Marc Forster Interviewed at the BFI, London.

The director of ‘Quantum of Solace’ (QoS), Marc Forster, was interviewed live on stage at the British Film Institute (BFI), on London’s South Bank, on Wednesday, 4 March. The interview, which took place after a premiere presentation of a special high-definition screening of QoS to a packed audience, was held to mark the worldwide release of the latest James Bond film on Blu-ray disc and on DVD. Forster was interviewed by journalist Mark Lawson and the session included a Questions and Answers session for the audience.

The interview opened with Forster talking about his general love of film and moved on to describe his place of birth and early career. Forster said he likes the “complete control” of cinema and movie-making that comes with the latest modern technologies available to directors, and he revealed that he loves watching DVDs and to have access to so many different kinds of movies and movie genres, something that has come with the wider availability of films on DVD. Forster was born in Germany and raised in Switzerland, where he attended the famous Institut Montana Zugerberg. He had an early desire to make films and, in 1990, he moved to America to study film at New York University.

Creating a ‘Vision’ for Quantum of Solace.

Mark Lawson quickly turned the interview to a general discussion of QoS and asked whether Forster had looked at all the numerous blogs and websites on the internet and at all the general feedback on Bond. Forster said he does not look at them, as he felt it was important to keep his focus and because he wanted “one big vision” behind QoS, and did not want to be distracted. To this end, when he was appointed director of QoS, he had met Daniel Craig and discussed the character of Bond with him, and told Craig where he thought Bond could go. He was determined that QoS should be a sequel to ‘Casino Royale’, and emphasised the importance of that individual vision. Forster revealed that he realized very quickly that the producers (Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson) also strongly supported his ‘vision’ for QoS.

When questioned about any previous knowledge of Bond by Lawson, Marc Forster revealed that he was first exposed to the Bond films in the 1980s when he saw the two Timothy Dalton films. He had also watched all the Bond films in New York just before Pierce Brosnan had made ‘Goldeneye’, as part of his general study of film. He said he particularly liked the Sean Connery ones, and also admired ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’. He said he was surprised to be approached to direct a Bond movie himself. When he was asked by his agent whether he wanted to direct the “next Bond film”, he had replied “Not really” (!). Forster had asked the producers, “Why me?”, and they had told him they liked his “emotional” movies and “Bond had now reached this stage”.

In approaching the action sequences in QoS, Forster said, in a sense, he knew early on that he wanted the “Four elements” in the plot and as part of his ‘vision’ for the movie: earth, water, air, fire, etc. Reflecting on the opera sequence in QoS, of which he was especially proud, he said he was immediately struck by the large blue eye that was the centre-piece of the opera’s stage backdrop, and that this “screamed Bond”. The opera sequence was also a kind of metaphor, designed to get across the sense that Bond is up against large unseen forces (i.e. the ‘Quantum’ organisation, which is everywhere) and 007 is unable to trust anyone. Forster had also deliberately drowned out the sound when the ‘action’ happened in the opera sequence, to reinforce the sense of eeriness and Bond being very alone.

The Pressures of Directing.

Commenting on the public pressures of directing a huge film such as a Bond movie, Forster said making Bond is a bit like “being under a microscope”, where you are under the constant scrutiny of the media. There were also extreme time pressures on him. He revealed, for example, that he had “only five weeks to cut the movie”. He also commented on the pressures of the Hollywood screenwriters strike at the time and hinted that everything had to be done in a rush. While Paul Haggis did some “great additional work” on the script, Forster and Daniel Craig also still worked on it themselves.

Turning his attention to the early stages of developing the movie, Forster said he had already seen ‘Casino Royale’ (CR) when it first came out, but said he had sat down and again watched CR carefully when he was appointed director of QoS, and had taken a particular interest in the last five minutes of Craig’s first Bond movie. Forster also revealed that, one day early on in the production, he was taken into the office of the producers and was shown the title ‘Quantum of Solace’, and was asked what he thought. He said he then went away and read the short Fleming story of the same title, and that both the title and the story “grew on him” – he said he became especially interested in the main theme of Fleming’s original short story, which he felt was all about “failed relationships”. Again, this gave him something to introduce as an underlying theme in the movie.

Forster was also quizzed about the Bond producers’ reputation for having tight ‘control’ over their movie productions, but he said he had not experienced this on set or in the execution of the film; in fact, he was “given a free hand”. While he remained “nervous” when showing the producers the ‘rushes’ of the film, the producers had liked the film, “loved it” and “embraced it”. The only condition set out by the producers to Forster concerning the film was that Bond cannot kill anyone innocent e.g. bystanders in the way of car chases, and so on, and Forster said he had completely agreed with that.

The Storyline of Quantum.

Reflecting on further questions by Mark Lawson about the overall plot of QoS, Forster emphasised that he wanted the audience at times to be ‘disorientated’ in the same way as Bond, and to be asking ‘what is going on?’. Forster revealed, for example, that this was the aim behind the early car chase sequence. In fact, when asked about his general ‘philosophy’ of life, Forster said he was interested in the “unexpected” in life and in how things take us by surprise. He had tried to capture this in the storyline of QoS. On the general drama in the film, Forster also said he wanted to use Judi Dench as much as possible, as he felt she was a brilliant actor and had been “under-used” in previous 007 movies. In fact, on the ‘M’/Bond relationship running through the heart of the movie, Forster said he wanted some of the tensions found in a ‘mother/son’ relationship to come through in the dramatic sequences between a wayward Bond and his disapproving boss.

