8 1GT Thursday October 15 2020 | the times

arts

opens with a murder, then flashes

immediately back to some careful

world-building, introducing characters

in conflict in the seemingly perfect

social circle of ace psychologist and

attentive mother Grace Fraser

(Kidman) and her adorable, witty and

compassionate oncologist husband,

Jonathan (Grant).

Grace’s Upper East Side existence

is nudged slightly off-kilter by the

arrival at the school gates of a quirky

yet mysterious yummy mummy called

Elena (Matilda De Angelis), who

seems openly intent on seducing our

heroine with long lingering looks and

brazen displays of nudity.

The Danish

woman behind

this autumn’s

must-see thriller

Susanne Bier, the director of The Night Manager and

Bird Box, has made our next TV fix: the gripping,

big-budget series The Undoing. Kevin Maher meets her

thriller Bird Box. And she has recently

completed a ridiculously gripping

six-part psychological thriller for

HBO called The Undoing, starring

Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant as

wealthy New York elitists brought

down by infidelity, deception and

one seriously savage murder.

“When we spoke the last time

it was just after Serena,” the

60-year-old film-maker says

from her home in Copenhagen.

“And I did experience on that

waves of men talking to me in

a way that they would never

talk to another man.

“But since then I’ve gotten to

a point where it’s easier to fight

back because I’m coming from a

place of success and happiness,

and am much less likely to let

any attack really hit me. I am

much less vulnerable than I was

at that time.”

It doesn’t get more successful

than directing a prestigious

big-budget, star-driven

series for HBO, the home

of Game of Thrones, Westworld and

Big Little Lies. The connections

with Big Little Lies are palpable, since

both series are set in upper-crust

milieus, especially posh private

schools, feature a central murder,

star Kidman and are written by

David E Kelley.

“Of course those elements are

incredibly forceful,” Bier says. “But

I do think that the shows are quite

different. I love Big Little Lies, but

this one, for sure, is much more of

a clear-cut thriller.”

The Undoing’s thriller credentials

are conspicuous from the start, and

ingeniously delivered by Bier. It

W

hat a

difference

six years

make.

When I

last spoke

to the

Danish

film director Susanne Bier, in 2014,

she was somewhat shellshocked.

Her new Bradley Cooper and

Jennifer Lawrence movie, Serena,

had been effectively taken out of

her hands and turned into mush

by the money men. It had been

a bruising encounter with A-list

Hollywood, during which time

she had been bossed about

and patronised, primarily it

seems because she was, well,

a woman.

Since then, however, she

has directed the multiple

award-winning mini-series and

possibly best John le Carré

adaptation, The Night Manager.

She has made the smash hit

Netflix apocalyptic Susanne Bier