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Christopher Hampton: Screenwriters' Lecture

20 December 2011

Watch the video of Christopher Hampton (Atonement, A Dangerous Method) speaking as part of the 2011 BAFTA and BFI Screenwriters' Lecture Series on BAFTA Guru.

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The full length Christopher Hampton lecture is available to watch now on BAFTA Guru.


After starting out writing plays and television adaptations, Hampton earned BAFTA success with the Stephen Frears-directed Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and his own directorial effort Carrington (1995).

His masterly adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement (2007), in which a young girl’s lie has life-changing effects, brought two more BAFTA nominations and his second Oscar nomination. His latest script, A Dangerous Method (2011), is directed by David Cronenberg, and stars Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen.

When you write a film... you can't really tell until two thirds of the way through what it's about.

In this video - available to watch in full on BAFTA Guru - Hampton focuses on his own literary adaptations, describes the 'flash-sideways' technique used in Atonement, David Cronenberg's script-length requirements, and shows clips from his various films.