Interview – The Greatest Hits director, Ned Benson, on music as “the nostalgia machine”

It’s ten years since Ned Benson last directed a film. The final part of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby was released in 2014, although writing Marvel’s Black Widow kept him occupied for some time afterwards. Now he’s back, both as writer and director – a combination he describes as “awesome” – but with a time travelling romance, The Greatest Hits, released this week on Disney+.

In what he admits is a personal film – “music takes me back to so many moments in my life” – Harriet (Lucy Boynton) discovers that songs she shared with her former boyfriend send her straight back to those moments with him. Yet, while she’s reliving those indelible memories, her time travels spark a new romance in the present. She realises she has a chance to change the past – but does she want to? And should she?

Benson describes in the exclusive interview below why he added the concept of time travel to the familiar idea of music evoking memories, as well as his reaction to being back in the director’s chair. “Terrified! But I realised how much I loved doing it. It was like riding a bike.” And he looks forward to his recently-announced next project, this time as a writer. He’s already finished the script for Featherwood, which is directed by Andrea Arnold and re-unites him with Scarlett Johansson. “We’re just figuring out the schedule.”

The Greatest Hits is released on Disney+ on 12th April  / Read our review

About the Author

Freda Cooper

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Freda is a Senior Writer at The People's Movies. A lifelong movie fan and a film critic for over ten years, Freda’s natural habitat is the darkened rooms frequented by fellow cineastes. She can also be found asking questions of some of the biggest names in the business – from Cate Blanchett to Daniel Craig or Mike Leigh to Pete Docter – or crafting reviews for a number of sites and publications, including The People’s Movies. And listeners to BBC Local Radio can catch her views on the latest releases. She always – and probably always will – cite The Third Man as her favourite film of all time. Her top ten? That’s a moveable feast …..

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