Film meets art: Mike Leigh inspired by JMW Turner

I wanted to make a film about Turner the personality but that means nothing by itself I mean you know who was he how was he where was he um what did he do and how did he do it and all of those questions really are there to be explored he is so complex and there's so much of him to get your head round Turner was a compulsive artist Turner had to paint how to draw all the time I mean he just never stopped I mean it was up an absolute obsession people in their environment it's very evocative [Music] see I love these we know tannaz not a portrait painter you know and the traditional conventional of detail sense but in the simplest way he delineate scare achter and the way puts them on the page of his sketchbook you can see them in the environment although he's not drawn the environment he's not drawn the rooms this here is the billiard room at petworth we have reconstructed this little painting in the film we shot it in in this exact room we put a period billiard table then we've got two guys dressed in black and we've created a little scene with other characters and Turner is sitting drawing these guys while I'm playing billiards again the delineation of character is fantastic and only I love about this is the simple way that in the graphic way that he's you know used this black to express that the guy as the characters against them in the LZ here this is the old library at petworth and this is his painting of the artist painting and being observed by three women and we put the camera exactly where it would be for this and nobody thinks that the painter in the international painting is Turner but we've made it Turner and we put three ladies in here and we made a little scene happen you go to this room and you experience the light coming in through this window and you really feel what you see in this little painting which is the the atmosphere the move the spirit of the room and the light coors light it more than anything what it's about for me to to see this and be here with this actual drawing having created in the very room itself where Turner was a reenactment if you like of this event very exciting I feel quite special I touched [Music] [Music] you [Music]