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in production
manner. That way, it somehow seemed even more surreal.
“Using ‘Scope, which I had persuad- ed them to do at the outset, helped a lot because of the extra negative area and the better definition you get any- way. We didn’t need to do anymore; in fact, it was probably better to do less.
“Incidentally, the big new thing for me with this film was not so much the negative but Fuji’s new print stock. We thought it would look best on the
higher contrast and I was very impressed with the result.”
Locations manager Christian McWilliams was in Morocco, working on Tony Scott’s Spy Game, when he received the call from Parker’s produc- tion office. “I was surrounded by palm trees in the middle of shooting a war film,” he recalls, “and suddenly I was asked to think about period England.”
To open the play out, Parker had decided to make great use of loca-
tions, and much of the film takes place in the landscapes of rural Buckinghamshire, including West Wycombe Park.
This emphasis on a sense of place was quite deliberate, said Thompson. “It was very important to have a sense of a dreamy English summer,” he says, “particularly for the second half of the film, and we were incredibly fortunate. The sun shone every day for all the three or four weeks that we were scheduled to work outside, so I think that the film will have that spirit to it.
“The whole thing had a sense of setting off to go on a picnic, and if that sense of fun comes through then I think that will be exactly what we hoped to get when we started the journey.”
Shooting on the film last year marked an historic moment in British film history – the re-launch of the famous Ealing Studios after their pur- chase by a consortium of Fragile Films, The Idea Factory and The Manhattan Loft Corporation. The Importance Of Being Earnest marks the first film bear- ing the Ealing logo since 1959.
“It’s a happy coincidence that this film came together at the same time as the buying of the studio and the re-launching of the Ealing logo,” says Thompson.
“Ealing’s always stood for a certain kind of Britishness, a smart and funny attitude, a certain quality of acting and the ability of very good dramatic actors to be funny as well. Hopefully, when people see this film they will see the spirit of old Ealing in it.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
The Importance Of Being Earnest, opens in the UK in September and was originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
Photos main: Rupert Everett and Dame Judi Dench; from top left: Rupert Everett and Colin Firth; Reese Witherspoon; Rupert Everett and Colin Firth; centre: filming an interior scene; inset: DP Tony Pierce-Roberts