OUTSTANDING BRITISH CONTRIBUTION TO CINEMA: ELIZABETH KARLSEN & STEPHEN WOOLLEY

ELIZABETH KARLSEN & STEPHEN WOOLLEY

OUTSTANDING BRITISH CONTRIBUTION TO CINEMA

Words by Neil Smith

With one win and nine nominations between them, Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen are certainly no strangers to BAFTA voters. Yet that’s only a part of the story, the films they have produced either separately or together having notched up more than 50 BAFTA nominations over the course of four prolific decades.

Portrait

BAFTA/Charlie Clift

From The Company of Wolves (1984), Mona Lisa (1986) and Scandal (1989) to Little Voice (1998), Made in Dagenham (2010) and Carol (2015), the producing partners have shown a staunch commitment to independent cinema that has been celebrated by audiences, critics and Awards bodies alike. Despite this, however, the news they had been chosen by BAFTA to receive its Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award came as a shock. “Stephen came into the office, tossed a letter down and said, ‘Look at this – your mum will be pleased!’” Karlsen smiles. “I read it and it was impossible to comprehend. I read it, read it again and thought, ‘Wait, is this a joke?’ It was amazing to receive it; such a validation of our work.”

“We were thrilled, honoured and pleased for everybody who’s been associated with our films and us,” says Woolley, who considers Michael Balcon, the British producer in whose honour this special award is annually presented, one of his own personal heroes. “Filmmakers like Balcon came to the forefront during World War II because they had to mix movies about reality with movies that entertained,” he continues. “Our career has similarly been about making films without money under a kind of duress, and yet through that process we’ve been able to make some good movies.”

Fittingly enough, Woolley’s life in film began at his local cinema (formerly The Rex in Islington, now called the Everyman Screen On The Green) where, at the age of 18, he got his first job. “I tore tickets, humped prints upstairs, changed the letters on the canopy – everything, basically,” he recalls. “It was all very exciting and I loved it.”

Under the management of influential cinema owner Romaine Hart, The Screen On The Green gave the young Stephen Woolley and many others their first exposure to European arthouse, US indie and late-night cult cinema. Yet, he also learned a valuable lesson in balancing artistic aspiration with financial pragmatism. “Romaine taught me how important it was to keep the Kia-Oras cold,” he laughs fondly. “Running a cinema is about selling Kia-Oras; it’s maximising the ups and minimising the downs. As producers, we always have to find the balance between business and art – between what you want to do and what you think an audience might want.”

Woolley went on to own and run his own repertory cinema, the legendary Scala in Kings Cross, before going into distribution through Palace Pictures. Producing movies with then partner Nik Powell was the logical next step. “I was buying such films as A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and When Harry Met Sally... (1989) based on their screenplays, so I said, ‘Perhaps we should create our own screenplays,’” Woolley explains. “On one side, there was the commercial instinct, but secondly there was the sense of wanting to create movies.”

Woolley on the set of The Limehouse Golem

Nicola Dove

Spearheaded by Woolley’s highly profitable collaboration with director Neil Jordan, Palace enjoyed such success that Woolley soon found himself overstretched. Enter Karlsen, with a degree in critical theory, whose experiences working with director Bill Sherwood on his landmark drama Parting Glances (1986) had made her keen to become a producer herself. “Elizabeth had a brilliant knowledge of cinema but also understood bottom lines,” remembers Woolley. “She understood the balance, which was quite rare in those days.”

Palace eventually ceased operations in 1992, but not before producing a huge hit – Jordan’s The Crying Game (1992) – that led to he and Stephen Woolley making Interview with the Vampire (1994) in Hollywood. Having married in 1990, though, Woolley and Karlsen continued making films together and had a big success with Little Voice. Their professional partnership was formalised four years later with the foundation of Number 9 Films which, thanks to such movies as Made in Dagenham, Great Expectations (2012), Their Finest (2016) and On Chesil Beach (2017), has established itself as one of the UK’s leading independent production companies.

Karlsen on the set of Carol

Wilson Webb

“It felt like a natural thing to have a company together,” says Karlsen from Number 9’s office, just off Tottenham Court Road in London. “Even when Stephen was off making big budget films with Neil, and I was making independent films in the UK, we were always sharing problems, talking about ideas and looking at edits of each other’s films. There was a very close creative bond, and we share a sensibility. It’s very rare we disagree about the films we see or films we want to develop.”

Woolley concurs, saying Number 9 – whose name comes from ‘Revolution 9’, an experimental sound collage off The Beatles’ White Album – “seemed to make sense to us personally and professionally.” “We’ve always worked with like-minded people, who share the same tastes that we do and like the idea of cinema as an international language,” he continues. “Although we are a British company, based in Europe, we’ve always had a very international outlook.”

With projects in development including a Dusty Springfield biopic, starring Gemma Arteton, and an adaptation of Graham Swift’s Mothering Sunday, the future certainly looks bright for Number 9 Films. (The company is also moving into television, with adaptations of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James and The Sea, The Sea by

Iris Murdoch.) Small wonder, then, that both Woolley and Karlsen feel upbeat about British film and the industry in general.

“There’s still a market for the kind of movies we make, so we’re optimistic we’re going to carry on making films,” says Woolley. “Everyone says streaming is the death knell for cinema, but attendances are the highest they’ve ever been.” Karlsen, for her part, believes there’s nothing to be gained from following the pack. “You shouldn’t just chase the money or the idea you think everyone is looking for,” she states. “Typically, it will be that black swan, the idea nobody saw coming, that takes everyone by storm.” •

Neil Smith is a contributing editor of Total Film magazine