Interview: ‘Small Things Like These’ Director Tim Mielants on Video Stores and Toxic Masculinity
In Maker’s Dozen, we ask folks in and around the film industry 12 questions and have them ask one of us.
Tim Mielants is a writer and director best known for Peaky Blinders, Patrick, and Small Things Like These, an adaptation of Claire Keegan’s award-winning novel starring Cillian Murphy and Emily Watson—out in theaters November 8.
In this interview at the Chicago International Film Festival, we spoke with Tim about Cillian Murphy, Christmas movies, essential Belgian cinema, and more.
This interview has been edited for content and clarity.
1. What’s the Tim Mielants origin story?
I didn’t know I wanted to be a moviemaker. My mother knew it. She brought me to see pictures. But I had no one in my environment who was creative and she told me to be creative. I wanted to be a sailor myself, but she was anxious that I would be drunk on a boat, so she told me to go to film school and from there everything is history. I love to make movies, and think it’s all about perseverance.
2. Take me back to when you read the last page of Claire Keegan’s novel. How did it make you feel?
I recognized someone I lost in my life and who was very close to me, so for me what resonated was the grief story. That was the engine.
3. It’s such a quiet yet powerful film that honors small acts of bravery and kindness. What can the world learn from Bill Furlong?
I think what they have to learn is that when you are silent, you are complicit. I think that’s very important and we have to be aware of it. Also there should be more room for vulnerable, non-toxic masculine characters in movies. I think sometimes when I look at it in history, the real heroes are those kinds of guys. After screening the movie, a lot of strangers come up to me and hug me, so a lot of people are reading a lot in it that I don’t read. I think what you bring to it, you get from it.
4. A friend gave me this book last year as a gift. And as I was reading it, before I ever knew a movie was being adapted, my mind’s eye saw Cillian Murphy as the lead. How did he come to be your leading man?
We knew each other from Peaky Blinders, and then he saw my first movie Patrick, and he loved that and said, “Let’s do a movie together.” We were looking for material and it was his wife who brought the book to us, because she knows me very well and she knows how grief is important to me. And we got lucky because he was on set with Matt Damon for Oppenheimer and asked if we could get the money through Artists’ Equity, and he said yeah. It went very easily.
5. Fill in the blank: Emily Watson is _____.
Amazing. My mother brought me to Breaking the Waves when I was way too young for it, so she’s always been there for me. When we asked her, I felt like she’s out of my league. But she’s amazing.
6. Underrated or overrated: the 1980s.
I just want to go back. We didn’t have the conflict in the world that we have now. Music was everywhere, in different genres. It was great. I’m very melancholic about the ‘80s, I have to say.
7. We’re long overdue for a new Christmas classic and this one makes a strong bid. What’s your essential Christmas movie?
Home Alone.
8. I love the image of the camera mounted on Bill’s truck as he’s driving through town. If on an average day, a camera were mounted to your car, what would it capture?
I only use the car when I have to go far away. I tend to stay in my city and just bike everywhere.
“There should be more room for vulnerable, non-toxic masculine characters in movies.”
9. What’s an ideal night in New Ross, County Wexford?
Go to bed early.
10. Sight and Sound recently named Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman the greatest film of all time. What are some other essential Belgian films and filmmakers?
Dardenne brothers movies like Rosetta. I think Jaco Van Dormael is great. Bullhead with Matthias Schoenaerts from Michaël Roskam. These are amazing. I think Lukas Dhont’s Close is beautiful and got an Academy Award nomination.
11. What’s the best movie you’ve seen recently?
The Zone of Interest. I thought, Jesus Christ…
12. What’s your go-to advice for aspiring directors?
Go to the Criterion Channel and go to Bergman, Tarkovsky, Kurosawa. Check out the old ones. I come from an age when I went to video stores. One teacher said to me, “The better directors go to better video stores.” If you love a genre, go back to where people tried to do it for the first time and you learn an awful lot there, because they were naive and they tried something out. Maybe they didn’t succeed but there’s some beauty in there, and that’s magic. And it might inspire you to try something else.
+1. What’s your question for us?
What’s your favorite Christmas movie?
Kevin: The obvious answer for me is It’s A Wonderful Life, which is one of the reasons I connect with this story too. Something about a redemption arc at Christmastime just always hits the spot. But since becoming a parent, The Muppet Christmas Carol has climbed the ranks. Michael Caine just going for it in a cast of Muppets, pouring his heart into it. And the songs are infectious.