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Coming Up For Air: Interview with ‘The Canal’ Director Ivan Kavanagh
06 May 2015 : Paul Byrne
Ivan Kavanagh’s ‘The Canal’ will hit Irish cinemas on May 8
It’s a busy time for Ivan Kavanagh, with a US TV series, a horror and a western in the works. Oh, and he’s got his award-winning, critically-acclaimed hit ‘The Canal’ out this week too. Paul Byrne pulls up a pew.

It’s always the quiet ones who make the best horror films.

Having made his mark on the festival circuit with such award-winning shorts as ‘Bandage Man’ (2003) and ‘Reflections’ (2004), Dublin filmmaker Ivan Kavanagh made the move into features with ‘The Solution’ in 2007, followed swiftly by ‘Tin Can Man’ (2007), ‘Our Wonderful Home’ (2008) and ‘The Fading Light’ (2009). Films that also won Kavanagh a bucketload of awards, and plenty of new fans.

With ‘The Canal’ though, Kavanagh is finally ready for his close-up, with America sitting up and taking notice. A critical smash in the US last year, this psychological thriller about a young Dublin family trying to cope with ugly truths and scary monsters in their new home also proved a commercial success there too. Which may explain why Kavanagh is currently writing a US TV series whilst rewriting two Hollywood scripts, alongside his next psychological thriller and a long-gestating western.

Paul Byrne sat down with the amiable and talented filmmaker to talk influences, finances, and the lure of genre filmmaking.

Paul Byrne: Great critical response, particularly in the US - do you feel that your work here is done, or does it take time before you can fully put this film to bed?

Ivan Kavanagh:‘The first thing is, you can only go by your own instincts, and I would never leave a film until I’m happy with it. So, the reviews won’t really change that. Love the good reviews, of course, but it’s really all about satisfying yourself first.’

‘I personally like it - I always watch it. It’s probably the only film that I watch again and again. Perhaps because it’s a genre film. Something like ‘The Fading Light’ is too personal to just enjoy again and again, on a casual basis, but this is my love letter to the horror genre, and I can just enjoy it.’

Antonia spoke of the great attention to detail that you brought to this genre piece, and yet, there’s always that need to give the audience all the expected thrills and spills. Easy to strike that balance?

‘The real need here was to keep the audience guessing until the end as to what was real and what wasn’t real. That’s quite difficult to gauge at the script stage. You’re also aware of the audiences need to be scared, to give them a jolt every now and then.’

‘I wanted the threat of violence to be there too, without actually resorting to much violence throughout the film. So, I did the Hitchcock trick of putting a really violent scene up front, early on - from then on, you hardly needed to put any violence in the movie. People just have this threat, which is far more frightening.’

In the Reporter review, they state that you lane swerve between different genres here, highlighting the fact that you’re having some fun with the various different languages of film here...

‘I had such fun making an earlier horror film, ‘Tin Can Man’, I realised then that as a genre you can be quite experimental. The audience will want you to push the boundaries, to let the film bleed, so to speak, in a genre like horror. There’s a rule-breaking side to the genre that makes it a lot of fun for a film fan to work in.’

‘Also, given that the main character is a film archivist, as far as I could see, this guy has probably seen every horror film ever made. Which kind of backfires when he has this breakdown, all these ideas would jump up from his sense memory. We chose the colour palette very carefully, every angle, every scene - the older I get, the more I love covering all the angles. I wanted to make something unapologetically cinematic.’

So, I’m guessing when the reviews compare you to Kubrick, Polanski and Lynch, that must be music to your ears, right? Or do you laugh it off?

‘I think we all reference other filmmakers when dealing with someone new, just to get our bearings, and give the reader some kind of signpost too. It’s not always accurate, but I can hardly complain when people are comparing me to truly great filmmakers.’

‘As for the actual filmmaking process, there was never any thought about having a Polanski shot here, or a Kubrick shot there. I think it’s just instinctive. You’re looking for the best way to shoot any particular scene.’

Horror is a genre that can easily be dismissed by some critics, given, to be fair, the amount of B-movie material out there. When it comes to the smarter horror film, it may not always be easy to get that message across. That you thought more about the script than the thickness of the fake blood.

‘That just comes with the territory. Horror is never going to be taken seriously, and you’re never going to be in the running for any serious awards. The fact that Hitchcock never won an Oscar tells you that. But great filmmakers know that horror can be just as exciting and innovative, as thrilling, as any other. Kubrick didn’t see anything wrong with genre films - one of his all-time favourites was ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. That’s pure genre, and it also happens to be a masterpiece.’

‘I’m not a cinema snob. For me, it’s just films I either love or hate, or feel indifferent to...’