At one point, Lawson also quizzed Forster about his ‘outsider’ perspective on the Bond movie franchise. If he had been raised in the UK, said Forster, he would inevitably have had a different perspective on the series, but being raised in Switzerland (and being the first non-Commonwealth director to helm a Bond film) had given him a certain, more ‘European’, perspective on the character of Bond. Bond was a hero, but a hero with faults and vulnerability and a surprisingly complex emotional makeup. Forster said he and Daniel Craig had been very keen to bring this side of Bond into the plot.

Finally, the QoS director was asked by Lawson whether he “watched his own movies”. Forster replied a decisive “no”, as he found it “too painful”. Even Bond was hard to watch again, and he had found his recent DVD commentary on QoS hard to do as he was always thinking about how he was feeling at those precise moments of time when he was shooting particular sequences.

Q and As.

After about forty minutes, Mark Lawson opened up the interview to questions from the (very attentive) audience in the BFI auditorium. A variety of questions were asked, mainly about QoS but also about Forster’s more general film career, including his recent film ‘The Kite Runner’ (2007). The first question posed by an audience member to Forster concerned the extent to which QoS had seemed to “polarize” the Bond fan community around the world. Forster said he was in fact pleased about that, as it showed that people still felt very passionate about the character and that a Bond movie could still create debate.

When invited by another questioner to reflect upon which bits of the film “he liked” and which he would have re-done had he had the opportunity, Forster said he liked the opera sequence “a lot”, but had not been too happy with the first scene with Camille in her car i.e. the first time she had pulled up. Another member of the audience asked whether a scene had actually been shot with Mr. White for the end of the movie? At this stage you could hear a pin drop in the audience. Forster confirmed he had filmed such a sequence, which was very short (one minute long) and had included the now-famous ‘Bond, James Bond’ words of introduction being said by Bond. However, Forster said that he had decided the scene “did not add much” to the QoS story, and retaining it would also put unnecessary pressure on the producers to do a trilogy.

Another question fired at Forster concerned the future of the Bond franchise: what did he think Bond would be like in 2020? Forster replied that, in his view, the films evolved with the times and had huge potential to develop further. He noted that the next movie now had the potential for “more humour”, and also believed that the Bond movies could still address the “big issues” while continuing to entertain. He emphasised that there is “something mystical about Bond”, and Bond will always be “escapist” entertainment with a place in our affections.

The Big Issues in Bond.

Questioned further about what he thought the “big issues” were, Forster returned to some of the big themes he had tried to convey in QoS. He wanted the issue of ‘water’ and potential water shortages to be highlighted, rather than the more predictable one of ‘oil’, and had emphasised this in his conversations with Paul Haggis. Forster noted that there were places around the world where ‘water’ had become a big issue. An additional theme he had tried to capture in QoS was the backdrop of international politics, with its distrust, intrigue and wheeler-dealing. Some countries were determined to hold on to their lifestyles despite all the pollution problems that were emerging around the globe, and these countries were determined to carve up the world to maintain their influence. The world was not black and white, but shades of grey. Forster said he had tried to capture some of this reality in the sequence between ‘M’ and the Foreign Secretary. Another important factor was the role of the world’s intelligence services in world politics, and how some leaders could be “taken out” if they did not comply with the will of other nations or large corporations. Forster recalled watching a documentary about the life of a real-life intelligence operative, in which the spy had talked about how some governments could use their intelligence agencies to bring down governments. Forster reminded the audience that, at times in QoS, it was almost as if both ‘M’ and Bond each felt disgust with what they had to do.

Craig and the Role of 007.

On his relationship with Daniel Craig, Forster offered some fascinating thoughts on Craig’s approach to the character of Bond. Forster said Craig had been “very supportive” throughout the movie, and that Craig holds a “true passion” for the character of 007. The QoS director noted that Craig had read all the Ian Fleming books and studied all the EON films in detail, and was very familiar with all the “mannerisms of Bond”. Forster also said he saw Craig’s Bond as being the best interpretation of Fleming’s creation.

Towards the end of the Q. and A. session, an audience member also asked the director about the theme song for QoS, which had clearly proved controversial for some members of the audience. Forster confirmed that he had met Amy Whinehouse and that it was originally going to be her singing the main theme song. But he emphasised that he was “very happy” with the Jack White song, even if it is not to everyone’s taste.

Finally, on the general ‘look’ of QoS, Forster conceded that he very much wanted a ‘retro’ feel to the movie, one that would pay homage to the Bond movies of the 1960s. He also confirmed that he had indeed been asked to direct another Bond movie and, while he would not rule it out, he said at this stage he felt that he wanted to make a variety of different films, and was still very interested in the world of smaller, independent movie-making and exploring lots of different types of film genres and stories.

All in all, Marc Forster was patient, open and very honest in his responses to the interviewer and audience, and left many in the audience impressed with his dry humour and general enthusiasm for the world of movie-making.

‘Quantum of Solace’ is released on Blu-ray and DVD on 23 March, 2009.