“I’m not digging the dirt when I make films, I’m trying to make people understand why these extraordinary people do what they do.”
Emmy-winning director Tony Palmer is speaking in reference to his many award winning documentaries profiling some of the finest performers and artists of the last century.
His subjects include Maria Callas, Leonard Cohen, Frank Zappa and Richard Wagner.
John Lennon
It was John Lennon though that set the director on the path to film-making, Palmer tells The Green Room.
The pair struck up a friendship after Palmer who was working for a Cambridge University newspaper failed to ask The Beatles any question at a press conference.
“Later over a lunch Lennon said it was my duty to make a film about various colleagues of his who either didn’t want to appear or weren’t invited onto shows like Jukebox Jury or Top of The Pops. Musicians like Frank Zappa, Cream and Rory Gallagher.”
Leonard Cohen in tears
By 1972, Palmer was filming Leonard Cohen on tour, which turned out to be the musician’s final tour for decades.
The director demanded access to all areas while filming and caught a highly emotional and tearful Cohen backstage on the last night of the tour. The film Bird On A Wire was released years later.
Bird On A Wire screens in Cork as part of the Cork Film Festival along with Wagner, a seven hour film about Richard Wagner which features Richard Burton in the starring role.
You both have more women than anyone thinks possible
Richard Burton asked the director why he selected him to play the role of the great composer.
“I said well Richard, you’re both called Richard, that’s a good start. You both drink too much. You both have more women than anyone thinks possible and you’re both unreliable.”
“And I said, ‘you’re both blessed with genius.’”
“’Well' said Burton, 'as long as I know.’”
Listen here to the full interview with Director Tony Palmer on The Green Room with Orla Barry:
The Cork Film Festival runs from November 9th-17th 2013.
The Green Room airs at the brand new time of Saturday evenings 9pm-11pm.
http://www.newstalk.ie/greenroom
