Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob don't need me to act as an apologist for their erratic, often abhorrent behaviour (as Peter Biskind points out they have a legion of publicists to do that); however Biskind's somewhat jaundiced perspective is from an entirely US point of view. Down and Dirty Pictures may be a real page-turner but it doesn't have the breadth of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, and after a while the incandescent antics of Miramax build up like a collection of car crashes - exciting in small doses but ultimately mind-numbing.
My first encounter with Harvey occurred 18 years ago at London's Savoy Hotel at a breakfast meeting that stretched into late afternoon, during which time we spoke about production (I'd made The Company of Wolves, Absolute Beginners and Mona Lisa) and distribution. Palace, my company, had released movies as diverse as The Evil Dead and A Nightmare on Elm Street on the one hand and Diva and Paris, Texas on the other. Harvey had made a couple of films and was intrigued by our mix of 'mainstream' and 'art' releases and was keen to expand his small company Miramax. I was impressed by Harvey's ability to grasp commercial concepts, allied to his obvious passion for world cinema.
He took a huge risk by co-financing Scandal, our film about Christine Keeler, which was made without any UK broadcasting or distribution money. Even the cutting-edge Channel Four were worried about the controversy. During and after its successful US and UK release, Miramax and Palace fruitfully exchanged distribution and acquisition philosophies, often releasing the same films in our respective territories. Miramax became major financiers on a string of Palace productions including The Big Man and The Miracle. Eventually they released The Crying Game in the US, the phenomenal success of which is detailed in Biskind's book.
Since the collapse of Palace, most of the films I've made in partnership with Neil Jordan have been with the Hollywood studios, although Harvey and I worked on a handful of productions, and I witnessed the emergence of the new, modern Miramax, whose drive to achieve the ultimate rewards - for their movies and themselves - remained undiminished by the security of the Disney money.
There is nothing in Biskind's character-assasination that surprises. It's probable that the Weinsteins committed every sin that's been attributed to them, but from a European perspective, placing the dagger between the shoulder-blades would result in suicide rather than assassination. As John Cleese ponders in Life of Brian, 'What did the Romans ever do for us?' The same must be said for the brothers. Filmmakers such as Madden, Minghella, and Benigni, have made careers on the back of Miramax. Big-budget productions such as Cold Mountain and Gangs of New York have generated massive employment across Europe and Miramax productions like Pulp Fiction, City of God and Chicago have entertained millions.
When Harvey puts his face an inch away from yours and screams blue murder, obsessively cuts your movie and decides to shelve it until hell freezes over - doing all of these things with the manners of Gengis Khan - there seems to be no good reason why you would return to the abyss. But when you look at the bigger picture, the benefits to the film world surely outweigh the downside. Many filmmakers big and talented enough to walk away from the madness (Bertolucci and James Ivory don't need Miramax) have done so. Those who have hung around and stood their ground, Scorsese, Soderbergh and Tarantino, probably saw beneath the mayhem and recognised that the Weinstein brothers are the Barnum and Bailey of the film world. When they believe they have a winner, they market a film like their life depended on it.
Returning in recent years to the independent sector, making Intermission and The Actors, I've been impressed by Miramax's global influence. If they're distributing your film in the US, you are much more likely to be able to make a distribution deal in other territories. Miramax passed on Intermission in America despite Colin Farrell and this severely hampered my ability to get the film financed elsewhere. Despite a host of excellent US distributors including Focus (Universal), Fox Searchlight and New Line, Miramax have created a brand name that stays head and shoulders above them all.
Biskind's book is superbly researched and colourfully told, but misses the ripple effect from which we non-Americans have benefited. The Gotham Gang's love of movies embraced Trainspotting, My Left Foot, The Piano, and an army of filmmakers across the world all owe Miramax payback -whether it's a kiss on the cheek or a kick in the teeth is their choice. Have Harvey and Bob learnt to leave the all-you-can-eat movie menu and stick closer to filmmakers like Minghella, who can work at their speed? They've achieved enough to heed the words of Max Bialystock in The Producers ('flaunt it baby, flaunt it'), but are more likely to echo the last words of James Cagney in White Heat, 'Made it, Ma, top of the world' for many years to come.
