UNITED KINGDOM: FIRST-TIME DIRECTOR MARK EVANS TALKS ABOUT HIS NEW FILM "HOUSE OF AMERICA"

Record ID: 387140

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: FIRST-TIME DIRECTOR MARK EVANS TALKS ABOUT HIS NEW FILM "HOUSE OF AMERICA"
  • Date: 9th September 1996
  • Summary: (RTV - ACCESS ALL) EVANS (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) SAYING, "IT SEEMS THAT THE THINGS THAT SET YOU FREE, THE THING THAT MAKES YOU KIND OF LIVE OUT YOUR DREAM WHEN YOU'RE A KID IS TO TURN UP THE MUSIC LOUD YOU KNOW. SO YOU MIGHT BE DRIVING AROUND IN A REALLY STUPID LITTLE CAR LIKE THE RELIANT ROBIN BUT IF THE MUSIC IS LOUD, THEN SUDDENLY YOU'RE IN YOUR OWN FILM. SO THE MUSIC RE
  • Embargoed: 24th September 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVA4RYWZ2RNXGHIJ2QMB3N3L5XGI
  • Story Text: First-time director Mark Evans takes on the legend of "beat" writer Jack Kerouac in the new film "House ofAmerica".

    Based on the play of the same name from writer Ed Thomas, the film is the story of a Welsh family seduced and destroyed by the American dream.

    Fuelled by bottles of bourbon and the writings of Kerouac, "House of America" follows the bleak existence of a rural family living near a mine that is engulfing their home.

    The film stars Steve Mackintosh ("Twelfth Night"), Lisa Palfrey ("The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain"), newcomer Matthew Rhys and respected stage actress Sian Phillips.

    Brother and sister, Sid (Mackintosh) and Gwenny (Palfrey) immerse themselves in a fantasy world of heroic American images to escape the desperation of life in a two-bit Welsh village.

    With the help of drink and drugs, they recreate the life and works of "beat generation" author and poet Kerouac and his girlfriend, Joyce Johnson.

    Kerouac's novel "On the Road" became an American classic by detailing the restlessness and quest for personal freedom in a movement that became known as the "beat generation" in 1950's America.

    This year is the 50th anniversary of Kerouac's novel.The book became a rallying cry for the spirit of rebellion for that period.

    Kerouac and the "beats" were also the inspiration for the new Keanu Reeves film, "The Last Time I Committed Suicide".That film tells the story of beat poet Neal Cassady and his unusual friendships.

    Cassady provided the inspiration for the character Dean Moriarty in "On the Road".

    "House of America" was born from writer Ed Thomas wanting to be Kerouac.

    "I thought that I was Jack Kerouac but I realised that I was Welsh and instead of taking on somebody else's mythology, you have to make your own," Thomas said.

    Although he no longer wants to be Kerouac, Thomas said he was seduced by the American romanticism of "On the Road".

    For Sid and Gwenny, the life of Kerouac is an escape from small town living -- no jobs, no money and no prospect of escaping to a metropolis where the possibilities seemendless.

    The pair dream of escaping to this mythical America, a land of heroes and wide open spaces where they believe their father has run off to years before.

    Respected actress Sian Phillips plays the obsessive and unstable mother who gradually sinks further and further into madness.

    Set against a dymanic soundtrack which features Manic Street Preachers, Blur, Velvet Underground and Tom Jones, Evans explains he used music to conjure up feelings of escape.

    "It seems that the things that set you free, the thing that makes you kind of live out your dream when you're a kid is to turn up the music loud," he said.

    In the same way that Manic Street Preachers provide a form of escapism for her children, Tom Jones epitomises the mother's glamorous ideas of America.

    "House of America" opens in Britain next month.
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