Translations by Renate and Maria

A PICTURE OF A MAN 

What's your favourite colour? – Excuse me? 
What's your favourite colour? - Blue. 
What is your favourite dessert? - Creme brulée. 
Are you still together with your girlfriend? - Yes. 
Oh. 

Okay, we didn't talk about that, really. I have copied it from Helen Fielding's second Bridget Jones book "The Edge of Reason". Maybe you recall the crush that the wonderful heroine Bridget Jones has on real-life English actor Colin Firth. And in the second book the fictional Bridget gets to interview her hero for a magazine. 

And because she has such a bad crush, she is making herself a complete fool during the interview in her inimitable charming Bridget Jones way. With her two books Helen Fielding has immortalized Colin Firth as a prototype of the elusive ideal. 
Because this man has actually become the object of desire for the female TV audience in England when he played the sexy brooding Mr Darcy in the 1995 TV adaptation of Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice" (which, by the way, Bridget Jones and her friends watch on video all the time). 

Briefly: he seems to be a man about which one may lose one's mind.  A man who makes you say and do incredibly foolish things with just one deep look from his dark eyes. Oh, well. We'll see. 

The interview takes place in the posh Dorchester Hotel opposite Hyde Park in London. The sun is shining following rain all day yesterday. Colin Firth, 43 years old, is reclining on a small couch. When he speaks, his right hand touches his chin covering his mouth. [Translator's comment: Shades of Mr Darcy! – "Is there anything I can get you? Some wine?"...] 
Everything signals distance. Reserve. This is not one to open up easily, that is certain. Not that he is impolite. But you can sense that later, when we shake hands as we say goodbye, the better part of his afternoon will probably begin. 

Not exactly the atmosphere for weak knees. That's fine by me. Though he does look good. Very good. Dark curls, dark eyes, dark red velvet blazer. If only Bridget could see him like that. 

But this is not about her but about Colin Firth's new film "Girl with a Pearl Earring" which will open in the [German] cinemas on September 23. The film based on Tracy Chevalier's novel tells a completely fictional story behind a painting by Jan Vermeer. 

Firth plays the Dutch painter, Scarlett Johannsson a maid servant who sits for him as a model. Between the two of them there is a magnetic attraction which the movie hints at in a wonderfully delicate way, very, very rarely seen in the cinema. 

Each frame of this movie is arranged like a Vermeer painting, be it the young maid slicing vegetables, or a young couple taking a stroll alongside the canal in winter. "Girl With a Pearl Earring" was nominated for an Oscar for cinematography, which, if won, would have been more than deserved. The award went to "Master and Commander". 

Colin Firth  says that so far he has seen about 15 paintings by Vermeer. Quite a lot, considering that only 36 paintings by the Dutchman are known to exist and are scattered all over the world. One of them, "The Geographer", is in Frankfurt. [Translator's comment: That is where I live!!!]. "We were filming in Luxembourg, which is not very far from Frankfurt, and now and then I wondered if I should sacrifice a day off, go there and have a look at that painting." Eventually the shooting finished but Colin Firth has still not been to Frankfurt. 

Actually he does have an interest in paintings. Firth comes from an academic family, his father is a university teacher of history, his mother teaches comparative religion. Colin, his brother and his sister grew up without television: reading or talking was preferred at home. The family probably also went to museums together, and today, when Colin Firth arrives in a town which is unknown to him, "then it is very likely that I will go to a museum".

Particularly so in Italy. He lived there for a while with his Italian wife (still his girlfriend in "Bridget") Livia Giuggioli, a documentary film maker, with whom he has two children. Colin has a 13-year-old son from an earlier relationship with actress Meg Tilly.

When I "click" with a particular artist I can't get enough of him.

"In Italy I've seen first-rate art," he says, very calm, of course, and without much enthusiasm. "But my approach isn't scientific. Either a piece of art works for me or it doesn't. But when I "click" with a certain artist, I can't get enough of it." It happened with Caravaggio whom he discovered in Rome, in the church San Luigi dei Francesi.

"Near the door there is a painting, "The Calling of St.Matthew". [Translator's comment: Matteo?? Matteo??!]  Jesus looks very young, and very, very Italian. I love the drama in this picture!" And suddenly his well-mannered distance disappears. Colin Firth demonstrates excitedly who sits or stands where in this painting, where the light comes from, his eyes shining bright, we are right in the middle of the painting, sit with the men at the table, "...and Jesus points at one - most experts say that the old man with the beard is Matthew - who Jesus makes his disciple. But at the right side of the old man there is a very young lad with his head down, and you can sense that he is thinking: 'Don't choose me!' I think that Jesus meant that one. And that is far more interesting."

