It’s March 2020. East London, specifically Jones and Sons, a hip restaurant in Dalston in the borough of Hackney. We’re on the set of Boiling Point, a new British feature led by – let’s face it – one of the finest actors of his generation, Stephen Graham. It’s officially a week or so away before cameras officially roll, but this isn’t your average movie. The production is in the middle of a rehearsal period ahead of an official shoot that will see the film’s story place out in real-time. One take. No cuts. For real.
It’s day two of that week-long rehearsal time, actor turned co-writer and director Phil Barantini overseeing proceedings running hot from his directing debut feature, the impressive Villain first playing to audiences just weeks earlier. Ambitious doesn’t even start to describe his sophomore effort, a film based on a 22 minute short also starring Graham as a stressed-out chef dealing with addiction in the kitchen of a busy eating house in the lead up to Christmas. The feature version follows a similar narrative arc, though developed and expanded upon to warrant its longer running time.
Graham is Andy Jones, an established chef who is battling a troubled home life, evident from when we first meet him, strolling into the restaurant speaking into a mobile phone. There is also addiction, and when you add in the constant pressures at work – a relentless service, and demanding front of house staff, as well as unexpected visits from Environmental Health Officers, cocky social media influencers, and even celebrity chefs, you have all of the ingredients for a relentless, pressure-filled affair with tension building throughout its running time.
Related: Stephen Graham-led one-take drama ‘Boiling Point’ picked up by Vertigo Releasing
Joining Graham is some of the cream of the British acting crop; Jason Flemyng, Ray Panthaki, Malachi Kirby, and Vinette Robinson, as well as Villain alumni Izuka Hoyle to name but a few. In fact, there are 34 speaking roles in the film, a huge sound department ensuring that each voice is captured, extras in every corner, and one hugely talented cinematographer in Matthew Lewis whose camera dances around the set as the action unfolds around us.
Behind Lewis’ camera are producers Bart Ruspoli and Hester Ruoff, along with co-producer Stefan d’Bart, who we managed to pull away from rehearsals to talk about their impressive new project.
Our chat took place ahead of shooting, which was planned for four nights the following week – though the used take was reportedly captured within two – just before coronavirus took hold, causing the film industry to come to a halt, the UK plunging into lockdown.
Can we talk about the short – where it all started – what were the origins of that?
Bart Ruspoli: Phil [Barantini] was an actor for a long time. We met on the set of Band Of Brothers and have been friends for twenty years. He said ‘I really want to get into behind-the-camera stuff’. We did this film called Nightshooters and he was a supervising producer on that. Then he came to me and said that ‘I’m directing this short’. [I said] if you need anything, any help, let me know. That was ‘Seconds Out‘. I saw that and was incredibly impressed by it. He then said ‘I’ve got this other idea for this short called ‘Boiling Point’. It’s about a chef in a kitchen. I’ve spoken to Stephen [Graham], and he’s in.’ I was ‘so, you need money’ [laughs]. I said that [to get money for the short], we’ve got to at least say that we’re thinking of doing a feature version of it. To cut a long story short, we had the chat with some of my backers and, no problem.
We had no idea what the feature would be – if it would be the same format, try and do it the same way? It was still very much in the back of our minds. We did the short, and it was fantastic, and literally, on the drive back from Manchester, in the middle of the night, and we were thinking about Villain and maybe that Phil was the right man [to direct] that. We went onto Villain, and we did that, and literally, just after Villain we got [word] that Stephen [had] a window, and initially the window was April (2020), and it shifted around and kept on shifting. In the meantime, we’d started developing the idea for the feature script, and I managed to get more finance for that. Finally [Stephen] got a definite window and it was these two weeks that we find ourselves in now (March 2020). That came a little earlier than expected, so we had to jump, and it was all hands on deck. I called Hester [Ruoff], and she came on board and brought some finance from her side, and I had my guys, and we pulled it together in that way, and here we find ourselves. That’s how the genesis of the whole thing happened.
