Bruce Robinson gives furious, disappointed people language far grander than their circumstances deserve. We admire his direction of Withnail & I as much as its dialogue: he knows when to let the quieter actor have our attention.
Fi1m perspective
In Withnail & I (1987), Paul McGann listens to Richard E. Grant with the alertness of someone expecting another problem. Bruce Robinson lets us watch that listening, even when Grant has the more imposing line. We found McGann's anxiety unexpectedly moving, because it makes clear how little room his companion leaves for anybody else's troubles. It is an excellent comedy about two struggling actors, directed by someone who understands that waiting for a response can be funnier than cutting straight to the next insult.
Robinson came to directing through acting and screenwriting, with The Killing Fields (1984) preceding his debut, Withnail & I. The latter draws loosely on his experience as a struggling actor in 1960s London; the grand language and wretched living conditions belong together. He reunited with Grant for the consumer satire How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989), then moved into a Hollywood thriller with Jennifer 8 (1992). After a long break, The Rum Diary (2011) brought him back to directing, adapting a Hunter S. Thompson novel.
The unhappiness of Withnail & I depends on more than Robinson's writing. Peter Hannan's cinematography and Michael Pickwoad's production design make the squalor look unpleasant to inhabit, rather than an appealing way to avoid employment. Alan Strachan's editing keeps the pauses in the exchanges, allowing a response to arrive late and still be funny. Robinson trusts the actors to hold our attention while apparently doing little.
David Dundas and Rick Wentworth's music allows sadness into the comedy without asking us to pity every predicament. Richard Griffiths brings another kind of certainty to Monty, treating his eccentricity as perfectly reasonable. The story sometimes drifts, and Grant's fury would be tiring without McGann's watchfulness. But Robinson makes enough room for these different temperaments that the film rarely feels like an evening spent hearing the same complaint.
The later films warrant more caution: How to Get Ahead in Advertising is less focused, while The Rum Diary rambles. Robinson's unruly dialogue needs the firm handling that Strachan and the actors provide in Withnail & I. Start there, and watch McGann as closely as Grant.
Biography
Bruce Robinson (born 2 May 1946) is an English actor, director, screenwriter and novelist. He trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and began his career as an actor, appearing as Benvolio in Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968) and as Lieutenant Albert Pinson in François Truffaut's The Story of Adèle H. (1975).
Robinson wrote the screenplay for The Killing Fields (1984), for which he received a BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and an Academy Award nomination. He wrote and directed the cult film Withnail and I (1987), drawing on his own experiences as a struggling actor. He later directed How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989), Jennifer Eight (1992) and The Rum Diary (2011).
He returned to acting with a role in Still Crazy (1998). Robinson is married to illustrator Sophie Windham.
