Andrea Arnold and Robbie Ryan take the corner table at their favourite Soho cafe. The director and cinematographer have loved this greasy-spoon joint for years. It’s an ungentrified throwback, a slice of old London, serving big mugs of coffee and double helpings of spuds. Arnold points at the menu. “Look at this, mash and chips. That’s my idea of heaven.”
The pair first worked together more than two decades ago, when Arnold was making her Oscar-winning short, Wasp. The film’s opening shot required Ryan to run backwards down a steep flight of stairs while keeping the lead actor in frame. Most camera operators would have balked at the task, but he relished it – and they’ve been working that way ever since. He scrolls through his phone for a photo from the set of 2011’s Wuthering Heights. It shows him filming backwards again, this time on a horse. “I don’t know if I’d be allowed to do that now,” he says. “But this was up in Yorkshire. They’re a bit more lax there.”
