This has been a long summer of film festivals for me and my film. Is the world ready for THE SEA? Well, the audiences have been unfailingly receptive and even warm, but I am in no doubt that I’m in difficult critical territory. We were in competition here at Dinard and failed to make any impression at all on the jury…. but my fantasies don’t include gloriously tearful acceptance speeches, so that’s all right then. Am I just being brave? Well, the film which carried the day is THE SELFISH GIANT – and it’s a lovely, accomplished work that at moments I found mesmerically beautiful. So it’s not about the other films: it is, as it is with everything about me, from the films I make, to the ironing I do, about my self, my soul, my place in the world. And it’s a scratchy, uncomfortable, inconvenient, unfashionable, never quite in vogue place: THE SEA epitomises it all.
My film, hopefully like the life I live, is about asking questions and trying, against the sadly evident odds, not to look a bit ridiculous.
Notes on THE SEA 