Film feature
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Beowulf: from AD 700 to 2007 By Sarah Bull.
In an age where technology is developing by the second, the film industry is no different to any other benefiting from advancements in the field.
Rarely is a film made nowadays without using some CGI (computer-generated imagery) elements, but Robert Zemeckis’ big screen 3D adaptation of the old English epic poem ‘Beowulf’ pushes the technology to its upper limits.
Featuring a stellar cast lending their voices to the film’s characters including Ray Winstone in the eponymous role, Viking warrior Beowulf, Angelina Jolie as sexy, naked monster Grendel’s mother, John Malkovich as the traitorous Unferth, Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar and Robin Wright Penn as his queen, Wealthow, ‘Beowulf’ already looks set to draw in crowds of all ages when it is released this weekend.
The film begins with hero and warrior Beowulf sailing his men to a Danish town where the inhabitants, including King Hrothgar and his Queen Wealthow, are being terrorised and killed by a monster named Grendel, played by Crispin Glover.
When he has successfully slayed Grendel, Beowulf is forced to find Grendel’s mother when she exerts her revenge on the small town by slaughtering its remaining residences. It’s Beowulf’s relationship with the lizard-like beast that forms the second half of the film.
Although this is the first time Angelina has voiced a character in an animated film – she provided the vocals for fish fatale Lola in 2004 movie ‘Shark Tale’ - she quickly got used to how things worked on set.
She said: “I loved it. At first, I thought, oh this is going to be so weird, all of us actors with these dots on our faces, in these wetsuit-type costumes, with no props or sets, but what it really does is strip everything down to the essentials of performing, especially in the scenes between Crispin and me – they were just pure amazing emotion.
“There is so much freedom to just be everything, in the moment, give it your all, because it’s being covered completely and you can overlap and you can play and you can improvise. There’s also an immediate friendship between the actors. When you’re all covered in dots, you become very close and you rely on each other.”
When Jolie was transformed into the CGI monster’s mother, her appearance didn’t drastically change – unlike the lead Winstone, much to his appreciation.
He laughed. “I really enjoyed being 6ft 6ins with an eight-pack and a massive todger. If I fold mine in half it’s the same! It’s just a wonderful thing to be 20 again, and to look like that.”
While some people criticised the choice of Ray Winstone to play the Viking hero, producer Steve Starkey always thought he was the perfect choice.
He said: “It’s one of the reasons we decided to do the film in this style. For instance, no one on the planet looks like the character the director Robert envisioned for Beowulf or could perform on the level Robert wanted for this film. Beowulf is bigger than life and there is no single human actor who embodies everything Robert saw in the character.
“So, how do you blend these two irreconcilable aspects? By casting the best actor possible and creating that look, a 6ft 6ins Christ-like image on the computer.”
Veteran actor Anthony Hopkins was intrigued to see how he would be transformed into a CGI character.
He explained: “What’s interesting about this way of acting – with no sets, no costumes, just these silly sets with dots all over your face - is that you can do the whole scene and it goes very quickly because you don’t have to break it up the way you do on a conventional film. The first day I was a little apprehensive, but the process gives you a great sense of freedom, that anything goes.”
Co-screenwriter Roger Avary argued that while some people questioned filming ‘Beowulf’ in a CGI format, it couldn’t have been done any other way.
He insisted: “When we first started talking about doing this film, people said, ‘Why are you doing it like that? Why don’t you just put the actors in front of the camera and shoot?’
“But we haven’t had anyone come up to us after seeing the film and ask us that question. It just works.
“The interesting thing for me was that the performance capture process really allowed the film to be performance-based. I had always seen it as a chamber piece – it’s in court, and there’s intrigue between people with their myriad relationships. I always wanted it to be a fully formed, emotional experience. We weren’t restricted by anything, so my fellow screenwriter Neil (Gaiman) and I were able to write without the shackles we’d normally have a film.”
Director Zemeckis added: “You have this wide open canvas where the actor can bring whatever he or she wants to the character because you’re not under the same constraints that you’d have on a live-action film. The actors are liberated from the tyranny of a normal movie – it’s not about lighting, it’s not about setting up the camera, it’s not about the hair and make-up or costumes. It is absolute performance and great actors, like the ones in this movie, relish that. You don’t have to break up the scene to get coverage – we did wide shorts and close-ups at the same time. So the actors dictate the rhythm of the scenes, which we did from beginning to end, as much as we could. It was like theatre, except that it was being captured in 3D.”
Yet while the film is amazing in terms of its innovative genre, it is already causing controversy, with some critics, including the Los Angeles Times – who called it “hyper-violent and highly sexualised” – and even star Jolie, arguing it is too violent for its 12A rating.
Watching the film in 3D on a 20 metre high, 26 metre wide screen at London’s BFI IMAX theatre, viewers are likely to agree – with every vicious movement Grendel makes amplified and exaggerated to the nth degree.
Biting people’s heads off and eating them, ripping off limbs and treading on Danes with his ample feet make up Grendel’s violent habits – and actor Glover, who voiced the monster, had to get in touch with his “wretched” side to bring him to life.
He said: “For Grendel, there was a lot of emotional variation within a relatively compact amount of dialogue. I hadn’t planned on a lot of screaming vocalisations, but initially I had some of it – it seemed to convey his wretched pain. Bob said, ‘Just keep screaming.’
“I’m glad he encouraged it because the scream does have a lot of the emotive element, you can feel so much from it, and I hadn’t realised it could be so expressive.
Producer Starkey added: “If we were doing Grendel in a traditional film, we would have had a 12ft puppet on set and created additional computer graphics. In this case, we could get the perfect performer, who portrayed all of Grendel’s pain and suffering but wasn’t limited by prosthetics or uncomfortable suits. If we had shot this film traditionally, we could never have done all that.”
When all is said and done, it is the unbelievable effects and Robert Zemeckis’ stunning directorial ability which makes ‘Beowulf’ the most ingenious CGI film of its time.
While the violence might be too much for some people to handle, and the animation might put people off, the acting, technology and storyline of the film are par to none. ‘Beowulf’ has definitely set the bar high for other CGI movies, the only question now is how will anyone follow it?
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