Duane Hopkins on Better Things

Director Duane Hopkins on his debut feature Better Things

Screening at the 2008 Cannes International Film Festival as part of Critics' Week, Duane Hopkins' debut feature Better Things is a multi narrative drama depicting everyday life in smalltown England. A painterly view of existence against a rarely seen rural backdrop the film considers drug use in a Cotswolds town, revealing its inhabitants different approaches to life, love, loss and intoxication.

Better Things is a very contemplative experience. Is that what you set out to achieve?
I think so. It's certainly more the type of film that I'm influenced by. I like the sort of film that, when you come out of it, you're not quite sure: there's some rearrangement of feelings and opinions and you need some time to think about that, and to think about how you fit in with the film, and what you really think of it and what you got out of it.

Can you explain the multi-narrative aspect of the film?

I wanted as much as possible for it to be an 'abandoned' sort of plot. The film is about thematics, as opposed to stories. The connections are very oblique. But there are windows onto the characters' lives, like when Larry looks at the newspaper and he reads about Tess, then the film cuts to Rob.

In some ways, it's like a series of short films
That's how I wrote it. I wrote 150 unconnected scenes. Then I went back through the scenes and started to look through this narrative. I found that there was a way I could start piecing them together. They could link and rub against one another and comment on one another. At that point, it was a film about relationships.

Where did you shoot the film?
In the Cotswolds. I grew up in a village called Chipping Camden. We shot as much as possible around that area.

Was it like revisiting your childhood?
I grew up around these things, but I wouldn't say that was how my childhood was. But it was certainly a lot of what I saw. I wouldn't say it was a revisiting - maybe a reworking of it.

Did you have friends die of heroin use?
Absolutely. A lot of them were involved in drug subcultures.

Next page • "Everything is accelerating quicker, sexuality and drugs-wise."