‘WE NEVER DID FIND OUT WHO CRACKED THE EGGS'
To sir with love ”
As the 1965 thriller The lpcress File gets a new lease of life, Paul Dale talks to the legendary production designer SIR KEN ADAM about the making of a classic.
aybe it's a boy thing but all my life I’ve wanted to meet Sir Ken Adam. When I was a kid I had no idea where he came from or what he did but I knew that when I saw his name in opening titles I was in for a brilliant time. Later I found otit he was the ‘Bond‘ guy. the creator of some of the most mind blowing interiors ever in Gold/inng
I» .\'o and The Spy Who Loved Me. As I grew out of
Bond my passion for Adam did not dissolve. for I discovered a whole body of his work that had nothing to do with 007. His work on Dr Strange/ore. Barry Lydon and Tinto Brass” brilliant Salon Kitty. to name a few. installed in me the kind of awe I had hitherto only afforded my Action Man"1 submarine.
So I jumped at the chance to meet Adam to coincide with the theatrical and DVD re-releases of The lpr‘l‘t’ss l-‘i/t'. After a brief wait. during which his wife of 53 years. Maria. told me that he had gone downstairs to check on his car. I found myself nervously speaking to the animated. if slightly shaky. 84-year-old Adam.
'I loved doing The Ipr'n's‘s l’ilv at the time because you know it was a departure from Bond and the director |Sidney ll Iiurie. myself and Michael [(‘ainel had made up our minds that we didn‘t want it to be a poor man‘s film. We wanted it to be really quite nothing to do with Bond but we had a job convincing Harry Salt/man who was the producer.'
Adam stops for air before hurtling forward. ‘At the time Len l)eighton was a popular writer and the script was good. Sid litirie was very much in tune with it and
we had a wonderful old cameraman called Otto Heller who came from Czechoslovakia. He was a brilliant. instinctive cameraman who had reputably started his career at the funeral of the Emperor Frans Joseph in
Vienna and he was a short man so he had a hand crank
camera at the time and he didn't even know what he
was filming. In my experience I have nearly always A
found that if the creative elements on a film really gel
together. work well together. then normally the film
turns out to be good. Harry eventually saw what we
were doing and got quite excited about it too — maybe
we went a little over the top with shooting through key holes and strange camera set ups and so on but I think it fitted the whole atmosphere.’
Having promised to keep our chat short in the light
of a recent illness. I make moves to wrap up the interview but Adam has now warmed to his reminiscences in his own peculiar Germanic way. ‘But .
we never did find out who cracked the two eggs in the
cooking scene. I'm sure it wasn‘t Michael. It was
probany Deighton. he was a very good cook.‘ And with that Sir Ken Adam. the greatest production
designer in the history of cinema. starts chortling §
uncontrollany to himself.
The Ipcress File is showing at Filmhouse, Edinburgh, a Special Edition two disc DVD set (Network) is out now as is Ken Adam: The Art of Production Design by Christopher Frayling (Faber).
Hit >l<
THE BEST FILM & DVD RELEASES
it Hidden The mighty Michael Funny Games Haneke returns with a devastating suburban thriller starring Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche. See review, page 39. Fi/mhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 27 Jan.
ii: 13 ('izameti) Bleak, brutal and ultra low budget nightmare thriller from France and Georgia. See review, page 38. Fi/mhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 20 Jan.
* A Cook and Bull Story Funny adaptation of Tn’stram Shandy. Lawrence Sterne’s classic book of digression. Stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. See review, page 39. GFf, Glasgow and Cameo, Edinburgh from Fri 20 Jan.
* The lpcress File Lovely new print and double disc DVD set of the first Harry Palmer thriller. See interview, right. Fi/mhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 27 Jan.
53 Munich Spielberg remembers a forgotten episode of Jewish secret service history. See feature. page 14, and review, page 38. General release.
all Brokeback Mountain Lee’s achingly beautiful Western starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. General release from Fri 6 Jan.
ti! Innocence Dreamy, fantastical giris’ boarding school mystery. Cameo, Edinburgh from Fri 20 Jan (ti/l Thu 26 Jan, matinees only).
ii! Blood for Dracula Producer Wamol and Morrissey's wonderfully camp and creepy horror homage. Part of Psychotronic cinema. Fi/mhouse, Edinburgh (Fri 79 Jan only), GFT, Glasgow (Tue 31 Jan only).
at That Sinking Feeling Rare theatrical screening of Bill Forsyth’s brilliant and funny 1979 debut. GFT, Glasgow (Wed 25 Jan only). It The Hitchcock Complete Box Set Fourteen flicks from the big fella on DVD say no more. Out now (MediaComm).
19 Jan—2 Feb 2006 THE LIST 37