Putting the Manifesto before the Movie

Ryan Gilbey

• Sweet Sixteen directed by Ken Loach
  October 2002
• The Cinema of Ken Loach: Art in the Service of the People by Jacob Leigh
  Wallflower, 192 pp, £13.99, May 2002, ISBN 1 903364 31 0

One afternoon in May 1995, I rang Ken Loach to try to persuade him to play Fantasy Filmmaking. In fact I had to call a number of British directors, and ask each one to imagine the kind of movie he or she would make given a bottomless budget. ‘An unlimited budget would be a liability,’ Loach said. ‘The more you spend, the more restricted you are because the more money you’ve got, the bigger the investment, the more nervous the investor and the more they dictate what the ending should be.’ He wouldn’t be drawn on his dream cast. ‘Casting is often about hiring stars, and I do find stars pretty boring because then a film becomes all about watching those stars.’ Actually, he wouldn’t be drawn on anything much at all. ‘I carry ideas for films around in my head, but I’d never share them and show them the light of day, not until they were completed.’ He had effectively said nothing, and in the process said everything.