On March 14, British veteran film star Michael Caine ushered in his 85th birthday, whether it is "Alfie", "The Italian Job" that became famous in his youth, or "Hannah Sisters" and "Distant Bridge" after entering middle age, or the butler Alfred who interpreted in Nolan's version of the "Batman" series, he has always maintained an elegant and intellectual temperament on the screen. The demeanor does not fade with the years, and it can be said that it is a standard British gentleman who has never been shown as a greasy uncle.
On the eve of his 85th birthday, Kane spoke in an exclusive interview with The Guardian about the upcoming documentary "My Generation", which he created, and his experience of London's nightlife in the 1960s and the current state of life.
This most famous photograph of Michael Kane's youth was taken in 1965.
Michael Kane was born on 14 March 1933 in London to a standard working-class family, just in time for the Great Depression that swept Europe and the United States. "A little bit bigger, I caught up with World War II, the German air raids on London, we were all evacuated to the countryside." Kane told reporters, "I lived in the countryside for six years, and every day I was afraid that I would receive a telegram informing me that my father had died on the front line. It can be said that I grew up living a hard life. Only six years after the end of the war, I joined the army myself, first in Berlin and then in Korea. When I was demobilized, I went home to see that London was in a depression, food rations, and poor air quality. But that wasn't the worst, and it wasn't long before Khrushchev announced that the Soviet Union also had an atomic bomb, and it would take only four minutes to hit Britain and raze London to the ground. So everyone simply went out, anyway, they can only live for another four minutes, why not have fun in time? ”
It was with this mentality that London in the 1960s became a playground for countless working-class children like Kane. Gradually, the cultural discourse was taken over by the working class. Underground radio stations came into being, quite popular, and then the BBC was forced to compromise and start playing pop music. Bands like the Beatles had the opportunity to get into bars and perform live everywhere. Discotheques imported from Paris are also blooming throughout London. I remember the night I first went to the Ad Lib club, and the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, all of them, one without a hitch, all dancing wildly. Pop culture suddenly became mainstream, and the protagonists were young people from the working class. At that time, I was a roommate with Vader Sassoon, and he never charged me money for haircuts. We have another roommate: Terence Stamp (a famous British actor who starred in films such as "Desert Demon" and won the Cannes Award for Best Actor in 1965 for "Butterfly Spring Dream", and it was on his recommendation that Kane had the opportunity to star in the famous "Alfie"). It felt like everyone I was in contact with had become a celebrity. ”
Stills from Alfie
In Kane's view, the 1960s were a period of social transition, and "My Generation," of which he was the producer, narrator and host, documented the social changes of that decade. He told reporters that the reason why he thought of making such a work actually originated from his good friend Simon Fuller (British entertainment tycoon, the driving force behind the "Hot Girls" group, and the founder of variety shows such as "British Idol"). "We had a good relationship, and every time we met, he loved to talk to me about the 1960s. He was too young (Fowler was born in 1960) to catch up with that time, so he was very curious, and always asked me this and that. In the end, he suggested why not make a documentary and let me talk about the past. I have a pretty good memory, and at my age, I'm really lucky to be able to do that. ”
Poster for the documentary "My Generation"
London in the 1960s, documented in "My Generation," is a sight of drunken dreams and deaths, and if it weren't for the presence of witnesses like Kane, today's young British people would not have imagined that their grandparents would have played so crazy in the first place. But everything has an end, the madness has developed to the extreme, and it has come to an abrupt end in the hustle and bustle. "At that time, everyone loved to drink heavily, but by the end of the '60s, the advent of drugs ruined that era. After using cocaine, you will talk nonsense for hours without stopping. Some drugs other than cocaine have the opposite effect, and after use, they become nerds; so there were only two kinds of people at the party at that time, either not finishing, or not saying a word. Before the 60s, when everyone was drunk and danced like crazy, it was the end. ”
However, Kane, who knows how to clean himself up, is not infected with the vice of drug use. Legend has it that he smoked marijuana only once in his life. "That's right, I laughed for five hours in a row, and I almost didn't laugh out of mynia. I was leaving the party at one o'clock in the morning that day, and I was standing alone on the street corner, smiling forward and backward. No taxi would stop and pick me up, so I had to walk from the city centre back to my home in Notting Hill. After that time, I swore to heaven that I would never touch drugs again in my life; and I did. I'm not disgusted with people who use drugs, I just sympathize, sympathize with their situation. ”
