Tilda Is Coming LISTEN
by David Thomson
The haunted, haunting face of Tilda Swinton is everywhere. Last summer, it was a stunning surprise to be making one's way down the Grand Canal in Venice on a vaporetto and be confronted by a poster of Tilda's stare for Hussein Chalayan's superb film installation, The Absent Presence, the Turkish entry in the Biennale. And during this year's Festival, San Francisco will be alive at night with projected images of Tilda (photographed and collaged by the immortal Lucy Gray—who also happens to be my wife). So who else should the Festival have invited to give its State of Cinema address but the most eloquent, provocative and height-advantaged actress in the world today? (Did I mention that this reigning monarch of films independent and beyond now has a smash hit, as the White Witch—one of the great images of the year—in Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?)
Tilda and San Francisco are not strangers to one another. She has worked on two film projects here and has graced the stage of the Castro Theatre in front of more than one packed house. She lives (when she is at home) in the north of Scotland. But she is in great demand these days for all manner of projects. Rushing here and there, she found time for an email interview—quick questions, quick answers but an advance taste of a lecture to remember.
You are a world-famous witch now. How have your kids (twins, a boy
and a girl) reacted?
With customary insouciance. They represent two tickets unsold by Disney.
Too many hills to sledge down this winter.
You are in a big Disney hit. How has that experience changed your
view of film and the world?
I understand now why most huge budget films are such rubbish: enormous
jigsaws put together by very tired giants; like anything flatpacked or
preprocessed-buildings, food etc., the creativity involved is months ago.
It's a miracle any freshness survives.
What has depressed and excited you in film in the last year?
The closing down of small cinemas around the globe. The opening up of
small
cinemas around the globe.
Name three projects you'd do if you could raise the money.
A film portrait of the Marchesa Luisa Casati-belle epoque cross between
Marilyn Manson, Michael Jackson and Leigh Bowery and self-confessed "living
work of art." A documentary about money and how to live without it.
The inauguration of our own cinema in the Highlands of Scotland where
we live-probably mobile, possibly inflatable, inviolably personally programmable.
In addressing the state of cinema, who influences you the most? John
Knox, Derek Jarman, Luis Buñuel or George W. Bush?
Patti Smith—Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine.
What does San Francisco mean to you?
The organist at the Castro. Lynn Hershman. The little pea green electric
car I drove in Teknolust.
Previous Addresses
Brad Bird 2005
B. Ruby Rich 2004
Michel Ciment 2003