THE STORYTELLER (REMEMBERING ROGER MICHELL)

 

For 25 years Roger Michell seemed to be a constant in Britain's film and television industry, directing some of the country's biggest stars.

Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Julie Walters, Ciaran Hinds, Rhys Ifans, Olivia Colman, Peter O'Toole, Jodie Whittaker, Jim Broadbent and Rachel Weisz are just some of the homegrown talent who worked with the South African born director.

But he also dabbled in Hollywood and got to direct Julia Roberts, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Samuel L Jackson, Ben Affleck, Susan Sarandon, Jeff Goldblum and Bill Murray.

Why did actors of this calibre work with him?

For over 25 years, Michell was an actor's director - benefitting from his rich background in theatre.

However he also had a good eye for a solid script.

Another one of Michell's strengths was that he never let vanity get the better of him - he always saw his work on stage and onscreen as collaborative and have credit to his writers, his actors, his crew.

Born in Pretoria in 1956, Roger Michell's father was a British diplomat who took his family around the world.

During his childhood, the family spent periods in Beirut, Damascus and Prague.

At the age of eight, he started to develop an interest in drama - telling the Norwich Film Festival in an interview in 2014 he often put on "little shows - ghost stories mostly."

Despite being born in South Africa, Roger was nevertheless unmistakably English.

He was educated in a Bristol public school, Clifton College whose past pupils include John Cleese, Trevor Howard, Michael Redgrave, John Houseman and the sports broadcaster John Inverdale.

It was there where he started to hone his interest in theatre - writing and directing short plays.

Inevitably, he read English at Queen's College in Cambridge where he developed his passIon for theatre - acting and directing many plays.

Michell won an RSC Buzz Goodbody award for Best Student Director and a Fringe First award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for his play 'Private Dick'.

Upon graduating in 1977, he moved to Brighton, working with the Brighton Actors Network and directing Peter Gill's 'Small Change'.

That year he married the actress Kate Buffery of 'Trial and Retribution' fame,  who he would remain with until their divorce in 2002.

The couple would have two children - Harry, an actor and Rosanna, a theatrical agent.

Michell's work in Brighton caught the eye of theatre companies in London and he became an assistant director at the Royal Court.

Among the playwrights he came across and worked alongside were Samuel Beckett, John Osborne and the director Max Stafford-Clark.

His contemporaries at the Royal Court included Antonia Bird, Danny Boyle, Hanif Kureshi and Simon Curtis.

Boyle even served as his stage manager.

Michell's play about Raymond Chandler 'Private Dick' would prove popular during a run in the Lyric Hammersmith with audiences and critics.

It later transferred to the West End, with the 'Jesus of Nazareth' star Robert Powell as Philip Marlowe.

During the mid 1980s, he enjoyed a stint as a director in the Royal Shakespeare Company, directing plays by the Bard, Farquhar, Vaclav Havel and Richard Nelson's 'Some Americans Abroad' which transferred to Broadway in 1990.

Around this time, Michell landed a place on a BBC Directors Course which would help him successfully make the transition from stage director to screen.

"I applied for a wonderful course the BBC used to run for theatre directors," he told the Norwich Film Festival.

"The BBC put you through an amazing three month flying school and you came out the other end totally exhausted, exhilarated and theoretically ready to tackle anything from 'Eastenders' to 'Lawrence of Arabia'."

His first TV project was the BBC's Leigh Francis adaptation 'Downtown Lagos' with Anton Lesser, Simon Russell Beale and Ruth Sheen.

A year later, there was a well received, high profile Hanif Kureshi penned drama for the BBC, 'The Buddha of Suburbia' with Naveen Andrews, Brenda Blethyn, Roshan Seth and Stephen Mackintosh and a soundtrack by David Bowie.

He followed this up with a critically acclaimed BBC adaptation in 1995 of Jane Austen's 'Persuasion' with Ciaran Hinds as Captain Wentworth, Amanda Root as Anne Elliott, Susan Fleetwood as Lady Russell and a cast that also included Fiona Shaw, John Woodvine, Samuel West and Corin Redgrave.

Broadcast on TV in the UK, 'Persuasion'  secured a theatrical release in North America and would capture a BAFTA for Best Single Drama.

Its success paved the way for a BBC movie of Kevin Elyot's play 'My Night With Reg' about a group of gay friends living through the 1980s AIDS crisis with David Bamber, Joe Duttine and John Sessions.

