Tilda Swinton/Michael Powell

So I went to the 'Tilda Swinton and Wes Anderson: A Magical Tour of Cinema' at the BFI last night, and one of the things she mentioned was working with Michael Powell on some kind of film with New Order but he died before it went into production, she mentioned that she had a treatment for it somewhere at home but did not know where it is, but when she finds it, the BFI could have it for their archive.

Does anyone know anything else about this (I think she mentioned it was called The Sands Of D or something similar): I know Michael Shamberg dedicated the video 'The Temptation of Victoria' to Michael Powell, but thats about as much I know about any link/connection between them (I didn't really get into New Order until round about the time Technique was released)

The only thing that I can remember about this was an interview with Bernard (may have been audio, video or in the press) where he said that the band had the option to work with either Powell or the FA to do 'World In Motion'. Apparently, Bernard was a big fan of Powell and therefore wanted to do that project, but the rest of the band / Factory opted for the FA thing. They planned to get together with Powell after 'World In Motion'. However, Powell died (in February 1990) and Bernard said that he was a bit pissed off with the rest of the band for missing the opportunity.

I think the interview was probably around the time of the release of the England single or maybe during an 'Electronic' interview in 1991.

When you say 'treatment', I'm unfamiliar with the term. What exactly are we talking about here? Filmed material, soundtrack etc?

Hooky explains it in his Substance book.

I'd forgotten it was in Hooky's book.

Here's the relevant three quotes about it:

"In typical fashion, straight after we split we ended up getting back together again, two ideas being mooted. Project number one was very interesting creatively: a long-talked about collaboration with the famous film director Michael Powell, of The Red Shoes. Michael Shamberg had been pushing this one for a while and it looked as if finally it had come to fruition. We went to meet Michael Powell, then in his mid-eighties, in his offices in London. He was lovely and very enthusiastic about our music. I think the others saw this as an opportunity to feature a new synthesiser dancey track but Michael said, ‘No’. He had already chosen the track ‘Age of Consent’. I was delighted. His idea was to film a piece based on a poem called ‘The Sands of Dee’ actually on the sands of the River Dee, which winds its way through Chester and out into the Irish Sea. ‘Rugged and wild, much like the song’, he said. I couldn’t have been happier when he said that. Stick that in your dancey pipe and smoke it, you cunts. The dramatisation was to star Tilda Swinton.

Project number two couldn’t have been more different: a collaboration with the England football squad for the 1990 World Cup. This was purely commercial and could not be turned down. We all wrinkled our noses but had no doubt that for New Order and hence for our solo projects this was indeed great news."

...

"(A sad note on the session was the passing of Michael Powell at the age of 85, meaning the ‘Age of Consent’ art film project guide with him. Shame, a lovely man.)"

...

"Timeline Eleven January-December 1990

19 February 1990 British film director Michael Powell dies."

Can't edit the post above.

Swap "guide' for 'died".

Obvs...

This is what happens when you get lazy and dictate text rather than type it out. Sadly Apple Books doesn't let you copy and paste text (unsurprisingly, I guess).

perspexorange wrote: Stick that in your dancey pipe and smoke it, you cunts.

God, I loathe him. He's a smug piece of shit who only hates dance music because 1. his timing is awful (see: ANY live intro to Age Of Consent), and 2. his contribution to dance music (One True Passion) was considered a flop. He was certainly happy enough to cash in with his "DJ" sets, Hacienda compilations, and a fucking book.

50poundnote wrote:

perspexorange wrote: Stick that in your dancey pipe and smoke it, you cunts.

God, I loathe him. He's a smug piece of shit who only hates dance music because 1. his timing is awful (see: ANY live intro to Age Of Consent), and 2. his contribution to dance music (One True Passion) was considered a flop. He was certainly happy enough to cash in with his "DJ" sets, Hacienda compilations, and a fucking book.

Did you attend his DJ set (pre-The Light) at a club somewhere near Moscone Center? It was so embarrassing.

I didn't have high hopes. Before the Gig a girlfriend and I were upstairs (nearly alone) and he came up to slam Red Bulls to get in the mood. She asked "Aren't you going to go up and talk to him?" (as I had done so with a friend before the New Order Santa Barbara gig in 1989). I didn't because I had nothing positive to say.

Ken Doherty wrote: but he died )

A poem Sylva Plath wrote before She died. Not after, that'd be difficult. There were two projects in 90, the soundtrack to Powell's Sands of (Jack) Dee or World in Motion. According to Stephen, WIM won cos 'it was put rather persuasively to us that we wouldn't make much money, and Michael Powell died.' A tad of info in the 'Item' sleevenotes too.

perspexorange wrote:

When you say 'treatment', I'm unfamiliar with the term. What exactly are we talking about here? Filmed material, soundtrack etc?

In rhis case I'm presuming she meant the outline of the film/video before shooting was due to commence, somewhere between a storyboard and a script.

Yes, Hooky is a total dick but as long as he tours with The Light I can forgive him. 14 quid for 2 hours of lost gems like Tiny Tim and Ecstasy, thrashed out by a note-perfect band featuring their most distinctive musician? Fine by me.

Yep, deffo remember reading they ended up doing World In Motion instead.

Watched Tilda Swinton in that Suspiria film recently.One weird spooky movie that, but great! Also watched the original 1977 Suspiria which is also great.

Fotz wrote:

Watched Tilda Swinton in that Suspiria film recently.One weird spooky movie that, but great!

I gave up on that after 15 mins. Thought it was pretentious w*nk. Maybe I shall try again. I liked tilda in Okja directed by Bong Joon Ho who hit the Oscars jackpot this year with Parasite (wow a good film actually won best Picture & Director!).

Debaser wrote: w*nk.

Thanks for protecting me. What could this word be? http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/new-order/51 : 'BY THE TIME you read this interview New Order hope to be working with Michael Powell, "a famous but ageing film director" who the band had approached with the intention of doing a video.

"He came back to us with a specific idea which I can't tell you about because it'll spoil the surprise", says Morris, mysteriously. "We're going to base it all on a poem, so we're going to get someone to read it at various tempos, and then write the music and make the video at the same time. It's not a video to promote anything, and it's not a commercial venture in any sense of the term. There's no way it's ever going to make any money, we just wanted to work with him.'

There is actually a bit about this in the latest issue of Sight & Sound, with Tilda Swinton on the cover but I'm presuming the writer was more interested in Swinton & Powell than NO themselves.