Ben Hopkins

Characters in a Ben Hopkins film tend to be shocked. They may not realise it but they will. His films hinge upon exchange or trade in an ever changing world. People try to cope with disruption only to realise that something much bigger is going on instead, be it technological, political or otherwise. Typically it crushes them.

Hopkins seems like a director tailor made for the headrush of our times. In an ever wired world national borders seem ever more irrelevant. It’s likely coincidence but Hopkins released Simon Magus in 1999, in the middle of the Dot-com bubble. Today, we continue to confront the future shock of constant technological change with little time to consider the implications on everything else. Here is someone whose films help us to.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

A Miracle is produced by Har Films as a UK-French-German-Turkish co-production with Starfield Productions, Rhamsa Productions and Flying Moon. It is written and directed by Ben Hopkins with Paul Raphael and Maya Hariri producing. The film is a comedy road-movie following the adventure of an unlikely pair that come together to collect a coffin containing a Georgian millionaire’s dead aunt, leading them through unexpected adventures. Wild Bunch will sell the film internationally.

Ben Hopkins, director (‘The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz’)

Here’s my list of ten best British films... none pre-World War II, I know, but nothing earlier really made the grade.

In no particular order:

The Innocents (Clayton, 1961)

Monty Python’s Life of Brian (Jones, 1979)

Comedy is very important to me and is one of the UK's best exports.

Lawrence of Arabia (Lean, 1962)

Naked (Leigh, 1993)

Not quite so certain about this one as it has its definite flaws… however its ‘good bits’ are just fantastic.

Repulsion (Polanski, 1965)

Made by some Polish geezer... but Brit locations, Brit money? British?

Orlando (Potter, 1992) or Edward II (Jarman)

I want one of these two (you decide which!) to represent the virulent and very important, minority strain of anti-realism in Brit cinema. It was a shame I couldn't fit in a Greenaway for the same reason. Both the Jarman and the Potter are lovely films, made with great imagination.

A Matter of Life and Death (Powell and Pressburger, 1946)

Ratcatcher (Ramsay, 1999)

The Third Man (Reed, 1949)

Performance (Cammell and Roeg, 1970)

Gotta 'ave a cockney gangster film.

Luce a écrit:Pendant le tournage d'Epic, le nouveau film de Ben Hopkins, A miracle, est annoncé :
Screen Yorkshire unveils £2m production slate (Screendaily, 18 janvier 2013).

A Miracle is produced by Har Films as a UK-French-German-Turkish co-production with Starfield Productions, Rhamsa Productions and Flying Moon. It is written and directed by Ben Hopkins with Paul Raphael and Maya Hariri producing. The film is a comedy road-movie following the adventure of an unlikely pair that come together to collect a coffin containing a Georgian millionaire’s dead aunt, leading them through unexpected adventures. Wild Bunch will sell the film internationally.

Dear Ben,

I just have to tell you how pleased I was, when I read yesterday, that Matthew Macfadyen  (which Im a huge fan of , as you know) is doing again a movie  with you.
Matthew  always preferred  to chose completely different things to play , so doing twice a comedy with you  expresses how much he has enjoyed and appreciated to work with you.

Im very much looking forward to this project and wish you all the best for it.

Liebe Grüße

Thanks for your nice mail. It’s true that Matthew and I enjoyed working together a great deal. I’m looking forward to working with him again...

All best wishes from me

Ben

L’année 2008 a vu le cinéma turc courir de réussite en réussite. Alors que sa riche diversité lui permit d’attirer plus de la moitié du public national, les films d’auteur ont récolté plusieurs prix dans les festivals internationaux les plus prestigieux. Ce chemin de gloire n’a pas manqué de paradoxe non plus : le jeune cinéaste cosmopolite d’origine anglaise, Ben Hopkins, remporta le grand prix du meilleur film turc au 45ème Festival national d’Antalya ! Cette récompense controversée, une première dans l’histoire du cinéma turc, met davantage en lumière, les multiples succès du cinéma national.[...]

En résumé, Ben Hopkins vient de réussir une synthèse culturelle rare, en inversant le chemin habituel des regards croisés que les réalisateurs portent sur le pays qui les accueille. Les cinéastes européens travaillant aux Etats-unis, qu’ils soient immigrés ou non, n’ont-ils pas, presque toujours, voulu faire des « films américains » ? Les cinéastes turcs nous ont volontiers parlé de la vie de leurs compatriotes immigrés en Europe occidental… Ben Hopkins a parcouru ce chemin-là à l’envers, de l’Ouest vers l’Est, en se penchant sur la vie réelle des hommes et des femmes du pays hôte …

Satire has been declared dead more often than Kenny in South Park, but it's in rude health in Britain right now: Bridget Christie is leading a generation of smart, funny feminist performers; writers Socrates Adams, Joe Stretch and Chris Killen are dissecting contemporary life with ghoulish delight, and director Ben Hopkins' Epic (2014) is a satirical look at the film business.

Une invitation à donner des nouvelles ?   

year: 2014            
original title: Welcome to Karastan  
credits: director, co-writer, sound designer

JULY 2016: I have started work on a new script, writing for and with director Pawel Pawlikowski, our third script together The script is about the life of Russian writer Eduard Limonov, adapted from the book Limonov, by Emmanel Carrere.