, she also has a lot of sass,
zeal and fire in her. She's not just a simple foil to Becky. Romola
is luscious and intelligent, but has no vanity about her, and her
style of acting is fantastic - very natural, very real, and very
much based on a foundation of truth."
Romola
Garai comments, "These two best friends have opposite character
trajectories. Becky Sharp is an ambitious character who can be deceitful,
difficult, and willful - as well as warm and passionate. Amelia
is much more traditionally gentle, and she's heavily influenced
by other people. She takes life's knocks a lot harder and tends
not to fight back. It's only towards the end that she begins to
find some steel in herself. Major changes occur in her life that
are wonderful for an actor to explore.
"Directors
from other countries seem to be able to most accurately depict England,
and Mira is the perfect director for this material. She pushes you
as a performer, and she also never makes you feel afraid to try
things."
Jonathan
Rhys Meyers, cast as Amelia's beloved George Osborne, sees his character
as "quite shallow. There's a little bit of sexual tension between
him and Becky. He does not have many endearing qualities and is
very much the cad of the piece - and possibly one of its great tragedies,
because he marries Amelia out of pure stubbornness and to fight
his father.
"I
loved this story - it shows how all of us are flawed - and I really
wanted to work with Mira Nair and the other actors. George is the
bastard of the piece, yet Mira treated me like a son."
Nair
remarks, "Jonathan was my first and only choice for George,
firstly because of his extraordinary beauty and also because, although
he is really the most adorable fellow, he can exude vanity and arrogance
with the blink of his eyelid. He plays the role with great magnetism."
The
part of the Marquess of Steyne called for a different kind of magnetism.
Gabriel Byrne notes, "Steyne is a man who has lived a very
opulent and privileged life. He's had everything that money and
privilege can buy, except the one thing that he yearns for the most
- love. He sees in Becky a vitality and a spirit that he has lacked
in his own existence. She is something else, the spirit of freedom
and vivacity that he longs for. He's a man who's realized that money,
wealth, power, and social position don't really bring happiness.
I think that what's inferred by Thackeray and our script is, what
makes people happy is love."
Nair
says, "Who doesn't like to look at Gabriel Byrne! He's compelling
to watch, and mysterious. He specifically brought something to the
role that I think Thackeray did not intend but which I love; the
quest for a soul. It's very easy to play the superficial, unfeeling
aristocrat, but it's much more difficult and interesting to play
somebody who has everything except that which he loves and lusts
for: a desire to be loved, and a desire to love. Steyne has it all,
but nothing gives him any sense of life until Becky comes along."
For
his role, Jim Broadbent offers empathy and sympathy: "Osborne
is a blinkered man who's put all his money and his time and energy
into making money. He has no sympathy for anyone who is poor, and
is a selfish, rather unpleasant man. But he loves his son George
desperately - it's the only light in his life. His stories spring
from that central relationship. Mira wanted to bring out the vulnerability
of his character - his weakness as well as his obstinate strength,
which is more obvious.
"I'd
seen Monsoon Wedding, and thought it was wonderful. I'd have done
whatever part for the chance to work with Mira. She loves humanity
and is great with actors; she knows how we work, and what works
for us."
For
Nair, "It was a dream to work with Jim. I've loved his acting
- it has such great humility, huge range, and complete versatility.
There's no one way in which to approach a character, and working
with Jim has been like fine-tuning an extraordinary instrument.
Every character is multifaceted, and Jim plays Osborne as somebody
who's not only curmudgeonly and obsessed with class and pretension,
but also as somebody who's besotted with the beauty and spirit of
his son. Jim can play both, and it's so deeply human."
Cast
as the story's most selfless character, Welsh actor Rhys Ifans exults,
"It was nice to play moral fiber for a change! It was fun to
do my first period film - it's something different for me."
Nair
was drawn to Ifans because he has "an enormous amount of dignity.
It's been wonderful to cast him against type, since he often plays
the comic foil who takes his clothes off; in this, he's as constricted
as possible! Dobbin is so much the soul of Vanity Fair, and Rhys
perfectly embodies that. Besides, it was lovely to have three people
with the same name in our movie..."
One
of whom, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, laughs, "It did get a little
bit confusing when Reese, myself, and Rhys Ifans were all in the
same scene. So we resorted to calling each other by our stage names...We
all had a great time. Rhys and Reese were easy to work with. Reese
hasn't become such a success in Hollywood for no reason; you can
see it when you're working with her."
Witherspoon
confides, "It was great to work with a female director and
female producers!"
