Marion Hnsel’s adaptation of Damon Galgut’s The Quarry is being filmed with a precision and organisation that local film- makers could learn from, writes Andrew Worsdale
I always have a problem reporting on movie shoots, apart from being envious; everyone keeps telling you good things, you look in vain for some kind of scandal and end up feeling like you’re the film’s publicist. Such was the case recently on the set of Marion Hnsel’s adaptation of Damon Galgut’s novella The Quarry. Shooting in the seaside crayfish haven of Lambert’s Bay (a quaint town where the notorious local hobo goes by the name of Wanted) the cast, crew and Hnsel herself presented a calm, professional and united front to the visiting hackpack.
Never before have I been on a set that seemed so relaxed and yet so together. There was no rattled assistant director screaming “quiet please … next set-up!”, no disgruntled soundman feeling he was being ignored for the sake of camera- angles, and the extras and local onlookers had an air of low key self-confidence about them. Even Alice Fransman, restaurant manager of the Protea hotel (her favourite show is Dallas), said to me about the film crew, “Almal in die dorp is mal oor hulle [Everyone in the town loves them].”
For the Belgian director this will be her second picture with a South African theme. Her feature film Dust, made in 1984, was adapted from JM Coetzee’s In the Heart of the Country and shot in Spain, which doubled as the Karoo. An almost anorexic- looking but beautiful woman in her late 40s,with an Edith Piaf timbre obviously brought on by chain-smoking Belgian Du Cal ciggies, Hnsel is completely genial.
“I have a fascination with South African writers,” she says. “I read a lot of international work and I think South African stories are very strong. The writers go to the essence of things, they don’t bullshit. I’m never afraid to use something from another culture. A story could be in Inuit but if it moves me so much I’d want to make a film of it … then I don’t feel like I’m stealing something, I feel like I’m honouring it.”
Galgut’s novella is similar in style to a lot of Coetzee’s work, with its carefully non-specific locale and nameless characters. The plot revolves around a fleeing stranger – the Man -who, on his way to a small seaside village, murders a priest and takes over his identity. Written in a sparse, evocative manner, it already has a cinematic feel.
Notoriously media-shy, Galgut is however not the protective neurotic he’s painted as. But he did say that the way he felt about the movie was “Pretty shit, in a nutshell.”
That always happens when one’s “babies” are farmed out, but Galgut needn’t worry. From what I witnessed on set and saw of the rushes, Hnsel is doing a great job. “I was attracted to the story,” she says, “because I like to work with characters that transform and I’m always dealing with themes that deal with lack of love or lack of recognition. Not that I’ve experienced it in life – I’m personally very happy. Every day I get faxes from my family in Belgium hoping the shoot’s going well.”
Hnsel knows Tony Peake, Galgut’s literary agent, who sold her first film The Bed. A keen admirer of the author’s first novel, A Sinless Season, she felt close to the themes and the pain he evokes in his novels.
Initially she wanted to option Galgut’s prize-winning The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs, but when Peake sent her the manuscript of The Quarry, she knew this was the one. She consulted the author on the adaptation and, she says, “We did deep, deep talking. I’ve basically simplified the last quarter of the story, organised the structure cinematically and made it a little less symbolic.”
The lead character is foreigner John Lynch, who starred in Moll Flanders and In the Name of the Father, among others. “I wanted the actor playing the Man to have the feel of a complete stranger. I didn’t want a South African because they would have the quality of an insider. They’d have a feeling about the terrain and the people. That’s why he’s not even using a South African accent – it’s more anonymous.”
Lynch, who appears to be brooding and even ill-tempered, is,I’m assured, a joy to work with on set. He’s just completely immersed in his role. When I asked him about his experiences on the movie he looked up for a brief second, said, “Fucking great man! Fucking great!” and went back to his reveries.
For the second lead, police Captain Mong, the director was hoping to cast a local but, after extensive auditions, couldn’t find an actor of the right age with enough film experience.
Eventually British actor Jonathan Phillips, who stars in the soon-to-be-released Titanic, got the part. He says candidly: “I understand if South African actors feel bad about a Brit coming and playing the part, but acting’s the same the world over. You’re pretending to be someone else.”
Jody Abrahams of Kat and the Kings fame is one of the few locals in what is a very small cast. Bursting with a kind of mischievous energy, he tells me that “working with Marion is brilliant”.
Part of the reason everyone is so enthused is the massive amount of preparation Hnsel puts into making a film. Jeremy Nathan of Catalyst Films, the local line-producers of the picture, says: “It’s all so smooth because of Marion.”
Every single shot in the film has been storyboarded according to the precise location, and details down to the angle and lens and camera movement precisely envisioned. Second assistant director Pluto Panouss, a short-film-maker with little experience of big sets, carries a photocopied bundle of storyboards and says there’s no indecision. “We all know what’s going on. There’s no panic. Everyone’s totally organised, they just get on with the job.”
Hnsel’s groundwork also includes extensive rehearsals with the actors. She spends a lot of time discussing the story so that when the time comes to shoot it’s just a matter of letting it all unfold.
The sense of controlled ease on set is also because she consistently works with the same crew, the effect being of one happy family. Lanky soundman Henri Morelle worked on her first short film, Equilibres, in 1977. His son Stefan is now assisting dad, doing the boom on his first feature film. Hnsel asserts that the local crew have seamlessly merged into the scheme of things.
Local gaffer Elliot Sewape says he’s learnt so much from cameraman Bernard Lutic: “Everything is concentrated on as much natural light as possible.”
The scene I saw being shot featured a rag- tag procession, cops carrying a stretcher with a group of coloured women wailing behind. I looked around for supplementary lighting and noticed two reflector boards about 50m away. When I asked Lutic why he wasn’t adding anything more he shrugged his shoulders, pointed to the sun and said, “That’s all we need.”
The movie is being shot in cinemascope. To set up each shot according to the storyboard, Hnsel gazes through a regular 35mm still camera with a special lens attachment. All her films display an acute visual sense and this promises to be no exception. “The film is very, very designed,” she says. “The angles I’ve chosen are very, very precise. The whole film is designed around the perspective in the frame and the style is trying to find the right place for those lines on the screen.”
The colours of the picture are as dim as possible, all muted browns and desert shades, with a single motif of red for the policeman. Hnsel is augmenting this sandy, desolate feel by amplifying some of the soundtrack. As the story has very little dialogue, the atmosphere will be all- important.
Although The Quarry seems poised to be a South African art film, the tragedy is that no South African finance was procured for the project. Hnsel tried to get 20% of the $3,2-million budget locally -without success.
While the film was financed as a European co-production, M-Net has evidently shown an interest in picking it up. Whether we get to see it on our screens is another matter. All the same, this is patently not foreign exploitation of our stories or resources. As Chris, a Lambert’s Bay resident who was employed to do set-construction work, said to me, “I’ve been out of work for six years and it takes a foreigner to give me a job.”
Let’s hope that the local industry can take a leaf from the Belgian’s book and make a local picture that’s not corny and derivative and not filled with undue panic during production.