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A ‘Noble’ Cause
17 Sep 2014 : Paul Byrne
Stephen Bradley directs Deirdre O'Kane
True life stories have gripped Irish filmmakers and audiences time and time again, so Stephen Bradley’s hard work on ‘Noble’ - about the Dublin woman who would start a world-famous orphanage foundation for street children - might just pay off.

Just like those seething villagers in Sir John Michael McDonagh’s recent Calvary, the good people of Ireland are tired of being pushed around. Very tired. Whether it’s the Church or the government, the landlord or those lovely nuns looking after our laundry and wayward teenage daughters, Irish people just aren’t going to take it anymore. And Irish film has begun to reflect that, with surprising success.

Stephen Bradley’s ‘Noble’ is a slightly different kettle of fish. Like the recent ‘Philomena’, it’s another true story, with an Irish protagonist struggling to survive in a harsh, unfair, oppressive Ireland (drunken father, dead mother, orphanage, homeless, raped), but Christina Noble would become famous not because of her difficult childhood here but for her sterling work in Vietnam, ensuring that thousands of street kids there had a childhood. The Christina Noble Children’s Foundation was founded in 1989, and the Dublin-born Noble was later awarded an OBE for her work.

PAUL BYRNE: True-life stories are a blessing and a curse - the story is definitely there, but then, so are a few different takes on the truth. Any wariness going into this?
STEPHEN BRADLEY:
“To begin with I spent two years having meetings with Christina Noble (having read her autobiographical books Bridge Across My Sorrows and Mama Tina), and I also went on a research trip to Vietnam. So, in March 2010, when the time came for Christina to legally grant the rights to make the film, I really had made sure that it was a film I was committed to and could follow through to the present day.

“It is daunting to make a film about someone who is still alive and working in the field which has made them famous. But Christina Noble did a very wise and generous thing : she stood back from the film-making process and didn't ask for any veto, either legally or in practice, over any aspect of the work. I did show her the shooting script a month before we filmed (she asked me to change two small lines of dialogue - "phrases I wouldn't use") but she never saw any edits of the film. In fact, the Gala Screening at the Savoy was the first time she had seen the film on the big screen and with an audience.

“That freedom was very empowering and necessary for us as film-makers and particularly for me during the screen-writing process. It meant that I could invent and re-invent within the bounds of the overall 'true Story' and that was essential to make Noble work first and foremost as an engaging and an entertaining feature film, which was what I was striving for.”

What drew you in? Ms Noble? The politics? The commercial potential? The three books on her life and work?
“Easy answer: my wife. I am lucky enough to be married to the actress Deirdre O’Kane, who, at the height of her powers as a stand-up comedian, had been involved in large-scale fundraising events for the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation. Although most people have long-associated Deirdre with comedy, she started her career as a straight actress with companies such as The Abbey, Druid and The Gate. In 2008, after we had moved to London, I took Deirdre for lunch on her 40th birthday (I have asked permission to say that!) and as usual pestered her to come up with an idea for us to develop as a film. She said there was only one thing she wanted to work on - a film about the life of Christina Noble.

“Obviously, if you are going to make a project as demanding as this one (six years in development, production and post-production altogether) you also need to convince yourself and not just be led by others. Which is why I did all that initial research and the trip to Vietnam. Apart from Deirdre’s involvement (she is one of three actresses who play Christina Noble in the film), I wanted to make ‘Noble’ because it’s an extraordinary and inspiring story about an Irish woman who, despite the toughest of early years, has driven herself to monumental achievements on the other side of the world. I thought that was a story really worth telling and celebrating. My later fascination with Vietnam, its history and politics was a very satisfying sidebar to the telling of Christina's story.”

Young Deirdre is a pretty smart choice - did you have reservations about telling the missus what to do here? It's not always easy, working with someone you share pillow space with…
“Because myself and Deirdre worked together on the script and the making of the film for so long we really got into a place of complete understanding about what we wanted to achieve. Deirdre went to Vietnam with Christina Noble long before we shot and the layering and nuances of her performance came together over a considerable period of time - so obviously I was observing that progress up close and personal.

“Working with actors is always a process I love because you need to form a unique relationship with each person in order to get what you want from them as a director. Working with Deirdre makes that very simple and enjoyable because I am not starting from scratch like I am with an actor who I may have met for the very first time at an audition and possibly (although not advisedly) for the second time on the set.”

Was there a need for comic relief in amidst all this poverty and child exploitation? The hotel receptionist seems like a comic creation, there to lighten the heavy load…
“I always wanted Noble to be a visual feast: an entertaining, colourful and emotional roller-coaster - to reflect the extraordinary energy and vitality of Christina Noble herself. When someone has had so much hardship in their life this can be a stumbling block for a film about that life. But Christina has a love of music and is also very funny, and I therefore had natural counterbalances to the darker parts of her story.

“I think the Irish and Vietnamese have very similar senses of humour, both self-deprecating and mischievous, and this allowed me to bring a lightness to parts of the film with various characters of both nationalities. This is also essential to making the film one that an audience can enjoy rather than endure.”

