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Peter Mullan plays a middle-aged dockworker who's made redundant and decides to swim the channel in whimsical British dramedy On A Clear Day. Although there are shades of The Full Monty, up-and-coming filmmaker Gaby Dellal set herself apart with a film marked by "sensitive direction and quality acting". It did fair business on home shores and - ahead of its US release in April 2006 - scored the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.
Total Immersion
On location in Scotland, Mullan talks about the importance of "trust between actors" in reference to his onscreen relationship with Brenda Blethyn. He explains: "The more you get on with someone off the set, when it comes to those nasty confrontations... it's easier to create." It's an interesting insight that goes against the Method philosophy of acting, but Mullan doesn't get a chance to delve into the issue too deeply as the interview is only four minutes long. Blethyn gets slightly more talk time and highlights her "instant rapport" with Gaby Dellal.
The director herself offers more detailed notes on what attracted her to Alex Rose's script, being a woman in a man's world and her efforts to cast the film. Shockingly, she confesses that she landed Mullan by writing him a letter that simply stated, "If you don't respond to this script, I will kill myself."
Staying Afloat
It turns out that Gaby Dellal is something of a raconteur, which makes her commentary very easy listening. Of course she dispenses lots of behind-the-scenes trivia too, eg she spent a lot of time deciding whether to introduce Blethyn's character with "an arse shot" or a "tit shot", which formed the basis of a minor crisis meeting between her and her producer who felt that Blethyn was showing off too much cleavage. Similarly Dellal had former hobbit Billy Boyd model a range of women's thongs to help define his character...
But there are more serious matters too, like the film's US producers forcing Dellal to scrap her original score (using "tawngy" electric guitars) and new tax laws which almost saw the project scrapped.
Without question, Dellal's commentary is the highlight of an otherwise slim package of extras. In any case, for the majority who skipped seeing the film on its initial release, this DVD is well worth dipping into.
EXTRA FEATURES
