What are the films or people that had impacts on you and deeply inspired you to become a film producer, screenwriter and director?

Inspiration? A great word, simple and complex at the same time! All the films which I have written and directed have sprung from a message I wished to convey through the vehicles drama and music. To me, a film without music is like a pie without a crust or a waffle without perfect blueberry syrup. My film “Too Many Ghosts”, for example, is a fictionalised commentary on the folly of war. This message is clear and strong from the opening shot of odious Hitler rallies. Set in Europe between the last five days of the Second World War and a few days after the end of hostilities, it is told against the musical backdrop of England’s iconic national composer, Sir Edward Elgar: his patriotic 1st Symphony and “Land of Hope and Glory”. This is music is bursting with an arousing message declaring that “evil will not and cannot triumph when confronted by all that is good and decent in the world”. Again, as the writer-director of “Adoration: A Natural History”, the underlying message, while being far less complex than that found in “Too Many Ghosts”, is nonetheless compelling, I hope, in its honesty and sincerity. It is, quite simply, a clarion-call for humankind to stop damaging the environment. I can think of no greater example of a filmic message than that which shines so brightly in Bradley Cooper’s “A Star is Born”, starring himself and Lady Gaga. This tragic love story between a breathtakingly talented woman and a troubled rock star is a raw, powerful piece of art that makes a momentous leading role for Gaga. It will most probably leave many young cinemagoers emotionally exhausted and a little heartbroken. Beyond this, it should leave the audience with a strong and relevant message about how we function in today’s society and the marks we each give to the world. In the film we learn that Gaga’s character, Ally, has been told that she will never be a successful singer, despite her talent, because of the way she looks; and we soon see that even when her career takes off, there are those negative forces around her who remain preoccupied with image, pressuring her to change her appearance and trying to make her performances bigger and “better”, rather than focusing on the beauty of her voice itself and what she has to say. But she eventually learns that the most important part of being an artist is speaking your truth: “everyone has talent” but what is really special is having something to say and to say it from your soul. This is the beginning of a greater message: what’s important is what’s inside us, rather than the exterior image and perception of “success. The film addresses a number of significant subjects including gender, alcoholism and addiction, but what stands out for me is the way the story’s message is used to subtly question how our lives have become focused in modern society. All in all, Bradley Cooper has come up with an attention-grabbing film which tells the story and gets the message across in an informative and entertaining way.

What are your favorite genres to work on? Why?

Being a sucker for books based on and about historical characters, my first love in the cinema is the biopic...and if that embraces an element of love and romance in all its manifestations, then so much the better. Examples of this genre which immediately spring to mind are “The Passion of Christ” (with Mel Gibson in the title-role), “Gandhi” (Ben Kingsley) and “Laurence of Arabia” (Peter O’Toole).  So as a filmmaker I am drawn to real, flesh-and-blood characters such as the composers Tchaikovsky in “Love Song” and “Tchaikovsky in Love”, the Czech Republic’s Smetana in “From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields” and Edward Elgar in Too Many Ghosts” – the titles of four of my own biopics. My next docudrama will zoom-in on Felix Mendelssohn. As an aside, I think genre is important for audiences because it allows them to know what kind of film they are going to see and what they can expect when going to see a film. Also, certain audiences prefer certain genres, so the genre allows the audience to choose what type of films they like to watch. Films are broad enough to accommodate practically any film ever made, although film categories can never be precise. By isolating the various elements in a film and categorizing them in genres, it is possible to easily evaluate a film within its genre and allow for meaningful comparisons and some judgments on “greatness”. It is perhaps worth taking into account the fact that films were not really subjected to genre analysis by film historians until the 1970s.