Bread And Roses (1999) :: Crew Notes

Production Crew Notes

• Director - Ken Loach
• Producer - Rebecca O'Brien
• Writer - Paul Laverty
• Production Designer - Martin Johnson
• Composer - George Fenton
• Editor - Jonathan Morris

Director » Ken Loach

Once again Ken Loach set off on the adventure of shooting in another country and with characters who basically talk in Spanish - as of course he had already done in Land And Freedom and Carla's Song. "Bread And Roses is about what it's like to be an immigrant. And in Hollywood, by and large, they are not represented. It's like the world of eighteenth or nineteenth century writers before Dickens, where the workers are invisible." or Loach the immigrant question is in essence "a development of the class issue. As somebody says in the film, it doesn't matter to the boss whether you are black or brown if he can rip you off. I mean, rich Americans don't have any problems with rich Mexicans."

As he did with the group of militiamen and women in Land And Freedom, with extraordinary results, in Bread And Roses he set up a group of cleaners who would carry the story of the Union's campaign. "It was a great bunch of cleaners we had and that's important because the strength and weakness of a film is not only the individuals in the main parts but all the life and vitality about them."

Loach revealed that shooting in Los Angeles under union regulations was an experience full of contradictions. "I guess you saw the good side of trade unionism, but you also saw the worst examples of trade unionism, which is when unions become self-protecting guilds. Then, again, the Americans who made the film with us were magnificent - committed, loyal and hard-working. We had the feeling that there were many good people, trying to do good work, in an environment that was very alienating.

Shooting in Los Angeles is very regulated but not always in the most logical way, as Loach remembers. "We had to be mischievous on occasions and break the rules quietly. Following their rules, or circumventing them or coming out of a different door from the one they expect you to is always quite entertaining... like being the mischievous boy in the classroom again."

Producer » Rebecca O'Brien

The making of Bread And Roses.

"Besides being a great story that works dramatically very well, what I liked about the project was the trickiness of it," Rebecca O'Brien says. "It really is making a film under Hollywood rules but with a European spirit."

The road from the original idea to making the film was not exactly an easy one. From Paul Laverty's first draft of the script in early 1995 until the start of shooting in August 1999, the project went through various different godparents.

The funding was eventually achieved with pre-sales and co-production agreements with Parallax's usual partners - Road Movies Vierte Produktionem and Tornasol/Alta Films, as well as the participation of British Screen and BskyB in association with BAC Films, BIM Distribuzione, Cineárt and Film Cooperative, Zurich, and in collaboraration with Film Four, WDR/ARTE/La Sept Cinema, ARD/DEGETO Film and Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

However the eventual budget, around 5.5 million dollars, was high for a European film but not high by American standards, especially as the film was made under union agreements - essential for a film about supporting labour solidarity.

"The problem we had was that the budget under the American rules was too high for the amount of money I was able to raise so we had a choice either to slash the budget and make it work or not make the film at all. We decided to cut the budget, simplify the film and do it in thirty days."

Thirty days was two days less than it had taken to shoot My Name Is Joe. This time shooting was more complex, with scenes with many actors and extras, quite apart from a bigger crew and more material than Parallax is used to working with - something else imposed by the unions.

Rebecca, insists that she enjoyed the challenge of making a different film in which "those who are usually in the background are going to be up there as the main characters on the big screen."

Films As Producer

• Friendship's Death (1987)
• Echoes (1988)
• Hidden Agenda (Cannes Jury Prize) (1990)
• A Statement of Affairs (1992)
• Dispatches. The Doughty Street Papers (1993)
• Land And Freedom (European Film of the Year) (1995)
• Bean (1997)
• My Name Is Joe (Best Actor Cannes) (1998)

Writer » Paul Laverty

Laverty's collaboration with Loach on Carla's Song was for him the start of a second career after working as a human rights lawyer in Nicaragua for two and a half years and travelling widely throughout Central America. In 1994 Laverty went to Los Angeles and it was while he was there that he came face to face with the union campaign Justice For Janitors. "It's comical to think back to when I first met the cleaners and told them that I wanted to write a story about their struggle, especially in this city where thousands have a screenplay under the mattress," he laughs. Thus, after a stay of just over a year, Laverty returned to Europe but not before he had made a promise to the cleaners and organisers that he had met during his research that he would return with a script to make a film. "Bit by bit we got to know each other but I know they still didn't take it very seriously till they met Ken."

Five years later Laverty kept his word. "A labour dispute doesn't by itself make for a story and you have to try and find the contradictions and idiosyncrasies of the personal. This story was much harder to write than My Name Is Joe. I often felt several cultures removed, not only from the US experience but also from the many Latino cultures. It is a great mistake to lump them together. While characters might be cleaners and speak Spanish, the world of a Guatemalan peasant or an ex-combatant from El Salvador or someone from a shanty town on the outskirts of Mexico City are worlds apart."

In the five years between the first draft of the script and shooting it, Laverty and Loach collaborated again on Loach's last film, the prize-winning My Name Is Joe. Laverty is currently embarked on various projects, including a new collaboration with Ken Loach.

Production Designer » Martin Johnson

Johnson, who has worked with Loach many times before, admitted to a certain feeling of apprehension when faced with the structure with which people are used to working in Los Angeles. However he insists that it was a positive experience. "The only difference was that I am used to working with my own crew, we have known each other for years, and in Los Angeles I had an American crew. They usually have a different way of working, much more ponderous, more divided, yet the team I worked with worked together so it was fantastic."

Martin defines his work in this as in other films in the phrase: "I don't exist." That is, his job is to make it seem that there is not an art department at all. "Then we know we've got it right, and you can concentrate on the story and the action."

Composer » George Fenton

George Fenton has collaborated with Loach on his last four films - Ladybird Ladybird, Land And Freedom, Carla's Song and My Name Is Joe. He began his career as a freelance guitar player and moved onto full-time composing in 1975. He has received many BAFTA and Ivor Novello Awards and Nominations for work on television plays.

More recently he has concentrated on feature films. His credits include:

• 84 Charing Cross Road
• White Mischief
• A Handful of Dust
• The Madeness of King George
• Groundhog Day
• Shadowlands
• Dangerous Beauty
• The Object of My Affection
• Anna and the King

Editor » Jonathan Morris

Jonathan Morris has also been a collaborator on several Loach projects - Riff-Raff, Hidden Agenda, Raining Stones, Ladybird Ladybird, Land And Freedom, Carla's Song and My Name Is Joe, as well as a number of documentaries directed by Ken Loach.

He began his career in the cutting room in the late 1960s as a freelance assistant, working on various feature films and television series. After spending eleven years at ATV (Central TV) Elstree, editing award-winning documentaries and drama for the network, Morris edited the highly-acclaimed Emmy Award-winning series Vietnam for WGBH/CENTRAL in Boston, and formed a company that is now known as "The Editing Partnership".

Cast Notes »