At Warrior Film Promotions, dealing with people from the film industry is only half the job. On the other side of the business, there are investors that we must take care to ensure remain involved. In particular, it is essential that investors understand how and where their money is being used, and are kept up to date on the production progress of their particular project.
To this end, Warrior set up a special screenings in Covent Garden’s Hospital Club. Since the British film industry is mostly centred in and around Soho, the members’ club is well-known in film circles as a place for meetings, screenings, and special events, down to the more informal – casual drinks, or food from the restaurant. For Warrior, it was the perfect venue to arrange a social event with investors, many of whom had expressed that they’d like to properly see where their money is going, with something more physical than an email or a phone call.
The event began at 6PM, with guests socialising over some nibbles and free drinks. Your correspondent can confirm that the red wine was a beautiful, mellow Negroamaro, which it was very easy to drink several glasses of. After some relaxed drinks and chat between investors and producers, we began our screening of Mad to Be Normal. Because the films our investors are currently involved with, such as You, Me and Him, The Bromley Boys, and Milk and Honey, are at various stages in their development cycle, they might not necessarily have had any tangible product to screen – You, Me and Him, for example, began shooting on Monday 31st. Nevertheless, Mad to Be Normal proved a good representative of the style, ethos, and high quality level common to the films represented by Warrior. It even shares with You, Me and Him its leading man David Tennant.
Mad to Be Normal is an account of the astonishing true story of controversial Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing, known for his classic work The Divided Self and for his five-year experiment at Kingsley Hall in the 1960s, which is the focus of the film. At Kingsley Hall no drugs were administered, and neither were some of the other more drastic treatments common at the time, such as ECT (which history has largely vindicated, albeit as a last resort) and lobotomy (which history has not). The patients and doctors lived together as equals, and no treatment at all was given to patients if they did not want it. The idea is plainly a radical one, but Mad to Be Normal never tries to glamourise its subject, instead offering a sympathetic, yet insightful view of the doctor, and bringing his professional and personal shortcomings into focus just as much as the more heroic aspects of his extraordinary life. With a career-best central performance by Tennant as well as strong support by such acclaimed actors as Gabriel Byrne and Michael Gambon, Mad to Be Normal was a winner with the audience, many of whom confessed to me afterwards that the picture moved them to tears.
Following the screening, the group retired to the private room for more drinks, as well as some delicious food – mushroom brioche, lamb squares, miniature burgers and prawn toast. By 11PM, which was the time the room was booked until, guests were thoroughly satisfied with the film, the food, the drinks, the conversation, and the wisdom of their investments.
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