Sally Potter

QUESTION: RAGE is a murder mystery set in the New York fashion world, but where you never see New York, the fashion world, or the murders. Why?

SALLY POTTER: We have been so oversaturated with images of the fashion world that we can no longer see beyond them. Similarly, New York itself is, in a way, overfamiliar. Thus the solution of not showing the city or the fashion collection; the world around the characters is created in the imagination of the viewer, from clues on the soundtrack, from things people say and things they don’t say.

Q: There is a detective in the film, but – unusually for a thriller – he’s not our POV character.

SP: This particular detective is atypical, in that he's a Shakespeare-quoting character, somebody who sees himself performing a role – the role of detective – and dresses for the part.

Q: As do all the characters – none of whom are what they appear.

SP: We live in a culture obsessed by appearance and fame, but parts of the fashion industry are dependent on an illegal workforce, whose invisibility is a survival strategy. Likewise, Michelangelo (who is interviewing the characters) is invisible and unheard throughout, a diminutive witness whose steady eye and non-judgmental gaze allows the characters to open up to him.

Q: He’s invisible, but making others visible – especially the people we don’t usually see, like the garment workers and bodyguards.

SP: Maybe it’s his antidote to a value system based on celebrity, power and wealth. He is equally interested in the pizza delivery person and the mogul.

Q: Was that reflected in how this film was made?

SP: Everyone worked on equal terms for very little money. Each actor gave themselves completely to the situation without complaint and with great dedication.

Q: It sounds like just the film for the “credit crunch” era. Was that part of your intention?

SP: I saw it as a celebration of “poor cinema”; using minimal means, concentrating on text and performance, a return to the basic elements of storytelling by exploring the landscape of the human face. It's the lowest budget feature film I've ever made, shot in photographers’ studios, using a greenscreen as background. On set, there were only three of us at any time; the actor, me, operating the camera, and Jean-Paul Mugel recording the sound. The process was as intimate as the final product.

Q: So the film was shot as if you were Michelangelo?

SP: Yes. At times, I tried to embody him, and to shoot and frame following his emotional responses to the character. But as a director it also meant I was extremely close to each actor physically and we were able to work very intensely, a luxury that this minimalist setup afforded us.

Q: Is the film a rage against fashion’s constructions and impossible aspirations?

SP: Actually, there's a lot of tenderness in the film. The setting may be the fashion world but the issues could apply to people working in any high-pressure industry – the dynamics of power and powerlessness, fears of redundancy and failure, confusion about youth and ageing. The rage is the quieter rage against an economy that ruins lives and turns people into things, that forgets what's important about being alive.

Interview by So Mayer, author of The Cinema of Sally Potter.