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.”