Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach Page #6

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by the school and the world.

But we know he isn't.

And so we thought, well, if this is true,

then we can go to any school and we will find Billy Casper.

This is Billy Casper.

Billy Casper cheats.

Steals.

Lies.

Fights.

Because... Well, because he has to.

My dad was a coal miner, my mum was a seamstress,

she'd worked as a cleaner.

Whatever it took to make ends meet.

I just knew I couldn't handle working in a coal mine.

And then I received a letter, delivered by hand,

and there in purple writing, it said something along the lines of,

"Dear David, we would love for you to play the part of Billy Casper

"in our film, A Kestrel For A Knave."

I can't possibly explain how excited I was.

I wasn't frightened, because I felt this is where I belonged, in a way.

Come on.

Come on.

What determined a lot of the things about Kes, and the way it looks,

begins with this central image of the bird which flies free

and the boy who is trapped.

That is clearly what connects to people.

Ken and I, we quickly found a way that was particular

and a good and simple way to work.

Basically, dealing with people who hadn't acted before,

how do you remove the camera crew from the experience?

Our whole style of observational film-making

came through conversations with Chris.

We both saw the Czech films.

The camera has its own...

Its own sense of being a person observing.

You become a person there.

It seemed to bring out the humanity

of the people in front of the camera.

What I found amazing was that he trusted me so much.

Ken would explain a scene to me in very brief terms,

so that when we came to do the actual speech that Billy does

in front of the class,

I had only been given less than 24 hours to actually learn that scene.

But I think Ken wanted that rough quality.

Then, when it got to know me, I fed it on my glove.

And after a while I put it two inches away from its claws.

Like that, like.

I didn't want him to learn it too word-for-word,

because the point of the scene is not to tell the audience

how to train a kestrel.

The point of the scene is for a boy who can never string

two words together to become articulate.

I got about 70 yards from there, in the middle of the field,

I called her.

"Kes. Kes. Come on, Kes. Come on then."

Nowt happened.

So I thought, "Well, I better walk back and pick her up."

So, when I were walking back, I saw her flying - she came like a bomb.

About a yard off the floor, like lightning, head still,

and you couldn't hear the wings - there weren't a sound

from the wings. And straight on to the glove. Wham!

And she'll grab me for the meat.

Anyway, I were pleased with mysen...

With Ken as a director,

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