The Wah-Wah Diaries: The Making of a Film

Richard E Grant continues with his journalling during the making of Wah Wah. Written in the same witty style we see in With Nails, it features frequent snippets of hilarity about the sometimes ridiculous situations he found himself in. That the movie was also his own story gives it a very poignant touch.

Richard E Grant wasn't just making a movie - he was putting his whole early life on film with Wah-Wah, which made the trials and tribulations of getting it made even more gut-wrenchingly personal. With great honesty and not a little humour, Grant takes us through the six years it took to get funding, lose funding, get actors, lose actors, and finally conquer an absurd obstacle course to get his film made and distributed. Grant writes well and wittily, at furious pace, does a courtly minimum of name dropping and delivers a slim book well worth reading by anybody interested in how creative ideas actually turn into real projects.

This movie-director's diary of the filming of Wah-Wah should be read only by fans of the movie itself -- it would make little sense to others. The movie of course is brilliant, and if you haven't seen it, by all means get hold of it right away. If you love it, then get this book next, which reveals the struggles that go into creating a film that works on you as this movie does.