There was an artist silly for his face
For it was younger than his youth, last year.
Now, he is old, his back will never brace.
He's lost his colour very far from here
Poured it down shell holes til the veins ran dry
And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race and leap of purple
Spurted down his thigh.

One time he liked a blood smear down his leg ...
After the matches, carried shoulder high.
It was after football when he'd drunk a peg he thought he'd join.
He wonders why ...
Someone said he'd look a god in kilts, that's why
And maybe too, to please his Meg ... that was it
To please the giddy jolts he asked to join
He didn't have to beg.
Smiling, they wrote his lie, age 19 years.

Germans, he'd scarcely thought of ...
All their guilt and Austria's did not move him.
No fears of fear came .. yet ..
He thought of jeweled hilts for daggers in plaid socks
Of smart salutes and coats of arms and leave and pay arrears,
Esprit de Corps, and hints for young recruits.

And soon he was drafted out with drums and cheers.
Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer goal.
Only a solemn man who bought him fruits,
And inquired about his soul.

Now, he will spend a few sick years in Institutes
And do what things the rules consider wise.

Tonight, he noticed how women's eyes passed from him
To the strong men that were whole.
How cold and late it is .....
Why don't they come and put him into bed?
Why don't they come?

Ode To A Beautiful Nude read by Rufus Sewell
from Love Poetry by Pablo Neruda
(soundtrack - Il Postino) Hollywood Records, ISBN number 20516202

Ode To A Beautiful Nude

With a chaste heart - with pure eyes - I celebrate your beauty.
Holding the leash of blood so that it might leap out
And track your outline while you lie down in my Ode
As in a land of forests or in surf,
In aromatic loam or in sea music

Beautiful nude -
Equally beautiful your feet
Arched by primeval tap of wind and sound.
Your ears, small shells of the splendid American sea.

Your breasts, a level plenitude fulfilled by living light.
Your flying eyelids of wheat, revealing or enclosing
The two deep countries or your eyes.

The line your shoulders have divided into pale regions
Loses itself and blends into the compact halves of an apple,
Continues, separating your beauty down into two columns
Of burnished gold ..fine alabaster
To sink into the two grapes of your feet
Where your twin symmetrical tree burns again and rises ..
Flowering fire ..chandelier
A swelling fruit over the pact of sea and earth.

From what materials? agate? quartz? wheat? Did your body come together?
Swelling like baking bread to signal silvered hills.
The cleavage of one petal, sweet fruits of a deep velvet
Until alone remained, astonished
The fine and firm feminine form.

It is not only light that falls over the world,
Spreading inside your body it's suffocated snow ..
So much as clarity ..taking it's leave of you
As if you were on fire from within.
The moon lives in the lining of your skin.

The Woodlanders (audio clip)
by Thomas Hardy
read by Rufus Sewell
Harper Collins Audio Books - ISBN

Film Scouts "Caught In The Web" Interviews
"Cold Arrival" on Dark City
"Out of Body" on Dark City
"Dark Roles" on Dark City

Rufus Says Hello
Text of Film Scouts video interview - Cannes 1998

Host - since you’re going to be at the World Wide Web - just to begin, if we could ask for you to introduce yourself an explain why you’re here - for all those who are unfamiliar.

Rufus - Hello - well, I’m apparently Rufus Sewell and I’ve been here for 10 days - talking about myself, which is turning me into a strange, rare breed of freak –I’m looking forward to going home.

H - When do you go home?

R - I think the day after tomorrow - by turning into a rare breed of freak meaning I’ve been doing so many interviews that my girlfriend will say "how are you" and I’ll say, "Well, you know " - I’ll start doing this interview thing with her.

H - You have a stock answer for everything.

R - Yeah, it’s worrying - so I need to get back to reality.

H - What would you like to talk about if not about yourself? Do you have any blackjack secrets?

R - No, I recently played blackjack for the first time. I was in Las Vegas, and fortunately, very fortunately, I was sitting next to Minnie Driver - who attracted the attention of all the blackjack experts in the entire area - who’d come to give her tips.

So I made a hell of a lot of money.

H - Not bad

R -By sitting next to Minnie Driver - this guy would say, "Put your money down now, NOW, NOW!" This guy was counting all the cards - one of the real pros.

H - There really is a secret?

R - Oh, there is, if you can memorize 8 packets of cards - then you know when the numbers are coming up.

H - So - most of the publicity since you’ve been here has been split between Dark City and Illuminata?

R - And Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel, and Lawrence

H - Tell us a little about that.

R - Yeah - it’s an English comedy which has recently come out - and it’s a commercial British comedy set in "swinging" London.

H - Swinging, hipster London?

