Nicky Bentham: Making The Duke with Roger Michell

by Anthony Frajman

In 2013, Australian-born, UK-based producer, Nicky Bentham, began developing a film based on the real-life story of the brazen theft of a Goya painting by a 60 year old man, from the National Gallery in London in 1961.

Convinced that the story would make for an enticing film, Bentham sought out Roger Michell (Notting Hill) to direct the feature.

Getting Michell on board, the film then attracted Jim Broadbent, who stars as Kempton Bunton, a 60 year old working class man married to Dorothy Bunton (Helen Mirren), who steals Goya’s Portrait of the Duke of Wellington to demand the government provide free television for the elderly.

Sadly, it would turn out to be Roger Michell’s last feature, with the veteran filmmaker passing away in 2021.

Bentham spoke to us about producing Michell’s final film and her memories of the filmmaker.

How did you become involved with The Duke – the film began with you?

It did. I got an email from a guy called Chris Bunton, saying that he had this amazing story in his family, about a theft from the National Gallery and that his grandfather held it at ransom for his social justice campaign. And I thought, ‘wow, that sounds like an incredible story’. I didn’t believe that it could be true. It just sounded too good to be true, but I did some research and it all checked out. And so, I then spent some time talking with Chris and some other members of his family and negotiated to option the life rights and all of the material that they had. Kempton had kept a memoir and he’d written loads of plays. So, I optioned all of that material and then started the process of developing the screenplay.

What was it about the story that made you think it would make an entertaining film?

I loved the fact that there was this crazy audacious heist at the centre of it. That felt really appealing and fun, but then the fact that behind it was the story of a very normal, working class, Northern [English] family. The fact that they got caught up in this scandal and this mystery, was just so irresistible. They were such a typical family, dealing with all sorts of hardships. They were struggling to make ends meet. Kempton really never kept down a job. They were also dealing with the loss of their oldest daughter and the grieving process of that. The fact that there was just this very warm family drama at the heart of the story. And then the backdrop of England in the sixties, in the shadow of war and this amazing theft, and this social justice campaign, it just had all the ingredients for an incredible story.

What made you think Roger Michell was the right director for the film?

I am a real fan of his work and I think that something that was quite unique about his canon of films is that he had a real breadth of films. He’d obviously done big Hollywood projects of great scale, but he really loved and specialised in doing intimate and tender human, dramas. But the other thing that I think runs through all his work is a real sense of humour and a cheekiness. And this film obviously is a comedy drama and I feel like the moments of conflict and tension are just as important as the moments of levity and light. I felt like he would be a great director to balance all of those elements. I think he did do a really beautiful job of that. I was a big fan of obviously Notting Hill, everyone loves Notting Hill, but I really loved Venus, and his much smaller, independent films.

What are your memories of Roger and his sensibility as a director?

It’s funny because the first time that I met him, when he’d just come on board the project, he’d been away when we’d started talking about it. So, everything sort of happened over the phone in the beginning. And then when I first met him and went to his office for a meeting, he properly interrogated me about my career, my family, my favourite films, film history. It felt like a real grilling. I was so intimidated to be working with this master. But, then he said to me at the end, ‘Don’t you wanna know anything about me? Don’t you have any questions for me?’

I realised at that point that it wasn’t an interrogation. It was really a conversation. And that was very much Roger, he really wanted to get to know people and understand people. And I guess, humanity in a broader sense. And he was always really curious about everyone and all the details of their life. So, I came to realise that this wasn’t him testing me. It was that he really wanted to get to know all of his collaborators and understand them as people and as creative collaborators. He was a very special person in that regard, as I think he had a genuine interest in people. I think that because of that, he was really very skilled in getting the best out of all of his cast and crew, because they really felt seen by him and appreciated by him. And he just put people at ease and made them feel like they wanted to do their best work. Cast loved working with Roger. He was very unpretentious and calm in his approach to work. And it just created a really lovely atmosphere for everyone.

It’s a big, big loss. It still feels unbearably sad that he’s not with us.

What was it like working with Roger on the film?

We had a great time making this film. I think that he was nervous about getting the tone exactly right. Because, as I mentioned before, we do tread a fine line between comedy and drama and that’s a really, really hard thing to pull off. He was very well prepared. He worked really hard, making sure that he knew the script and knew the characters and knew exactly what it was that we needed to get out of every scene. He was very, very decisive. So, for all of the thinking and talking and discussion that would happen beforehand in prep, he was very decisive as soon as a choice had to be made. That is quite a rare quality, in that, you would always offer up the two choices of something, and he would either say that one or that one or, neither, we need to do better, but it was never a, ‘could we try all the options’ or ‘I’m not sure yet’, or ‘I’ll know when I see it’. That is just a joy to work with as a producer, a director who is so secure in their skill and so confident in their choices, it was a wonderful collaboration.

