Carol Morley (pictured below) spent five years making Dreams of a Life – a film about Joyce Vincent (played by Zawe Ashton, above), a woman who lay dead in her London flat for three years. The docu-drama has emerged as one of the most talked-about British films of the year. Carol talks to IdeasMag about research, telling stories and not underestimating your audience...
As you said in your Observer article, no one seemed to know anything about Joyce when her body was found. Where did your investigation start?
The press never found anything out about her. They didn’t even get a photograph. I didn’t really have a plan beyond finding people that knew her, and I was determined to use any means necessary to do that.
I didn’t know anyone’s name, or anything about her relationships. I found addresses in dusty old indexes, and then I went through electoral records to see who had lived there alongside Joyce.
I learnt about decomposition at the British library. I wrote letters, I used the telephone. I bought adverts in newspapers and on the side of cabs, and then I used internet adverts on It’s Caribbean and Viva Street.
You’ve given yourself a lot of dramatic and creative license in the film. What ethical questions were involved in that?
I didn’t want to make a standard biopic, because this film wasn’t just about her life. If it was only testimonies and then maybe some more abstract imagery that almost acts as wallpaper, that wouldn’t have been enough. I wanted to give her voice back somehow.
When I met Martin [Lister, her ex-boyfriend], he said she’d always wanted to be singer, so I knew I wanted part of the film to come across through music. Some of the songs I know she loved and some just felt right for her.
I knew I wanted to construct her bedsit and make that the centre of the film – I wanted to use it as a departure point. I thought about using her actual bedsit as a location but it would have been unseemly somehow. I like the idea that it’s constructed.
What has the film taught you?
If I was to give advice to other people, it would be to never give up. I went to a seminar once led by a funding commissioner who said: “Too many of you filmmakers have projects you won’t let go. My advice to you all is to kill your babies.”
My advice would be the opposite. If you believe in something, you should make it. Filmmaking isn’t a job or a career, it’s a vocation.
What’s your motivation as a filmmaker?
I have stories to tell, but I’m not a careerist. I’m not going to make a film with Keira Knightley and Jude Law because that’s guaranteed an audience. I want to be part of the British film culture that can create new audiences. So what I’ve learnt from this film is not to be put off by people who continue to underestimate the audience and tell you you can’t do it that way. I’m just not going to have it, because people have responded to this film in an incredibly creative and intelligent way.
If you could send a message to yourself the day you read the news story of Joyce’s death, what would it be?
I remember meeting Martin and saying: “This film is going to take ages. It’s going to take a year.” It took five years. If someone had told me that, I’m not sure what I would’ve felt. I’m glad I didn’t know. So I would say to myself: “One day you’re going to finish this film, and you’ll be really happy.”
Dreams of a Life is out in cinemas on Friday 16 December.
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