R - Yeah, but I’m not embarrassed about the commercial aspect of it because I play this cynic. You know, at least I’m playing the fuckhead - you know, I’m playing this ex-child actor who was like a really big deal when he was 8 or 9 years old. Everyone thought he was really cute. All the old ladies loved him and now he’s 30 years old, hasn’t worked in about 15 years, smokes 60 cigarettes a day, bottle of whiskey in his pocket - hates EVERYONE, especially his best friends. And he’s quite witty with it - so it was great fun ---- and he probably smells a bit, too.

H - Are you worried it might be you one day?

R - (laughs) It might be me today! No, Do I worry that it might be me today or one day? No. I certainly understand, I understand how people get like that.

H - But things are good - you’ve got a few films at Cannes.

R - Well, things are what they are - I’m not sure how good they are, I mean -

H - What does this mean to an actor? I mean obviously, for a director, you know, bringing a film to Cannes - a benchmark is created.

R - I don’t know. I don’t know what it means, you know. I’ve seen other people doing it on telly before and I knew what it meant then, but I can’t see what it looks like on telly now. From the inside it feels different. I mean, yeah, you’re at Cannes but it’s like, hey, you’re in front of a newspaper - what if it said, "Actor kills himself in London flat"? It’s not necessarily good news - so I’ll wait and see.

H - As for working with John Turturro, - how did you come in contact with him? I guess he selected all the actors - or was itcasting?

R - No, there was no casting - I met him through his Mum - his Mum liked me so I’m in the film. At thisng for this play - musical in NY, which I didn’t want to go to - Damn Yankees - I don’t like musicals.

H - Jerry Lewis?

R - Yeah, Jerry Lewis - and at the party afterwards -

H - Careful now - don’t use Jerry’ Lewis’s name in vain.

R - Well, Jerry Lewis is Jerry Lewis! I just don’t like - I actually enjoyed that one because it was old fashioned theatre, you know, it wasn’t like Andrew Lloyd Webber or anything. I don’t care about saying nasty things about that.

He was there with his Mum and someone said, "Do you want to come and meet him?" I said no. I tend to avoid people I admire - but I got dragged over by, you know, by my hand, and introduced to him and I didn’t know what to say. And then him Mother suddenly said, "Oh My God! With your hair, you two could be brothers! Sit down." (here he does a wonderful Brooklyn New York accent)

So she did, she kind of made a fuss of me and we had a cup of tea - and that was it. Two years later my agent phoned up while I was in New York and said, "John Turturro, who apparently met you once, wants to meet you for lunch."

So I phoned all my friends to say I’m going off to have lunch with John Turturro - and I met him - and he said that since he’d met me, he’d been thinking about a part in this film - did I want to do it? Of course I wanted to do it, you know, and then I found out that Christopher Walkin is also in it, which, where I come, from all I need to say to my friends when they’re giving me a hard time is, "Look, I’m in a film with Christopher Walkin and you’re not - OK?" This is the ultimate - this is all my ultimates.

H - The Walkin legend -

R - Yes, the Walkin legend continues.

H - What’s Christopher Walkin like?

R - He’s actually really nice - but he’s a - he’s strange.

H - Is he strange?

R - He isn’t very good at talking.

H - Do you have a Walkin impression?

R - No, I just have a little story - I can’t do him talking - I can do him NOT talking. On the first day of rehearsals, I was stuck in the hallway with him - Christopher Walkin was standing there - and I thought, well, I’ll make conversation with him. (here Rufus makes a Walkin face, very funny) I said, "Chris, Christopher, um, difficult isn’t it, playing actors (serious face here) difficult to know where to pitch it you know, whether to be at that level or that level (hand motions) isn’t it?"

And he went (again the Walkin face, turning about back and forth, hilarious)

(H is cracking up at these very good impressions) And he, for about half an hour, (more of the Walkin face) and I was like - (surprised look) - five more minutes (more of the Walkin face) and eventually he went -----"cameras" ---- and that was it.

H - And what did you think?

R - I went "good!" And then John Turturro came up to me afterwards and said, "I hear you had a really great chat with Chris during the break." So this is a conversation with Christopher Walkin. This is him being friendly.

H - Does anyone have a real dialogue with him?

R - Yeah - well, now, I’ve met him a few times before, now we actually manage to talk. He’s nice, I like him - he’s very funny, very kind. Unscrewed up about all this - laughs about it.

H - And as far as the rest of the cast - fond memories from working with this group - are these people you run into in 10 years and say, "Remember those days with Illuminata?"

R - Well, yes, when I mean, when, you know, I get back to New York, I see them now, you know. John’s a friend of mine now. That’s another thing I tell my friends -

"I’m a friend of John Turturro, - OK?"

H - You still have to impress your friends? You’re Rufus Sewell - you have to drop names?

R - I have to impress my friends - my friends aren’t impressed that I’m Rufus Sewell because they know that that means (laugh). Yes, sure, No I’m not seriously talking about dropping names - it’s just that my friends, it’s just cool with me and my friends that - uh - I’d be impressed by them too. It’s just that you want someone to go "John Turturro" to, because all the people here are (bored look) like, "yeah, sure - well, so what?" You know then it’s not people, when you talk to people like that. You need people to - I’m impressed by these things. It’s exciting.