Romola
Garai says, "I was very impressed with Reese; to explore an
extremely demanding and complex character hundreds of miles away
from home, and in a foreign accent, is amazing."
Playing
nearly all of his scenes opposite Witherspoon, James Purefoy enthuses,
"She's extraordinary - professional to a T, but with no boundaries.
She's prepared for every scene, and is concerned with getting it
right. She doesn't behave like a 'movie star'; there's no airs with
her."
Gabriel
Byrne, also playing opposite Witherspoon throughout, comments, "Reese's
resilience, dedication, and focus are remarkable. She has a wonderful
spirit. Hers was a complex and demanding role, and she was a gentle
and generous actor to work with."
Another
of the men playing opposite her offers perhaps the highest praise.
Bob Hoskins recounts, "I'd never met her; I first saw her in-character
and I thought she was English. Then she came over and started talking
to me - and she's an American! I thought, 'God, who is this woman?
She's really good!'"
STYLE
AND SENSIBILITY
A contemporary
filmmaker who excels at blending the traditional with the modern,
Mira Nair brings her own colorful and exuberant visual style and
sensibility to Vanity Fair, as an Indian woman applying a fresh
perspective to early 19th-century England.
Having
previously collaborated on multiple features with director of photography
Declan Quinn and editor Allyson C. Johnson, Nair also brought over
an established style.
Lydia
Dean Pilcher notes, "There's an incredible landscape in England
to take advantage of. Mira is a connoisseur of photography and painting,
and has a definite vision aesthetically; she is looking for images
that can pull her aesthetic forward. Declan has a deep soul, and
together they're creating these images that come from the heart."
Quinn
reports, "I listened to Mira's point of view on the story and
on how she wants to approach the film - as a very English story,
told by somebody looking from the outside into this society. As
an Irish-American, I was also an outsider so there are different
viewpoints of the same story and the same characters; Mira consults
with everyone.
"A
lot of times when we're working together, Mira will have a central
photographic image in her head about how the scene should look stylistically.
That's a starting point, and if I can get into her mindset at that
level, I can help to fill the scene out in terms of how it should
be covered in a strong individual style. On Vanity Fair, it's not
stylized that it draws attention to itself. In supporting Mira's
vision, I hope we have created an enjoyable feast for the eyes -
of textures, light, and colors - which does not overtake the story
or the characters."
Nair
adds, "One thing I didn't want to do was a stately period drama.
Ours is a very fluid camera, and we did a lot of the scenes in one-take
master shots. Because we were using Super 35, there was a greater
elegance to it. In many period films, there are corpses sitting
at tables and eating stiffly, whereas in this film there are children
who laugh and run, there are things that smell...That all your senses
be engaged when you see my films - that's what's important to me."
It
was important to Thackeray as well, as Matthew Faulk and Mark Skeet
note: "What a world Thackeray creates! Vivid colors, smells,
sights and sounds."
Jonathan
Rhys Meyers says, "Mira is seeing this world from the outside,
in the same way Ang Lee did with America in The Ice Storm. But she's
also incredibly optimistic, with a fantastic eye, and knows how
to tell a story, as you've seen in her earlier films. She knows
people and she appreciates them - flaws and all."
James
Purefoy reflects, "I'm not sure that I've ever worked with
somebody who is this precise about what she wants to see in the
frame. Mira is an intensely visual director; she brings a rigorous
look to what's in the frame and is very attentive to it. There are
lots of Indian motifs in the film - wallpaper, cultural references,
furniture, fabrics and so on. It was fascinating to see what she
picked out and highlighted."
Production
designer Maria Djurkovic adds that Nair's influence certainly informed
the design of the film: "There's a particular sort of energy
that comes with Mira's approach which I think we all successfully
tapped into - doing something that's not at all like a traditional
period movie in terms of the look or the feel."
Djurkovic,
also inspired by the colonial influence of the era, notes that "the
film spans the first quarter of the 19th century, a time when Britain
had colonies all over the world. Influences and references that
existed in Regency England often came from the colonies - Indian,
North African, Chinese. Brighton Pavilion was built then. Reflecting
the colors and the vibrancy of all of those influences was something
that we felt was very important to convey.
"We
used an energetic range of colors that are true to the period, not
made-up. There are a lot of Oriental influences, in textiles and
papers, and even in the choice of locations themselves. It's a mixture
of everything - Chinese gongs, Moroccan lanterns and Indian fabrics
that we've had shipped over. Everything's in there - it was great
fun."
"On
the set," remembers Bob Hoskins, "we would walk into a
room and it would be like a painting - extraordinary."
The
strong color palette also inspired costume designer Beatrix Pasztor.
