Comedy / Drama (Franklin Wilhern)

Penelope is a modern day offbeat fable about a young woman who, having spent her life trapped by a family curse sets out to find love and discover her true self.

Best REG line:

His mother abandoned him, his father fired a gun at him; but Richard E. Grant bears no grudges. How could he? His childhood in end-of-empire Swaziland gave him the material for a gripping film and book.

In a small, private cinema in Soho, Richard E. Grant is introducing Wah-Wah, the autobiographical film he has written, directed and, to all intents, produced (although that’s a long story).

“The audiences we have tested it on so far have both laughed and cried,” he says, baring his teeth in a smile that looks more like a grimace. “So no pressure.”

This might be a tougher audience than most: a dozen gnarled distributors who watch films every day. But the screening begins and they duly oblige with the odd chuckle and sniffle.

Afterwards, in his intense way, Grant seems pleased, his pale blue eyes slightly mad and stary. We find a dimly lit corner and the 48-year-old actor sits forward, straight-spined, as he talks and talks, earnestly and articulately, spooling out sentences like tickertape.

The film, set in Swaziland during the dying years of British colonial rule, tells the story of his parents’ divorce, as seen through his adolescent eyes.

It opens with a scene in which Grant’s mother (played by Miranda Richardson) has sex with his father’s best friend in the front seat of a car.

The 11-year-old Richard is pretending to be asleep in the back seat but sees everything. He is horrified. He tells no one.

Grant’s father (played by Gabriel Byrne) is the minister for education. Like all his peers in Swaziland he speaks ‘Wah-Wah’, Wodehousian English punctuated with phrases such as ‘toodle pip’.
Confronted with his wife’s adultery, his cheerfulness disintegrates. He turns to drink and, over time, becomes an alcoholic.

This article/interview with Richard appeared in The Telegraph’s “Seven” Magazine a couple of Sundays ago. To read more, just click here.

Thanks to Sue W for the news.

Richard appeared on British radio waves yesterday as a guest on BBC2’s “The Steven Wright Show”. He talked for about 11 minutes or so and told Steven and the gang about “Wah-Wah” and his subsequent book, “The Wah-Wah Diaries: The Making Of A Film”. Richard also expressed his interest in directing more films.

The Temple managed to get a copy of the interview which you can listen to here.

Thanks to Erica for the news.

Tuesday 18th April, 2006

Richard was interviewed on The Steven Wright Show on BBC2 for about 11 minutes or so. Richard talked to Steven and the gang about “Wah-Wah” and his subsequent book, “The Wah-Wah Diaries: The Making Of A Film”.

To listen to a recording of the interview (3.9MB) – courtesy of the BBC2 website – just click below.

Download Quicktime now

The Pan-Macmillan Website – April 2006

“I pitched the idea of an autobiographical film called Wah-Wah to a prospective producer in October 1999. Five years later, it had its world premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival in August 2005. The Wah-Wah Diaries – The Making of a Film covers the highs, lows, troughs and treetops negotiated to get my first film as a writer-director off the ground. It is the day to day, month by month, year in, year out chronicle of the struggle to get the film scripted, cast, financed and filmed on location in Swaziland where all the events took place.

It’s an unvarnished, undiluted, eye-peeling, brain-imploding canter through the way in which this film actually got made, including film politics, producer meltdown, casting catapultings, mysterious sub-tropical diseases, comical carryings on and securing permission from the King of Swaziland to film in the country. Oh, and trying to get a very old horse to fart on cue and look dangerous, when all it really wanted to do was stand still and go to sleep.

The cast that came along for the ride included Gabriel Byrne, Emily Watson, Julie Walters, Nicholas Hoult, Miranda Richardson, Celia Imrie, Julian Wadham and Fenella Woolgar. We had the time of my life.”