Michell had directed the award winning stage version of the play at the Royal Court in 1994 which scooped Evening Standard and Olivier Awards for Best Comedy.

His next movie was the 1998 Northern Ireland Troubles drama 'Titanic Town' with Nuala O'Neill, Julie Walters, Ciaran Hinds and Ciaran McMenamin which was shot not in Belfast but Herefordshire.

Featuring the songs of John Martyn, it drew decent reviews.

Throughout the 1990s, Michell remained a prolific theatre director with productions of Mustapha Matura's 'The Coup,' Harold Pinter's 'The Homecoming,' Dylan Thomas's 'Under Milk Wood', Joanna Murray Smith's 'Honour,' Joe Penhall's 'Landscape With Weapon,' Granville Barker's 'Waste,' Nina Raine's 'Consent' and Penhall's 'Blue/Orange' with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Bill Nighy and Andrew Lincoln which won Olivier and Evening Standard awards.

The end of the decade also saw him direct his biggest movie, the Richard Curtis penned 'Notting Hill' with Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, Rhys Ifans, Gina McKee and Hugh Bonneville.

Coming on the back of the massive success of 'Four Weddings and a Funeral,' the London based romcom was always going to command huge media attention and it proved a huge hit with audiences and critics - putting its director firmly on the radar of the Hollywood studios.

His next film in 2002 was the taut thriller 'Changing Lanes' with Ben Affleck, Samuel L Jackson, Toni Collette, Sydney Pollack and William Hurt which again pleased audiences and wowed critics, including Roger Ebert who declared it as one of the year's best movies.

In 2002, shortly after he divorced Kate Buffery, Michell married the future 'Motherland' and 'Line of Duty' star Anna Maxwell Martin.

They would remain together for 18 years with two daughters, Maggie and Nancy before eventually separating in 2020.

Michell wisely did not allow himself to be consumed by the studio system - preferring to mix big budget films with indie fare.

His next project was the daring, low budget 2003 English drama 'The Mother' with Anne Reid as a grandmother who has a scandalous affair with her daughter's lover played by Daniel Craig.

Working from another script by Kureshi, the quality of the writing, acting and directing shone through and it was enthusiastically received by critics.

Michell teamed up again with Craig and Rhys Ifans on the 2004 adaptation of Ian McEwan's psychological thriller 'Enduring Love' with Samantha Morton, Bill Night, Susan Lynch, Andrew Lincoln and Corin Redgrave.

This time he turned to Joe Penhall for the script which drew mixed reviews initially at the Sundance and Venice Film Festivals but the film has grown in critical stature over the years.

Content to work on smaller budget indie English fare, Michell's next project saw him direct Peter O'Toole in his last Academy Award nominated performance in 2006.

In the Hanif Kureshi scripted, acclaimed comic drama 'Venus' with Jodie Whittaker, Leslie Phillips, Vanessa Redgrave and Richard Griffith, O'Toole played an elderly actor attracted to his best friend's grand-niece. 

Michell was approached not long afterwards by producer Barbara Broccoli to direct Daniel Craig again in the $230 million 007 movie 'Quantum of Solace' in 2009.

However the experience was not a happy one, with Michell unhappy with the script.

Despite getting on with Broccoli, Michell bailed out during pre-production to make way for Marc Forster because he felt under pressure to agree to a screenplay he had little faith in.

While the James Bond film was a guaranteed success, critics have nevertheless tended to view it as one of the weaker Daniel Craig 007 movies.

Maintaining his profile as a British stage director throughout the decade, he worked with Stephen Mangan on Joe Penhall's comedy drama about a pregnant man 'Birthday' at the Royal Court, Nina Raine's 'Tribes' and  Penhalls 'Mood Music' with Ben Chaplin at the Old Vic.

He would film 'Birthday' with Mangan and Anna Maxwell Martin for Sky in 2015 and 'Consent' two years later for National Theatre Live.

In 2010, Michell was back making a big studio movie with the JJ Abrams produced Paramount journalism romcom 'Morning Glory' about Rachel McAdams' TV producer getting to work with Harrison Ford's grouchy veteran reporter on a breakfast show.

Written by Aline Brosh McKenna, the film with Diane Keaton, Jeff Goldblum and Patrick Wilson underperformed at the box office and divided critics - some of whom to this day insist it is a hugely underrated comedy with a strong Harrison Ford performance.