Given that the geeks have inherited the box-office, the horror genre will join the comic book heroes as one of cinema’s highest forms.

‘Absolutely. The older I get, the more inspired I am by genre films. Going back to Hitchcock, the early De Palma films. I know a lot of critics hate De Palma, and rightly so when it comes to the later films, but he had so much fun early on, and made some wonderful films.’

You seem to have gotten this game sussed from early on, with the likes of ‘Tin Can Man’ (2007) and ‘The Fading Light’ (2009) picking up awards, and now quite a lot of attention from Hollywood too. All easy-peasy, or are your legs frantically flapping just below the water line?

‘I’ve always believed that if you just concentrate on the work, everything else will fall into place. Just keep working, no matter what. Even if the money isn’t there, just keep going, keep going. I self-funded the first three films. Basically I just didn’t understand the funding forms, and went ahead and made my films. And then I was contacted by Simon Perry, who used to run The Irish Film Board back then. He had seen ‘The Solution’, and really liked it, and asked me what I was planning on doing next. The Irish Film Board have funded my films ever since.’

‘So, no real plan. Just kept working. ‘The Canal’ has opened so many doors, it’s just changed my life, completely. It did very well, critically, in the US, and it did pretty well commercially too, and that has given me a profile over there. I’m writing a US TV series at the moment for a network over there, and I’m currently writing a new psychological horror film too. There’s a western I’ve been working on for the last few years too, and that should come to fruition soon.’

Does it feel like a definite move up the food chain, or is it just a little bit busier at the office these days?

‘There’s been quite a few changes lately, and I do feel different. I feel a little safer, maybe, but, again, I’m just concentrating on the work. If you pay too much attention to what’s going on outside of the work, the work might suffer. I have the same routine - get up early, write from 9am to 1pm, then go for a walk, or lunch, and then write again from 3pm to 6pm or 7pm. It’s important to have that discipline there.’

Was that kind of discipline there from the start? Or was there a time when, like most writers, you’d put off the hard work till next Tuesday?

‘I’m one of these anxious people who, knowing that something has to be done, I have to do it as soon as possible. Then, and only then, can I relax. So, I want to get these scripts written, get them done. It works for me. I’m just too anxious if I don’t have that discipline.’

Do you have any sounding board for your work? Working alone, it can sometimes be hard to see the woods killer for the trees.

‘The first person I tend to show these film scripts to is AnneMarie Naughton, my producer. She leaves me alone, lets me do the work, and then she’ll be very frank about her take on the work. Which is great - it’s good to have someone who’s being totally honest with their opinion. No matter how hurtful it may seem at the time [laughs]. There’s a respect in that kind of working relationship.’

I’ll be sending AnneMarie the psychological thriller I’m working on at the moment pretty soon - so, bracing myself here...’

That call from Hollywood, big studios looking for some European credibility, can be a blessing and a curse. Any wariness, given that many a great European filmmaker has come limping back to indie after some Tinseltown torture?

‘I’m at a safe enough distance not to worry about that kind of experience. It’s not like I’m directing ‘Pirates 6’ any time soon. I’ve turned down quite a few offers from the US, mainly because I didn’t like the scripts. I think if you only say yes to those projects that you truly like, or even love, then you’ll find the work is a lot easier, and a lot more rewarding. So, rewriting two big Hollywood scripts at the moment.’

Those early years, financing your own movies, was this the goal though?

‘No, not at all. I’m from a very working class area of Dublin - I’m from Finglas - and the idea of becoming a director just wasn’t considered. Might be different now, but I didn’t have any great plan. I just started making my own little films on a camcorder from my parents, and thought that was as far as I’d get.’

That early love of film - parents? TV? Drink?

‘I loved cinema right from the beginning. My father is a real movie buff, and was an actor in his youth. He loved character actors, and he had an encyclopaedic knowledge of them. And I had an uncle who loved art-house cinema, which meant I saw Bergman and all that from a very early age. Still feel that passion, thankfully...’

Was there a point when you realised, hey, I’m actually a filmmaker now?

‘I didn’t actually see myself as a filmmaker, even after making a few films, until Simon Perry contacted me. Then I thought, wait, people are going to give me money to make films now - that must mean I’m a filmmaker. I was too wrapped up in the joy of making films to think of myself as having this role, this title. There’s no better feeling that making something that you’re proud of. Films last, and you want to make sure that you give it your best shot every time.’

‘When I was self-funding the films, I was working two or three jobs to help raise the money. That was work. Right now, it’s just a joy.’

‘The Canal’ hits Irish screens May 8th. Check out the trailer below:





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