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| Woody Set for Rematch |
26th March 2009 |
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| Director Loves London |
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News broke this week that Nicole Kidman is the latest star to join the stellar cast of Woody Allen's next London-shot film. The Australian actress will team up with Anthony Hopkins, Josh Brolin, Freida Pinto (of Slumdog Millionaire fame), Antonio Banderas and Naomi Watts for a project that is yet untitled and seemingly unscripted. The only thing we do know is that it will be shot in London this summer, marking Allen's return to the capital following his Catalan caper Vicky Cristina Barcelona and the soon-to-be released New York film noir Whatever Works.
Allen's love affair with movie making in London began with the 2005 psychological social drama Match Point, starring Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and his favoured muse du jour Scarlett Johansson. The tale of an Irish ex professional tennis player's attempts to enter the moneyed upper class of London, Match Point was lambasted for its chronically poor dialogue and inaccurate portrayal of London, but raked in more than $85m worldwide and had Allen claiming it was "arguably the best film" he had made.
My personal take on the film is that is a very under-rated piece of cinema which, one day, may receive cult status; the wooden dialogue is so cringe-worthy and the subject matter (tennis, acting, social climbing and London life in general) so waywardly unconvincing that it can only be intentional, with the overall effect making Match Point irrepressibly comedic in hue.
It certainly does act as an excellent guidebook to a fantastic city, taking in the likes of the Tate Modern, Covent Garden and the Royal Opera House, Mayfair and Belgravia, the Queen's Tennis Club, Holland Park, St James's Park, and restaurants such as Locanda Locatelli and Julie's. The list goes on and on. Of course, only London's gems are included - but seeing that we're dealing with a group of people who mix (or aspire to) in the top echelons of society, then this is no crime.
That said, implausibility abounds. For instance, Johanssen's hard-up actress still manages to live in plush flats in Bayswater and Belsize Park, despite earning her crust waiting tables. What's more, it's no surprise there's a banking crisis in the UK if one of the founders of a profitable City securities firm gives a high-powered job to his daughter's hollow boyfriend, who seems bent on doing about as much work in his swanky Gherkin executive suite as Christian Bale's warped fund manager does in American Psycho. But these glitches make the film all the more endearing.
Indeed, Allen himself admits that he is rather a novice when it comes to London, saying in an interview: "I don't know the town that well [but] it's very easy to get location when you combine the beauty of the city and the beauty of the weather that you get every day. Being a city person myself, naturally I'm taken - I think anyone would be, in London - with the enormous amounts of parks and squares that they have, and the beautiful white houses."
Hinged with a cryptic script and an improbable storyline, Allen's skewed portrayal of London - seen as if looking through Manhatten with a prism - recalls some of the French surrealist films of the 70s and 80s, comparable even, dare I say, to the works of the great Luis Bunuel.
Following Match Point came Allen's less successful London films, the curious Scoop (again starring Johansson) - which was either "the worst Allen has ever made" (Washington Post) or "the funniest movie of the year" (San Francisco Chronicle) - and the rather clumsy Cassandra's Dream - "the lowest point of Allen's recently chequered career" (Empire).
Cassandra's Dream takes in the delightful Wilton's Music Hall, as well as Claridge's and One Aldwich, while Scoop features famous London landmarks such as Pall Mall's Reform Club, the Shepherd's Bush Empire, The Dorchester in Park Lane and the City Point skyscraper. Interestingly, we get a peak inside the old offices of The Observer newspaper in Farringdon in another highly unlikely plot premise: like Johansson's character, I too have done work experience in that office and, believe me, never was I sent to investigate a serial killer in the backstreets of London.
It's clear that Allen may not understand London or even come close to getting it right, but he does have a keen eye for good locations which makes for picturesque settings, however flimsy the plot. Allen's London is arguably more credible than that of, say, director Richard Curtis, who subjects the auditorium to a chocolate-box perversion of the capital that is as sickly as the coffee creams left over at the bottom of the Christmas tin of Quality Street.
