James Hawes has done a bit of everything, having worked with celebrated performers like Helena Bonham Carter and Gary Oldman, filmed documentaries involving King Charles and the real Lawrence of Arabia, and directed episodes of iconic TV series such as Doctor Who and Black Mirror. Now more than two decades into his career, he's making his feature directorial debut with One Life, the inspiring true story of a man who saved hundreds of Jewish children ahead of World War II.
"I'm a huge addict for those moments in the cinemas when it says, 'Based on a true story,'" says Hawes. "From that moment on, every scene, every character somehow just matters more; it lands with more emotional impact."
The London-born director got his start at the BBC, traveling the world to shoot the television documentaries The Earth in Balance (1990) and Lawrence of Arabia: The Battle for the Arab World (2003), while simultaneously serving as the artistic director of The Young Shakespeare Company. In the years since, he has helmed episodes of some of the most popular British TV series, including Penny Dreadful and Slow Horses. "I got to work alongside Ridley [Scott] on a series called Raised by Wolves," he says. "That was another pinch me moment, when you feel that you are part of the history of filmmaking."
With One Life, which stars two-time Oscar-winning actor Sir Anthony Hopkins as the humanitarian Sir Nicholas "Nicky" Winton, Hawes is contributing his own work to the canon. "It's completely wonderful and utterly thrilling," he says of helming his first film for the big screen. "The biggest problem I face is that now I'm really willing to do more. Just the hunger for the next project, the next story, the next brilliant actor is insatiable."
Below, Hawes shares with A.frame his five favorite films.
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola | Written by: Francis Ford Coppola and John Milius
Apocalypse Now is an extraordinarily ambitious, inventive, involving piece of filmmaking that I can rewatch and rewatch and just be captivated by.
I watched [Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse] ahead of doing a documentary in Croatia. It was at the time of the war in the Balkans, and we had to go on our scouting trips wearing flak jackets and helmets because the snipers were still out. There’s a particular moment in there that I repeat, again and again, even on movies that have nothing to do with war. When you hear Coppola saying in the background, "I'm shooting a $40 million disaster... I'm seriously considering shooting myself," that's a director at the end of most days.
Directed by: Ridley Scott | Written by: Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peoples
Blade Runner is always there for me. It's brilliant worldbuilding. And remember, Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner both bombed with the critics when they first came out. Yet, we got to learn them, and I think part of the reason was they were looking at material totally differently than had been done before. Blade Runner is based on a book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which I actually reread recently, and what's extraordinary is you don't question Ridley's world. Once you have the rules of the world right, you can tell any story against that backdrop. You're willing to travel with the characters, and that's what's done by a genius.
Directed by: Billy Wilder | Written by: Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond
The Apartment is a classic character piece that just so amuses and engages. The charm and the ability of the actors to play such vulnerability, it feels so honest even though it's not an era or place that I've lived in. But the predicaments that they give you are so well-written and structured and played that the almost farcical trap that the characters find themselves in feels utterly believable and almost painfully brilliant.
Directed by: David Lean | Written by: Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson
I fell for Lawrence of Arabia a long time ago, to the extent that I then went and made a two-part documentary about it for the BBC and PBS, Lawrence of Arabia: Battle for The Arab World. I got to blow up trains in Jordan, pretending to be both Lawrence and David Lean, which was cool for any wannabe director.
I spent a lot of time trying to find people who knew Lawrence. In fact, we did interview a guy who used to take fodder to their camels when they were in a particular fort in the east of Jordan, but there was a dead-end, again and again. We'd go, "Is there somebody in this village who knew Lawrence?" and they'd go, "Oh yeah, there is," and every time it was somebody who'd been an extra in the movie but hadn't known the real guy at all. It was fun discovering some things and learning more about how the movie was made. So, it is also a story of how the film of the history becomes the history.
Directed by: Neill Blomkamp | Written by: Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
The fact that I ended up worrying and concerned for the survival of these aliens, that's how good they were at involving me in caring about the characters — and obviously saying something about racism in what is otherwise a piece of genre storytelling. Rooting it and putting so much of it in South Africa, in the townships, so it had a backdrop of South African politics and prejudice, was so resonant. And then it gave us characters on both sides of the conflict line that you absolutely believed in and went home with.
Even when they spoke no language you had access to, and looked like no face you'd ever communicated with, you cared. The ability to say something bigger than the sum of its parts, but to also be an engaging, entertaining drama, that's a real achievement.
