British writer Richard Curtis’ ode to The Beatles in movie Yesterday
Romantic comedy master Richard Curtis puts a surprise twist on a familiar message in his latest feel-good flick Yesterday, a charming movie set around the somewhat surprising premise of a man waking up one day to discover he is the only person in the world who has heard of The Beatles.
Movies
Don't miss out on the headlines from Movies. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Hollywood’s bumper playlist of music movies for 2019
- On-set secrets of a blockbuster movie photographer
- Love is all we need in movies — now more than ever
He is the king of quintessentially English movies and yet not many people realise Richard Curtis’ heart is Australian. The master of comedy classics including Blackadder, Four Weddings And A Funeral and Love Actually was born in New Zealand to Australian parents.
The family lived an ex-pat life all over the world, before he went to boarding school in England at 11.
He still has family in Sydney who are excited to see his new movie Yesterday.
“I’d like to send my regards to my sister and her family,” he says, mock earnestly.
“She has just ordered 10 tickets to the Sydney premiere.”
Curtis, 62, is lounging on a sofa in London’s funky Soho Hotel, laughing and joking with another British movie-making legend, director Danny Boyle, also 62, who he has joined forces
with to make what is tipped to be this year’s feel-good smash-hit.
MORE FROM KERRY PARNELL:
Royals and their secret army of stylists
From movies to TV: Stars taking on the small screen
Curtis laments he doesn’t get to visit Australia often, although his son Jake recently spent his gap year Down Under. Would he be tempted to make a movie in Oz?
“I only make films in the street where I live,” he says, adding, “My girlfriend is so obsessed by Suffolk, she won’t ever let us leave.”
He’s only half kidding — Yesterday, the charming movie set around the somewhat surprising premise of a man waking up one day to discover he is the only person in the world who has heard of The Beatles — was filmed around his home in Suffolk, a sleepy region on England’s east coast.
Based on an idea by Jack Barth, which Curtis turned into a screenplay, it has been dubbed a love letter to The Beatles, but in truth, it’s an ode to normal life — built around the premise that truly, all you need is love; not megabucks recording contracts, internet fame, or giant mansions. Just love and a happy life. It is classic Curtis and an ideology he lives by.
“Yes, I don’t think the pot of gold is at the end of the rainbow,” Curtis says.
“There’s a line in it, ‘Isn’t normal wonderful’ and I do believe that. I think it is a big truth that we all learn that we shouldn’t have worked so hard and we should have spent more time with people we love.”
The movie follows the story of ex-teacher and struggling singer-songwriter Jack Malik (Eastenders’ actor Himesh Patel) who becomes an accidental superstar courtesy of The Beatles’ back catalogue, all the while not realising the love of his life is his best mate and biggest-fan, teacher Ellie (Lily James).
It also stars Ed Sheeran, who is the thinly-disguised inspiration for Jack, Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon and James Corden.
Himesh belts out covers of classic Beatles tracks, which provide the soundtrack to the movie, but not the narrative, Mamma Mia! style.
“I love the fact that there is a double helix — there is a love letter to The Beatles obviously and everybody is attaching to that because music is popular in movies at the moment, but the other part of the helix is Ellie’s love letter to Jack,” says Boyle.
“Because actually, although she is not the biggest part, it is her saying, ‘I have waited half my life for you to wake up and love me,’ and seeing that play out is beautiful and more important than the great wonders of their songs in a way. It’s that simple thing which is lovely between the two of them.”
“My dad’s biggest saying was you can’t be happier than happy,” says Curtis.
“Is a person who is listening on their earphones to A Hard Day’s Night on a train up to Lowestoft any less happy than someone in an incredibly big mansion in Long Island listening to the same thing? The answer is no.
“That’s one of the great things about music, it’s so unbelievably democratic. And films — it makes me incredibly happy that you can go and see Endgame, which I think cost something like $500 million to make, and it costs you $12. It’s kind of great, isn’t it.”
Yesterday is also noticeably more democratic than Curtis’ previous offerings such as Notting Hill. Is that thanks to the influence of Slumdog Millionaire’s Danny?
“Definitely,” says Curtis. “It was written that way and Danny pushed it more.”
From the location to the casting, there’s nothing posh about this film. It even has a drug-taking sidekick in it. Boyle’s trademark energy is in evidence all over the movie, which delights Curtis.
“I’ve got what I hoped for, which is one of my films given the extra visual energy and imagination that I have wanted it to have,” Curtis says.
In person, the pair are just as you would expect — Curtis is quiet, with a wry sense of humour and kind, twinkling eyes. This is the man who has raised over £1 billion through his charity Comic Relief, previously saying: “I have got this theory that if you open the door for people to do good things, almost everyone charges through. It’s a great joy to me.”
And Boyle is full of energy and enthusiasm. They plainly like each other and the project they’ve completed and the combination works — the movie contains a surprise that in other hands could have been a sentimental puddle, but succeeds, probably because a little Boyle grit gets in the eye as you weep. The last scene is also down to Boyle.
“It was Danny’s idea at the end,” Curtis says, “It helps answer lots of the questions, but it’s also my favourite three minutes of the movie now.”
The pair both credit The Beatles with providing a soundtrack to their lives and see the movie as their thank you to the band.
“Both of us think of the film as a gift back to The Beatles for their contribution of joy in our lives,” says Curtis.
“They made me feel wonderful, so if you can make a film that makes people feel happy that’s a kind of thank you.”
Boyle also sees the film as a thank you to the undervalued work of teachers.
“They say about teaching it’s there that the soul of a nation is passed on. It is one of the professions which has been so downgraded by this drive in the rest of society towards economics and that kind of success,” he says.
“Jack was a music teacher. The music teacher (my son) had was the only guy who believed in him, because he was quite a tough kid for some of the others to teach. He was a Kiwi.
“That was very special — you think, ‘there’s the heart’. ”
Will they work together again?
“I would love to repeat it again, yes,” says Boyle, to which Curtis replies, “I have a few ideas — Trainspotting 3: The Next Generation, that’s one.”
“They will turn it into a TV series, everything will be,” Boyle says.
“Or maybe 28 Years Later, we should do that, with Ed Sheeran,” Curtis says. “Imagine, Ed would be brilliant at that.”
“It would be right up his street — he’s done Game Of Thrones,” says Boyle.
“All set in Suffolk,” says Curtis.
Naturally.
* Yesterday is in cinemas June 27