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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Carey Mulligan overcame singing 'nerves' on folk music film The Ballad of Wallis Island
In The Ballad of Wallis Island Carey Mulligan plays one half of fictional folk duo McGwyer Mortimer alongside Tom Basden, and the actor tells Yahoo UK of how being on set helped her face her nerves over singing on screen. The actor plays Nell Mortimer opposite Basden's Herb McGwyer. The duo parted on bad terms years earlier but are brought back together when millionaire fan Charles (Tim Key) hires them for a gig on the remote island where he lives. The Ballad of Wallis Island is written by Basden and Key, the former also composed the soundtrack, and it explores the idea of music, creativity and lost love in surprisingly touching ways. For Mulligan it was a role she jumped at the chance at, even if the prospect of singing was nerve-wracking: "I loved it, I loved all the songs, Tom would send me the songs and then send me exactly what I would sing in them because I can't pick a harmony on my own or anything like that. So Tom would be like 'this is what I sing and this is your bit.' "I think every song that was in the film was already written into the script of what would be [in it] so we did a little rehearsal montage. But it was all very easy and I think because [James Griffiths, the director] made a set that was just so lovely, and we had such a gorgeous crew. "I didn't really have the nerves that I probably would have had if I was in a different kind of set but Griff just made such a gorgeous set so it was kind of lovely. I loved it." Basden's composition of McGwyer Mortimer's songs were a way for him to "lyrically illuminate their back story", and he wanted them to feel "hopeful and romantic". "It was conveying emotions that the characters themselves wouldn't talk about," he explains. "So in that sense the music is doing a bit of story work for us, because it's helping the audience understand emotionally what's going on for these characters and why Herb ends up feeling the way that he does without having to kind of reveal it directly. "I think music really has such a big part to play in all of our lives because it sort of gives us an emotional soundtrack to parts of our life that we were not able to provide ourselves." While it might be easy to assume a movie starring Mulligan that has a folk soundtrack might have taken some inspiration from her real-life husband Marcus Mumford and his work in Mumford & Sons, Basden reveals there was no set inspiration for the fictional folk duo's music. "I didn't want the music to feel like it was inspired by one particular artist or anything like that," he says. "There are some songs that I wanted to have a slightly timeless feel, like a '60s, '70s singer-songwriter feel, and others were a bit more modern. A bit more niche folky, in some ways." He adds: "I guess maybe Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, or a bit of Ryan Adams and James Yorkston & the Athletes [were inspirations]. People like that, those kind of folk country acts that I've liked over the years." Through Basden's character the film also deftly explores the notion of selling out and what it means to sacrifice ones creativeness for a taste of fame, something Herb battles with himself about over the course of the movie. It was an interesting idea to tackle, the actor says: "I think the thing with music specifically is it's really less so much about fame and more about relevance, someone trying to stay fashionable. "And I think that's just so difficult, it's part of getting into your 40s that you gotta have to accept that you just can't appeal to 20-year-olds in the way that other 20-year-olds can — and that's fine, you know? But like I think that's a big part of the lesson that Herb in particular learns in this film, is that you have to grow old gracefully, no matter what you do." Even with Mulligan and Basden playing the folk duo at the centre of the story it's Key's character Charles who steals the whole show, thanks to his dry humour and relatable awkwardness. And he was a character that Key particularly enjoyed creating from scratch. "It felt very easy and natural when we did that when the character emerged in 2006, when we're writing the short film. He's one of many characters that we would be flinging backwards and forwards when we were in a sketch group and I think he's some kind of amalgam of all sorts of adults that your parents know who walks into a room [and acts awkwardly]. "So it's those people all sort of blended together, and then put a heart inside him and let him go. It was a very enjoyable thing to write, and a very enjoyable thing to perform once you're up and running. "His journey through the film was very enjoyable because he sort of starts as just a bumbling agent of chaos and then ends as something slightly more than that." Basden and Key first created the story back in 2006 for a short film The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island, they reworked the narrative for a feature-length story as they had a "great fondness" for both the short film they'd created and the characters. Basden shares: "[We had a] feeling that we could do more with it, that the the story actually is bigger than the short film format can maybe afford to it, and that if we went back to it we could do something that really elevated it and kind of brought it to life for a full length film. So that was our hope." What the creative team appreciate is the chance to share an indie film in cinemas, particularly at a time when blockbusters dominate the landscape. Basden explains: "I feel like cinema is dominated by sequels and superheroes and reboots, computer games and toys turned into films and I think it's really important that people have original independent cinema, that they have new stories that really speak to what's happening to them now. "I just really hope that people value that, and come to the cinema to kind of be part of that because it's something that I think for people who make films, who love film, is just so important. It feels like originality is at at the heart of cinema still." "It's a chance to connect, isn't it?" Griffiths adds. "Over laughter or emotion or crying together, you don't get that in your front room. I mean, you might do, but in a cinema there's something about coming together. "Comedy, music, horror, some of those genres, they're really better experienced in a theatrical space." And The Ballad of Wallis Island is certainly best viewed in a cinema. The Ballad of Wallis Island premieres in UK cinemas on Friday, 30 May.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Unsung British comedy The Ballad of Wallis Island is a modern day Local Hero, writes BRIAN VINER
