A highly effective and well edited new trailer by the BFI for the 4K restoration re-release, which has also been embedded below. I remember watching Nil by Mouth when It came out and it was a hard watch, its still a hard watch but in a different way, and its weird, to me this time – 25 years later – it’s all about the women not the men (even though they take up most of the screen time). It’s not about the reason’s Ray is such a cunt (his childhood etc) but rather why the women stay there, and this was brought home to me in the final minutes of the film. In a way it reminded me of Irreversible, where the ending seemed to come full circle, the circle of life. A really shit life, with glimpses of happiness. Interviewed by Andrew, Winstone believes (correctly) that the part of Ray, even down to the character name, was largely written for him. It's hard to think who else at the time could have played the role. However, Oldman and Winstone didn't know each other, though they had in common the fact that that they'd both worked for Alan Clarke, and first met at Clarke's funeral. He compares the film with another role of his, a debut (and only) film by a fellow British actor as actor, Tim Roth's The War Zone, made two years later. Setting the Record Straight" Gary Oldman in conversation with film critic Geoff Andrew (2022) (50:56)

The Inspirations Behind Nil by Mouth", by Philip Kemp, takes the form of an interview with Oldman, who goes through his various influences. Top of the list given the country he comes from, would be the social realism of British directors like Tony Richardson, Ken Loach, Alan Clarke and Mike Leigh. (In fact, Oldman has worked with the latter two.) Then there was Pier Paolo Pasolini, via his then wife Isabella Rossellini. And John Cassavetes: Oldman and Ron Fortunato watched The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and Oldman goes into detail about the use of colour in it, especially the ending.Finally, "Sole Credit" by Jason Wood, which explores the phenomenon of the One Film Wonder: director's who make just the one feature. In 2018, at Manchester's HOME, Wood programmed just such a season and some of the wide-ranging titles are listed – not just first and only features, but ones which "managed to craft something arresting, or in some cases spectacular". The booklet continues with Oldman's notes on the deleted scenes, full film credits and notes on and credits for the extras, the notes for Children by Terence Davies and reprinted from a Sight & Sound interview with Jennifer Howarth. summary This intensely powerful and emotional landmark of British cinema has been remastered in 4K for its 25th anniversary by the BFI National Archive, and this release is the first time on Blu-ray anywhere in the world.

In honour of its 25th Anniversary this year, the BFI National Archive remastered Gary Oldman’s directorial debut, Nil by Mouth (1987) in 4K. Following its world premiere at the 66th BFI London Film Festival, Nil by Mouth was released in cinemas and on BFI Player at the beginning of November. On 5 December it comes to Blu-ray, released in a Limited Edition 2-disc set. Gary Oldman himself contributed to the special features and worked closely with the BFI on this release. A retrospective season of his films is currently taking place at BFI Southbank, running until 29 November.

A Ghost Story for Christmas

People Were Queuing For Any Role: Sue Jones on Nil by Mouth (2022, 16 mins): the film’s casting director recalls her work on the film An uncompromising, double-Bafta winning portrait of a particular milieu of working-class family life in southeast London, where its writer and director grew up, NIL BY MOUTH is a powerful, astute, authentically foul-mouthed account of unfettered machismo, booze and drugs, petty crime and domestic abuse. Oldman is adamant that Nil by Mouthis not strictly autobiographical – while his father was an alcoholic who left the family, he was never violent as the principal character is here. The movie is dedicated to his father, who had died in 1985. The press leapt on that tribute as admission of an abused childhood, but Oldman’s own experience of self-destructive alcoholism doubtless also informed the role. Written and directed by Gary Oldman (his only directorial film to date) it’s often thought it’s biographical, Gary insists it isn’t. His dad may have had an alcohol problem, but he wasn’t a wife beater. It’s easy to see why an audience would assume it’s autobiographical, filmed and based in South London, with all London born actors, it seems like we spying on the gown up kids of the characters in Up The Junction. This intensely powerful and emotional landmark of British has been remastered in 4K for its 25th anniversary by the BFI National Archive, and this release is the first time on Blu-ray anywhere in the world.

Setting The Record Straight (2022, 51 mins): Gary Oldman in conversation with film critic Geoff Andrew Presented here are never before seen deleted scenes and outtakes with three sequences: “Where’s My Coke?”, “Police Interview”, and “Damp Walk Home”. These are fully raw and uncut takes, showing multiple takes, multiple versions including outtakes, crewmembers in shot with slates marking the takes. The first scene takes place at an eatery with Ray, Billy and Mark after their night out as they've run out of drugs. The second is Billy's interogation by two police officers after his arrest. The third is a short sequence of Val walking home in the rain in the dark from a service station. Though an inconsequential scene, Oldman filmed it as a tribute to his mother, who walked everywhere and was an image in his mind that he wanted to recreate. The scenes do not have commentary, though Oldman provides written statements about them in the included booklet. Mother (1994, 7 mins): the only surviving footage recorded by Gary Oldman for an unrealised documentary about his mother’s life and experiences This new interview with Creed-Miles recalls his work on the film, from the nervousness in his audition, recalling the laundrette scene, the painful looking yet completely safe nose biting scene, the impact it had on his career, and more. There isn't a typical structure to "Nil By Mouth", as the story showcases happenings rather than a typical story. Conversations had by the characters are every day dialogue rather than things that would move a plot along. The opening pub scene with Mark's story is absolutely inconsequential. Billy's tattooed friend Danny (played by Steve Sweeney) reciting dialogue from his favorite film "Apocalypse Now" while watching it on TV may also be inconsequential, though these scenes put a lot of emphasis on who these people are and how their personalities. It's not just about what these people are going through but about who they are. Not all the characters are given equal treatment, with the men being more at the center while the women being the supportive, which can be interpreted in their roles in the film as well as their roles in the men's lives.

Nil by Mouth

Narrative cinema is a century and a quarter old now, and there are filmmakers (writers, directors or both) who have maintained a prolific output. Case in point, Ingmar Bergman, of whom I've reviewed so far twenty-four feature films in three sets, with one final set due in January 2023. Yet there is another end to this scale: directors whose output is valuable for being sparse. In his interview of Gary Oldman on this disc, Geoff Andrew cites Victor Erice, best known for The Spirit of the Beehive (1973), who has followed it at the time of writing with just two feature films, one of them a documentary, plus seven short films throughout his career. An even sparser output would be a single feature film, such as Charles Laughton, whose only directing credit was The Night of the Hunter (1957) and a masterpiece. Gary Oldman is another example. As with Laughton, his main job is as an actor, with an Oscar for Darkest Hour in 2017. Nil by Mouth, first released in 1997 and here restored for its twenty-fifth anniversary, remains his only film as director, one in which he does not act. (Having said that, it's his voice, offscreen, as a barman in the opening scene, and he can be seen coming out of a phone box fifty-two minutes in.) For whatever reason, and the fact that his film was a box-office flop was certainly one of them, Laughton didn't direct again. Nor has Oldman, though at age sixty-four as of this writing he certainly has the time still. He goes into this more in the extras. Most of us remember Kathy Burke as Perry or Waynetta, and in the UK she is a comedy legend. Sometimes watching the film I was reminded of Perry’s vacant look as Val gazes at, nothing really. Why does Val stay? Why has she become pregnant gain by this man?