With every new film, the reviews get ever more negative, and personal. But mercurial director M Night Shyamalan is determined to ignore the critics and keep up his relationship with his audience, he tells DONALD CLARKE
M NIGHT SHYAMALAN has food poisoning. Having encountered some ambivalent sushi, he has spent his first few interviews in a state of sweaty, chundering unease. On several occasions he felt he might have to bolt for the door, but now seems to have achieved tolerable internal equilibrium.
“It’s pretty poetic that this should happen on the junket for this movie,” he says.
My ears prick up. I wouldn't have dared say so myself, but, considering the critical pummelling he has received for The Last Airbender, a morning of vomiting does seem an appropriate overture to the film's press junket.
It turns out that he is not being quite as satirical as I had hoped.
“It was overwhelming on all levels,” he says. “I did not anticipate the toll a movie of this scale would take. I know my comfort zone. I am the kind of guy who has trouble staying in a house if it’s not well designed.”
If Shyamalan is to be believed, the director, now a trim 40, has been carrying on a battle with the press since his third film, the spiffing The Sixth Sense, overpowered all comers at the box-office in 1999. It's certainly true that his last few movies have received an extraordinary hammering. Lady in the Watermermaids in the swimming pool) was decried as pretentious and confusing. The Happening (neurotoxins whistle through the underbrush) was regarded as ludicrous. The notices for those films seem like raves, however, when set beside the eviscerations of The Last Airbender.
Still, despite the rumbling innards and the bad word, Shyamalan seems in surprisingly friendly mood. The Last Airbender– an epic fantasy involving sacred children and elemental conflicts – is based on a popular animated series. It is, thus, the first film he has directed that is not entirely his own creation. The picture is also very different in tone to his earlier work: contemporary suspense is replaced by wide-screen depictions of alternative realities.
It looks as if he was making a conscious effort to frustrate expectations.
“It was not so agenda-driven,” he says mildly. “It derived from my taste for Hayao Miyazaki and for martial arts and spirituality and all that stuff. Also, I am a father and I am very sentimental about that. That makes me do things I would never expect.”
But he does admit that the film feels like a departure? When you say “M Night Shyamalan” people think: spooky set-up, murky surroundings, final twist. They don’t think: imaginationland, magic child with arrow on head, huge flying badger.
"I actually think that, since The Sixth Sense, I have made a very diverse series of films. I made Unbreakableafter that, which was very different. Around the time of The Sixth Sense, I wrote Stuart Little.So, I think I had a diverse approach. I think, maybe, people will see The Last Airbenderas the 'operatic' aspect of my style, as opposed to the minimalist thriller aspect."
He goes on to explain how he genuinely intended to make Unbreakable – his fascinating 2000 film concerning the dynamics of the comic book – into an opera with composer James Newton Howard. As you will have gathered, M Night Shyamalan is not short on self-belief. Mind you, he could not have achieved his considerable success without being spurred by a degree of ego.
Born in the Puducherry province of India, he comes from a family of doctors: dad is a physician; mum is an obstetrician. He was raised in Philadelphia – a presence in his films – and studied at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
“I feel a son of many cultures,” he muses. “When I go to different countries I am impressed by how they embrace me as a local film-maker. I go to Spain and, whereas I am not seen as Pedro Almodóvar, I am not seen as a foreign Steven Spielberg either.”
One of those movie junkies who was playing with a Super-8 camera before he could talk, Shyamalan cobbled together the money for his first film while still at college. Praying with Angerwas not a success, but the very fact that he got it made singled him out as a determined individual. The follow-up, a family picture called Wide Awake, also failed to set the world alight, but, having written that script for Stuart Little, Night could secure meetings with the moguls. The completed screenplay for The Sixth Sensewas good enough to attract Bruce Willis to the party.
"I had just gone from living with my wife's parents. After writing Stuart LittleI knew I'd be able to pay the bills, but I wasn't prepared for The Sixth Sense. I had no context. It all happened very slowly. It opened to okay but not great reviews and it didn't have a very big opening weekend. It took six months to become this phenomenon. By the time we got to go to the Oscars, I was already deep in production on Unbreakable. So, it kind of swept by me."
Not surprisingly, his parents had been wary of Shyamalan's decision to drift off towards the entertainment industry. It must, thus, have been very satisfying for him when The Sixth Sensebecame the most talked-about film of its era.
“Yes. It was interesting. Last year, I went to India and received an award. As I understand it, this was a big thing, like getting knighted. There were Nobel Prize winners there. Yet, when my name was called out, everybody cheered. I thought they wouldn’t know who I was. Can you imagine my parents’ reaction? When I said I wanted to make movies they said my life was going down the toilet. Now, here I was.”
And yet. The road has, of late, been somewhat bumpy for M Night Shyamalan. He delivered a few hits after The Sixth Sense: The Village did pretty well; Signs was huge in the US. But the reviews have got steadily more appalling. When the dire notices for The Last Airbenderarrived, quite a few media outlets had fun constructing charts showing the precipitous but steady decline in his standing. Starting from the high point that was The Sixth Sense, the average star rating has slipped for every picture.
He has, to this point in our chat, been quite jolly. But mention of the critics sets his jaw juddering and his tongue wagging.
"The dream that they were ever kind to me is rubbish," he snaps. "On the opening day of The Sixth Sense, there were good reviews, but there was a terrible one in the New York Times. With Unbreakablethey were neutral. Signsgot decent review, but then this pattern set in where they objected to this guy having his name over the title."
So, he puts the criticism down to a perception that, by taking on the role of auteur, he dallies with hubris.
“I know that’s what it is!” he almost shouts. “It’s not seen as hubris when Tom Hanks has his name over the title. It’s not seen that way in literature: it’s okay for Stephen King to have his name in big letters. If Vin Diesel has his name in big letters, then fine. But, when I put two years of my life into it and my name is up there, it’s ‘What a fucking asshole.’”
I want to tentatively suggest that, by getting so angry about it, he only encourages the bullies. Joel Schumacher has elected to (through gritted teeth, I’m sure) laugh along with his critics and, as a result, he wins grudging affection. Shyamalan’s outrage serves to increase the perception that he has a rather high opinion of himself.
I wonder how he keeps it up. It must be distressing to sit at the wrong end of the bile dispersal unit.
“Hey, I am not giving up my relationship with the audience,” he says with a smile. “Dude, it’s like having babies. Every time you finish making a film, you forget how painful the experience was.”
- The Last Airbenderopens today
