Little White Lies Interview: Jim Loach

It must be hard to stand in your father’s professional shadow in any industry, but in film even more so and much more conspicuously. That Jim Loach’s heritage looms large even before the similarity between his socially conscious style and that of his father is noted must be endlessly frustrating. So when LWLies met up with him, we didn’t mention it. Instead, the director talked about the challenges of adapting a powerful true story to the screen for his directorial debut, Oranges and Sunshine, while caring about the repercussions for those living with the real version; avoiding turning the sentimentality up to 11; and the joys of co-producing a film between countries on opposite sides of the globe.

LWLies: Can you tell us how the project came about?

Loach: I first read Margaret Humphreys’ book and I went to see her – this was about eight or nine years ago – and she’s got a small office in Nottingham above a sandwich shop. I just sat opposite her and I was just completely spellbound by what I heard and the story that she had to tell. I found her a deeply inspirational person, slightly intimidating if I’m honest but nevertheless very inspirational. At that moment I knew I wanted to make the film because I was straight away taken by the personal dilemma set against the bigger story, so it was when I first met her that I knew I wanted to make it. Then I just got to know her over the years and spent a lot of time going up to Nottingham. I was doing different stuff at the time. Then Rona came and met her and we started to work on the script.

Did Margaret take some convincing to do the film?

Yeah, she was pretty wary. She was quite wary about what the film would be, what it could do and I think she was worried that it would be sentimental. It’s a question for her really but I would think that she was worried it would be sentimental or mawkish or offer easy answers, all of those things. Also she’s quite a private person so I suppose she didn’t necessarily want to put herself forward as a subject for a film particularly.

Stills/Inspiration

These are some stills from my installation Murder Disco!, created around the time that pixelisation and atomisation of imagery really captured my interest. The reason I post them now is that I still refer back to them regularly and consider them a piece of work which is a fair articulation of my themes and concerns. I'm also really interested in the idea of the film still as an entirely different beast from the photograph, and various the implications of this.

La Petite Mort - a project in progress

This drawing is part of La Petite Mort, a new series of ink on paper drawings that I'm working on at the moment. This one is nearly done and there are more to follow, but as you can imagine they're pretty time consuming, hence no posts of my own work for a while. But I'll keep dotting and keep posting...

ArtSlant Review: Morgan Fisher at Raven Row

Across the elegant floors of Spitalfields’ Raven Row, Morgan Fisher’s work delves deep into the belly of Hollywood. Specifically classic Hollywood, where 35mm film was the standard industry format and Fisher began his career-long obsession with peering beyond the confines of the silver screen to reflect on the art form and the means of its production.

The film Standard Gauge really helps establish the artist’s mindset. An ode to 35mm narrated by Fisher, it brings together off cuts of film that he foraged since his first job in movie production; the bits that did not serve a purpose and were subsequently binned. Fisher reveals what film tries to hide, and what audiences habitually ignore; namely its constructed nature, its mechanics and fakeness... (read more)

ArtSlant Review: Nancy Spero at the Serpentine

Nancy Spero worked on the frontline defending the rights of female artists to express themselves creatively amongst the patriarchy of her contemporaries both in art and American society from the 1950s onwards. She also campaigned tirelessly in life and art against the atrocities of war. So it’s very much in this context of her conscience taking the lead that her retrospective at the Serpentine Gallery operates.

It’s an exhibition where reading the notes and bearing in mind the conditions in which she worked helps illuminate the pictures on the walls, otherwise some of them may leave you cold... (read more)