CinÉireann March 2018 | Page 41

the same time that Aisling Walsh made Maudie. And we were in touch. We were Canadian buddies because she was filming shortly after me. I think that Maudie is a fantastic film I think it's one of those films that's probably being under recognised here in Ireland.

And filming outside Ireland?

I enjoy it. I work outside Ireland a lot and I really like that. I love Ireland but I really love working outside Ireland. I love the difference that you have. It's a fresh palette of landscape. If I'm honest my impression of the Canadian film industry and of shooting a film there was not great. I don't have any great affection for them which is kind of sad to say. I remember that when I met Catherine the first day and we were walking around Central Park she said "this is a fantastic script ,this is a great cast, it's such a pity that we have to shoot this in Canada". And I thought that that was a bit harsh but I think she's right. There's something in the Canadian film industry, and I'm generalising here, but there so much work being done in Canada that they have slipped into some sort of conservative groove. There's a certain way that things happen and I know that myself and the DOP, that we were both kind of frustrated by the conservatism and the caution. It wasn't that the people weren't nice and that didn't work hard but there seemed to be artistic constipation. It felt institutionalised and I'm sad to say that, but it's true.

How did you go about adapting the novel?

I think when adapting any book, particularly a good book, it's not like you come in and slash and burn. With a lot of adapted screenplays they see a great idea and then they think that they have a better one. But I remember when I adapted John Banville for the stage it was a similar thing. You have to just stay with it and read and read and read. And really get to know it. And with a good book you continually find new things in it. And I think that true with both the Book of Evidence and Unless. Often on a superficial reading, and particularly with a book like Unless that you have to pull it apart, you find a problem or an inconsistency and you sort of think that you'll have to fix it. But actually your first port of call should be to go back to the book again because invariably the writers, particularly good writers, have actually a reason for it. So after that then it's a period of distillation. You try and distil things. With Unless it's a very internal book so you have to make things that in the book are said internally or that are emotions more visual and often that could just be the landscape of somebody's face. Catherine is very good at saying a lot with just an expression. I think with screenwriting, and with filmmaking and editing, it's about what you leave out. If I've learnt anything it's that. It's that something gets stronger by taking stuff away.

Was there much then that you left on the cutting room floor?

A lot. There was a lot. It was kind of a mad schedule. As often as the case with these things your schedule just keeps getting shrunk and you're not quite sure why so you end up cutting scenes. There were certainly many occasions where I was on schedule setting out to do a major scene and the production manager would say well you've got 10 minutes. You're thinking well if this was Hollywood I have a week to do that. So that requires a little adaptation and that's part of the job. You say I've only got 10 minutes how do I do this and luckily the cast were very responsive. They were very involved and so we would just see what can we do, rather than bemoan what we can't do.

The store Honest Ed's itself is a character within the film. And it's sadly now gone.

Torontonians are heartbroken. This is a place that holds such affection in the psyche of Toronto. It was one of the nice and kind of poignant things that we're able to do with the film was capture it on film. They were very nice to us and in some small way we were able to immortalise it and just record it before it was gone. It was a real poignancy around it. It's a place that with its gaudy neon it kind of has a Tom Waits background or something. I think it's condominiums now. It was a nice swansong for it in some ways.

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