“You didn’t realise what his vision was while he was shooting,” she says. “He takes this seedy little story of seedy little people in seedy little rooms, and he makes it big and operatic and grandiose. I love that. It could have all been documentary-like or a bit kitchen sinky, and all rough and tough. And the English do that very, very well. But he didn’t. He chose to make it operatic and theatrical and big.”