The Outlaw John Maybury

I love films about writers. On sunday I saw The Edge of Love, a film about a small part of Dylan Thomas's life, and felt an ache for Wales. After the screening, there was a satellite link up to The Curzon Cinema in Mayfair, where the director John Maybury was to host a live question and answer session. He arrived flustered and muttered about being in a 'car chase' to get there on time. He looked like Tom Hank's more subversive brother, with a gap-toothed smile that unlike the clean and sober Hanks, gave him a hint of the rascal.

Inevitably, Dylan Thomas' s drinking came up and Maybury admitted that he liked to drink, actually he liked 'a little bit of everything.' 'I have no morals,' he grinned, then went on to be deliciously indiscreet about his co-stars, Hollywood and his own wildness.

'Did you imagine twenty five years ago that you would be making this type of film?' a member of the audience asked.

'I was in a coma twenty five years ago. So no.'

I was warming to this man and smiling at his unpredictability and honesty. He was not playing a game of darlings - he thought of himself as an artist, a writer first - then a director. Cillian Murphy, his lead in The Edge of Love, was more beautiful than Keira Knightley, he said.

Silent films were his passion. But there was no market for that. Instead, he used an intense style of filmmaking where the eyes held the story, or a turn of the lip. There were not many takes and best of all, he would whisper to his actors, not shout.

'It has a subversive effect though. One actor will wonder why isn't he whispering to ME?'

He kept on smiling that smile and sipping his wine - you could see that he was still punk at heart, unafraid to say what he meant.

As for Dylan Thomas? Carol Ann Duffy was a better poet, was Maybury's judgement. But he liked to make films about dysfunctional artists, because he could relate to the life they led, a certain type of work that it produced. Especially the Dylans. His parents had been alcoholics and although they tried they still fucked....he stopped and put his hand over his mouth like a schoolboy swearing.

The interview finished, Maybury asked if the satellite had gone down.

'We're in Bath, right? Never liked that namby-pamby Pride and Prejudice town, ' he laughed. 'Those people in Bath are really up themselves.'

Of course it was a joke. A good one. This was a fascinating man - full of demons and devilment. Apparently he may be due to do a remake of Wuthering Heights.

Now that should be interesting.