preview
Shake your money-maker
Having proved himself a jack-of-all- trades with the success of Dumbstruck on stage, Ruffian Hearts on television and This Year’s Love in cinemas, Glasgow renaissance man DAVID KANE invited The List on location during the filming of his new romcom, Born Romantic. Words: Nigel Floyd
‘I want to see moves you could be arrested for elsewhere.‘ shouts the assistant director of Born Rmnantit‘. inciting the couples on the dance floor to salsa with lewd abandon. It‘s easy to see why actress ()livia Williams. who's shaking her booty with partner (‘raig Ferguson. described the hot Latino dance as. ‘basically a license to wiggle your arse and get indecently close to someone you don‘t know very well.’ And that was just the rehearsal. ()bserving these sensual gyrations with professional detachment. writer/director David Kane wears a relaxed smile. although he does ttig nervously at his hair from time to time.
Before the first real take. make-up artists flit about. dabbing at sweat-sheened brows and primping hair. As they do. I spy other members of the cast. including Jimi Mistry from [fast ls [fast and Catherine McCormack. almost unrecognisable behind unflattering plastic specs. Not today present. btit rounding out the impressive cast. are Jane Horrocks. lan Hart. Adrian Lester. Paddy Considine and John Thomson. Meanwhile. those present seem grateful for a few words of encouragement from Kane: 'I know you‘ve all been dancing for ten days. so just take ten seconds of silence to gather yourselves.‘ Then the
30 THE “ST 15 Feb—l Mar 2001
'This time, the women are far more realistic about romance than the men.’ David Kane
Kane has assembled a top cast for his romcom, Born Romantic
(iypsy Kings‘ ‘Bamboleo' strikes tip and the lascivious Latino dance moves start all over again.
The unlikely setting for this steamy salsa session was an upstairs room at the Loughborough Hotel. near Brixton. where some of those recruited as extras strut their sttiff at regular club nights. Kane decided it would make a perfect location for Horn Romantic. lnitially. his script focused on three men in love with the same woman: btit about 50 pages in. Born Romantic started to gravitate towards the ensemble style of his edgin romantic ensemble comedy This Year's Love. observing the fraught romances of three twentysomething couples. whose lives criss-cross at the salsa club. lil (‘orazon
Unlike This Year's Love. in Born Romantic it is the men. not women. who are the romantic innocents. ‘This time. the women are far more realistic about romance than the men.‘ says Kane. ‘The women are much more cynical and wary. whereas the men are quite naive: they‘re smitten at first sight and they pursue the women in what they think is a traditionally romantic way. But what they don't realise is that they have to go deeper. revealing more of their inner selves. if they're going to make any headway.‘
Which brings its back to arse-wiggling. ‘lt’s a metaphor for the way that the characters have more trouble expressing their emotions in real life than they do on the dance floor.‘ says Kane. ‘Salsa is an expression of uninhibited passion. but once the characters leave the club. they find it hard to express that level of passion in their real lives. I wanted to use that juxtaposition.‘
()ne of the ironies of the club scenes is that. although the characters were meant to be crappy dancers. the actors playing them still had to have two weeks of instruction with a salsa teacher. The actors approached these lessons with varying degrees of seriousness. ‘lt was never my aim that they look like professionals.‘ says Kane. ‘that wasn‘t part of the story. I wanted them to look as if they'd learned to salsa well enough to enjoy it. Anyway. I didn‘t want them all to turn into Fred Astaire at the end.‘
You've got to tip your (top) hat to Kane for that.
Born Romantic opens Fri 9 Mar. See review.
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Rough cuts
Lights, camera, action . . .
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CALL FOR ENTRIES from the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the longest running and best of its kind worldwide. Budding Orson Welles’ wanting to submit a film can download further information from www.edfi|mfest.org.org.uk or phone 221 8709.
Sir Micklewhite, of Moonstone, Edinburgh