The Ballad Of Wallis Island (12A, 139 mins) Verdict: Hilarious and poignant A pair of films open in cinemas today, each as British as a cream tea and both set way out west, yet strikingly different in tone. One is a hoot and the other anything but. The former is The Ballad Of Wallis Island. Written by and starring Tim Key and Tom Basden, it wrings laughs galore from the fundamentally sad story of Charles (Key), who lives alone and lonely in a rambling house on an island off the Pembrokeshire coast, with only occasional social interaction at the local shop, run by single mum Amanda (Sian Clifford). But Charles does have plenty of money, enough of it to pay a somewhat brittle, moderately well-known singer-songwriter called Herb McGwyer (Basden) to travel out to the island to perform a private gig. Charles claims they've met once before, long ago at the Colchester Corn Exchange, when Herb and his then-girlfriend Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) were a duo known as McGwyer Mortimer – 'the best-selling folk-rock artists of 2014', no less. What Herb doesn't know is that Charles has also invited Nell to the island. He is willing to fork out £800,000 in cash for the pair to re-form for one night only, without knowing that they are both bringing a heap of emotional baggage from their broken relationship. To complicate matters further, Nell is coming with her husband, Michael (Akemnji Ndifornyen). Herb hasn't seen her for nine years. He didn't even know she was married. The story begins with Herb arriving by boat and an over-excited Charles wading out to meet him. Gauche, over-eager and exasperating, with a nervy compulsion for puns and word-play, Charles is a character in the great British tradition of Alan Partridge and David Brent, only more lovable and vulnerable. 'He's sort of sweet in a way,' Herb tells his agent over the phone, while also using a football expression to complain that Charles won't leave him alone. 'He's everywhere. It's like he's man-marking me.' Charles has two framed lottery tickets on his wall. Herb had assumed that he must have made his riches from finance or oil but in fact he was a male nurse who miraculously scooped the jackpot twice. Having used it all up first time round travelling the world with the love of his life, Marie, he then went and won it again. Alas, he no longer has Marie to share his fortune with, although for reasons that eventually unfold she still looms large in the narrative. Splendidly directed by James Griffiths, with glorious panoramic shots that will thrill the people at Visit Pembrokeshire, the film is based on a 2007 BAFTA-nominated short called The One And Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island. That too was directed by Griffiths, and written by Key and Basden. To dip into Charles's beloved word-play, if this longer version has an off-key note it lies in the character of Michael, whom the plot, a little unconvincingly, contrives to get out of the way once he and Nell have arrived. But it scarcely matters, and anyway it does its job, allowing the focus to fall on Herb and Nell as historical resentments pepper their search for old harmonies. Mulligan, as usual, is note-perfect and Basden, who did a cracking job of writing the film's original songs, is excellent too. But Key's is the performance to cherish: drama schools could use it as the embodiment of pathos. I loved pretty much every minute of this enormously engaging picture, which reminded me in some ways of Bill Forsyth's 1983 charmer Local Hero. Surprisingly, given its quintessential Britishness – and dialogue that references Monster Munch, Alton Towers, Harold Shipman, Ken Dodd and Red Leicester cheese – it has already been a modest hit in the US, following its premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival. But maybe that's not so surprising, given its universal themes of love, loneliness, friendship, and, indeed, money. The Salt Path (12A, 115 mins) Verdict: A bit of a slog The Salt Path is about money, too, but in this case the almost total lack of it. The film is based on a best-selling memoir by Raynor Winn (Gillian Anderson), which recorded the tribulations she and her husband Moth (Jason Isaacs) suffered after losing their family home, a disaster compounded by the diagnosis in Moth of a rare degenerative disease. Homeless and penniless, yet undaunted by his health problems, the Winns decide to do something positive, so they take a tent and walk the mighty South West Coast Path through Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. The film chronicles their highs and lows along the way, and it's moving stuff, but the journey is too often a slog for us as well as for them, and I wonder if feature-film debutante Marianne Elliott, whose many credits are all in the theatre, was the right choice of director? The coastal scenery is spectacular on the eye, while Isaacs and especially Anderson are both superb (if perhaps a little too handsome and well-groomed to wholly convince as a couple on their uppers). But the story could have been kept a lot more taut as the Winns encounter not just the kindness, but also the complacency, hostility and oddness of strangers.
