Page 69 - FOYER_Cannes 2001

DIARY
BERLIN • LOSANGELES • MILAN • FOYER • CANNES • TOKYO • LONDON PAGE67
hadn’t really been seen for 40 years. “When I started
going through it I realised that they really covered a halcyon peri- od in the British cine- ma, and an important period in Sir John’s life. There are pictures from when Hayley was born, and shots at the vari- ous houses they lived in. The nice thing for me, having home movies of my own, was that the genre was the same but they featured
all these incredibly well known faces.” Transferring
the footage to tape, the next task was to decide what to use and what to leave out, and then obtain some con- temporary inter- views to illustrate the film with.
“I could easily have made a film three or four times
as long,” says Dillistone. “What we tried to do was let the pro- tagonists tell their story in a meaningful way. Moving Memories really tells Sir John’s life, through his movie camera and to a certain extent the film camera as well.”
One of the problems Dillistone faced was in editing together very, very short
scenes – sometimes as little as two and a half seconds of footage. “I was actually adding frames to the begin- ning and the end of shot, or using slow-mo to get something useful out of them. I suppose this is because 16mm film stock was very expensive in those days. It was a little clock- work camera, and it was 100 foot loads, and Jonathan recalls the cam- era was constantly running out.”
Taking his camera with him on location all around the world, Sir John shot in all conditions – from the snowbound to the tropical. All might have been lost had Sir John Mills suc- cumbed, early in his career, to the lure of Hollywood. A reminder of his
extraordinary longevity is the fact that he was offered a part in a big Hollywood picture, Cavalcade, as long ago as 1933.
“I was in the play in London when Fox offered me the same part as I was playing, in the film. I was getting £15 a week, and they wanted me to sign a five year deal at £150 a week. Noel Coward – who wrote it – was my men- tor in many ways, and he had supper with me, and spent hours persuading me to turn it down.
“He felt I could play everything if I stayed in the theatre, but if I went to Hollywood I’d be typecast and would end up playing myself all the time. He didn’t think that was good enough for me. At five in the morning I decided to turn the offer down, and that was the best decision I ever made in my life.
“That would have meant cutting my roots, and that’s not me. I love England, and I’d rather be poor and happy than rich and unhappy.”
The fact that he maintained his roots and enjoyed a happy and suc- cessful life can be glimpsed in Moving Memories, as is the fact that Sir John Mills, now 93, remains a con- summate entertainer.
“Someone described the film as being a bit like sitting down by the fire, having a chat with John Mills,” Dillistone adds. “They weren’t quite sure whether they meant that as praise or criticism – but what could be better than that?” ■ ANWAR BRETT
The interviews in Moving Memories VHS copies can be ordered online at www.glory.co.uk
Photos main: little Hayley Mills; from top left: with Dickie Attenborough; Romping with the children; with Rex Harrison; Mary with the children; David Niven