"It was as if we were telepathic; her work and my work were
very compatible," says Djurkovic of their approach to the colors.
Pasztor
says that "the influence of India is evident throughout the
film with the use of different fabrics and textures. We used these
very strong Indian colors all the way through, including purples,
oranges and patterns, while also mixing in the muted English style."
Romola
Garai enjoyed playing scenes in the environment created around her:
"Every day on the set, I was so glad that everyone was so creatively
ambitious with the look of the film. I think when you look at that
period, it was an extravagant one because of Britain's position
in the world at that time. There was a lot of money floating around,
and people were creative in the way that they dressed."
Jonathan
Rhys Meyers notes, "It was a great era for men. They were allowed
to be dandified. I loved my [character's] uniform..."
Make-up
and hair designer Jenny Shircore confides, "It was Mira's enthusiasm
that encouraged me to do this film. The bigger, bolder, brighter
aspects of this film comes from her; if you've seen her other films,
you'll note how she you pushes in that direction, where I was very
happy to go. We've stretched the period, played with it, and enjoyed
it. You can't ever lose sight of where you're
coming
from and the particular rules laid down by the period, but we have
taken the most interesting aspects of 1800 to 1830 and made use
of them."
Pasztor
also adhered to the period while still exploring creative possibilities:
"Thackeray described costumes very well, and in detail, in
the novel, so I tried to build costumes from his guidelines while
introducing new textures. The silhouettes and shapes were of the
era, and we used wonderful ruffled seams that are all handmade.
By hand, stitching and gathering on pieces of fabric, we have created
beautiful decorations on the costumes.
"We
also looked at art books and paintings. Mira is an artist herself.
We didn't limit ourselves. Because I'm Hungarian, there was also
a little bit of the Hungarian influence...Jenny Shircore is brilliant;
she creates incredible sculptures out of hair, higher and higher,
wilder and wilder - and so then I just said, 'Why cover it?' So
Becky only wears small hats. Men always wear them in period films,
but we put in only a few..."
Janette
Day appreciated Pasztor's approach to the film's style: "Where
there would be gray, in this film there is green. She has tried
to keep within the parameters of what people would look like but
always has a different edge to it. She also layered, with all sorts
of materials."
Hoskins
experienced firsthand Pasztor and Shircore's creativity: "Beatrix
achieved this amazing layered look. I think she was paid by how
much clothing she could put on you! I'd have about fifteen waistcoats
on and she would put neckties on me, and I suddenly had no neck
left. I began to look like I was sinking inside this closet! But
I liked the flamboyance of it all. Although, the wigs Sir Pitt had
to put on - it gets very hot under there...."
Nair
remarks, "It's a little gag for this fabulous unpretentious
rogue whom Bob plays so well. When Matilda comes to visit, Sir Pitt
puts on the rough wig that he hasn't seen, or used, in months, and
naturally it's askew."
Pasztor
admits that "when actors came for fittings we would put one
cravat, one waistcoat, and one coat on them, and they would think
that this was the end of the fitting. However, I started layering
the costumes - for the women it was scarf and dress, plus blouse
- which I think makes the costumes and the characters richer. Most
of the actors enjoyed the process as it helped them to define their
characters. They put their own imagination into it."
Purefoy
marvels, "The costumes were made specifically for us all; my
costumes have very high collars which were cut to the line of my
sideburns. Now that's tailoring for you! The way they highlighted
various aspects of your body certainly made you behave differently
as soon as you put the costumes on."
Rhys
Ifans adds, "I'd never been so informed by a costume before.
It makes you stand differently, it makes you speak differently -
all very exciting. With people walking about, you're immediately
transported to that time."
"Once
you get the costume on, and the make-up on, there's only one way
you can be," offers Jim Broadbent. "This becomes the only
character you've got available!"
Gabriel
Byrne states, "It's the only film I've ever worked on where
the grips have come up and said, 'Those costumes are nice, aren't
they?' That's pretty rare...I've seen movies where the costumes
swamp the story and it becomes a moving costume spectacle. But what's
really great about what Beatrix does is that she dresses each character
as opposed to each actor. Even the material on the extras' costumes
is absolutely fascinating. There was so much ingenuity and originality
from her department."
Purefoy
adds, "Beatrix did something that I'd never seen anybody do
with a period film, which is to ramp up the costumes and make them
much more theatrical. This is something the theatre has been doing
for years, but it's taken a while I think for the movies, especially
English period movies, to latch onto. You can do something which
has been accentuated and stylized and yet stay within the period,
and I think that - coupled with Mira's passionate take on the material
- makes this movie different from any other period movie."
