the awards editions 2010-2011

fter Tilda Swinton won the 2007
Best Supporting Actress award
for Michael Clayton, she decided
to give the Oscar to her Hollywood
agent Brian Swardstrom in
order to calm him down for every
time “I am on the speakerphone
telling him I am going to do another art film in Europe.”
Once again there is Oscar buzz for Swinton for another
art film in Europe, but the odds are longer this time for
her small Italian melodrama I Am Love (Io Sono L’Amore)
which opened in June. That’s because the film was snubbed
for Oscar contention by Italy even though it was one of the
year’s higher profile foreign language films grossing nearly
$5 million in the U.S. alone. Despite this setback, U.S. distributor
Magnolia is aggressively campaigning I Am Love for
Best Actress and even Best Picture as well as Art Direction,
Cinematography, Costumes, and Music. The Best Actress
campaign will remind voters of the challenges the Scottish
Swinton, had making a film in Italian with a Russian accent.
Other than Robert De Niro playing the Sicilian young
Don Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974), no one has
grabbed the gold working in a language not their own.
DeaDline: I was cruising the Internet and saw a post that
says ‘ Will Oscar love Tilda Swinton?’ Is it important for
you to get that kind of attention in order for people to see a
movie like I Am Love?
TilDa SWinTon: Yes, I was involved in a film once in my
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life that went on a certain treadmill and ended up at a certain
Governors Ball. But even then I wasn’t really aware of
what was going on because it was all Greek to me. All I can
say is, having worked on this film for 11 years and made it in
Italy with my best friend, I’ve been astonished that it got
any distribution at all let alone widely in the States and very
well reviewed in the States. It’s wonderful to us that people
are even still talking about the film, let alone still seeing it.
DeaDline: You produced the film. Is that becoming increasingly
necessary to get these movies made that offer such
a great role like this?
SWinTon: I’ve always been closely attached to filmmakers
in getting films made. I mean Orlando which was re–
released this year was something Sally Potter and I pushed
up a hill for five years before we were able to shoot it. It’s
really good news for women to see that, if they really want
to get films made, then they’re going to have to get together
with their friends and make them — and not sit around
waiting to be asked.
DeaDline: You have said the film took you 11 years to get made.
You stuck with this. Why?
SWinTon: We grew it from scratch. It’s like, why do you
stick with your children? And actually, when I think about
it, yes, this film took 11 years but I’ve been attached to a
number of films and produced them and they’ve taken that
long. It’s pretty regular for a personal project. Most films in
my experience take a decade at least. A film like this takes a
long time to even get the nerve to dream about it, let alone
to develop a script and to get a group together to make it.
And then, of course, there’s the question of raising the finance.
It gets easier and easier if that decade you’re working
together also involves some members of the team going out
and making reputations for themselves. Which means people
are prepared to put money into the project. That helps.
DeaDline: Did you think your film would become one of the
more indie success stories here?
SWinTon: It’s strange because on the one hand “expect”
is not really the word. I mean, we dreamed. We were always
clear we were making an international film, even though it’s
an Italian film made in Italian and Russian. One of the things
that I’ve been really gratified to notice is that American and
all Anglophile critics have not really been going on about
the fact that it’s not in English. And I think that was the
real hurdle for us to get it out of the small field that meant
it was only going to be a foreign language film. Getting the
film into Italy was hard enough. It’s a film that’s probably
appreciated less in Italy than anywhere. It was barely shown
in Italy. And if your film is not made with a production company
title above it, then it can be tricky to get into cinemas.
DeaDline: The Italians did not choose this for their entry into
the Foreign Language race.
SWinTon: In a funny way, we the producers were not surprised.
We were disappointed, but we were not surprised. I
had no idea what the criteria were that the selection committee
were going by. We thought the Oscars is an American
affair, and it’s an American prize, and we thought that
maybe it would be a good idea to choose a film that had gone
well and at least been distributed in America, let alone been
well received. Again, another portion of Greek for me.
DeaDline: Was it a challenge for you speaking Italian
with the Russian accent?
SWinTon: That she wasn’t going to speak my language was
a relief in many ways. I quite like being outside my own language,
particularly someone so silent. But beyond that, no.
She just came from so many books we discussed, and she
came from films we discussed, and she came from people
that we knew, and she came from someone I hadn’t seen for
a couple of years. She just felt very easy and that’s the way
I like it: to feel you’re going towards something that feels
actually very familiar and very comfortable.
DeaDline: Did winning the Oscar for Michael Clayton open
up new doors for you?
SWinTon: It is possible that I Am Love would not have
had the distribution it had, and would not have had the
welcome that it had, without the imprimatur of that. If
it helped, I’m really grateful. It then feels to me like a
fantastic use of a prize.