Love Actually was such a monstrous movie malfeasance that it had most people in incredulous stitches of laughter throughout, four years after he had somehow portrayed Notting Hill as a place where it snows in winter, shines in summer, where everyone is white and middle class and where the only odd accent you hear is a Welsh one. It's almost as bad as the scene in Peter Howitt's Sliding Doors when the two main characters, Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah, bond on the Underground over a chat about the Beatles and Monty Python (as if two British strangers would ever actually talk to one another on the Tube).
Recent film portrayals of London are not all that bad, mind. Danny Boyle, who picked up an Oscar last month for Slumdog, used an eerily empty London as the captivating backdrop to his science fiction bonanza 28 Days Later. Seeing an upended double-decker bus on the capital's streets bereft of both traffic and people was unique as it was compelling.
The Bourne Ultimatum used Waterloo station in rush hour to devastating effect and also opened up the former offices of The Guardian to the cameras. Breaking and Entering, starring Jude Law, offered a superb insight to the on-going Kings Cross regeneration programme, while Russian mafia thriller Eastern Promises brought alive Farringdon and Hackney's Broadway Market with aplomb (most memorable is the scene when a naked Viggo Mortensen fights two men to the death in Ironmonger Row's Turkish baths in Islington - right next to the pool where I learnt to swim as a child).
More recently, Guy Richie's latest offering - the under-rated RocknRolla - shot scenes in the East End, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium (owned by a fictional Russian oligarch in a flagrant, not to mention borderline libellous, nod to Roman Abramovich) and Chelsea's Brompton Cemetery (scene of a particularly gruesome throat slashing on match day).
A more challenging portrayal of London came in the Clive Owen film Children of Men, the opening scene of which features a terrorist attack on Fleet Street shot less than two months after the 7/7 bombings - a chilling reminder of the days we live in. Set in 2027, the film also has Battersea Power Station turned into an art gallery complete with Banksy pictures in what was surely a homage to the Tate Modern.
Whatever the subject matter of Allen's upcoming film, let's hope it does London a service - not in attracting tourists, but in stimulating the viewer and portraying the city in a fair light. It will not be hard to improve on his last two efforts in the capital, but with such a strong cast, and the wind seemingly in the director's sails following the success of VCB, maybe this will be game, set, match and Allen's best London film yet.
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| Year of the Goat |
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| Here's a novel way to spend the Oxford and Cambridge boat race day - watching goats (instead of boats) going head to head. As the historic university rivals battle it out on the river, Spitalfields City Farm is running the first ever Oxford vs Cambridge Goat Race, pitching two real live goats against one another. That's not all. There's also a goatee competition, goat wrestling and a strict dress code: black tie, boat club jackets and ties, rowing lycra, or - you guessed it - goat. |
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| G20 Chaos? |
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| Disruptions are predicted at next week's G20 summit which brings leaders of the twenty member countries to London to discuss key issues affecting the global economy. In addition to a 'severe' terror threat - prompting £10 million to be spent security - are rumblings of discontent on 'anarchist' websites calling for direct action. City workers could well be targeted and staff in the City are being advised to dress down and postpone non-essential meetings. The G20 members themselves may also see some action with protestors thought to be planning to drive a tank to the ExCel centre where the summit is taking place, or delivering a block of ice to the venue to highlight issues around climate change. |
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| Gay Icons at the NPG |
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| In the same week that one in six therapists admitted they have attempted to 'cure' homosexuality (!?), the National Portrait Gallery published details of their gay icons exhibition, due to open in July. Among the list of inspirational people to go on display are Princess Diana, Quentin Crisp and Will Young. Chosen by a panel which included Sir Elton John and Sir Ian McKellen, and chaired by Sandy Toksvig, the group includes an eclectic mix and, thankfully, some less obvious choices. Instead of Kylie Minogue (yawn), for example, we have Nelson Mandela. Elton opted for two straight men - his longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin and the cellist, the late Rostropovich. |
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