With the release of Heartbreak Hotel on March 24, British director Colin Nutley continues to do what he does best: portraying Swedes on film. Rob Hincks finds an Englishman unable to resist the temptations of his adopted homeland.
Colin Nutley has secured a place in Swedish hearts with his insightful portrayals of his adopted homeland. Photo: © Photo Tony Nutley, Sweetwater AB
Colin Nutley is something of a contradiction. He has lived in Sweden for 12 years, yet doesn’t speak a word of Swedish. He misses the sausages and pubs of his native England, describes himself as “English till I die” and cheers for England whenever they play Sweden at soccer.
Yet Nutley has succeeded in becoming one of the most popular and accomplished film directors in Sweden, with a string of hits that have seen him capture the essence of Swedish life better than any of his contemporaries.
Exotic Sweden
His 1992 international smash Änglagård (House of Angels) is probably the quintessential Swedish summer movie of all time, portraying life in a small village and the mixed emotions stirred up by the arrival of two outsiders.
He puts its success down to being an outsider. “It’s easier to see a country – its culture, its habits – when you are on the outside looking in,” he says. “When you are new to a country you look much harder at what’s around you. Sweden is still exotic to me. To most Swedes it’s just what they have grown up with.”
Friendship, a touch of madness and a number of dance clubs feature in Heart Break Hotel. Photo: © Tony Nutley, Sweetwater AB
Struggle for acceptance
Nutley first visited Sweden in the 1970s while scouting locations for a British TV drama. But it was with the release of his first feature film, Nionde Kompaniet (Ninth Company), in 1987 that he appeared on most Swedes’ radars. The film was a hit, launching Nutley on a trajectory that has seen him release 11 films in 17 years.
But it wasn’t always easy. “Sweden has a very strong culture of directing,” he says. “When I first got here, I felt like a kid wanting to join the gang of older children at the top of the street. You know the sort of thing – you have to eat mud and let fatty fart on your face to be accepted. I had to work hard to gain acceptance in Sweden. Nobody farted on my face fortunately, but I had to knock on a lot of doors to get in. You need a lot of patience.”
Scripts are overrated
Probably as much patience as he needed to make all but one of his films in Swedish, with a Swedish cast and crew. “Obviously I understand Swedish,” Nutley says, “I couldn’t make a movie in Swedish if I didn’t understand it. But by working in English it gives me more control. You need to be in control when you are making a film. By making everyone else speak a second language, it automatically slows them down, forces them to think.”
This may sound tyrannical, but Nutley gives plenty of control back when the cameras are rolling. To bring reality and freshness to his actors’ performances Nutley rarely works with a script. “I have the story of the film in my head,” he says. “I know the overall direction I want it to take. But none of the actors know what they are filming until about three minutes before the scene. That’s when I tell them the outline of the scene and discuss how they would react to it in real life. The rest is up to them.”
His unconventional working methods are made easier by using the same actors and crew, most notably his wife, Swedish actress Helena Bergström, who has starred in every film Nutley has made since 1990.
Änglagård is one of the best loved Swedish films of all time. Photo: © Tony Nutley, Sweetwater AB
But, although Nutley appears something of a maverick, he is, by his own admission, anything but. “I’m just a normal, traditional guy. I like making films that show Sweden in a warm way. I don’t court controversy. I make films that my family will like. Many Swedish filmmakers turn their backs on Sweden, but I like to embrace it. I love Sweden and I feel very much a part of it.”
No time for Hollywood
Further proof of his devotion to his adopted country is his continued refusal to answer the call of Hollywood. “I’ve been approached to go to Hollywood, but you can’t make big budget blockbusters in Sweden. That’s why I like it.”
After selling the rewrite rights to Miramax pictures for Änglagård (Miramax bought the picture after Madonna indicated she would love to take Bergström’s part in an American version of the movie), Nutley’s patience with the Hollywood machine ran out.
“I sold them the annual rights for that film three years running,” he says. “They had a team of five scriptwriters working on it and they still couldn’t get it right. Eventually I refused to sell it to them. Five scriptwriters. Can you imagine? Hollywood would hate the way I work, even if I did want to go there.”
Colin Nutley: The facts
Born: Gosport, England, February 28, 1944
Lives: Drottningholm and Östermalm, Stockholm, Sweden
Family: Wife Helena and three children
Loves: Swedes’ friendliness, approachability and way of living.
Hates: Having to always take his shoes off indoors
Films:
Nionde kompaniet (Ninth Company), 1987
Black Jack, 1990
Änglagård (House of Angels), 1992
Sista dansen (The Last Dance), 1993
Änglagård – sista sommaren (House of Angels: The Second Summer), 1994
Sånt är livet (Such is Life), 1996
Under solen (Under the Sun), 1998
Gossip, 2000
Sprängaren (Deadline) 2001
Paradiset (Paradise), 2003
The Queen of Sheba’s Pearls (in English), 2004
Heartbreak Hotel, 2006
Trivia: His first Swedish success was the TV series Annika, about a Swedish au pair in England. Then came the documentary Where Roses Never Die, a film about life in a small Swedish country village that became the inspiration for House of Angels.
Awards: Numerous, including Best Film and Best Direction for House of Angels at the Swedish Film (Guldbagge) Awards. Under solen won an Oscar nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category and was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival
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Rob Hincks is a British journalist based in Stockholm. He got a lot of juicy gossip during the interview with Nutley, but he is keeping his lips sealed.
The author alone is responsible for the opinions expressed in this article.
Classification: A137ENa
© Photo 1: Tony Nutley, Sweetwater AB
© Photo 2: Tony Nutley, Sweetwater AB
© Photo 3: Tony Nutley, Sweetwater AB
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