Two Dramas by Stephen Poliakoff debut on HBO

October 20, 12:04 AMCable TV ExaminerChristine Nyholm

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CAPTURING MARY: Stephen Poliakoff, Maggie Smith, David Walliams.
photo: Laurence Cendrowicz HBO

Two new dramas by Stephen Poliakoff are slated to debut on HBO Signature this November: Joe's Palace and Capturing Mary. Joe's Palace, starring Michael Gambon, debuts November 9. Capturing Mary, starring Maggie Smith, debuts November 10. These two unique films are linked by an exquisite house frozen in time and by character of Joe, a highly individual young man, through whose eyes the audience sees the world.

Joe's Palace and Capturing Mary are by multi award winning writer-director Stephen Poliakoff (Gideon's Daughter,' 'The Lost Prince') . Both Films Are produced By Deborah Jones And executive [roduced by Lorraine Heggessey, Joanna Beresford, Nicolas Brown And Stephen Poliakoff


Joe's Palace and Capturing Mary are separate stories set against the backdrop of the same dark, moody house. In addition to Michael Gambon and Maggie Smith the casts include Rupert Penry-Jones (“The 39 Steps,” “M15”), Kelly Reilly (“Sherlock Holmes,” “Mrs. Henderson Presents”), Rebecca Hall (“Frost/Nixon,” ”Vicky Cristina Barcelona”), David Walliams (HBO?s “Little Britain USA”), Ruth Wilson (“Jane Eyre”) and newcomer Danny Lee Wynter.

Joe's Palace

Produced by talkbackTHAMES for HBO Films and BBC, JOE'S PALACE stars Michael Gambon (“Gosford Park,” the “Harry Potter” movies, HBO?s “Path to War”) and debuts Monday, November 9 (9:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT),

In JOE'S PALACE, Poliakoff explores urban loneliness and the relationship between Elliot Graham (Michael Gambon), a strange and wealthy recluse, and Joe (Danny Lee Wynter), the teenage son of a cleaner who takes care of the grand, empty house Graham owns in London. Part messenger, part protégé, the innocent young man oversees the house and the comings and goings of its visitors, serving as the secluded billionaire?s link to the outside world.

When Elliot gives Richard (Rupert Penry-Jones), an adulterous young politician, permission to borrow the house for liaisons with his beautiful, equally married mistress Charlotte (Kelly Reilly), Joe forms a close bond with the lovers. The building initially provides a luxurious refuge for the couple, but as time passes and their love affair unravels, it feels more like a prison. Elliot, who is haunted and emotionally paralyzed by memories and mysteries surrounding the house and his father?s unexplained fortune, shares that sense of imprisonment. Enlisting the help of Joe and Tina (Rebecca Hall), a young woman he meets at the local deli, Elliot forces himself to look into the dark secrets at the heart of his past.

In creating Joe, who bridges the films, Poliakoff imbues the character with a naïveté and other worldliness that comes from his lower social status. Because of Joe?s innocence, he poses no threat to the adults; because he comes from a completely different class, culture and age, he is not a part of their world. As a result, other
characters speak and act freely around him. Just as Joe eagerly opens the door for visitors, he opens up the story for the audience, allowing them to see it from his perspective.

Says Poliakoff, “I wanted to make these films intimate and to write about people who are dislocated. I was eager to explore the sense of unease and apartness that people feel in this troubled decade. “The dislocation I write of often stems from the past,” explains the director. “Until we question it and confront it, we remain stuck, like Michael Gambon?s Elliot, or MaggieSmith?s Mary.”

Capturing Mary

Capturing Mary stars Maggie Smith (the “Harry Potter” movies, HBO?s “My House in Umbria”) . The film debuts Tuesday, November 10 (9:00-10:45 p.m.). 


Capturing Mary  takes Joe and an unexpected visitor into a dark and terrifying exploration of the past, showing how it can capture and destroy a person?s life. Coaxed by Joe to share her memories, Mary (Maggie Smith) wanders the corridors of the dormant mansion, reminiscing about a time when, as a brilliant young writer and critic (Ruth Wilson), she attended glamorous soirees at the house during the late 1950s.

Reflecting on her heyday when she rubbed elbows with the cultural elite, the older Mary is haunted by the memory of a subtly evil man, Greville White (David Walliams), who feigned friendship, but actually brought about her social and professional ruin. Through her nostalgic journey, Mary attempts to understand how her disturbing encounter with the mysterious stranger gave root to a lifetime of despair and disappointment.

CAPTURING MARY started with the idea of a grand house at its zenith. “I wanted to make a film about a great house at its peak, before it went into decline,” explains Poliakoff. “Throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, there were a lot of these grand houses, where the elite mingled and virtually ran the country. I am haunted by the fact that so much of 20th-century British life has been governed by what went on at these
great London mansions.”

For the crux of the drama, Poliakoff had to go no further than his own experience as a young playwright in the 1970s, when he heard stories and saw firsthand the lingering remnants of a 1950s mentality where power-hungry individuals, as represented by the mysterious Greville White, felt they were running the world and had power over the young. At age 22, having won the Most Promising Playwright Award from the Evening Standard, Poliakoff had a disturbing encounter with a very famous producer in the West End who had a reputation for viciously destroying people?s careers.

“CAPTURING MARY is one of the darkest films I?ve ever made,” says Poliakoff.“But it had to be, because there were some very, very dark people around at that time in the late ?50s. There were people you knew that, if you crossed them, they were very dangerous. They couldn?t necessarily snuff out your career, but they could make it very difficult.”

For Poliakoff, Mary is “the voice of youth – comparable to such talented women writers and critics back then as Katharine Whitehorn, Penelope Gilliatt, Dilys Powell and Pauline Kael. I was fascinated by the idea of someone so obviously talented, so brightly shining, whose very promise is so cruelly stifled,” he stated in an HBO press release.

The Mayfair Mansion

Another important character in the two films is the house itself. Langley Park outside Slough was used for the interiors and even inspired details in the script, such as the finely wrought door and strange 1960s conservatory. Before filming began, a dark, musty carpet was removed to reveal the beautifully tiled floors in the entryway.

Explaining the inspiration behind the Mayfair mansion, Poliakoff says, “I?ve always held onto this image from my childhood. My father knew this millionaire who had bought a building in Piccadilly. To my child's eye, it seemed to be always empty, but at the same time, was being kept alive. It was an amazing thing to have this gleaming, opulent building just standing there with apparently nothing happening in it. Mayfair is full of such secret properties.”

JOE?S PALACE and CAPTURING MARY are HBO Films/BBC presentations of talkbackTHAMES productions of Stephen Poliakoff films. Deborah Jones (“Magnificent 7”) produces; Stephen Poliakoff executive produces, along with Joanna Beresford and Lorraine Heggessey for talkbackTHAMES; Nicolas Brown executive produces for the
BBC.

Source: HBO

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