The Sun
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
The Ballad of Wallis Island review: This touching film is littered with hilarious dialogue & powerful performances
THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND (12A) 100mins ★★★★☆ THERE'S beautiful harmony in this story of love, grief and folk music. Written by the two leading men, Tim Key and Tom Basden, it's set on a remote British island where the boats are few and far between and most calls have to take place in a phone box. 4 4 It's where the wealthy and wonderfully eccentric Charles (Key) has chosen to make his home after losing the love of his life. Charles passes the time listening to the LPs of his favourite folk duo, McGwyer Mortimer. He decides to offer the pair — who have long since split up, both romantically and musically — a load of cash to play a gig on the island. The problem is, he doesn't tell Herb McGwyer (Basden) that ex-love Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan), is also invited. She turns up with her new husband in tow. Oh, and the pair also don't know this big-money gig is to be for an audience of just one: Charles. These little white lies involve a bit of amusing toy throwing by Herb, but soon the pair knuckle down to rehearsing and we get to see the magic in their music that Charles sees. The songs, written by Basden, give an insight into their powerful and delicate love affair — one that we learn was not handled with care. Once Nell's husband goes on a trip around the island, the duo start to reacquaint themselves — sharing food, wine and songs in Charles' crumbling kitchen. They reminisce about gigs and visit the windswept beach to share their hopes and dreams, while watching the sunset. This might sound lightweight, but it's all littered with hilarious dialogue and heartwarming performances that make you unsure if your tears are through laughter or heartache. There's also a potential love interest for the shy and clumsy Charles in the form of the local shopkeeper (Sian Clifford, from Fleabag) and you want nothing but good things for this big- hearted superfan. Watching him watch his favourite duo sing is unbelievably moving — Key deserves huge credit for giving the character so many layers. And the friendship that grows between him and Herb is refreshing to watch. All the performances are powerful yet understated, making this gently touching and life-affirming film a very sweet song indeed. THE SALT PATH (12A) 115mins ★★★★☆ HAVING played an immaculately crimped Margaret Thatcher and Emily Maitlis, this time Gillian Anderson has dispensed with hair and make-up. Her locks appear windswept before she's begun a 630-mile trek along the southwest coastline in this movie adapted from the book of the same name. 4 Based on a true story, Gillian plays Raynor Winn who finds herself homeless with husband Moth (Jason Isaacs) after they're evicted from their house. With nowhere to go, the pair buy a tent and take the scenic route from Minehead in Somerset to Poole, Dorset. To make matters more difficult, Moth has been diagnosed with an incurable and fatal condition, making it difficult for him to walk. Along the way, they meet both generous locals and obnoxious old men. What could have been a long, depressing slog turns out to be a life-affirming experience for the couple. Raynor and Moth find joy in nature and in each other's company. The Salt Path is both beautiful and emotional, while avoiding being syrupy sweet. And England's rugged coast couldn't have asked for a better advert. Grant Rollings ★★★★☆ THE 'Wax on, wax off' spirit of Mr Miyagi lives on in this sixth big-screen instalment of the martial arts franchise. Young fighting talent Li Fong, (Ben Wang, impressively performing his own stunts) takes to the mat under the mentorship of Mr Han, (Jackie Chan). 4 After his brother dies in a street brawl Li moves from Beijing to New York with his Mum (Ming-Na Wen) where a meet-cute with Mia (Sadie Stanley) sees him begin training her Dad, Victor, (Joshua Jackson) for combat. But when that bout doesn't go to plan Li instead attempts to win a renowned tournament himself, coming up against Mia's ex in the process. No new ground is being broken and there are cliches galore in a predictable script but being formulaic doesn't prevent this martial arts caper from being plenty of fun. The cast all get stuck in, there's great choreography, and some good gags. Cameos from legends including the original Kid himself, Ralph Macchio, provide dollops of pleasing nostalgia. A feelgood black belter to make you smile. Laura Stott
The Independent
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Carey Mulligan ‘checked by medic' during freezing Welsh summer filming
