Directors UK Present: Bruce Robinson

Bruce Robinson is a British director, screenwriter, novelist, and actor who is perhaps best known for writing and directing the legendary British cult comedy, Withnail & I.

Withnail & I is a uniquely bleak picaresque comedy that focuses on the grim, poverty-stricken misadventures of a couple of unemployed actors. Set in the squalor of Camden in the late 1960s, the film depicts the Beckettian couple as they embark on a disastrously ill-advised holiday fuelled by drink and drugs. Richard E. Grant stars as Withnail, a strangely magnetic, albeit, vituperative, unwashed dilettante, and Paul McGann as ‘I’, a mild-mannered, pensive, neurotic on a doomed mission to temper Withnail’s more destructive jaunts into excess. Their comically fraught relationship, which is dramatised by brilliantly scripted alcohol-soaked exchanges, has made the film one of the most quoted of all time.

Bruce Robinson has most recently written and directed The Rum Diary, a 2011 film adaptation based on the novel by cult author and Gonzo journalist, Hunter S. Thompson. Produced by Johnny Depp, who personally approached Bruce Robinson to coax him out of directorial retirement to work on the project. Depp also stars in the film as Paul Kemp, a disillusioned journalist who travels to Puerto Rico to find work.

In this talk, Bruce Robinson discusses both Withnail & I, and The Rum Diary, and also talks about his methods as a writer, his memories of living in London in the late 1960s, and his experience of working with Depp.

Bruce was in conversation with Anwar Brett, a critic and film journalist who has contributed articles to publications such as Film Review, Total Film, The Sunday Telegraph, The Independent, and The Guardian.

Related Links:
BFI: Bruce Robinson 
Directors UK
Anwar Brett