ARCHIPELAGO - Joanna Hogg

Dienstag 04.03.2014
20:30 Uhr
vorgestellt von Jan Künemund

UK 2010 | 114 min  |  engl. Originalfassung (mit engl.Untertiteln) | Regie: Joanna Hogg | Produzentin: Gayle Griffith | Drehbuch: Joanna Hogg |Kamera: Ed Rutherford | Schnitt: Helle le Fevre | Ton: David F. Mitchell, Rebecca Morgan | Casting: Lucy Bevan | Künstlerische Leitung: Sonya Yu | Kostüm: Stéphane Collonge
mit Christopher Baker, Kate Fahy, Tom Hiddleston, Lydia Leonard, Amy Lloyd



Archipelago spielt auf Tresco, der zweitgrößten der vielen kleinen Isles of Scilly, die im äußersten Südwestens Großbritanniens liegen, 45 Kilometer vor Land's End. Eine Familie verbringt hier einige Tage, bevor der Sohn Edward auf eine einjährige freiwillige Hilfsmission nach Afrika aufbricht. Mutter Patricia und Tochter Cynthia und Christopher, der Künstler, sind schon auf der Insel, Edward und die eigens engagierte Köchin Rose treffen zu Beginn des Films ein, nur der Vater lässt auf sich warten. Man verbringt die Zeit mit Ausflügen und Picknick am Strand, Malunterricht und Gesprächen bei gutem Essen. Unter der zivilisiert-bourgoisen Oberfläche aber rumourt es. Alte Eifersüchteleien und Überforderung im Umgang miteinander bedrohen das Idyll, und der Vater, von dem Patricia Hilfe erwartet, vertröstet sie von Tag zu Tag am Telefon.

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How much of the script is done beforehand and how much is work-shopped with the actors or improvised?
Joanna Hogg:  Again, my method is changing as I go along, really, with each film. With Archipelago I just wrote a short story because I wanted to describe it in that sort of way. I find a script - the physical lay-out of it - not very inspiring, and I did that very conventional screenplay writing for Unrelated and I found that once I'd written it and we were shooting, I hardly looked at it. It just seemed dead to me once I'd created it and then it was all in my head and it was about changing things as I went along. Because we shoot in story order, I can write as I go along, actually.

So the actors all understand that that's part of the deal, that there will be daily changes to the script and you'll workshop it together?
Yes. Yes.

So is there a rehearsal period then? What happens beforehand?
Well, not very much, actually. I mean, I don't really workshop it. With both films we were in the place, in the location for a week before shooting. And in that week, a lot happens. I'm not rehearsing specific moments, specific scenes, but the actors and the non-actors are in that place for that long. It doesn't sound like that long when I describe it now but in a week you can let a place sort of get under your skin. Then there is a sort of discussion about the background of the characters and who these people are, so a lot of ideas come up. There's not really any formal rehearsal, it's more about keeping the spontaneity.

How important was the location to the film then? What was it that the location brought out?

The location was really important, it was one of the first ingredients that I decided upon when I was writing. It was almost the first thing I thought, that I'm going to set something there, because it was a place I already knew very well. I think the character of the place is very strong and I'd never been there at that time of year. We were shooting in October/November, whereas I'd always been there in the springtime, when the island is covered in daffodils, and in October/November it's much bleaker. So the place entered into the story like a character, really, because we're shooting in story order. And then we take what weather comes up on any particular day, so the fact that the storm arrives in the story on the day that it does, was a real gift.

[Joanna Hogg im Interview / View London]

“As I watched the picture, I had a powerful sense of the English landscape and its intimate relationship with the culture, the sense of life. It struck me as very similar to Powell and Pressburger’s A Canterbury Tale…. I marvelled at Archipelago, and I think Joanna Hogg is a uniquely gifted filmmaker.” (Martin Scorsese)