A medic was called on-set to assess if British actress Carey Mulligan and the cast were not getting too cold while they filmed a movie in coastal Wales during the summer, the director has said. In the upcoming comedy drama, The Ballad Of Wallis Island, Mulligan – who is married to singer Marcus Mumford – plays one half of a disbanded folk band opposite Plebs star Tom Basden as her ex-boyfriend. The movie, which has had critical acclaim in the US, sees a fan and lottery winner – portrayed by comedian Tim Key – pay for them to reunite and perform a gig on an island, called Wallis. At the gala screening at the Ham Yard Hotel, London, on Wednesday, director James Griffiths told the PA news agency: 'Tom especially was going blue through most of the takes. 'I think there was a medic going in, and you too, right (Carey)? We had a medic sort of checking your temperature for the cold stuff. It was freezing.' When asked if it was filmed during the summer, Oscar-nominated actress Mulligan said 'it's Wales'. Basden said the rural location, believed to be in and around Pembrokeshire, was 'beautiful and it was unpredictable, weather wise, and it was challenging'. Key said: 'We shot the short film (version) 18 years ago, and we're kind of very eager to get back to Wales. Feels like it's a big part of the film. Weirdly.' Mulligan, 40, also recalled that the filming over a few weeks felt like a 'summer camp together'. London-born Mulligan, whose mother is originally from Llandeilo, Wales, also said: 'I had such a little baby when we were filming, it's just attached to all these, like, gorgeous memories of my baby being little. 'And you guys were all around, and everyone was cuddling her, and we were all sort of together for a bit. So it's very precious to me.' The original short film, The One And Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island, was nominated for a 2008 Bafta short film prize, and saw Key and Basden in the main roles. Mulligan has been nominated three times for a best actress Oscar, for projects including coming-of-age hit An Education, revenge thriller Promising Young Woman, and biopic Maestro. In April 2012, Mulligan married Mumford – lead singer of Mumford & Sons – and the couple now have three children. She has previously appeared on soundtracks released for movies she has been in, including Maestro, Inside Llewyn Davis, about a fictional folk singer, and period drama Far From The Madding Crowd. The Ballad Of Wallis Island will come to UK cinemas on Friday.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Ballad of Wallis Island, review: a lovely, offbeat and very British comedy
Taciturn folk musician Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden) prefers 'intimate' gigs, and is certainly promised that in the lovely, offbeat, acutely British comedy-drama The Ballad of Wallis Island. Indeed, for £500,000 in cash, he may wind up playing to an audience of one. This deranged megafan is Charles (Tim Key), a hearty chatterbox and two-time Lottery winner who has lured Herb to the fictional island of the title, somewhere off the Welsh coast. What Charles hasn't yet revealed is that the concert is set to be a reunion. Years before Herb's dwindling career as a solo artist, he was one half of a duo called McGwyer Mortimer. Until they split – and, we suspect, long after – he was deeply in love with his opposite number, Nell: a supporting role warmly graced by Carey Mulligan in a spirit of mucking in. It's tricky to get off the island, as Herb finds when his host's jabberingly awkward wordplay drives him to mutiny. The film's simple proposition is that we never leave it, either. We're stuck with Key, a stand-up virtuoso who is thankfully amazing playing a windbag who can't read the room – a ludicrous ruiner of sunsets, or any other vaguely peaceful moment. There's almost nothing he won't turn into a weak pun: accused of prying, he dubs himself 'Pry-awatha', and calls Herb's rider a 'Winona'. Charles is also a widower, which explains a lot when he's listening to McGwyer Mortimer's love songs – the only times in the film when he's lost for words. Key and Basden co-wrote this script, expanding on their 2007 short film The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island (which had the same director, James Griffiths). Together they've made something which stands comparison with the likes of Once or Sing Street, while gaining freshness from its silliness. Charles, who has a tennis court, has become such a loner he's a dab hand at serves, while useless at any other aspect of the game. Meanwhile, as one of few fellow islanders, Sian Clifford sweetly sketches a befuddled shop-owner who might have stumbled right in from Wallace and Gromit. Herb and Charles, a man of few words and a man of too many, are recognisable to us as equally lost souls – kindred spirits in that way, if not exactly fast friends. (They're slow friends.) The film tackles stasis and being marooned, emotionally, at a certain time of life: rich themes the script doesn't need to talk about overtly, because the characters refuse to do so. Deeply believable as a 00s music casualty, Basden's Herb is so slumped and blocked he's the perfect foil to Charles, who masks his own pain by twittering away on any subject but the ones that matter. Ninety per cent of the writing is bad jokes – performed so snugly in character, they're funnier than most good ones. 10 per cent is choked desolation, and very touching indeed.
