An Interview with Writer/Director, James Marquand on ‘The Partisan’
Roger Crow talks to filmmaker James Marquand about his new movie The Partisan…
James, tell us about The Partisan, because it’s a fabulous piece of work.
Oh, thank you.
There was a point generally with films set during this era when I thought they’d aged out, but now they seem just more relevant than ever with what’s going on in the world.
Yeah, we’re in such a Machiavellian world again now. I mean, I suspect it always is and always will be. But it’s so apparent now that for citizens of the world, it’s very difficult to understand what is really going on. The World War Two genre of film became a bit nostalgic. And when we made this, we were kind of conscious of that. And I think there was a particularly British way of approaching these things as well, which was all kind of ‘pip pip, cheerio’. Stiff upper lip. Which obviously is an element of British character.
In the research that I did as I was writing the script, I kind of realised that, well, the Special Operations Executive, who’s the organisation that Krystyna Skarbek volunteered to work for, she was Polish, but she was outside of Poland when Poland got invaded and she was trying to find a way in. And that was her route back into Poland was through the British, volunteering for the British. But the Special Operations Executive, which was disbanded after the war for security reasons, were like sort of… they were very smart. They were very good at what they did. But what they were was also like very ruthless. And there’s interesting stories about things that happened with other networks of spies and things like that, where they clearly were willing to sacrifice people for the greater good.
“Dangerous quality”
A great performance by Morgane Polanski as well. How was it working with her and the legend that is Malcolm McDowell?
Yeah, both brilliant experiences. Morgane was my choice to play the part. It was quite difficult trying to think who to get to play it for a variety of reasons. Obvious one being decisions we had to make about language for the film. It takes place in the UK. It takes place in Poland. It takes place in France. And you have the German element happening as well. So when the sort of commercial decision was made that it should be an English language film, she seemed the ideal choice with her background being half French, half Polish. And I just thought she had this great sort of dangerous quality to her.
You know, she hadn’t done a huge amount of work, but she was fantastic in the Vikings series. I didn’t see it all, but I kind of got into it. And then she came in in season four, I think it was. And I have to say by then I was kind of losing interest, but she regained my interest. Her performance playing this French princess who’s sort of forced to press ganged into hooking up with a Viking to sort of save the kingdom. And she’s just brilliant because you sort of think she’s in deep trouble now. But of course, in the end, it’s the Viking who’s in the deep trouble, not her. And I suppose that was probably the thing that ultimately swayed me. That she should be the person, you know. And then we met and she’s just she was so like enthusiastic, but also a deep thinker. And we spent a lot of time, trying to work out the complexities of Krystyna Skarbek together.
The Partisan is out now on digital and will be released on DVD on December 15
The interview can be heard at podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/nostalgiahhh
Top image: Steve Bealing Landmark Media
Adopted Yorkshireman Roger Crow developed a passion for film and TV in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been a published film and TV reviewer since the 1990s; a world travel and restaurant critic since the noughties, and for the past decade has assessed the pros and cons of live gigs and theatre productions around the UK. His ideal day would involve reviewing a performance of Bat Out of Hell, followed by a Pad Thai while being serenaded by Texas on a cruise around Europe.
crowsfeat.com; nostalgiahhh film podcast
