In the United States, it's Mendes' Broadway restaging of Cabaret with Natasha Richardson and the bare-assed The Blue Room with Nicole Kidman that won him favor. As he did for those stage productions, Mendes took his film debut's look from the works of favorite painters. He called from Los Angeles, anxious about the look and the fate of his film. Theater is a more romantic process, literally, as the play emerges organically from the mist. There's more mystery on a theatrical set than on a movie set.
Film is romantic in the cutting room.
We did do a valuable two and a half weeks. But I had to fight for it. People try to drag you away to do other silly things. I had to insist on staying and getting eight hours a day rehearsal time. In that time, the actors become their own authors as well as friends.