10 Questions for Ridley Scott

The director of memorably powerful and violent movies (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator), Ridley Scott is making his first attempt at comic romance. His new film, A Good Year, stars Russell Crowe and is adapted from A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle, who has a home near Scott’s in France (see review, p. 145). Scott, 68, talked with Belinda Luscombe about the French, Francis Ford Coppola’s wine and how we’d all really like Kingdom of Heaven if we just saw more of it.

Your movie is based on a book by your friend, stars a friend and was made near your home in Provence. You don’t believe in suffering for your art?

I unfortunately do suffer for my art. However easy a film looks, it’s not. They’re always quite tricky. But being down there was wonderful. I just wanted to get the place on film as I knew it.

Is it the first romantic comedy you’ve made?

Yes, it is. I don’t regard Thelma and Louise as romantic, but it was a comedy.

Is there a particular difficulty in romance?

Only keeping it going! In life. In film, it’s very important to not allow yourself to get sentimental, which, being British, I try to avoid. People sometimes regard sentimentality as emotion. It is not. Sentimentality is unearned emotion.

You worked with Russell Crowe on Gladiator, on this film and on your next, American Gangster. Is he more puppy dog or pain in the neck?

I think we’re both pains in the neck. That’s probably why we get on. Really, what it is is Russell is very smart and therefore asks all sorts of assertive and intelligent questions, so if you’re not ready you’re going to get caught in the cross fire. So you’d better be ready. I’m used to him now. He’s fundamentally a bit of a puppy dog.

What are the best and worst things about the French?

Food and wine, wine and food.

That’s the best thing about France, but the French?

The thing that I really admire is that their way of living is very important to them. There is a very strong regard for “living” in France and Italy. Certainly we’ve romanticized that. And for the most part, it’s a very nice way of life.

And the worst?

They’re constantly assessing. They look you up and down both metaphorically and literally, and that’s not always altogether pleasant.

You’ve had huge hits such as Gladiator and Alien and other movies that have disappeared, such as G.I. Jane and Kingdom of Heaven. Can you tell which ones audiences are going to embrace?

You can never tell. A word on Kingdom of Heaven: if you get the four-disc set, which is 3 hr. 8 min., you’ll see why it’s such a good movie. It was a real passion project, and it’s the film I’m most proud of. I think it was treated incredibly unfairly. It did a very delicate job of literally profiling the Muslims when it was not a good time to be doing that, and actually Fox really followed through. I’ve got many letters from Muslim organizations thanking me for making Kingdom of Heaven. And people are rediscovering it. So it ain’t disappeared, love. I was very happy about G.I. Jane. It just was unpopular, but it’s going to be turned into a TV series. So it ain’t a bad idea.

You’re credited with being the father of the director’s cut. Have you ever looked back on a decision and thought the studio was right?

Umm … no. I don’t mean that unkindly. I have great respect for anybody who’s going to invest in what I want to do. And I believe they have the right to discuss and say what they feel.

Getting back to A Good Year, there are a lot of wine jokes in the movie. Do you actually make wine?

No. I’ve been a good boy and maintained this quite nice, neat little vineyard for the last 15 years and have worked–well, not me, but somebody has improved the quality of the grape to the extent that I’ve been told now I should start to think about a cave and bottling and actually doing a thing for myself.

Have you tried Francis Ford Coppola’s wine?

Yeah.

And?

Rich. It’s pretty heavy.

You’ve made about 2,000 commercials. What is the most fun thing to sell?

I enjoyed doing cigarette commercials because they always just come up with great ideas. I did those for years, and they were great filmic, episodic commercials. The problem is, they were about smoking.