Wednesday, May 28, 2008

10 Rillington Place

Great site! Too bad I live in the U.S. I was over to London awhile ago and visited the location at which 10 Rillington Place was shot. All that is left is a small area which (I was told by an old timer living there, a local policeman, and some other local old-time government employee walking nearby) is where some of the bodies were found.

............the bodies were buried in a shed in the back garden of No 10.

As I remember it, it was a small, empty, not well cared-for, open grassy area which did not have any marker that I could see (I only was on the street, looking in between 2 buildings), and which seemed out of place (like wasted space between the buildings) -- that’s why I asked around to find out what it was.

...........if is often the case, after an unpleasant series of murders relating to a particular property that the property is demolished. The street was renamed as Ruston Close,when all the houses were cleared,in the early 1970's, and later rebuilt,and now is called Bartle Road. The only recognisable "landmark " in the area is the spire of Notting Hill Methodist Church, Lancaster Road.

............the website www.youhaventlived.com/bartle/wynn.htm has, I'm told, useful information

I probably could “dig up” the location of this if of interest to you. But you’ll have to take the pictures.

............no, there is no existing archetectural evidence remaining, so not therefore suitable for inclusion in ReelStreets, remember real streets, not replacements, rebuilds etc., etc.

.........many other scenes in the film are still extant and will, one day, be included on site.

...........best wishes, John tunstill

Andy Egendorf

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Wrong Arm of the Law

Hi John

Been out again to finish off scenes from "Wrong Arm of the Law", following on from my first posting, the scenes carry on in Uxbridge Middx, map shows reference points, some scenes have multiple shots, your choice of which one you want to use for specific scene, I have included a bit of history and info on some stills from the film, but sadly they do not exist in a way that photographing them will work, but just to pinpoint location, plus other info you might find interesting.

Brian Duffy

Brian's "Wrong Arm of the Law" pictures

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Great British film director celebrated with restoration of 10 films

David Lean centenary year packed with tributes and celebrations

Ten films directed by David Lean during the 1940s and 50s have been faithfully restored by the BFI National Archive, in partnership with Granada International, to coincide with the centenary year of the great British film director. The sparkling new restorations were announced today at the BFI as part of a year-long programme of events, screenings, tributes, book and DVD releases involving different organisations and allowing people across Britain to discover and rediscover Lean’s work.

The £1 million restoration project was completed thanks to generous funding from the David Lean Foundation. The Foundation was set up at Lean’s request to promote the appreciation of film as an art form and to encourage skills and technical excellence in filmmaking.

David Lean remains one of Britain’s most widely known and respected directors and many of his films are part of our national memory, whether the forlorn couple in the station café or that tiny figure shimmering on the desert horizon. A master of visual storytelling, Lean was meticulous in his craft and admired by filmmakers for his loving attention to detail. Like Hitchcock, Lean loved to explore the nature of British – or English – identity whether on the Home Front of wartime drama, literary adaptations and doomed romances, or on the larger canvas of his later Hollywood-backed epics.

Most of us know the great Lean epics that won many awards here and in Hollywood – The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965) – but he directed 16 fiction films and edited numerous others in a career that spanned six decades. The BFI and its partners aim to cast new light on his earlier work which includes the classics In Which We Serve (1942), Brief Encounter (1945) and Great Expectations (1946), also enabling people to rediscover lesser-known films such as The Passionate Friends (1948), to be released by the BFI in June.

At BFI Southbank in June and July there will be a retrospective of the 16 feature films Lean directed, as well as a number of the more significant ones he edited, including Pygmalion (1938) by Anthony Asquith and 49th Parallel (1941), directed by Michael Powell. The two-month season, in association with Film 4, will also include events with documentary clips, discussions and feature presentations from experts exploring themes around his career and working style. Full details of the programme will be announced in the spring.

Throughout the year, brand new 35mm and high definition digital prints of the restored films will be screened up and down the country by Granada International, through its theatrical partners Park Circus and the BFI, and by Optimum Releasing. A complete season is also planned for screening on Film 4 in September, taking Lean’s films to a wider audience across Britain. Also ITV DVD and Optimum will release the newly restored pictures on DVD in the UK in August.

