Alongside the many great writers, directors, poets, politicians and musicians who have come to Hay this year, technology has also been a star 2006 attraction, writes Clemency Burton-Hill.
At any given moment here in this sleepy little town of books, Wi-Fi connections buzz with blogs and podcasts, satellite link-ups beam events all over the world, and interactive web and radio sessions connect the festival to hundreds of thousands of people unlucky (or foolish) enough not to be here.
Last night, I was sitting in the cinema watching Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood (Oliver Twist, The Pianist, Being Julia, Taking Sides, The Dresser) discuss his work with Peter Florence, when a question came up about Roman Polanski, director of The Pianist and Oliver Twist, and Harwood's great friend and collaborator. "I know", mused Florence, turning to the audience. "Why don't we ask him?"
At that moment there was an audible gasp - and then a whoop of delight - as we realised what was happening. Suddenly, displayed on the big screen in front of us, was a live image of Polanski himself, sitting comfortably in a living room in Paris. Florence repeated the question, Polanski joined the discussion, and we were away.
The incredibly productive and successful working relationship between Harwood and Polanski originated when the latter saw a Parisian production of Taking Sides. Harwood's play about conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler and his persecution after the war for being Hitler's favourite - the film adaptation of which screened here last night - was enough to convince Polanski that he had found the man to adapt The Pianist for the screen. He sent a copy of the novel to Harwood, who sat down one afternoon, started reading, and didn't stop. "I knew at once that I had to do it", he says earnestly, in a departure from his previously expansive, jovial manner. "The second world war and its aftermath is a time that obsesses me ... the Holocaust haunts me."
Polanski, himself a survivor of the Krakow ghetto, and Harwood, a fellow Jew, spent time researching archives together in Warsaw. After this, the director went home to Paris and the writer back to London to start working on the script. When Polanski called Harwood a week later to ask how it was going, Harwood assured him it was going well. This was a lie. "The truth was I hadn't written a word", he confesses. "I just didn't know where to begin." This happened a few more times until eventually, he came clean. "The film is called The Pianist", replied Polanski. "Start with him playing the piano".
Such is the relaxed, jokey nature of the relationship between these two great craftsmen. "It's a bit like a tango", Polanski explains in his dry, laconic broken English. "We are a good couple of dancers, we understand each other, we have good vibes". Hardwood adds: "We also have the same approach to a story, to a way of telling it. I've found I have little in common with the way American directors want to tell a story on film. I work much better with Europeans".
And best with Roman Polanski, perhaps. The duo are reticent about what they are collaborating on next, but the highly moving clips from The Pianist and Oliver Twist shown during the event reminded me just how powerful a force this creative partnership is in modern cinema. Long may it continue.
