Morgues don’t normally have red doors, but in The Jacket, this is no ordinary morgue.
‘I think .lohn |.\l;i_\|1tii'}| is truls iiidi\idual as a filmmaker. He's also a \er} close friend and that all goes along with it. I trust his taste. With this film. he's taken this \er} strange script. which has been around for a while and people said would be uninakeable. and has made it into something that be_\ond being \ isuall} beautiful is entertaining and scar}. You can‘t define it.
‘ll' _\ott watch it. and then see it again. .lohn's artwork is all o\‘er the walls. There are clues L'\‘cl"\'\\'llcl‘c.
‘l’d pla_\'ed a schi/ophrenic before in the lilm Some lit/it's. I did Use a lot of the research lid done on that film for '/'/i(' .lui'la'I. What we do is
try and make sense of our world and lix'es. and if
there is a chemical imbalance in the brain or you‘re sul'l'ering from abuse as a child. it you do not deal with it. the thin line we walk on called sanin is \ei'} easy to fall oil.
‘I think The Jacket is a reflection ol‘ Western societ}. This man who had major problems. has
18 THE LIST 3:9 Aim—‘2 ‘.‘.a.
fought for his cottlitt'}. It's not deepl} political but it )oti start to pick at it. there are major political references in there.
'.\nd that's what John \l;i}btit'_\ is about. He doesn't make it cas}. but )ott come awa} thinking. "I lia\en't sccti aiisthing like that before.”
The location manager Lloret Dunn
Dunn's credits include Sea of Souls and The Book Group. Hired by Peter McAlwee. on The Jacket she was responsible for finding all the locations in Scotland. including the remarkable psychiatric hospital in Bangour. "I‘liis was a lo\cl_\ job because it wasn't location- ltL';t\} because Bangour itself had so man} different locations in one place it was \ei'} straiglitlorwai'd.
'l-or the Iraq scenes we filmed in a working sand tiuarr) in l.aiiark. but the sand had to be the right colour e\ en though we were filming at night so we did a lot of research into what Iraq looked like at the time of" the first conflict. It had to be spot on.
'.\'orma|l_\ sou work from a production office somewhere and )ou are on location for ina}be a da_\ or a w eck or w hate\ er. With The ./(l('/\('/ e\er_\bod_\ mined in and took ox er one ol' the btiildiiigs and turned it into a production ol'lice. Suddenl} we had computers and all these different crew members working in this building. with trailers and caras'ans and a kitchen so it was like a lull) functioning tilm stttdio.'
The director
John Maybury
He’s the UK‘s answer to Terrence Malick. Maybury may not be prolific but that did not stop Kris Kristofferson. Jennifer Jason Leigh. Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley queueing up to work with him on The Jacket. ‘(ieorge |(‘lortiic‘}'| and SteVen [Soderberghl just contacted me otit ol' the blue. I was astonished. It
was at a point where I had been working for
three scars on a lilm about (‘l'iristopher Marlowe. and we‘d almost started filming it with lirst .lude Law and then Johnny l)epp. And then the whole thing collapsed. So I thought. "I'm wasting my time with this feature film thing. I should go back to being arty." Suddenl}. from being in this position. I was walking onto the Warner Brothers
lot and Inn ing meetings with Ste\ en Soderbei'gh and (ieorge (‘loones
'llang‘mrr was more than bleak in real life. lt was se\eral buildings in a huge estate. It was originall} called the lxdiiibui'gh lunatic \\}ltl|tl. It was built at the turn of the centiir} and Used iii the first and second World Wars tor burns \ictiins. It was impregnated with this horrible. horrible atmosphere: a hundred _\ears ot madness and suffering and it stank. 'l'he smell was one of the weirdest things about it a strange ini\tui‘e of urine and mould. It was a \ei'_\ weird place. 'l‘here was still one ward operating. w ith patients, ()ccasioiiall}. one or two would wandei into our set. :\lltl (ilasgow. _\oii couldn't liiid a better place to liiid a bunch of mad people.
General release from Fri 13 May.
SCOTLAND THE SET
Scottish landscape and monuments have formed the backdrop for some classic moments in film. But can you name the movies?
1 Arisalg, Western Highlands This warmly whim5ical 1983 homage to the classic Eating comedies is best remembered for its red
- ~ ’ telephone box. and was actually filmed at Pennan in Aberdeenshire. The film, starring Burt Lancaster, was shot in a series of west coast Highland locations, but its beach scenes were shot in Arisaig.
2 Rannoch Moor, Western Highlands Michael Hoffrnann and Ninian Dunnett's delightful 1985 tale of Scottish tourism and highway robbery was shot all over the place. but this location was one of most memorable. Other locations included Sighthitl in Glasgow. Lochgorlhead, Glen Coe. Loch Tula. Glen Nevis. Oueensferry and Argyll. 1..“ ' ' 3 Burrow Head, Dumtries and Galloway Robin Hardy's brilliant genre- bending horror famously used this bill for its
T‘- burningly memorable final scene but did you know that the site is actually located in a Hoseasons caravan park? Parts of the 1973 cult classic were also filmed in Plockton, Skye. Creetown. Gatehouse of Fleet. Kirkcudbright, Pon Logan and Culzean Castle.
4 Barnbougle Castle, Edinburgh Filmed entirely in Edinburgh, Ronald Neame and Jay Presson Allen's 1969 adaptation of the capital's classic novel used Donaldson's school for the deaf on Henderson Row (now part of Edinburgh Academy) and Barnbougle Castle on the Dalmeny Estate near Cramond as its main locations.
5 Edinburgh-Falker Canal Filmed all over the central belt utilising the canals that join Edinburgh and Glasgow. David Mackenzie's 2003 - ‘ adaptation of the nihilistic Alexander Trocchi novel also used sites in Falkirk, Linlithgow and Gullane.