You can't really deal with Christina's remarkable story without confronting the child sex trade in Vietnam, or her own harsh upbringing - difficult for a filmmaker to deliver the true horror of these situations without shocking audiences too much…
“There were many choices I had to make about the tone and content of ‘Noble’ during development. Did I include stories of Christina's work in Mongolia, Beirut, Cyprus, Ireland, the UK and many other parts of the world? Did I include stories that she told me that are not in her books? On early drafts of the script I hadn't made manageable decisions about this - I hadn't found the story that is ‘Noble’ and I hadn't found the tone I wanted. That was scary, to be honest, because I was faced with a sea of possibilities. Many of my advisory early readers felt that there was too much hardship shown in early drafts and that I hadn't found my way.

“I went on a writing retreat and had the kind of epiphany that you are looking for on such occasions when structure, story and tone all seem to converge in your mind "as they are meant to be". The film ‘Noble’ does deal with aspects of child sex abuse in Vietnam as well as Christina's own physical hardships as a child but always in a context that the audience can deal with and react to in the sense of a building narrative and tension. Difficult issues are raised but the power of the story and the journey dominates and the audience is left with an experience that is provocative but also uplifting. It's a story-telling juggling act but I have seen the film with many many audiences now and I am very gratified by the way they respond.”

Blessed with three fine actresses playing Christina throughout - not always either to find cute child performers who don't grate. Lucky, or just smart, in your choices?
“There is nothing more vital to the success of Noble than the performances of Gloria Cramer Curtis , Sarah Greene and Deirdre O'Kane who play Christina Noble at aged 10, 16-23 and 44 respectively. I was always aware that this would be the case and I had previous films such as Shine to demonstrate that to me. When Deirdre filmed in Vietnam she was actually 44, the same age as Christina was when she went there. Her performance is the powerful centre of the film, replicating the energy, humour and sassiness of the real Christina. I needed to match that power in the younger actresses.

“I saw Sarah Greene for the first time at the Abbey in Alice In Funderland in 2012. She was astonishing, seducing the audience for two hours with energy and naughty beauty. I auditioned her just once for Noble and her match to Deirdre was so perfect that I went into a panic because she was being offered all kinds of other roles and I needed to lock her in. Testy and pushy conversations with agents ensued and I finally secured Sarah's brilliant talents for the film. I had worked with a very young actor in a major role once before when Dylan Murphy played the 6 year-old boy opposite Brendan Gleeson in my first film Sweety Barrett. I knew how few and far between good child actors are.

“In Gloria Cramer Curtis we found a young actress of extraordinary talent and intelligence because I was really able to direct her in the same way as I would an adult. Gloria was 8 at the time, playing 10. Our Irish casting director Maureen Hughes brought her in during a trawl of hundreds of child actors. The room lit up with a Christina-like energy. I saw her perhaps three more times to make sure Gloria was the real thing. I needn't have worried. The match with Sarah and Deirdre was complete.”

Are you encouraged by the success of a movie like Philomena? Irish audiences - and audiences around the world - seem not only ready to deal with their blood-stained laundry, they're keen to have past injustices and abuses shouted from the rooftops…
“Happily, there definitely seems to be a growing international audience at the moment for stories like ‘Noble’ and the response to the film at the USA festivals where we launched it has been phenomenal. Irish people have always been interested in Christina Noble's story - she did her first ‘Late Late Show’ in 1991 and her books, published in the 1990s, have never been out of print, so there has long been an awareness that we have an often uncelebrated hero in our midst. It is always a relief and a sense of satisfaction when the timing of audience interest and subject matter coincide.”

Christina Noble is the sort of woman that can still make a ‘Late Late Show’ producer swoon - do you feel the rest of the world are ready to fall at her feet?
“We have distribution deals for the film in places as far apart as France and Spain and South Korea, with an exciting USA deal in prospect. All of those distributors focus on Christina's extraordinary story, how astonishing her achievements are, and how the film portrays that in a way that gets audiences excited, particularly about the actors' performances. Having the likes of Liam Cunningham, Ruth Negga and Brendan Coyle, Eva Birthistle and Pauline McLynn involved has helped that buzz enormously. So yes, international audiences are ready for Christina Noble!”

We finish on a very happy Christina, surrounded, fittingly enough, by Vietnamese children. Is she happy with the film too?
“I always said to Christina that she must watch the film as much as possible like an outsider because it is a particular version of events, with new characters and happenings, and she accepted that. Thus far she has only seen it on a DVD copy on a telly (and fortunately expressed herself very happy) so I think she is going to have a whole different experience when she sees it at the Gala screening in Savoy 1 with 800 people and the sound and music playing loud…”

Are you happy with the film?
“The whole period of making Noble has been an incredible adventure for all involved. At times it has also been very tough and arduous (although as we always say nothing like as hard as the real story) and myself and our brilliant producer, Melanie Gore-Grimes, have had to dig deep to get the film noticed among the huge number of productions that are made worldwide every year. But champions for Noble have emerged from the most unexpected of places and that fact that the film is now going to receive distribution far and wide makes me very happy indeed.”

Where to next, young man?
“It's been an intense three years of writing, directing and producing, so it’s great to be able to step back a little and breathe. I am developing two or three new films and hope that the momentum behind Noble will open other doors as well, particularly in the area of television drama, which is in a very exciting place at the moment. All will be revealed…”

‘Noble’ hits Irish screens September 19th 2014.







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