- Title: FRANCE/ UNITED KINGDOM: JONNY LEE MILLER PROMOTES HIS LATEST FILM "REGENERATION"
- Date: 10th May 1997
- Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 10, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) JONNY LEE MILLER (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) SAYING IT'S MORE SATISFYING TO DO SOMETHING THAT'S RICHER. I JUST FIND THAT MORE OF A CHALLENGE TO DO SOMEONE WHO'S DISTURBED, SOMEBODY WITH PROBLEMS (ENGLISH)
- Embargoed: 25th May 1997 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: CANNES, FRANCE/ FILM LOCATION, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM/ FILM LOCATIONS
- City:
- Country: United Kingdom France
- Reuters ID: LVA496YKNVAV5KA12EHV50D9DH5V
- Story Text: British actors were out in force in front of the cameras in Cannes this month promoting their latest big screen offerings.
The dozen or so actors on parade included Rufus Sewell, Kate Winslett, Anna Friel and the stars of last year's Cannes hit "Trainspotting" - Jonny Lee Miller and Robert Carlisle.
Lee Miller missed out on last year's excitement over "Trainspotting" but he was at the film festival this year to promote his new film "Regeneration".
Lee Miller stars alongside Jonathan Pryce in the film which is based on Pat Barker's prize winning trilogy.
"Regeneration" is based around the meeting of poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen at Craiglockhart Hospital at the time of their convalescence during the First World War.
Sassoon is a patient due to his fellow officer Robert Graves, who saved Sassoon from possible court martial following his public declaration against the war effort and his throwing of his Military Cross into the Mersey river.
Owen is in the hospital recuperating after taking part in a battle near St Quentin - following which he suffered nerve damage and speech disruption.
Filmed on location in Scotland, revolves around the relationship between the two poets. Both men are patients of Doctor William Rivers - played by Pryce.
Lee Miller plays disturbed patient Prior - a fictional character who's love interest with Sarah parellels the feelings Doctor Rivers has for an unreciprocating Sassoon.
Prior is a clever, working-class soldier promoted to officer class and rendered mute by his experiences.
Miller said his role presented a challenge. "It's more satisfying to do something that's richer. I just find that more of a challenge to do someone who's disturbed, somebody with problems", he said.
Pryce said his character develops a series of very different relationships with each shell-shocked soldier he comes into contact with.
He said the relationship Rivers has with Prior is very different to the one he had with Sassoon. "Whereas he admired and respected Sassoon, Prior is a very provocative character who tends to get up Rivers's nose a bit. Prior confronts Rivers about his own weaknesses and about his own possible illness', he said.
In the story, Rivers eventually comes to suffer almost as much shell shock as the men he is treating.
Stuart Bunce, who plays Wilfred Owen in the film, said the film highlights how Sassoon's meeting with Owen inspired Owen to write poetry on his experiences in the war.
James Wilby, who plays Sassoon, said the film highlighted what many people may not realize, that although the two poets works are often seen as anti-war, real life wasn't as simple as that.
"There's a tremendous contrast between their stand, Sassoon's stand against the war and his conduct in the war. They are two seperate things. They weren't conscientious objectors or even pacifists", he said.
"Regeneration" opens later this summer in the U.K. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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