Image used with permission
Fifi Flowers is inspired by a couple of things that I love. Movies and travel. So I was very excited to stumble upon these charming notecards featuring village locations from the film Chocolat. She also does commissioned works so if you have a movie location that you’d like captured in canvas or notecards, please visit her site for more info.
I love to watch movie trailers. I watch all of the latest and greatest on Apple.com and elsewhere. Some movie trailers I watch over and over - especially when I used to work 9 to 5 {I had to get that escape somehow!}.
A great resource for movie trailer fans is Soundtrack.net. You can find out what music was used in your favorite trailer. For example I’ve always liked the music in the trailer for Cold Mountain which uses bits of the score for Snow Falling on Cedars and Anna & The King.
I’m love love loving Julia’s Movie Mondays from Hooked On Houses: http://hookedonhouses.net/houses-onscreen/
The Gone With The Wind page is seriously fun.
BBC America’s website has a link to television show locations such as Torchwood and Robin Hood. http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/167/index.jsp
This is old news for some but the BBC is working on a new version of Jane Austen’s Emma (you may remember the Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Beckinsale versions from 1996). Also sometimes referred to by the actors who played Mr. Knightley - the Jeremy Northam or the Mark Strong versions. I liked them both, equally, for different reasons!
I was curious as to whom the ladies of the Internet were favoring in their ideal casting for Knightley in the new Emma. Seems sexy North and South and Robin Hood star Richard Armitage is topping the polls. I will definitely add my vote for RA, however I doubt that he would do it.
Funny how we don’t seem to care as much about who will play Emma!
Courtesy of Momentum Pictures
It may be that the main reason to see the new film Young Victoria, about the early years of Queen Victoria and her romance with Prince Albert, will be the stunning locations. The glorious Ham House fills in for the interiors of Kensington Palace in the film and judging from the photos below, the actors will have a hard time upstaging their surroundings.
In fact, little about Ham House needed to be altered in order to make it fit in with the Regency period. According to Jorge Ferreira, Visitor Services Manager at Ham House, “The rooms and spaces within the property were barely touched, which is testimony to the grandeur of Ham House. Props aided some scenes, but the majority was shot in situ.”
Ferreira also talks about what it was like to have a film crew take over the National Trust property. “The cast and crew were with us for a just under a month in 2007, and returned for a few days last year. They enjoyed their time at Ham and were everywhere - from the gardens to the Great Hall. These two areas as well as the Long Gallery and Great Stairs were used at scenes in the movie.”
Ham House was originally built in 1610 for Sir Thomas Vavasour, but was greatly remodeled and decorated by William Murry in the years after he became owner in 1626. Murray was literally the “whipping boy” for young Charles I, taking punishments for the prince, and the two grew up together. They both shared a fondness for art and architecture.
Ham House is on the south bank of the Thames between Richmond and Kingston. It’s also a popular wedding locale with receptions taking place in a 17th Century orangerie.
Courtesy of Momentum Pictures
The Long Gallery. ©NTPL/Andreas von Einsiedel
The Great Stairs. ©NTPL/Bill Batten
©NTPL/Andreas von Einsiedel
©NTPL/Bill Batten
copyright Time Inc.
Sometimes you don’t want to watch the latest chick flick, rom-com starring Renee or Reese. You want an old favorite, maybe a movie that you saw at the theater or on tv and haven’t seen since. Netflix is really well stocked, don’t get me wrong, but on occasion I find that they don’t have the film I really want to rent. Here are some of my obscure and not so obscure choices for movies that really need to be released on DVD or made available on Netflix:
By the way… if you want to contact me, you can do so at:
td {at} romanticfilmlocations {dot} com
Thanks!!!!
© Paramount Vantage 2008
In these times of sadness and economic malaise, it is no wonder that I have been glued to my sofa and television set. I’ve taken great care to surround myself with my favorite escapist movies and tv shows, hoping that they will transport me away from the problems of real life long enough for me to recoup… and gain the strength to face reality once more.
Sometimes it works… Priceless, The Duchess, The Lady Vanishes… and sometimes it doesn’t… The City (dreadful spinoff of already dreadful but strangely watchable The Hills).
The movies and tv shows that I watch must have certain elements in order for them to distract me from my dwindling bank account and rising credit card debt. First, there must be gorgeous settings – a grand hotel on the Riviera, a marble-filled estate surrounded by sheep dotted English countryside or even New York City in the 1930s with gleaming buildings and lots of cocktails and cigarettes lit with Zippo lighters.
Secondly the cast must be attractive and well lit. I know this is wrong. Some of my favorite films have featured not quite Madison avenue actors and actresses in the leads… but we are talking about escapist fare and not, in fact, what you view when you want to be moved or otherwise Oscar-fied (did I just make that up?). So… pretty and toned. I’m sorry but there it is.
Lastly, there must be some sort of transformation. The lady must go from spoiled brat to wise sage or from duck to swan or riches to rags and vice versa… you get the picture. The man must solve the crime, outsmart the villian, win the fight, the girl, the job, the court case… and the little mouse must be allowed to rise from the sewer and cook in the French kitchen.
So this is how I’ve been spending much of my free time. It may not be the best idea. But it feels good for the moment.
One of the reasons I got interested in Romantic Film Locations was all of those wonderful Jane Austen adaptations of the 1990s. I loved the films so much that I wanted to watch them over and over, dissect every scene, and find all of the gorgeous locations. This was the early days of the Internet for me, but I found many like-minded folks at a website called The Republic of Pemberley. I can’t believe that the site is still going! Clearly there are a lot of new Jane Austen film fans who can’t get enough of Colin Firth’s Darcy “look” and discussions about who was a better Knightley (Mark Strong or Jeremy Northam).
So if you are Austen inclined, put on your best web manners and browse around the postings at Pemberley. You’re bound to be all astonishment or at least excessively diverted!
