Bird's Eye View

All Good Children: An Interview with Alicia Duffy

All Good Children

Birds Eye View chatted to British filmmaker Alicia Duffy from her home in London yesterday, as she waited for a BBC interview and prepared for her trip to Cannes on Friday, where her first feature film All Good Children will premiere in Directors’ Fortnight. Alicia was first noticed for her 2001 short, the stunning Crow Stone (2001), which won numerous international festival awards, and her second work, 2002’s exquisite The Most Beautiful Man in the World, which was nominated for the short film Palme D’Or at Cannes in 2003, among other laurels. All Good Children tells of two brothers who are sent to France after their mother’s suicide and have to navigate the no man’s land between their tender yet wracked fantasies and a hard adult reality. Certain to come back from Cannes with a UK distributor, we’ll hope to see the film in cinemas later this year.
Alicia is the sole British filmmaker in Directors’ Fortnight this year, and one of only four women filmmakers in the category – watch this space for news of her film’s reception!

ES: You’re something of a young Cannes veteran, having won serious praise and award nominations there for your two short films Crow Stone and The Most Beautiful Woman in the World. What are you most looking forward to - and least - when you’re there this month?

AD: I am most looking forward to watching films… I always stay right until the end if I can so I can watch as many as possible. I think the beginning of the Festival is going to be quite tough for me as there is a lot of work to do in terms of preparing for screenings, doing interviews etc.

ES: You, Fabienne Berthaud (French director of Pieds nus sur les limaches/Lily Sometimes), Katell Quillevere (French director of Un Poison Violent and Marina Meliande (Brazilian co-director of A alegria/The Joy are the four female filmmakers in a lineup of 22 in Directors’ Fortnight. We’re really excited about all four films as they sound excellent; all visionary and compelling works. Do you already know any of your fellow women directors in the category?

AD: I don’t know any of the other female directors (yet!) but am really looking forward to seeing their films and meeting up with them.

ES: What is your response to the You Cannes Not Be Serious campaign by Film Directing 4 Women?

AD: More and more women are directing though which is what needs to happen… and more and more of those women will make 2nd and 3rd (and onwards) features, develop their styles and skills, their voices. It just takes a very long time for change to happen, especially when films take so long to make.

ES: Like Most Beautiful Man, All Good Children follows partially abandoned children, making their own decisions and exploring their boundaries. Has this theme always been one you wanted to focus on, or did the short start your interest and your feature continue it?

AD: This is difficult to answer because themes do not always become apparent until after the event. That said, it probably informed why I was inspired by the novel.

Bella

ES: All Good Children is based on yet not directly adapted from Sam Taylor’s novel The Republic of Trees. How close was your involvement with Sam and his book?

AD: I had no involvement with Sam and his book and the film is very much inspired by it rather than an adaptation.

ES: The Most Beautiful Man was a UK/French co-production, and All Good Children is an Irish/Belgian/French co-production, entirely shot in France. Do you find international partnerships an extra fruitful and better funded way to make films in this economic climate, or is it more that you’re a Francophile?

AD: The two films were funded that way for completely different reasons actually. TMBMITW was part of a really interesting scheme between the CNC and the UKFC. AGC was always going to be set in France and that really influenced where we went looking for funding.

ES: You’ve had a very successful career trajectory, from getting involved in film production at university, studying at the NFTS, making your two highly acclaimed and beautiful shorts, and now taking your first feature to Cannes! Aside from needing the essential and unique vision and talent, what is your advice to new filmmakers?

AD: I think it would be just to make!

Thank you Alicia, we wish you the best of luck in Cannes and we’ll hope to be back in touch with you around the UK release of All Good Children.

View clips of All Good Children here.