Although he was far away from drugs, the young Kane smoked fiercely. In many of the historical shots used in "My Generation", Kane always has a cigarette in his hand. "Indeed, I smoked so much that Tony Curtis (a famous Hollywood comedian who starred in films like "Fire of Passion") saved my life. We were at a party that day, and I sat by the fireplace, smoking one after the other. Suddenly, a hand came from behind me, grabbed the cigarette case in my hand, and threw it into the fire. I turned around and found it was Tony Curtis. It was the first time we met, and I didn't know him before. But he said to me, 'Michael, I've been paying attention to you, and if you smoke like this, you're going to suck your life out, you idiot.' And so I quit smoking. Later, though, I smoked a cigar again, and eventually it was Alex Higgins, nicknamed the 'Hurricane' snooker legend, who made me quit cigars. I knew him well, and one day I was watching TV while smoking a cigar, and Alex appeared in the camera, when he had throat cancer and could only rely on an artificial throat to barely make a sound. Seeing this, I snuffed out the cigar and never smoked it again. ”
In addition to his love of smoking and dancing in the ballroom, in general, Kane, who lived through that crazy era, was quite clean and self-sufficient, which was inseparable from his background as a stage actor. "I was a stage actor for nine years, completely relying on my own efforts, step by step to the big screen, becoming the protagonist. When I was young, I often had to get up at dawn and prepare my lines for the whole day. So I can't have the energy to play all night, to dance, to play with girls. I can only take advantage of the gap between filming and go crazy for a while. ”
In today's European and American film and television circles, the biggest topic is undoubtedly various sex scandals and feminist movements, and the list of behind-the-scenes writers of this "My Generation" is exactly half of the men and women, and there is no suspicion of sexism at all. Michael Kane, who is the chief producer, told The Guardian that this is exactly what he specifically emphasized. "Yes, I'm a feminist in my heart. A reporter once interviewed my wife and asked her which of my attractions was most to me when she first met me. 'His attitude toward his mother,' replied my wife. I do have a lot of respect for women, and it's been that way since I was younger. It was only then that there was no such name, and it wasn't until they invented the word feminism that I realized that I was a feminist from the beginning. ”
In 1985, Kane starred in Woody Allen's "Hannah Sisters", which won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Today, Woody Allen seems to have become a Street Rat in Hollywood over the scandal of sexually harassing his stepdaughter, and everyone avoids it. In this regard, Kane also frankly expressed his opinion: "This incident surprised me. As the spokesperson for the National Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse in the UK, I am quite disgusted with paedophilia. It was hard for me to accept, because I had always admired Woody Allen, and we had a great time together; I even introduced Mia Farrow to him in the first place. So my attitude now is that I have no regrets about our cooperation in the past, because I didn't know it at the time. But from now on, I will never work with him again. ”
This sentence is not casual, although Kane is old, but he is old and strong, and every year there are new films to play. "I'm lucky to say that there are still movies that specialize in the elderly market. At the beginning, "Foreign-related Hotel" took $150 million at the box office, which also made them realize that there are still many elderly moviegoers. So last year I did "Three Old Gunslingers" with Morgan Freeman and Alan Akin, and we were both in our eighties. Not long ago I made Night in Hatton Garden, which is the oldest robber in history. It felt like I had a group of spectators with me all the time, and I got older and they all got older. ”
Stills from "The Three Old Gunners"
Kane also played a role in the war blockbuster Dunkirk last year, but you won't even find his name in the credits at the end of the film. "Well, because I just made a cameo in a very small, tiny role. Nolan and I are old partners, we have co-produced six very successful films, and I have become his lucky star... Or maybe, in turn, he's my lucky star. Anyway, I'll have to get involved in Dunkirk anyway. But for my age, there was no suitable role for me in the film, so I dubbed the pilot of the British Air Force Fortis long plane, the man who spoke to Tom Hardy on the radio. I just saw it at the box office yesterday, over $500 million. It seems that I am really his lucky star. ”
Finally, the topic returns to the birthday of the old birthday star. Kane said that how to handle the birthday party is up to his wife, and he has been kept in the dark, and he will not know the mystery until tonight. "My 80th birthday was spent in Las Vegas with Quincy Jones, and the two of us were 'celestial twins.' He wrote the soundtrack of the "Stealing the Day" that I played that year. One day he came to the shooting site to visit the class, and we talked and found that we had come to this world not only on the same day of the same month of the same year but also in the same hour. Since you can't be a twin brother of an egg, just be a twin of the Celestial Realm. Quincy is a man he has one thing I particularly admire, that is, no matter what it is, he can be late. He had invited me to lunch not long ago, and he was an hour late— and the venue was still in his own home. ”
As for whether, after 85 years, he still regards the colorful 1960s as the best time of his life, Kane replied: "That's how I felt. But times have changed, and my life has already passed through different stages. Right now, the joy of my life isn't movies, it's not money, it's not women – speaking of women, my wife is the best woman I've ever met in my life, and our happy marriage has been through 45 years – but my grandchildren. My mind was all on them. ”