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Catching the Midnight Express with Sir Alan Parker

January 14, 2008

On the eve of the release of Midnight Express: 30^th Anniversary Edition (Sony, Feb. 5), a full-blown disc that comes complete with a director’s commentary, a photo journal and a trio of new featurettes, I got a chance to conduct a brief email interview with the film’s director, Alan Parker. (Whoops, make that Sir Alan Parker, as the well-known filmmaker was knighted back in 2002!) Email Q&A’s are, by their nature, not nearly as organic and flowing as a face-to-face Q&A (or, at the very least, a phone-to-phone one), but in my mind, our four-question tête-à-tête--which Parker completed within a week of submission—resulted in a very lucid and enlightening exchange of ideas.

 

 

VB: You’re an England-born filmmaker who’s well-known for taking on films with distinctly American stories and themes (Midnight Express, Fame, Come See the Paradise, Mississippi Burning). How do your

English filmmaking talents, style and perceptions lend themselves to creating such “American” movies?

PARKER: Well, I grew up on a diet of American movies and so gravitated quite naturally to American subjects. The American film industry has always embraced filmmakers from abroad ever since the early days of Hollywood, so I was not alone. There is the theory that if you’re one step outside of a society perhaps you can look at that world with some clarity and objectivity. Also, I have always been comfortable with the American vernacular. I always think I write better in “American English” than “English English.”

VB: Midnight Express is considered to be one of the cinema’s most respected and memorable “prison films.” What are your favorite prison films?

PARKER: I think Cool Hand Luke and The Shawshank Redemption probably are my favorite prison films.

VB: Looking back on Midnight Express, which you directed nearly 30 years ago, what about it, if anything, would you change about it now? Any regrets?

PARKER: Well, it was made when I was quite young. It was my second film. Also, it was Oliver Stone’s first credited screenplay and no doubt wisdom comes from a certain maturity. We were young filmmakers hell-bent on telling a good story about what we saw as injustice of disparate legal and prison system, and in our zeal to make our point maybe a little light and shade got lost. The ‘good-guy’ Turks got left out. But the raw energy and uncompromising visceral power of the film still remains fresh and modern, which also came from the same youthful enthusiasm, single-mindedness and naiveté.

VB: You contribute quite a lot to the DVD editions of your films--commentaries, interviews, featurettes--which is not something every veteran director enjoys doing. What is it about explaining your intentions, methods and styles to audiences that you find appealing?

PARKER: Well, DVDs—or versions of DVDs--are going to be around for a long time, so it’s nice to get it right. Before this format, the historical accuracy of how a film was made was often rather sketchy and often in the hands of people who weren’t actually there. Sony is particularly good at allowing filmmakers back into the process. I have re-graded the film and re-done the sound and so it probably looks as good and sounds as good, if not better, than the original version. It’s thirty years since I made the film and so it was interesting creatively to revisit it.

Posted by Laurence Lerman on January 14, 2008 | Comments (0)