H - Had you ever done this type of broad farce before?

R - Oh sure, I’ve done it a lot, I mean, and it’s my sense of humor. I mean, broad farce isn’t my sense of humor but - I’ve done a lot of comedy. It’s not something I’m particularly known for and I’m glad because it means that when I do it, people are kind of surprised. Whereas if I’d started with comedy I suspect I wouldn’t have had the chance to do the serious stuff because I would have got stuck there.

H - Anything you have to be careful of when you’re acting - stepping over the line maybe and taking it too far, or being too restrained?

R - No, I mean, look at Christopher Walkin in that film. No, I don’t think taking it too far is a problem, you know. No, I don’t think so. I think the style of this film in particular - it can be piked, because the language is slightly stylized. You know people suddenly start singing with orchestras and things out of nowhere. It’s not going to matter too much if you take it over the top.

H - Guys singing in an Armoire?

R - Yes, it depends - you match it to the flavor of the film you’re in and hopefully you’ve got the flavor right.

H - And as far as telling the story of life in a theatre company -

R - Well, it tells the story of the life in this theatre company.

H - Well, this particular one - is that at all representative of the experiences you’ve had working on stage or working on films?

R - I’ve never found it THAT easy to get sex! (laugh)

But uh, yeah, I mean it’s representative - it’s representative - it’s not, you know, accurate because it’s about, you know, a very long time ago when theatre was absolutely considered vitally necessary by everyone. Whereas now it’s become more of a luxury - preaching to the converted, you know, at it’s worst.

But um, oh yeah, I mean - I loved that aspect of it - playing an actor on stage, in rehearsals, the way they really are, you know.

Saying, "Do you mind not stepping on my lines, love? I’m speaking now. Is she going to cry during my bit? I’ll tell you, if she does, I’m bloody walking!"

All this kind of camp bitchiness and the comedy, the way people have, the way that actors are with each other back stage - there’s quite a lot more than an element of truth in it.

H - And was there actually any situation when you would say to somebody, "Don’t step on my lines"?

R - No, personally, that sort of thing terrifies me - if anyone says ,"Don’t step on my lines, " I go, (high pitched, little boy voice) "OK".

But this is just, it’s kind of nauseating to hear but it actually was just really brilliant fun, start to finish. I don’t like hearing that. I just think it sounds like lies, when people say that, but it’s true.

H - Can we talk for a second about one of the other films here - Dark City - part of the Millenium series or something that they’re doing here?

R - They never told us that - Oh, good!

H - It’s been out a few months, I know, in North America. What kind of reception has it received here in Cannes? Were you at all surprised by that?

R - The French reception has been incredible.

H - I mean, you would think - it’s right up their alley here.

R - Yeah, and I think also it’s probably partly the way they marketed it here has been slightly better for the film. Because in America they pushed it as this kind of - it’s not Total Recall - it’s a kind of esoteric, I call it "acid noir" -

H - Acid Noir?

R - Yeah

H - You’ve coined a new term -

R - Yeah, it could catch on. But you know, it’s not like a science fiction film. I mean, of course it is ultimately - but there’s more to it than that. It’s about ideas and there are, if you look for it, themes. And I think the idea that you would just try to show it to as many people as possible and get as much money for it as you can - if you’re gonna chop the film up to do that then it’s a shame. I’d much rather, personally, show it to a smaller audience who like that sort of thing, rather than turn it into another film for people who aren’t going to like it anyway.

Like I don’t like the - a - there’s a big speech at the beginning of the film which defeats the entire purpose of the film, to me. It just infuriates me because it wasn’t there - and the whole thing about the movie was that you discover towards the end that you’re not on earth. You’re actually - But now, because it was confusing "stupid people" presumably - Well, it would probably confuse me too, but I like the confusion. What I loved about the story was that you didn’t quite know what was going on - and I feel it’s a shame, kind of reductive, to try to make it so clear that everyone gets it because you alienate a lot of people by doing that as well.

H - Finally - you mentioned you had a home page -

R - Yeah

H - Can you tell us a bit about your experiences with the web?

R - Well, I discovered it by accident. Uh, it’s called Vue2Sewell - it’s called. It’s quite lovely - well- it was very nice of them.

H - Obviously you have a lot of fans on the web, and especially with Dark City and the net following it’s attracted. Is there any message for your fans or your friends - Christopher Walkin loving friends?

R - (waves to camera) Yeah - just - I’d like to see nude photos of me. I want to see what I look like from behind (laugh). No - I have - you know - what can I say? Hello, you know.

H - OK - Any Walkin, final Walkin impressions?

R - No final Walkin impressions.

H - All right, thanks a lot Rufus. Good luck with all the films.

R - Thanks a lot.