During promotion of the film, he told the Den of Geek website he had been lucky to get all his top casting picks on the film.

Asked why he was so good at handling Hollywood stars and their egos, he insisted he was fortunate not to have to juggle any on the project.

"I think people respond to how they’re treated, and I think if you treat them properly, and you make them feel secure, and you respect them and treat them like actors as opposed to film stars, they’ll behave like actors," he remarked. 

"People like Harrison Ford are always early on set, always ultra-prepared. They’re very collegiate. They like sets, they like crews, they like being around. They like work. So, I think they enjoy themselves."

His next project was 'Hyde Park on the Hudson' in about the visit to the US by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and their stay at President Frank D Roosevelt's country estate.

With Samuel West and Olivia Colman playing the Royal Couple and Laura Linney as Roosevelt's mistress, he elicited a charming performance from Bill Murray as the President which bolstered a film that otherwise drew mixed reviews.

Michell regained critical favour with the well judged 2013 Anglo-French drama 'Le-Weekend' with Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan and Jeff Goldblum about academics from Birmingham marking their 30th wedding anniversary in Paris.

Again working from a screenplay by Kureshi, critics were drawn to its subtlety and intelligence and it performed respectably on the arthouse circuit.

The singer Ellie Goulding hired him in 2013 to direct a music video for her cover of The Waterboys' song 'How Long Will I Love You?'

Michell returned to the small screen for ITV in 2014, directing Jason Watkins in the Peter Morgan scripted two part trial by media drama 'The Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries'.

A winner of two BAFTAs for Watkins as Best Actor and for Best Miniseries, the critically acclaimed true story also featured his wife Anna Maxwell Martin, Shaun Parkes, Joe Sims and Steve Coogan playing himself.

In 2017, Michell directed Rachel Weisz, Sam Claffin, Holliday Grainger and Iain Glen in the sumptuous Daphne du Maurier adaptation 'My Cousin Rachel' which was an arthouse hit with the critics.

His next screen venture was a documentary in 2018 'There's Nothing Like A Dame' which featured interviews with British acting royalty like Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright, reflecting humourously on their careers and earning rave reviews.

Michell returned to the US in 2019 for the drama 'Blackbird' - a star studded remake of the Danish film 'Silent Heart' with Kate Winslet, Susan Sarandon, Lindsay Duncan, Mia Wasikowska and Sam Neill.

The tale of a dying mother who gathers her family one last time before she ends her life, the film drew mixed reviews but the cast were commended by critics.

Michell's final film 'The Duke,' about a 60 year old who stole a Goya painting of the Duke of Wellington from London's National Gallery fell victim to the scheduling nightmare brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Starring Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Fionn Whitehead, Anna Maxwell Martin and Matthew Goode, the comedy drama premiered to much acclaim at the Venice Film Festival in 2020 but had its release put back twice and is due to appear in cinemas in February 2022.

Such was his standing as a filmmaker, Michell had been working on a documentary 'Elizabeth' about Britain's Queen, describing it as a celebration of the longest ruling British Monarch.

"[It's] A truly cinematic mystery tour up and down the decades - poetic, funny, disobedient, ungovernable, affectionate, inappropriate, mischievous and in awe," Michell enthused months before his death.

"Funny, moving, different - the Queen as never before."

Michelle's death caught many of his contemporaries and collaborators by surprise 

Julia Roberts led tributes to Michelk who she described as a "kind and gentle man".

There was also an outpouring of affection from Jason Watkins, Samuel West, Rainn Wilson, Sam Neill and Samantha Morton.

However one of the most eye catching tributes came from the actor Sanjeev Bhaskar.

"Shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of Roger Michell," he tweeted. 

"Terrific director and always such great company. He was as generous with his time and attention towards me as the main stars on Notting Hill. A kindness I’ve never forgotten." 

Leaving aside the impressive body of work onstage and onscreen, that ability to connect with his actors and writers and his ability to inspire them to great heights spoke volumes.

During his stellar career, Michell knew few theatre directors had made the transition to cinema and even fewer did so impressively.

"Theatre is very, very different and also is not film’s shabby second cousin," he insisted, passionately arguing for both artforms.

Roger Michell rode both horses and did so gloriously.

(Roger Michell died on September 22, 2021 aged 65)