On Thursday 10th March 2016 at the Chapter Arts, Cardiff, there was a special screening of the new Ben Wheatley film High-Rise. However, not only were we lucky enough to watch High-Rise before its general release, but also following the film there was a Q & A with the director and actor Luke Evans.
Having such a highly respected director and well-known celebrity in the building there was a tremendous buzz and excitement around Chapter. It was a complete sell out and it seemed that everyone was armed with copies of BUZZ magazine or DVDs for the guests to sign.
So what is the premise behind High-Rise and what was the film like?
Originally a book that was written by a JG Ballard in 1975, the story examines social classes, injustices within society and the struggle for equality. Producer Jeremy Thomas bought the rights back in ’75 and now some 40 years later, Thomas sought the talent of Wheatley to make a most incredible film.
Set within a new High-Rise building that is cut off from society it seemingly provides everything that anyone could need. It has super fast lifts, a swimming pool, supermarket and even a school. This somewhat gated community should not need or want for anything. Nevertheless, the occupants are divided up into their social classes, with the lower class taking up the lower levels, the middle class in centre and the upper staying in the plush highest apartments.
Chieftain and architect of the building Mr Anthony Royal (Jeremy Irons) resides in the penthouse, which is incomparable to anything else within the building. With plush furnishings, a rooftop garden, black sheep and a white horse, Anthony Royal together with his wife Ann (Keeley Hawes) live in an ignorant world of luxury and exploitation.
When Dr Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston) moves into one of the upper apartments, he is swiftly introduced to Charlotte Melville (Sienna Miller) by way of a wine bottle being smashed right next to him as he sleeps naked on a sun lounger on his balcony. Inviting him to a party, his eyes soon become wide open to the life on the middle floors.
With the onset of malfunctioning lifts, electricity being cut off on the lower floors to provide for the upper, the pool being closed off just so the upper classes can party, it does not take a genius to realise that slowly but surely, society within the High-Rise begins to unravel – and there is one person who stands up to challenge the injustices – Richard Wilder (Luke Evans)
Wilder lives with his pregnant wife Helen (Elisabeth Moss) and their two children. He is a documentarian, a cheater, a man who loves to party but is one that in his own way, stands up for his family and for those around him. Not willing to be pushed out and suffer in silence, he seeks to destroy the one person who is controlling the lives within the High-Rise.
The film itself seems to be a step away from what we have previously seen from Wheatley’s work. This comes not only in style and presentation but it feels like the portrayal of violence has moved on from overt blood and gore – to a more psychological debased mind meld.
From films such as Sightseers and Kill List, Wheatley would show heads being smashed to pieces in a kitchen or people having blood spurting out of their neck after they have been run over. Some might say I am a little bit disturbed but I loved that in his films, particularly in something like Sightseers where I found the violence slightly humorous. However in High-Rise, Wheatley has taken the all out in your face visceral content, moulded it into something that will crawl into your skin and eat away at your brain.
Maybe this is because we can all relate to the context on some level of consciousness. We can recognise the way their society is structured, how ruthless and unforgiving people can be as well as the explosiveness of human nature.
Amy Jump has written one spectacular screenplay, which is richly filled with strong characters, perfect dialogue and a continuity that will blow your mind. The strongest character within High-Rise is Wilder and unlike his earlier work, Evans has been finally unleashed in full bloody glory. He is not one for playing the same role but Wilder has allowed Evans to explore another side of human nature. There are some iconic moments for Evans; one in particular is when he rallies up the children to sabotage a pool party and the other is when he is dad dancing his way through copious amounts of drugs and alcohol.
There are some familiar faces from Wheatley’s past films, like Neil Maskell (Kill List) who makes a guest appearance as PC White, Tony Way (Sightseers) as Robert the Caretaker and not forgetting Eileen Davies (Sightseers) as Mrs Hillman.
High-Rise is one that needs to go on a ‘must watch’ list and unlike the story it will stand tall for some time without fear of wavering or crumbling amongst this years contenders. It has added a new depth to Wheatley’s filmmaking skills that will no doubt set him apart from other British directors.
Rating 5/5
Q & A with Ben Wheatley and Luke Evans
Following the film, Luke and Ben took the stage and the Q & A began with the host asking a few questions of his own. Ben was initially asked how the film came about and he replied very candidly.
“I had been a fan of the book since I was a kid, it is one of the books that I read when I was 16 or 17. It was one that was an introductory text into character conscience. At that point I appreciated the book because of the sex and violence, but as I got older as a 40 year old man with a child who is married, I appreciate it for the sex and violence (laughs). As time had passed it was a book that I felt that when I read it the first time, it was predicted fiction but unfortunately now, I read it as a dark warning that has come true”.
