Inspired by Tim Key and Tom Basden’s 2007 BAFTA nominated short film, The Ballad of Wallis Island follows an eccentric lottery winner Charles (Key), who dreams of getting his favorite musicians, folk duo McGwyer Mortimer (played by Basden and Carey Mulligan), back together. The fantasy becomes real when the bandmates and former lovers agree to play a private show at his home on Wallis Island. Old tensions resurface as Charles tries desperately to salvage his dream gig.
As the film readies for release in Australian cinemas on August 28, Nick L’Barrow spoke with the film’s director, James Griffiths, about what the almost 2 decade gap between the short and feature did for the crew creatively, and finding catharsis in the art that we create.
Nick: I’d love to start by asking about the almost 20 year gap that has occurred between this feature film and the short film you made with Tim Key and Tom Basden. I’m curious to know what the 20 years has done for you creatively, and how different this movie may have felt if you did make it instead of the short 20 years ago?
James Griffiths: Oh, that’s such a great question. I guess we were very young, and it was our formative years that we made the short. There was, like, a lot of hopefulness, but also a lot of naivety. The short was born out of our roots in sketch comedy. These two characters were created out of sketch, and it was exploring a dynamic between an artist and their super fan. We were all kind of fascinated by that, and that was the thing that pulled the short together.
But then, you know, we lived another 19 years. And you start to realise it’s not as easy creatively. The creative journey of Herb as a musician, that’s a difficult thing to navigate. So, we explored that version of looking back at your early years as an artist, and the decisions you made that led to where you are now.
Then, also, just our lived in experience, and being able to look back at ourselves, which a lot of that is in the film, is kind of this meta way of looking back at our short film. And just like Herb and Nell, we all went on our own creatively different paths, but then we came back to the island and made this film together. It was very meta.
Nick: I’m sure there is a lot of catharsis that comes with that as well…
James Griffiths: It was incredibly cathartic. We hadn’t revisited the short together, because we loved working together. And we’ve continued to have relationships with each other creatively, but we just hadn’t been able to go back to that first place again. So, to finally go full circle, and be able to make the movie… we were just incredibly grateful to be there making a film together after all that time.
Nick: I was so fascinated by the conversation that takes place during the dinner scene. It’s about making art that means something to you versus commercial art, and how that sort of thing can cripple you as an artist. How much of your own feelings on that discourse, and how much even came from conversations with Tom and Tim about it, fed into that scene?
James Griffiths: That’s one of my favourite scenes in the film because it speaks to my own creative journey, you know? You start off making something as pure as the short, and then many opportunities come your way, and you as an artist don’t know what to do with those opportunities. There’s a lot of noise, and a lot of people pushing you in various directions.
And of course, I’m so grateful that I’ve had an amazing career, and made some great friends and relationships along the way. But I guess the thing that I’ve always worried about, or the thing that I was looking back on, was how many things have I made that are things I would actually watch?
You become really good at what you’re doing as a director, but in your heart, or wherever your personal taste is, you can lose sight a little bit. So, it was lovely to be able to return to something that feels authentic. And I think Herb is in that space too. When I was making the film, I felt like it was about finding out how do you get back to that feeling of making something where you’re not thinking about money or bills or what’s the next project. This was about just making this singular thing. And that’s what was important.
Nick: In the same way Charles reveres McGuire and Mortimer, do you have an artist that sits high enough on a pedestal for you that you would pay insane amounts of money to have them come visit you on an island?
James Griffiths: Oh, wow! There’s a bunch of current directors that I hope I get to meet. But, Billy Wilder would be up there. Ron Howard – I think he is exceptional. Alexander Payne. But music wise, I’d love to reunite Crosby Still National Young. There’s so many people who have inspired me creatively and that I love.
Thank you so much to James for his time, and to Universal Pictures At Home and NixCo PR for organising the interview. The Ballad of Wallis Island is in Australian cinemas August 28.