The short is like 20 minutes, looking at a specific section of life in restaurant kitchen. Without spoiling anything, how does the film expand on that?
Bart: The short is about [Stephen Graham’s character’s] addiction. [In the feature] the addiction is a footnote.
Hester Ruoff: There are many more layers to his character, and to what he’s going through in his family life. There is so much more built into it, otherwise, there would be no point doing a feature – you’d just be extending the short. There’s just so much more to it that the audience is going to get sucked into what isn’t said.
The one take thing. Was it always going to be that for the feature as well? It is quite ambitious.
Bart: No. It goes back to what we were saying. When we did the short – and [were planning] for the feature – we had no idea. We had never even discussed if the feature was going to be one take. It [the feature] went through millions of iterations. At one point, it was going to be a sequel. Then it was going to be about various aspects of the hospitality industry – these were all just ideas that were batted around. Then, we thought, we’ve just got to take what we had in the short and make it bigger and better.
So, it evolved into this juggernaut, and with the short notice, you’ve pulled it all together, and here we are in a room in a real restaurant. Again, was that always the case, to choose a real location rather than a studio set-up?
Bart: Yes, it was always different restaurants, I think.
Hester: Yes, definitely. The lovely thing about this restaurant [Jones and Sons in Dalston, London] is that they have been so involved as well. The lead character is named after the restaurant.
Stefan d’Bart: Andy Jones runs this restaurant.
Hester: He’s been a legend, I have to say.
Stefan: They have been fantastic. They have gone above and beyond.
Hester: We’ve also been able, and I think this is quite unique, is that – one thing that Phil wanted was for all the characters to meet before we got on-set and got into rehearsals. So, for example, I literally set up for the two actresses who are playing the paramedics [to meet prior] – because they are partners in the film. I set up the actor and the actress who are playing the couple, and wherever there’s a family, or a unit we’ve, in advance, set them up [to get together before filming].
A lot of them have come here to have dinner at the restaurant so they’ve watched the chefs working here, seeing how they work all together in the kitchen. Our front-of-house staff has done shifts here – short shifts – they really enjoyed it! They had such fun that they wanted to come back and do it again. There’s an E.H.O. character that’s in it. We set up [actor Thomas Coombes] with the E.H.O. that looks after this borough, and he’s gone on a job with him – gone into a restaurant and done a full inspection, and things like that, so he knows exactly what he’s like. We went, ‘what’s going to make this the most real, the most authentic’. It’s an actor’s dream. Even the chefs have had one-to-one training with [chef consultant] Tom Brown in his restaurant.
Stefan: And Tom has been here on the floor, every day. Showing [them] the right terminology and everything, and he’s been fantastic.
You say it is an actor’s dream, and it definitely is because of the setup. It’s quite theatrical; like a stage show effectively. So, you’ve got a script, but to create that realism and flow, is there leeway to be inventive with the characters?
Bart: Absolutely. There are guide sentences in some of the scenes whereby this sentence needs to be said because it is key to driving the story. The rest of it… none of the takes will be the same.
Hester: Which puts actors into a complete panic. Some into a complete panic. For some, it’s an absolute dream, and I think for everyone, that’s why [we had] over 10,000 submissions for this for the small roles. Not even on the ones where we knew who would be playing what. 540 self-tapes. Out of the people that I had spoken to, everyone wanted to be a part of it; everyone is so excited and pumped about it.
That’s quite a testament to the project, isn’t it? It’s the same with the freedom of the camera as well. So, you’ve got a camera that is moving around constantly, so again, is that choreographed?
Bart: That is the part that is the most rigid. That is set. They have blocked that out and there will be minor adjustments to that on the day, but that’s pretty much set in stone.
So, you’ve got four nights [to shoot it]?
