Which led me to approaching Matthew Vaughn.įilmmaker: I think Americans looking at British and European funding systems see ways of making first features that are somewhat orderly - a series of shorts leading into films that have some kind of institutional funding. funders to approve you as a filmmaker.” So I did. Then I had kids, more writing, more applications, more workshops, more tears, until a friend said, “Stop asking for permission, stop looking to the U.K.
I found development workshops, film labs, film schools, all whilst being on set and experiencing other filmmakers doing their thing. It’s taken me this long because I couldn’t get funded in the UK And when a project was rejected, I’d cry for bit, then get out and study more. I knew early on that I was fascinated by story and performance, so I began writing scripts, making short films, whilst earning money as a clapper loader. I spent 13 years loading film until the industry became mostly digital. Griffin: I started my journey in the film industry working in the camera department.
Was a feature always something you were striving for, and could you tell us about the different steps along the journey to Silent Night? Your IMDb credits in the camera department go back 25 years, and you’ve been making your own short films since 2003. Silent Night is in theaters from RLJE Films and streaming exclusively on AMC+.įilmmaker: Let me start by asking you about your path to this feature, your first. Below Griffin and I talk about how she hasn’t made an anti-vax film, the struggles to greenlight a first film in the UK, the support of filmmaker Matthew Vaughn, and the post-production tricks directors use when delivering news of the end of the world. Like Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up, the film was originally designed to speak to the issues of climate change, but the political and social dimensions of the current health crisis provide new meanings. Juggling a number of tones, from farce to class-satire to horror, Griffin has made an ambitious picture that hits even deeper due to its release during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, as the film progresses, stiff upper lips sag and the horror becomes real. For this group - who include hosts Nell (Keira Knightley) and Simon (Matthew Goode), as well as Nell’s oldest son Art ( JoJo Rabbit‘s Roman Griffin Davis, also the director’s son) - the concept that this night represents their final hours is initially something to be denied, a disaster that’s less pressing than dessert recipes and romantic score-settling. Faced with the scientific knowledge that a painful death will be inflicted on all its citizens, the British government becomes the ultimate nanny state, distributing suicide pills that should be taken at the stroke of midnight. In Griffin’s film, the Yuletide gathering is to be a final one as a poisonous gas cloud is poised to envelope the earth, killing all living creatures. From its title down to its Christmas setting, in which family and friends congregate for the kind of boozy reunion that segues from holiday cheer to emotional warfare, Griffin’s directorial debut sits squarely within the sub-genre and, due to one cross-genre addition, feels particularly of the moment.
MONEY FOR NOTHING DOCUMENTARY S IN PLOT MOVIE
Just in time for the holidays, during which the question of what makes a Christmas movie appears across film social media feeds, arrives Camille Griffin’s Silent Night. Camille Griffin, Keira Knightley, Matthew Vaugh, Silent Night
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