Biography

1970 · London, England, UK

In Poland what I was attracted to was that you tell the story from the picture, you don't really use words. And they push you hard in the directing department to make you think about what it is to be a director. Why this story? Why this way? They really grind you into the dirt

On the death of initial leading lady, Katrin Cartlidge - "It was a very sudden death. It was complications resulting from a condition that she had, but it was absolutely out of the blue. For me it was never a question of not doing the film, it was a case of putting to one side the horror of the situation and just getting on with it"

I think every film should have its own atmosphere. It's really funny, until you actually make the film, even if you write it yourself, you don't really know what the atmosphere is going to be. But never make a film about death, that's what I say. Never again.

If my mother hadn't died when she did, I don't think I would have thought of writing Kiss Of Life, but it's not about my family, and she died a very different kind of death. So I suppose the experience of death in the family is something I drew on, but it's not directly autobiographical. It was a good ten years later. It was more about thinking about it and seeing that as a source of drama.