We edited the film all through the first lockdown. That took a bit of adjusting and it meant that obviously we weren’t in the room together very much. It was all happening remotely and mostly online, which was a challenge for all of us. But, it actually worked really well. I think that’s because he was such a clear communicator and so decisive, and also, a very generous collaborator. He wanted feedback and wanted opinions, from the people that he trusted. It worked well in the end.

The film’s release was disrupted by COVID. Were there many challenges caused by COVID?

We were incredibly lucky that we got the film in the can, and we then managed to edit it and finish it all during 2020. And then we had its world premiere at Venice at the end of 2020, which was a roaring success. After nearly a year of that first lockdown, to emerge at Venice to such a rousing response was a really beautiful moment. We were meant to release the film shortly thereafter. But, the second wave was just on the way. And we just decided that it would be better to wait until cinemas were fully open, audiences were properly back, and we could give the film the best theatrical rollout possible.

So that meant waiting, which has been a real challenge. It’s so hard to sit on something that is ready to go, but I think it would’ve been heartbreaking to release it and for there to be no audiences. But, in the end, I’m really glad that we waited. It’s just obviously a tragedy, in that time we lost Roger. So, he’s not been able to see how much audiences have delighted in the film and what a fantastic response it’s had here and is now starting to have around the world.

What was working with Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent on the film like?

It was amazing, to have front row seats to watch Jim and Helen do their thing every day was really incredible. Jim, we’d had in mind quite early on in the process, he was really our only choice as Kempton and he’d obviously worked with Roger before and they had a very good relationship. I think that Jim has got that balance between the drama and the humanity, and that kind of cheeky humour, and he’s playing a kind of real classic British eccentric, and I think he does such a wonderful job.

With Helen, it was obviously a bit more of a leap to imagine her in this role as a domestic cleaner and housewife… We’re used to seeing her looking very regal and grand. We didn’t know if she’d be game to play a character like Dorothy, but she just really fell in love with the script. I think that she really understood this woman and she herself comes from a large working class family. She’s from London, not from the North, but, she saw a lot of truth in this character and the fact that they were going through a lot. I think she also recognised that although it’s very much Kempton’s story, that Dorothy was the backbone of this family and she was the one who worked hard and kept them together and she was the glue. She had a very, very important role to play, not just in the family, but in the whole story of this amazing theft and challenge to the establishment, that Kempton set about.

Following The Duke, you had planned to collaborate further with Roger?

Yeah, we had another project that we were putting together. We had such a great time and worked really, really well together. It would’ve been a wonderful. I obviously thought that it was the start of a new creative partnership. It was a shock that it was actually the end. I just have to remember how lucky I am that I was one of the few very lucky people who got to work with him because he’s just a great example of how you can create something very beautiful and also very successful but with kindness and love and with attention to detail and respect for others. In an industry where we seem to equate bullying behaviour with creative genius, I think that whenever you meet those people who can manage to get wonderful results, through kindness and respect, it feels like there aren’t enough of them around. And, he was certainly one of them.

What was the biggest thing that you got out of the experience of making the film with Roger?

That’s a good question. I think there’s probably two things. He was incredibly encouraging of me and never missed an opportunity to tell me that I was a great producer doing a great job and that doesn’t happen very often in this role. It’s certainly not a job that you take on expecting to be thanked or recognised. That was really valuable to me, especially from someone I admired so much and I’ll hang onto. But I think that in terms of his creative process, the thing that I found really interesting that I learned a lot from is that he was very un-sentimental in his approach. He was like, ‘It’s my job to dramatise and to capture the truth, rather than try to manipulate the audience emotionally and in any way’. I have more of a tendency to go for a bit of cheese and sometimes we’d be on set, shooting a scene and he’d do the coverage, the wide shots of all the family and everything. And then, I’d say, ‘Okay, you going in for close-ups on everyone now? And then are we gonna get the reverses of those?’ And he’d be like, ‘No, we’re not gonna overdo it. That would be too much. We’re gonna keep it as all the family together’. And, actually he’d say, ‘I think it’ll be more emotional if we throw it away, it’s when you try and force the audience into an emotional state, with your coverage, that’s manufactured and actually we’ve got the performances, we’ve got the script and we’ve got all of them together, so let’s not try too hard’.

I think there’s a lot to be said for that really. I think that there aren’t really that many directors, or certainly not that I’ve worked with who are brave enough to not cover every scene for as much as possible so that, in the edit, if they want to dial that bit up a bit, they can, or they can focus on something else. But he was editing it in his head as he went, and he didn’t want anything superfluous. He didn’t want any of the extra stuff. He just wanted to focus on the real heart of the scene. So, that was incredible.

The Duke is in cinemas now