Terence Davies plunges into the ‘Deep Blue Sea’

Independent filmmaker Terence Davies, 66, has made only five narrative feature films in the last 24 years. After making several short films, including his trio of autobiographical works known as “The Terence Davies Trilogy,” he made his feature directorial debut with his 1988 autobiographical drama “Distant Voices, Still Lives,” about a young boy growing up in a large working-class Catholic family in Liverpool in the 1940s and ‘50s. Among his other films are 1992’s autobiographical drama “The Long Day Closes” and his 2000 adaptation of Edith Wharton’s “The House of Mirth.”

His latest film, “The Deep Blue Sea,” which opened Friday, is set in post-World War II London, where 40-year-old Hester Collyer (Rachel Weisz) has left her wealthy, upper-class and passionless life with her titled husband (Simon Russell Beale) after she experiences erotic love for the first time with a dashing young ex-Royal Air Force pilot, Freddie (Tom Hiddleston). But Hester soon discovers that the only thing she has in common with Freddie is sex; the film opens with her failed suicide attempt.

“The Deep Blue Sea” is based on British playwright Terence Rattigan’s (“The Browning Version,” “Separate Tables”) 1953 play and the 1955 film version, which he adapted, that starred Vivien Leigh as Hester and Kenneth More as Freddie. Stylistically and thematically, Davies also pays homage in “Deep Blue Sea” to one of his favorite films that also explored illicit passion and love — David Lean’s 1945 “Brief Encounter.”

Davies, an erudite, frank and soft-spoken man, visited Los Angeles recently from his home in London to talk about “The Deep Blue Sea” and to attend a tribute for him at the American Cinematheque.

Are the original Rattigan play and the movie vastly different than your adaptation?

The problem with the play and with all of his plays is the whole of the first act is exposition and it’s not interesting. I said to myself, “If we do it from Hester’s point of view, most of the exposition can go because you can show it on-screen.” The first act is collapsed into nine minutes, and if there are not scenes in the play to which Hester is not privy, they have got to be dropped because she’s not there. That made it that much easier. It also made it look more interesting. Although it is sort of a linear narrative, it is an expressionistic linear narrative with some flashbacks.

I read that you were initially reluctant to do “Deep Blue Sea.” Was it because you had never adapted a play?

I was afraid because I hadn’t done it before. But the Rattigan Trust couldn’t have been more supportive. They said, “Be radical,” which is fantastic. It is the jewel in their crown. They could have gotten a really big studio to do it, but they said, “No, we want you to do it.”

The majority of your characters in your films are outsiders. Hester is no exception, because she has given up the world of privilege but doesn’t fit into the working-class universe. You also have often stated that you feel like an outsider.

It goes back to childhood. I was the youngest of 10. In England, you go to primary school from 5 to 11, and then you go to secondary school from 11 to 15, which is when I left school. I couldn’t hear myself, so I thought I spoke like everyone else, with a very thick Liverpool accent, but I sounded like this even at 11. I was beaten every day for four years [at school].

The way to survive was to say to myself, “I am not going to let them see me cry.” It was then I felt I was looking at the world and not part of it. That feeling has increased with age. Also, when I was in my teens, I realized I was gay, and it was a criminal offense then in England, and a large working-class family didn’t talk about normal sex — gay sex was beyond the pale. I was a devout Catholic, and all of those things have conspired to make me feel like this.

Rationally, it’s idiotic, but emotionally, I feel that other people have got the key and I don’t have it. I have been celibate for so long because I didn’t like the gay scene. I just hated it. I said, “This is not for me.” I would sooner be lonely and on my own.

When you do a movie, does that help you feel more involved with people?

No, it heightens it. That little band of people becomes a family, and it’s hard to say goodbye to them.

Despite the fact that she won an Oscar for “The Constant Gardener” and has appeared in countless movies, you never heard of Rachel Weisz until you watched the 1997 film she had starred in, “Swept from the Sea,” on television.

I switched the TV on and this film had already started and this girl came on with this wonderful luminescence. I waited until the end of the film, read “Rachel Weisz” [on the end titles] and rang my manager and said, “Have you heard of someone called Rachel Weisz?” He said, “You are the only one who hasn’t.”

I said, “Please send the script to her.” She read it and rang me. I said, “I have no idea who I all approach if you say no. Please, will you do it?” She said, “Yes, I will.”

“Deep Blue Sea” examines the class system in England, post-World War II. What is it like now in Britain?

The class system is still well alive and well in England. It’s just hidden. We showed the film in Cambridge, and at the end of the Q&A, one lady stayed behind and said, “I have to ask you about the scenes with [Hester’s mother-in-law].” I said to myself, “Oh, Lord.” You can tell when someone is a bit strange. She said, “When Hester ate the soup, did she deliberately eat it the wrong way to antagonize the mother?” and I said to her, “I had no idea there was a right or wrong way.”

So what is the right way to eat soup?

The right way to eat soup is to scoop it away from you and drink it and at the end, you tilt the plate away from you. Pudding is the other way. I thought, “My God, doesn’t that tell you a lot?”

Britain of the 1940s and early 1950s seems very emotionally stunted.

In those days, Britain was much more reticent. Emotion was considered vulgar. [Composer] Edward Elgar died in 1934, and there were still people around at the time who thought he was still too passionate. Displays of emotion were considered embarrassing even in the working class. A lot of people in those days — both men and women — didn’t know much about sex. Hester’s husband probably had a small libido, but she thought, “He is a nice man, he’s kind.” She probably thought that is what marriage is and then she discovers sex at the age of 40.

Hester is so emotionally young, but Freddie also is immature — he doesn’t have a job, he gambles.

But he loves her. They all love each other but can’t reciprocate. That’s why it’s so sad.

susan.king@latimes.com