BAFTA is a charity organisation with long-established links with David Lean, which supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image. BAFTA will be holding events and screenings in London, New York and Los Angeles for the public and for Academy members, starting with a tribute to David Lean at the Orange British Academy Film Awards on 10 February. There will be further tributes in the US later in the year, and during the first weekend in August four restored prints will be screened publicly at BAFTA’s headquarters on Piccadilly. The annual David Lean Lecture will also take place as usual this year, details of the date and 2008 lecturer are yet to be announced.

Also paying tribute to David Lean will be Carnforth Station in Lancashire, the location for most of the key scenes in Brief Encounter (1945). This poignant story of unfulfilled passion and guilt will be shown along with other Lean classics during a week of screenings in March at the station itself or in nearby Lancaster.

In February David Lean: A Biography is being republished by Faber & Faber UK. Written by filmmaker and historian Kevin Brownlow who spent many hours in conversation with David Lean and his family and co-workers, the book is universally acknowledged to be the definitive biography and provides the reader with a unique insight into the man, the director, his career and his work.

A two-day conference gathering together filmmakers, writers, scholars and collaborators of Lean is planned for late July at Queen Mary University of London and will offer a broad range of perspectives examining aspects of the director’s life and career in cinema.

www.bfi.org.uk/lean
www.screenonline.org.uk

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Sparrows Can't Sing

Hi John,

I don't have any actual photos as the street was demolished in the late 60's/early 70's but the stills on Sparrows Can't Sing, numbers SC045 and SC047 are of Cowley Gardens in Stepney.

My Nan used to live there as a child and my Aunt can remember the film crew being in the area when she visited her Grandmother, my Great Grandmother.

I've just got hold of a copy of the film on DVD and it was lovely to see the street, even though the part of Cowley Gardens you saw on the screen was the end that was being demolished. My Nan lived the other side of the railway arches as Cowley Gardens was split in two.

Please see attached photo of the street taken in 1952 and i've also copied below, a link to a map that shows Cowley Gardens and how it was split by the railway line. Cowley Gardens is just to the right of Shadwell Station.

http://www.mernick.co.uk/elhs/maps/s1952.htm

My Great Grandfather Edward was killed under the railways arches when he was sheltering there during a bombing raid in 1945 so it must have been hard for my Nan and Great Grandmother to walk past there every day.

Fab website by the way

Kind regards

Lisa West

Saturday, May 17, 2008

"Film Induced Tourism" by Sue Beeton

Just received, a copy of "Film Induced Tourism" by Sue Beeton, Channel View Publications, Clevedon, UK. Five years of intense study into the perceived psychology behind our common interest in real streets. It doesn't, you understand, mean that all our sins are forgiven, but at least we can hold up our heads as we have been investigated, and categorised, much the same a psychopaths, serial killers, kleptomaniacs and others of an anti-social mode. But I jest. It really is a fascinating book and I'll bring snippets of it to your attention as I progress.

John Tunstill

Friday, May 09, 2008

Only Two Can Play

It was with great interest I read an article in our local evening paper the Evening Post, about Reelstreets and in particular the film "Only Two Can Play", made mainly in Swansea in 1961. I was 19 at the time and in one of the still photos you have on the internet, you have a picture of my late grandfather's business name on the wall. You can just see it - J. S. Trollope - advertising palm toffees. I learnt my trade there. We were wholesale and retail confectioners and the big American top or rag top, would often pass by during the making of this very funny film.

Many of my friends were extras and this film cheered up very grey Swansea.

The reason that I write this is, I have tried for years to obtain a copy of this film but failed, could you possibly help here.

Yours sincerely

Roger James Trollope

Yes, Only Two Can Play found ... and sent.

I wonder if you can help me get a copy of a film that was made on our beautiful Gower peninsular in 1962. It was called The Inspector, our beautiful three cliffs were used as a back drop with dummy palm trees as a North African scene, it was the final closing scene of the film.