Bart: Yes, twice a night. The first take on Monday night – we’ve got all the extras in for the first time – there are so many additional moving parts. We’ve already said that the first take is going to be a stop-start take in the sense that we can stop, pause there, go, keep going. But, I’ve said to them all, get to the end so that we’ve done everything on camera – not usable – the audio will be usable. We keep everything as we can always rip the audio, but get to the end so that it is all done on camera so everyone feels that we’ve got through it. We haven’t not done this bit yet.
Stefan: Like Bart says, if we get it on the second night, we can reduce it down [to once a night] or whatever; we just keep going [until] he’s watched it back and he knows that he’s happy and Phil’s happy, and Stephen’s happy…
Hester: That’s the coolest thing. I loved it when you did the short, the fact that the whole cast and crew were able to watch it and come the end… actually do a screening.
Bart: It was mute, though,.
Hester: So awesome.
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In terms of the post-production process, visually there is none, but the sound, I’m guessing is key.
Bart: From a logistical point of view, that was the thing we thought ‘this will be enough’ and bumped up what we normally would have expected to pay for location sound for team and equipment, and I quickly realised when I got the first quotes, that I massively under-estimated that. We’re talking ten times more than I thought, and it’s simply because of the amount of equipment that is needed to cover 34 speaking roles, and the amount of manpower that is needed for that amount of equipment, and prepping everyone. You can’t take a radio mic off of someone once they’ve done their scene and put it on the actor that’s in the next scene. You also need additional permissions from Ofcom [for the number of radio channels], and you have to do checks around the area that you’re not interfering with police radios. Other things are cheaper; you don’t have an editing cost; your location cost is relatively low because you’ve got one place.
Hester: We’re going to have sound recordists hidden around the building. One in the men’s loos. Our sound team is incredible. We’ve got someone that does a lot of live-action stuff, so he’s used to the whole thing. I’d say the amount of talent on this is really, really incredible.
Bart: I’m also proud of the cast we’ve got on this; it’s incredibly diverse. A lot of talented, up-and-coming actors. Taz Skylar and Izuka Hoyle, from Villain, are in here, and Lauryn Ajufo as well. We’re missing Hester Ruoff [laughs]. She was busy doing something else. Daniel Larkai who had a very small part in Villain – he was Taz’s mate in that. They’re very, very talented.
And, of course Stephen Graham. So, what does he bring?
Bart. Him. I’m not saying this because he’s in the film that I’m producing, but he is the best actor in this country. Hands down. No word of a lie, what he is going to do here – he’s going to be up for the big ones. No shadow of a doubt. You’ll see it now when you see the rehearsals. Phenomenal.
Stefan: It’s not very often, on set, you see it; you sit there and watch it, and for us to sit there and see something being rehearsed which is 15-20 minutes – just one section that there are doing – we normally do little scenes and that’s it. We’re all just going [jaw drops]. And we’ve watched it five or six times and we’re still sitting there and going ‘fucking hell’, Jesus, wow.
Hester: You do. He’s got so much energy, and presence.
Stefan: And the other actors with him, as well. In that space when there are six or seven actors doing that – like, as you said, a stage play – you watch it and you’re just going, ‘wow’.
Hester: We’ve got actors, I mean, someone like Malachi Kirby or Ray Panthaki; they are leading actors, and they’re [playing] small roles because…
Bart: They want to work with him.
Hester:… want an opportunity to work with Stephen. To not have the boundaries that get put around actors the whole time. Every time we do the take, it’s got that breathing space that allows an actor to play, within certain boundaries, and I think whoever we’ve ended up approaching, they have been so excited to jump on board to see this as an opportunity [that they are] never going to have again. Even for us to watch it, I just there and smile because I’m so proud of what it looks like and how it’s going to be.
Bart: This is a small slice of cinematic history, it is. It is the first British one-take film.
Boiling Point has been acquired by Vertigo Releasing for distribution in the UK and Ireland where it will be released later in 2021 (exact date TBC).
