Page 15 - Fujifilm Exposure_20 Bend It Like Beckham_ok

Among the lower depths in a London nobody knows
C elador Productions, best known for its track record in
TV light entertainment with hits like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and The Detectives, gets tough with Dirty Pretty Things, a gritty urban thriller for the cinema.
Being shot by veteran Oscar-win- ning DP Chris Menges BSC (The Killing Fields, The Mission) in London, it tells the story of an African night porter who enlists the help of a prostitute, a chambermaid and a laboratory techni- cian to solve a bizarre murder.
Set in the world of asylum seekers it is, say the filmmakers, “a tale of two cities, both of them London... a Dickensian landscape of rag trade sweat shops, hotel kitchens and mini- cab places in a London that most Londoners never see.”
Dirty Pretty Things co-stars Audrey Tautou (Amélie), Sergi Lopez (Harry, He’s Here To Help), Chiwetel Ojiofor, Sophie Okonedo, Zlatko Buric and Benedict Wong.
The film, presented by Miramax and the BBC, marks director Stephen Frears’ comeback to the big screen fol- lowing a year’s sabbatical teaching at film school.
It marks writer Steve Knight’s debut. Optioned by the BBC in Spring 1999, Dirty Pretty Things was the only screen- play chosen unanimously by the judge’s panel of the Script Factory that year and performed to an industry audience.
Frears has been directing for 30 years, beginning with Gumshoe – also photographed by Menges - in 1972. His other credits include My Beautiful Laundrette, Accidental Hero, The Grifters, The Van and, latterly, Liam and High Fidelity. ■
Dirty Pretty Things is originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
feature in focus
DIRTY PRETTY THINGS
DIRTY PRETTY THINGS
Photos from top clockwise: Chris Menges (on right); Audrey Tautou; Audrey Tautou and Sergi Lopez Director Stephen Frears (on right), all on the set of Dirty Pretty Things
EXPOSURE • 13