Colin Firth has thawed, suddenly and completely unexpectedly. Like a different person. Suddenly he enjoys the conversation. And now, yes, now definitely is the time for the weak knees. Oh, my, is he magnificent! If at that moment I made an idiot of myself and babbled and maybe tried to confuse him with some vaguely remembered facts from lectures on the history of art, then that would be a beautiful moment. 

Pull yourself together. Quick, a movie question. About costume movies. After all, he made a lot of them: "Valmont", "The English Patient", "Shakespeare in Love" or "The Importance of Being Earnest".  And now "The Girl with a Pearl Earring". Is that his preference or are such roles always offered to him? 

"What is a costume movie?" he responds with a question. "You are always wearing costumes. Films taking place today are as artificial as those set in the past. I find wearing somebody else's 'modern' shoes or 'modern' jeans just as strange as wearing a 'frilly' shirt supposed to be from the 17th century. A costume is a costume." 

In his most recent role which was seen in German cinemas Colin didn't wear a frilly shirt. That was at Christmas, in the surprise hit "Love Actually" by Richard Curtis, in which Colin Firth and the young Portuguese actress Lucia Moniz deliver what is probably the most beautiful film dialogue of the year. He doesn't understand Portuguese, she knows no English. He always drives her home after work. One day he looks at her and says in English: "That is always the happiest moment of the day for me, when I can drive you home", and she doesn't understand a word, returns his look, and says in Portuguese: "That is always the saddest moment of my day, when I have to leave you." Sigh.

In "Love Actually" Colin is a writer. In real life he once wrote a short story for the anthology "Speaking with the Angel" which the writer Nick Hornby published in 2000 for a charity project. Does he like writing? "By all means!" Does he actually write? Very slowly, very hesitatingly there comes a "Yes", followed immediately by "but that's just a hobby. Total lack of discipline." 

You sense that he doesn't want to talk, but then he does: "It is always so easy to do something else. That is why I usually only write down fragments."

He goes on a little bit talking about the theory and meaning of writing, and at one point admits to have written "quite a lot of short stories. But they are just for myself. I put them in the drawer, and there they remain. Sometimes I show them to friends who do similar things." 

Aha! Will we possibly get to read some more of his writings? "I don't know. Honestly." 

His contribution to Hornby's book was a favour for a friend. They have known each other since Colin Firth played the main character in Nick Hornby's "Fever Pitch". "We are not the closest of buddies", he plays down, "but we have a lot in common. We both come from the English suburban culture, both have travelled a lot and like the same books and music." 

But to come back to Bridget Jones, Colin's role in Fever Pitch prompted her to do her fictional interview with him. "First, friends told me that I appear in Bridget Jones", he recalls, "then I read it myself, and then I met Helen Fielding as well. Of course I'm proud to have become a sort of a pop culture reference!"

A good deal of subtle irony employed by all the people involved in the film adaptation of "Bridget Jones's Diary" (known as "Chocolate for Breakfast" in Germany) resulted in Firth playing Bridget's lover Mark.

This winter sees the filming of the second part. Colin Firth is in it again. But there is a huge problem with how the previously quoted interview should be filmed. After all, Colin Firth can't play himself because he has got a role in the film already, and that is Mark. Three years ago Colin Firth was still joking: "They will have to ask Russell Crowe to play me." Meanwhile there were rumours that George Clooney was going to accept the part. 

Colin Firth does see the funny side of the problem. "Perhaps Clooney has actually been in discussion. But he won't do it. Frankly, I believe the scene will not appear in the film at all."

But he can promise one thing: the silly reindeer jumper which Mark wears when he meets Bridget at Christmas will appear again. "They didn't allow me to keep it," he says ruefully. "They virtually tore it away from me when the scene was finished. There was another reindeer jumper, slightly less ridiculous, which I was allowed to keep."
He ponders this for a moment and then says: "Funny. They will remember me because of this jumper. Because of something that is somehow slightly humiliating."

He is amused when he says this, but there is also some amazement in his voice. That was how he sometimes sounded during this interview when he himself was the subject. You get the impression he would like to say: folks, I'm just doing my job. What do you want from me? One thing is certain: this man will not expire of the excess of self-importance. 

After the interview the sun is still shining. The Hyde Park is all golden. I managed to   resist the temptation to talk silly things and ask him if he wanted to divorce his wife. But now I'll go to the park and listen to the tape with our interview. In the sunshine. What was it that Bridget wrote in her diary about HER interview? "Have to relive the day, was just too good. Hmm." There is nothing to add. Except: Hmm. Hmmmmmmmmm.