Again the weather was beautiful, we were among many extras, all the film crew and their equipment was stored in Beynons Farm, Penmaen, they even had a Comet tank down on the beach and that was a task in itself.

Best Wishes

Roger Trollope

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

The Blue Lamp

Hi

The Blue Lamp picture bp077n.

Did you know that on the left just out of shot (the awning or canopy is visible)
is Julie's Bar, a.k.a. The Winchester Club in the tv series Minder?
This was used dozens of times, & also it was used once or twice for episodes of
The Sweeney, a few years previously. A very popular spot down the years!

Later

Keith Bray

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Tate Modern Community Film Club

Thanks to John for your film suggestions, some of which we have already screened.

Just to give you a bit more info about our film club, we work in collaboration with two local residents and screen a combination of archive footage, black & white & more contemporary films that often have a connection with South London, or London in general, to promote discussion with our members about the environment in which they live/work. Regarding your suggestions we have not yet seen, I'll make sure we review them to see if they'd fit with our programme.

Kind regards
Ali Dexter
Community Film Club
Tate Modern

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Eight O'Clock Walk

Hi John

I thought the "new" pix of "Eight OClock Walk" photo ew008bn interesting in that the new gates to the cab garage have been rebuilt in the style of the old Edwardian cab stands. You can still find them dotted around london.

Cheers
Roy Barnacle

Saturday, May 03, 2008

The Big Sleep

Hi John,

As promised here are some 'now' photo's from the film The Big Sleep. They relate to photo's bs002 and bs002a - Avery Hill Tropical Plant House.

I used to visit Avery Hill Park as a child in the sixties and nothing has really changed much to this day. As I took the photo I peered through the window and noticed that the tropical plants are still there, however I think it is closed to the public. Shame about the ubiquitious graffiti.

Regards
John Orchan


Friday, May 02, 2008

Tate Modern Community Film Club

Dear Film Club Member,

Please join us for the next screening as part of the Community Film Club:

Monday May 12, 2008 @ 7:00pm

The ‘Piccadilly’ of South London

Please note: Membership of the Community Film Club is available for those who live or work in Southwark and Lambeth.

A fascinating illustrated talk looking at the history of the varied buildings of entertainment in and around the Elephant & Castle led by Richard Norman of the Cinema Theatre Association. From Victorian times, promoters described the up and coming area of Elephant and Castle as “the Piccadilly of South London”, reflecting its commercial potential. The building of the spectacular Trocadero Cinema (1930–1963) further enhanced the developer’s dream. The Trocadero (cinema theatre), and its replacement Odeon have been recognised as being of major architectural importance. Supported by its mighty Wurlitzer organ, the ‘Troc’ offered South Londoners stage and screen entertainment of West End quality at affordable prices; it was an outstanding success. The introduction of television changed cinema-going habits forever - however the Trocadero became a “white elephant” closing on 19 October 1963 and was demolished for re-development of the area. A smaller replacement Odeon (1966-1988), was built on part of the Trocadero site.

The talk will be supported with the film 'The Elephant will Never Forget' (1953) which is a film that marks a fond farewell to London’s trams by charting the last week of London trams in 1952.

Doors open 18.30, programme starts 19.00 (Programme Duration : 86 minutes)

Please use the Turbine Hall entrance and staff will direct you to the Starr Auditorium from there. Free refreshments will be available before the film.

Members are entitled to:
Free entry to all film club screenings
Regular Film Club mailings & programme notes
An opportunity to discuss films over a drink with other local people
Watch films in comfortable cinema surroundings

Please note: If you have completed a membership form, your details will automatically be added to the membership list; you will not receive a membership card or number. This email bulletin is the confirmation of your membership. There is no need to book a place; just turn up on the evening of the screening. If you are coming as part of a large group please let us know in advance by calling 020 7401 5176.

Community Film Club
Community Initiatives
Tate Modern
Starr Auditorium
Bankside
London
SE1 9TG