While representing Take One at Berlinale, Jack Toye spoke to Picturehouse exec Clare Binns about life in programming and acquisitions. Clare oversees the Picturehouse booking policy, and works with a team of programmers who have a passionate interest in their cinemas and particular areas of interest. She also acquires films for Picturehouse Entertainment, such as THE LOBSTER and MARGUERITE.
Jack Toye: A lot of people that read Take One are film students, they’re just starting out in the industry. Could you tell us a bit about the first film festival you attended, and what it was like?
Clare Binns: Well it’s such a long time ago now, that I can barely remember it! I think that of the film festivals, it was probably the Berlinale. That would be maybe twenty-five or thirty years ago, a long time ago! Berlinale was in a completely different area then, it moved to Potsdamer Platz only seven or eight years ago. Before that, it was around Zoo Palast, so it was very different, a different world then. We didn’t have mobile phones. We didn’t have the ability that social media has brought us with instantaneous things. So it was a much more relaxed way of doing festivals than it is now – but always confusing. Always worried that you’re in the wrong screening, seeing the wrong film, and everybody else is in the right film seeing the best film that you’re missing.
JT: I can definitely identify with that! You’ve just come back from the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, U.S.A, and have come more or less straight over to Berlin. What’s special about Berlinale for you?
CB: I think it’s certainly still the most old-fashioned festival in terms of the way the films are screened. It obviously has a much more European Film Festival feel to it than Toronto and Cannes. Cannes is much more international. I watched Spike Lee’s CHI-RAQ last night and that came like a breath of fresh air into the proceedings so it’s quite a “stately old lady” is Berlin.
JT: That’s a great way to describe it. Could you talk a little bit about the differences working for say a core-funded cinema in the UK like Watershed (Bristol), HOME (Manchester) and FilmHouse (Edinburgh), compared to a company like Picturehouse, which is in a phase of rapid expansion?
“Everybody wants their film in Cannes. So the standard there is like no other.”
CB: Obviously our remit is slightly different – we’re a commercial organisation. I suppose that with each cinema that we open up, we tend to open up in the heart of communities. So they’re like small village communities within cities – East Dulwich and Crouch End, which we’ve just opened up. They have a real sense of the local community. The idea is, and it’s always been my policy, is that you have the best of all cinema, and that can be STAR WARS, it can be MUSTANG, it can be a small documentary, it can be DEADPOOL. I think the difference for us is that we try and offer the community a big range of titles, whether it be kids’ films or the silver screen. I think that’s where we
differ to the subsidised cinema, in a way, are getting money for not playing those big commercial films. It’s not that they shouldn’t play them, but if you have money to be able to show a different kind of film, then that’s what you should be spending your money on. We are very simply trying to offer a bigger range of films, which include small, medium, big etc. And also a food offer, a drink offer, a comfort offer. I think that’s the difference.
JT: The two films that you’ve bought at Berlinale this year are ALONE IN BERLIN and THE INNOCENTS. Could you tell us a bit about the process of securing these titles? And as a follow-up question, what are some of the films that as it were, “got away” at previous Berlinales?
CB: Ha well I’m not going to tell you about the ones that got away as it’s too painful, I take it all very seriously. I’m always glad that a film gets distribution in the UK, and films I like that I don’t get, I’m delighted that they still come to the UK and we can still play them. But obviously it’s very nice to be able to control the release date etc. The process of buying films is really about keeping in touch with sales agents, reading scripts, seeing promos, talking to people and finding out what’s around. THE LOBSTER, for example, we bought on script, so that was about our relationship with the producers, seeing the script and going from there. MARGUERITE was bought on a promo, that was from an eight minute promo. Both ALONE IN BERLIN and AGNES D’EAU, now known as THE INNOCENTS, were bought on a complete film being seen. It’s a negotiation, it’s like buying a car – well, like buying a second-hand car as there’s a lot of horse trading that goes on. You do it knowing that there will be other people bidding on the films as well.
JT: To a Film Studies student in the UK, faced with undergraduate tuition fees of £9000 and more for postgraduate studies, what do you say to the type of person looking to get into the industry whilst maintaining an academic curiosity in their subject?
CB: What I would say is that it’s a different world to when I went into the industry. I don’t have any education whatsoever in terms of film. I learnt on the job. So you don’t have to go to film school, or university to do film studies, you can just get straight out there and gain experience. I think the most important thing is to see lots and lots and lots of films. Try and understand the business. Go to Festivals. Talk to people, people who are working in the industry. I think there’s opportunities to do that. But the Festival is the best possible place to talk about films and that’s why I like festivals because you do get to talk to people about the very thing that you’re passionate
about.
JT: Do you despair sometimes on the festival circuit that just don’t make it over to the UK? You obviously have a finite budget with Picturehouse Entertainment, so you can’t possibly buy every single film that you enjoy watching?
CB: It breaks my heart. I think one of the reasons that I still want our cinemas to be very, very successful – and if that means we have to show films that I personally don’t like – if you are successful it gives you more opportunities to do creative things. So, I think we try very hard at Picturehouse to get smaller films into cinemas. We did it with RADIATOR at the end of last year, which wasn’t being picked up for distribution by anyone. I’m currently trying to work on various films that wouldn’t get distribution i nthe UK, that we can try and find a way. Chris Harris (programmer) with his documentaries, were trying to find creative ways to get those documentaries into the UK. And working with distributors, to say if you buy it, we’ll play it.
JT: Do you get star-struck when you meet stars at festivals, or is it on more of an level-field industry footing that you meet? I refere to your recent photo online with Werner Herzog at Sundance.
CB: I’m thrilled by meeting people that I admire! Werner Herzog for me, I worked as an usher when his films were coming out back in the day. I was a projectionist and projecting AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD and FITZ CARALDO is one of my favourite films of all time. To meet these people who you admire is fantastic, I absolutely love it. I knew Werner from CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS 3D, which we released. But it’s incredibly exciting to be able to release films and meet people who you admire who are incredibly creative, which I aint!
JT: Theoretical question now: You’re offered a place on the Berlinale Competition Jury or the Un Certain Regard Jury at Cannes. Which one do you choose and why?
CB: I think, Un Certain Regard. I think currently the Competition strand in Berlinale over the last few years has not been as exciting as I would have liked. But Un Certain Regard, and just Cannes, is so amazing with the titles that are there. Everybody wants their film in Cannes. So the standard there is like no other.
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