Traveling Wilburys photo: 2007-11-04

четверг, 8 ноября 2007 г.

Из интервью Ричарда Лестера

I mean, to film The Beatles in London... Very exciting, but logistical hell. Just grab a camera, get what you can! You'd get one take on the streets and then out would pop 2,000 screaming children. And the police would tell us to piss off. We'd say, 'We've got a permit.' They'd say, 'Not any more!' We had three-and-a-half weeks to edit; just cut it, get it to the cinema, off we went. My whole purpose with 'A Hard Day's Night' and 'Help!' was to try to put their qualities on the screen: not only their musical qualities, but that sense of irony and exuberance. 'A Hard Day's Night' was the most delicate piece of the surreal. Andrew Sarris called it 'the "Citizen Kane" of jukebox movies'. That's a nice line and I'll take it with pleasure!I think The Beatles had seen 'The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film', the 11-minute short I made with Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers. We only made it for ourselves; Peter and I had a few drinks, wrote a few gags on napkins and rented a field for a fiver. But it got an Academy Award nomination! Even more amazing was the Palme d'Or for 'The Knack… and How To Get It'. I'll never know what they loved about it. I mean, I was asked to go on the jury the following year and all sorts of imponderables and swindles seem to take place. I won't go into detail…