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MICHAEL WINNERBY JAMES KNIGHT PORTRAIT BY BEN RAYNER PHOTOS COURTESY OF MICHAEL WINNER.  Michael Winner is the funny-looking man from those “Calm down, dear!” insurance adverts on television. He is also one of the most successful directors Britain has ever produced. Name another Brit filmmaker who cut pictures with Orson Welles, Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster, Robert Duvall, Robert Mitchum and Sophia Loren. Struggling? Try adding to that the fact he basically created the careers of Oliver Reed and Charles Bronson for good measure. Having defined 1960s “swinging London” with films like Play it Cool, West 11, The Jokers and I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname, which invariably featured Reed and more than a little swearing and nudity than the the censors were happy with, he casually took on Hollywood, directing everything from Westerns (Lawman) to crime (The Big Sleep), hitman thrillers (The Mechanic) and horror (The Sentinel). The defining moment of Winner’s busy Hollywood period came in 1974 with Death Wish when he let Bronson loose on the streets of New York to avenge the murder of his character’s wife and rape of his daughter to the tune of a Herbie Hancock soundtrack. While the concept of a normal guy getting mad and getting even has formed the template for a million movies since, no one had done this until Winner came along, and no one has done it as brutally and stylishly since. After keeping Vice waiting for 15 minutes in his High Street Kensington sitting room, the walls of which heave with memorabilia, personal notes and signed photographs by everyone from Brando to Lancaster, Winner sails into the room spewing greetings, goodwill and orders to our photographer not to shoot him below his eyeline, or else. Apparently Orson Welles told him that it wasn’t a good look. As well as being inhumanly tanned and in worryingly good shape for a 74-year-old, he also really likes saying “fucking” all the time. It’s kind of fucking contagious. Vice: Jimmy Page lives next door, I hear. How did you end up becoming neighbours? Michael Winner: I’ve lived in this area for years but Jimmy and I became very close when he did the music for Death Wish 2. We got on as soon as we met because I adored him straight away. He was well into his druggy period when he did that first score for me but he did it wonderfully well. He said he wouldn’t have anyone near him while he was composing the music. He’d never done music for film before and we wanted to be sure it would sync properly because in film the music has to fit with the image to within a 24th of a second. Jimmy told us that he wouldn’t send us anything until it was finished and no one could go and see him. The music is the last thing you stick on the film so we were all a bit nervous when it came in. I always edited all of my films myself and I remember running it through the machine so clearly. I’ll never forget that as I put my foot on the pedal to start the film the music and the picture moved together perfectly. It was unbelievable. Everything fitted to the 24th of a second. See all articles by this contributor
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