As I’ve mentioned previously, I chatted with Danny Boyle a couple months back about Sunshine, for a feature piece that will now apparently be pegged to its DVD release later this year, but among the other odds and ends that came up in the interview was the notion of expressly national cinema, which is to say whether filmmakers have a certain duty or obligation to their countries of origin to contribute to those cultures, and if so whether and how Boyle saw himself fitting within those strictures.

“I don’t know whether it’s an obligation,” Boyle says, “but I personally prefer to work (at home) because I sort of know it, the things that are important to me, and I can answer the questions. I don’t have to ask other people to answer them for me.” Here Boyle explains being able to size up a person and tell roughly what kind of car they drive, or if he’s wrong about the guess, then figure out why he’s wrong. In America, Boyle notes, he’s more frequently baffled and adrift.

“The film industry in Britain I always describe as occasional, which is really the best way of describing it,” Boyle continues. “Because occasionally we have a decent film, but we get the film industry we deserve — and we don’t really go to the cinema enough. Why should we have an industry like America or France? That’s what everyone always winges (note: I suppose the British equivalent of whines) about in Britain, why don’t we have a movie industry like Hollywood? And you think, because we don’t fucking go! If it’s a sunny day the cinemas are completely empty because everyone’s at the pub drinking or at the park. There isn’t that love or fanaticism about film that you get here, and in France and in India — you get it there as well. What we’re good at is music.”