Whenever there is a film adaptation, one of the most widely asked questions to an actor is whether or not they have had read the book before reading the script. Luke gave his answer
“I hadn’t read it but I knew Ballard and I had seen his other films as a kid. One of my favourites was Empire of the Sun. So that was something that drew me to it. When I picked up the script I realised that there was a character that jumped off the page and that was Wilder! Immediately … but please don’t draw conclusions (laughs)… I understood him in a way and thought I sort of get him. Welsh and from the valleys there was something about him that I could relate to – like a man who wanted to fight for a cause. Obviously as the film is based in the 70’s just before Thatcher came to power, I felt like that I could contribute a lot to the character in my head. He (Wheatley) made him Welsh”.
Luke goes onto explain that he spent a month developing this strong, cockney, riff of a Kray Twin style character. However, when he came onto the film set, he spent the first day using his cockney accent but then Ben wanted to try Wilder as a Welsh man. As a result, he then had to do ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement) so everything that had been filmed using his London accent had to be replaced with a Welsh accent.
Luke discusses how he sought his influences for Wilder from the late Oliver Reed. Using Reed’s character and personality traits it helped Luke to give Wilder that energy.
“He (Wilder) does have this energy, especially in that scene when I am holding Jeremy Irons hand, or as I call it ‘Scars’ hand (laughs) He has been terrifying children for generations and it’s about time I terrify him! I remember sniffing (laughs) I did! I sniffed him!”
The questions were thrown open to the audience and Ben was asked whether or not he would consider making more films from that same period.
“What I always wanted to do was Burrough’s ‘Queer’ (Queer was a book by a William S Burroughs that was originally published in 1985) which I am a massive fan. A lot of his books are odd and Queer seems to be an inner oasis and it was a great story”.
With reference to Luke having a sniff of Jeremy Irons, there had to be a question of what he smelt like and Luke said “Liquorice and roll up cigarettes. I am not lying”.
An interesting question came when Ben was asked about the use of a gun within the film. This was because during the book; Wilder rejected it as he wanted all the confrontations to be physical.
“I think it was to do with the fact that he was being given the key to work his way up through the building. That (gun) was like a physical push to get up there but also that really is a question for Amy Jump (writer) and that’s how I am going to duck that one”.
Luke is from Aberbargoed, he has a strong sense of family and remains very close to his childhood friends. Therefore, it came to no surprise that he was asked about how his life in the valleys, close knit communities and Thatcher helped shaped the role of Wilder.
“It had some sort of influence on how I portrayed him (Wilder) Even though he lives in London, he is a documentarian and he makes movies about the wars and stuff like that. He is still a Welsh man, the way he defends his class, he is such a class defender and I was brought up around the miners’ strikes. All my family are miners, we hated Thatcher, most still do and we can’t even mention her name in some of the houses in my family. It was an aggressive time in the valleys, when hard-working men went from working in the mines to working in the factories tapping the tops of Pot Noodles. It is funny for us to laugh but this is what happened to my uncle and many other people. So I felt like that I could channel a lot of that passion of a man who felt like he was entitled to just the rights of his class. He was lower down and he was in the shadow of the upper class. He had a wife who wanted to be further up in the building and she wasn’t, she was married to me. I was cheating, we had two kids, she was pregnant and smoking. He is a man full of anger, full of resentment and full of fire. He wanted to intimidate and in the book he is the agitator. That slap on the actresses arse is the beginning of the end for him. You just see a man with no boundaries, one who will fight to the end to find answers and to find his position in society”.
So has Ben ever considered how he would escape the High-Rise?
“I am a card carrying coward both morally and psychically. I don’t think I would have lasted five minutes. I would probably eat my pet but it’s only that big (demonstrates) so there’s not much sustenance. Then I would slope off to Stratford or something, nothing that exciting”.
Luke says, “I probably would have left. That is the weirdest thing about the whole premise of this film and the story, at any point they could have walked out of the door and buggered off. None of them leave and they stay, it is almost like a drug. They have had a taste of what it is to break the rules and to have sex with their neighbour, to drown a dog, have parties and do a supermarket sweep on acid. In a way it does question that if you are in that position would you leave?!”
In Ben’s early career he made animations and was asked whether he would revisit this line of work. “Yeah but without me doing the animation because I was a shockingly bad animator. It is an insult to say that I was an animator because I just used to make images move around on screen. I would like to do animation again, I think it is fascinating”.
The question was then thrown out if the film is a kaleidoscope to see the future, Ben answers “ Well the book was written in ‘75, so the kaleidoscope to see the future is now. So it is not really a warning of what is going to happen, it has happened”.
The last question of the night asked about the amount of full on nudity in the book compared to what was shown in the film. Ben replied “ Well, that is another question for Amy Jump. I think that there was a certain amount of nudity in it but you don’t really need to see cock. The difference between the two forms of cinema and literature is that to talk about it, is one thing – but to see it, it is something else. It’s a bit like the adaptation of Watchmen, where you know, it is a very literal and faithful adaptation but the only thing that anyone came away thinking about was that Dr Manhattan has blue balls (laughs). I think that is the issue, you don’t really have to see it to know what it is”.