THIS
ENGLAND
Apart
from a brief location shoot in India, Vanity Fair was filmed in
the U.K. for eleven weeks in the spring and summer of 2003, all
around Southern England and briefly at Elstree Studios.
The
early Crawley family sequences were filmed at Stanway House, near
Cheltenham. Mira Nair remembers, "It was the first location
Declan Quinn and I saw for the film, and we fell in love with it
instantly. We had scenes designed, and rewritten, to reflect the
location and the different rooms. It has extraordinary genuine art
and fantastic chinoiserie beds that were completely part and parcel
with my own sensibility for making the movie come alive."
Quinn
says, "Mira and I went into a store in Bath that sold etchings
and books of paintings. We saw how Great Pulteney Street [the locus
point of Bath] was a big influence."
The
main London exteriors were filmed in Bath, which has some of the
best-preserved Regency architecture in the country. There, the Holburne
Museum doubled as Steyne's mansion, Beauford Square became the Osborne
residence, and, most importantly, Great Pulteney Street represented
London's Curzon Street.
Maria
Djurkovic recalls, "We were hugely ambitious at Bath, shooting
right down Great Pulteney and seeing three hundred and sixty degrees
[in any direction from all angles]. Doing that in any modern town
is a challenge, as it involves closing roads and covering surfaces,
taking away signs, painting windows and doors, bringing in all the
horses and carriages and so on."
Period
street lamps were installed by the production on Great Pulteney.
Bath and North East Somerset Council was so pleased that the lamps
were retained after filming, though wired to modern illumination.
Some 350 Bath locals were employed as extras during the week of
filming there, and the money spent in Bath was a welcome boost to
the local economy.
Quinn
states, "We were very lucky in Bath, because there was a very
large street at Great Pulteney which was in almost pristine condition.
Once some gravel and dirt were put on the road, it was the 1800s.
We could create big, rich, vistas without modern buildings getting
in the way."
Day
explains, "When Becky arrives on Curzon Street to live with
Matilda Crawley, her carriage heads towards the largest mansion
on the street. Much to Becky's frustration, they drive on past and
stop at one of the Georgian houses. She can see the mansion from
her window, and that informs the whole movie - it's where she's
heading, where she wants to be. It was worth the enormous work we
had to put into setting up the scenes in Bath - two months' preparation
- in order to establish the heart of the story, in that one shot."
The
production filmed at a number of other stately homes, including
Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire (the interior of the Crawley house),
Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire (the interior of the Gaunt House),
West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire (the interior of the Sedley
House), and Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire (were several interiors were
filmed).
Cast
and crew were also delighted to have the opportunity to work in
Hampton Court Palace, which stood in for Hyde Park and some of the
exteriors of Brussels. The Brussels countryside and the aftermath
of the Battle of Waterloo were filmed at Hatfield House.
The
Indian picnic scenes were shot on the grounds of Chiswick House
in West London, while the interior of the Curzon Street house was
shot at Fitzroy Square in Central London.
BOOK
AND BEYOND
William
Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair - written in serialized
form in 1847 and 1848 - is often cited as the most intelligent and
amusing critique of early 19th-century society.
Bob
Hoskins reflects, "I'd read the book as a kid, and then when
the film came about I reread it again, and it's an incredible read
- a rip-roaring tale. Why does a book become a classic? It lasts
because it's universal. There are certain brilliant books of their
time that die with their time. This one has a lot to say about today.
There's so much snobbery and pretension going on in any society
- and this is what the story is all about."
Gabriel
Byrne concurs, stating, "Not only is it a great read, in the
sense that you were turning the pages to see what happened next,
but it is also a novel that has a tremendous contemporary resonance.
The times may be different, the characters may dress differently,
but ultimately the foibles and the desires and yearnings of human
beings do not change. What Thackeray was brilliant at was shining
a light, sometimes a very critical light, on people as social animals,
an examination of society based on wealth - or lack of it."
Mira
Nair was in part attracted to the story because of its context in
English history: "This was the time in English society when
they first felt the flush of wealth from the colonies. This was
the wealth that created the middle class which then aspired to the
status of the aristocracy. That was the milieu of Thackeray's novel
and now our movie."
James
Purefoy adds, "It was an explosion of wealth that had not exactly
come honorably. That was a fact of the time which we're dealing
with...it's not something England can feel too proud of."
Reese
Witherspoon comments, "As Americans, we have a different sense
of world history, so I've learned a lot on this movie. The colonization
of India brought up an entire class of people in Britain, making
people very rich. The culture was manipulated in order for people
to gain."
