A new vision of Britain Pawel Pawlikowski tells SF Said about the 'soulscapes' in his mesmerising new film - and why he turned Gwyneth Paltrow down

• Published in: Daily telegraph (London, England : 1969)
• Main Author: by S F SAID
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: London (UK) Daily Telegraph 15.10.2004
• Subjects: Paltrow, Gwyneth; Pawlikowski, Pawel
• ISSN: 0307-1235

As with Last Resort - about a Russian woman coming to England with her son - parts of the story might sound familiar, but [Pawel Pawlikowski]'s characters feel fresh and alive. [Paddy Considine], magnificent in Last Resort, is just as good again; while the girls, making their feature film debuts, are electrifying, full of imagination and spark. "With Natalie, I wanted her to be constantly dramatic, to be in the moment," he says. "She's got a genius, she has very natural comedic tendencies, and you have to give her the framework for these moments of genius to come alive. So it was, `OK, let's shoot the script, but now let's try something different - just do it in your own rhythm, one take, two, three, four, seven, nine - great, it's there!'" Even more than the acting, it's Pawlikowski's feel for the textures of film that makes his work compelling, particularly his use of landscape. In Last Resort, he made Margate look like some strange lunar concentration camp. In My Summer of Love, he infuses dour Yorkshire hillsides with all the shimmering promise and intensity of his teenage heroines. Pawlikowski left Poland when he was 15, coming to London with his mother, a formative moment he fictionalised in Last Resort. He studied poetry at Oxford, cut his teeth making documentaries for the BBC, but still has traces of an accent. There's a sense about him of the permanent outsider; perhaps it's ultimately what gives his films their distinctive flavour.