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Young Adam (2003)
Starring:
Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton, Peter Mullan, Emily Mortimer, Jack McElhone, Therese Bradley
Writer/Director:
David McKenzie
Story Source:
Alexander Trocchi
Studio:
Sony Pictures Classics
Official Website:
www.sonyclassics.com/youngadam
Source: www.movies.com
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NC-17: No One 17 And Under Admitted
"This rating declares that the Rating Board believes that this is a film that most parents will consider patently too adult for their youngsters under 17. No children will be admitted. NC-17 does not necessarily mean "obscene or pornographic" in the oft-accepted or legal meaning of those words.
The reasons for the application of an NC-17 rating can be violence or sex or aberrational behavior or drug abuse or any other elements which, when present, most parents would consider too strong and therefore off-limits for viewing by their children."
Source: MPAA
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(Continued from Page Two)
Do you consider yourself an activist? I'm thinking specifically about "The Maybe"...
TS: That's a very interesting question. Off the top of my head, I'm happily making enough work that I don't feel like it. One feels like an activist when one isn't putting out so much work.
My reference point on all that is Derek Jarman, who became more of an activist the less films he made. I think there's a choice there. I'm actively involved in the films I'm making I suppose, a bit of an engagé existentialist...
As far as Derek Jarman goes, I once read that you considered the eight films you did with him to be a sort of apprenticeship. What did you mean by that?
TS: Well I can't really imagine having worked in cinema, let alone any kind of industrial cinema, without having had that experience. It suited me so well. It was such a piece of luck to fid him and to work with him, because I'm wired like that anyway. It gives me the confidence to work like I do and now I have further confidence because I know it's possible to work that way.
I set my pain threshold really low, letting me know that life's much to short for me to do things that I'm not really interested in and it spoiled me. It isn't a bad thing for an artist to be spoiled early because you can see how possible things are. It suited me to find that way of working early on. A very particular way of working and a very good match.
The obvious question that I have to ask is about Ewan McGregor. What does having him in a film like this bring to you and bring to an audience?
DM: I'll tell you something interesting. There's an article in a kind of counter-culture magazine in Glasgow called Variant where very sneeringly Ewan's involvement in "Young Adam" was sort of mentioned as making the film some sort of 'star vehicle', which was sort of degrading of the integrity of the film, which I don't think is a reality.
We have a film with a central character who doesn't make too many attempts to make himself likable. To have the sort of character with that sort of charisma and charm as Ewan is one of the few areas where we could help the audience a little bit. Ewan was very bold and brave in the film and what he did and I'm very grateful for that.
This film is rife with sexuality. Were there any logistical complications to the sex scenes?
TS: Not really. In this film, the sexual relationships were sort of the meat and potatoes. In the case of Joe and Ella, sex is their relationship. They don't exactly chat much. Their inarticulate relationship is articulated through the sex they have.
The work was to find how to develop that relationship. We worked very meticulously through the moves, through the progression throughout the levels of sexual contact, partly because we felt that was something real about sex.
There's something very numbed and numbing about the sex that
we usually see on screen. It's like there's a conversation and
sex sort of breaks out, which is something we wanted to break free from...we
wanted sex
to creep up, as it does in life.
You've made your mark playing characters that challenge gender issues. Would you say that Ella is a masculine character?
TS: It's funny that you ask that. A couple of my gay male friends
have said that the sex in this film, between Joe and Ella (McGregor and Swinton)
is the first time that they've seen sex between a man and a woman remind
them of gay male sex.
I would say that I'm always interested, almost indulgently, in questions of identity. Ella is some one who has hidden depths and goes through sudden transformation, which I found very compelling.
...
Written by Richard Sharp
[1] [2] [3]
005: Swinton, Mackenzie
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