This Beautiful Fantastic: an enchanting tale of books, gardens and love
Writer/director Simon Aboud’s second feature, This Beautiful Fantastic, is the whimsical story of Bella Brown (Jessica Brown Findlay, formerly Lady Sybil in Downton Abbey), who “grew into the oddest of odd balls, just her, and her books,” the wry voiceover tells us, as the movie opens.
The plots centers around Bella and her (lack of a) relationship to her garden, an unloved and unkempt tangle. The contrast with Bella’s extremely rigid routine of reading, re-heating canned foods and a day job in the silent dusty library is comically recorded.
The other characters are equally eccentric: perpetually cross neighbor Alfie Stephenson (Tom Wilkinson, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), Vernon, a witty housekeeper (Andrew Scott, in sweet contrast to his malevolent Moriarty in Sherlock), madcap willowy inventor, Billy (Jeremy Irvine, War Horse) who flouts convention in the library by eating sandwiches under the shocked eyes of Bramble, the Head Librarian (Anna Chancellor, aka Duckface from Four Weddings and a Funeral).
We know something glorious is going to happen when Bella is given “thirty days or you’re out” to create a suitably English garden out of the disorderly jungle out back. Alfie peers over the fence and says, witheringly, “You can speed read, but you can’t speed garden.” Bella despairs — and the tale unfolds.
I called Simon Aboud at his house in London to hear the backstory behind this magical movie.
Was This Beautiful Fantastic inspired by a real-life garden?
Simon Aboud: There was a garden. But first there was a Victorian gardening book, which a friend gave me — it was beautifully bound, and the way it talked about gardening was wonderful, as some incredible undertaking. Also, at that time, I used to live off the Essex road, a bit behind Islington High Street, in North London. What I loved about that area was, when you walked around, you couldn’t see anyone’s gardens, they’re all hidden away and very private. One day I was walking with my daughter and was intrigued as to what was the other side of a high fence and decided to climb on the fence to take a peek. There was an extraordinary garden, a beautiful sight; an oasis in the middle of the city. But what was most striking was the light — it was as if I’d stumbled on a painting by Delacroix.
A great image to give rise to a cinematic adventure. Let’s talk about the characters who then arrived, all of whom seem rather lost at the beginning. Is that fair to say?
SA: (Pauses) Y-es. They are lost but, more than that, and maybe they don’t know this, at first, they are all looking for the others, to help them fulfill their potential.
Searching for their “tribe”, of sorts?
SA: Exactly. I think finding a family, of whatever sort, is a noble pursuit.
There is a nobility to the look of the film too. It’s beautifully saturated with careful color choices — from Bella’s severe monastic gray garb at the beginning, to the literal flourishing of her psyche, and outfits, as the garden blooms. Tell us how you achieved this with cinematographer Mike Eley, BSC.
SA: We shot on Alexas, using the Cooke S4 SF (Special Flair) Primes, because it gave the film a slightly ethereal, very cinematic feel, despite the fact we had restricted space in our interiors, so anything we could do to maximize every inch of the frame, we did, and those lenses are very versatile.
It’s noticeable you don’t waste a shot. Each scene has a function in getting us to the next moment in the story or setting the mood to explain a character’s inner dialogue. Is this due to your background as a creative director on commercials, starting at JWT, then working on the Coca-Cola account at McCann-Erickson for many years?
SA: To be honest, making movies is such a different business. But yes, it was invaluable training to cut to the important ideas, how to tell a story, and, most importantly, how to sell it.
So you broke free of advertising in 2001, and have made a living as a writer and film/TV director since then. How did you meet Christine Alderson, the Producer with whom you made your debut feature, Comes a Bright Day?
SA: I had several scripts written to hand, and was having a conversation with my attorney in London when I said, “I really need a good producer”. He wrote down a list of 5 producers and I contacted them all. The first person who responded was Christine. We met in a pub down Old Compton Street.
(Interrupts) Just off Wardour Street where so much of the British film industry started, around the corner from the British HQ of Twentieth Century Fox in Soho Square?
SA: (Laughs) Right — it’s almost too perfect an anecdote — and she basically said, “Yeah, let’s do this.” It was a breath of fresh air. I’d had lots of actors attached to the scripts before, tons of interest, but no financing. Suddenly she made it all happen.
Take us right back to the beginning — did you always know you wanted to make movies? What were your first cinematic memories?
SA: I grew up outside Liverpool and, while my mum and dad had friends over for dinner parties, I was allowed to stay up and watch films on the television. I must have been about 9 years old, and the BBC ran a series of brilliant Friday night films, including The Apartment.
A Sixties classic, indeed: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, draining spaghetti through a tennis racket on the upper west side of Manhattan.
SA: And directed by the great Billy Wilder. I remember talking about the film with my dad the next day and saying, “That’s what I want to do — direct films”. And he laughed.
Ouch.
SA: Right.
But clearly you persevered.
SA: Yes. I think film just got under my skin from then and trips to the theatre then were really memorable, like seeing The Man with the Golden Gun at the Embassy Theatre in Wallasey — all red velvet interiors — classic.
This Beautiful Fantastic would play well in one of those glorious Art Deco arthouse palaces. So, last question, what’s next for you, career-wise?
SA: I’m currently planning a feature set in Cornwall, which Christine is also producing. Just wrapped on a job in Los Angeles on a TV show for French broadcaster Canal Plus.
Well, we wish you luck with the USA opening of This Beautiful Fantastic!