Julian
Fellowes recounts, "One of the elements of the novel, which
Mira was able to bring out better than anyone else could, was Thackeray's
fascination with India and the burgeoning Empire. During the Regency
era, the Empire was starting to grow into what it would be in Thackeray's
own day, the Giant of the Globe. He found India particularly intriguing
and mysterious, and he was able to suggest that the British were
getting in over their heads - taking on cultures and values that
they didn't understand - without ever being either preachy or plodding
about it. This element of the book has been lost in past adaptations;
Mira caught it, and used it to give the film glamour."
Garai
adds, "At the time, because of the East India Company, Britain
was hugely caught up with India. Trade between the two countries
brought England its vast amount of wealth. Mira has extracted that
element and heightened it to bring color, life, and vibrancy."
Lydia
Dean Pilcher says, "The English had started to immerse themselves
in different cultures and bring them back home from the colonies.
I think Mira was attracted to the English culture that she lived
close to in India and was interested in peeling back the layers
and bringing her perspective to it. Audiences will be able to experience
our period story a little bit differently than in other movies."
Donna
Gigliotti notes, "There's a big scene in the book where the
King has come to dinner at Steyne's house, and after dinner they
play a game of charades and Becky is at the center of it. In our
version, they do a slave dance. This is very much a Mira Nair touch
- Indian music, costume and dance - and it's pretty spectacular."
Once
on the set, Lydia Dean Pilcher recalls, "Mira stood in the
middle of the tent, amidst all these extras and this large cascade
of dancers, and explained the entire sequence to everyone at once."
The
costumes were brought in from India, as was Bombay-based Bollywood
choreographer Farah Khan (reteaming with Nair after Monsoon Wedding).
She reports, "It's a Moroccan slave dance - come-hither, seductive,
sensual, and sexy. It's not Bollywood; it's softer, not so much
in-your-face. Steyne wants to shock the lords and ladies, and it's
very daring for that period.
"Reese
Witherspoon was fabulous -- she learned the entire dance in an hour,
and she looks great while she's doing it! I knew what Mira wanted;
she and I are on the same wavelength, and our origins are the same."
Byrne
adds, "Mira's non-English - Indian - and passionately held
perspective helps to illuminate this material in a highly original
way. She brings a different critical apparatus and sense of culture
to it - and, at the same time, a reverence for what Thackeray actually
wrote."
The
cast and filmmakers of Vanity Fair were concerned with not only
reverence but also relevance. The narrative is not only of the past,
but also of the moment.
Gigliotti
states, "The character of Becky Sharp is incredibly contemporary.
You can look at Madonna and see Becky Sharp - a girl who sets out
with the goal of moving up in society. That's certainly contemporary.
In the 1800s, there was a huge influx of new money into England,
which is one of the things that allows Becky to move up through
society. This is comparable to the 1990s, when people were making
huge sums of money. There were Internet millionaires springing up.
There's a huge change that happens within society when the old order
gets pushed aside and new money comes in. That changed the world
that these people are living in, just as it changed ours."
Janette
Day muses, "If she were around now, Becky would be running
a company or be in government, and nobody would think twice about
the way she is. She is just someone who does what she needs to do
to survive."
Rhys
Ifans feels that Thackeray was "not writing about an aristocracy,
but rather an embryonic bourgeoisie. There was an emerging class
and emerging affluence. The people who were involved in businesses
in the Raj would today be people who are involved in computer technology.
There are so many parallels to our time."
Jonathan
Rhys Meyers points to the material's depiction of "the social
hubbub of fashion, new inventions, and a city growing at an enormous
rate. Soldiers like Rawdon, Dobbin, and George and young women like
Becky and Amelia were the 'it' people of their time. Go to St. Tropez
today and it is Vanity Fair. Young people are pushed so hard towards
that."
Romola
Garai adds, "I hope audiences are drawn to sympathize with
the characters, even though they are flawed...and that they will
see their shortcomings and their failings yet recognize them and
appreciate them for what they are, which is human beings, while
at the same time understanding why they want what they want."
Gabriel
Byrne concludes, "Fashions change, architecture changes, but
what impels human beings to love and to live doesn't really change.
Technologically, we may have advanced beyond our wildest expectations
but we're still the same sexual and social animals we've always
been. What Thackeray did brilliantly was to hold up a mirror to
who we are as people, not just to the society that he was writing
about then. What makes the story classic and contemporary is that
he was writing in a truthful and really profound way about the universality
of human emotion and human longing, within a social context that
will never change." |
