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WILDERNESS
WILDERNESS
cover story
award for it,” added Loncraine, firmly.
Joining Finney in the star-studded cast are Vanessa Redgrave as Clemmie, Derek Jacobi, Tom Wilkinson, Jim Broadbent, Linus Roache, Lena Headey, Celia Imrie and Ronnie Barker, mak- ing his screen comeback as Churchill’s butler, Inches. BAFTA nominee, Hugh Bonneville, plays the script’s one imagined major character, Ivo Pettifer.
According to BBC Films’ David Thompson: “What fascinated us was bringing a legend to life,
warts and all. It’s a por- trait of an extremely strong man who also had a great deal of fragility.”
The film, which may also get a theatrical release version, re-unit- ed Loncraine and cine- matographer Peter
Hannan BSC, who won the BAFTA last year for Longitude. They first worked together 30 years ago on BBC TV’s Tomorrow’s World and have since col- laborated on numerous features including Brimstone & Treacle, Blade On A Feather and The Missionary.
Hannan said: “We now have a kind of shorthand. I know what colours he likes and doesn’t like. Fortunately, we have similar taste.”
Between his stunning art deco Richard III in 1995 and Band Of Brothers, Loncraine has been mostly mired in what he described as “devel- opment hell”. This included a long fal- low period trying to get projects off the ground in Hollywood.
Diving back in a period piece here was not without its major frus- trations too.
Said Loncraine: “Shooting period stuff in London is a nightmare. All the buildings are clean so Angus Bickerton, who’s doing our visual effects, is having to do wire frame work to put dirt on them. Although it may be marginally better now, England has never really been a film friendly country. You’re talking up to £10,000 a day for a location, and that’s even before you’ve dressed it.”
As well as some 70 locations, including Chartwell, they built the House Of Commons and a news theatre at Shepperton for what Loncraine said is a “$20m film being made for $12m.
“For me,” he said, “films are about pyramids. If you start with the produc- tion design or the special effects, the pyramid’s the wrong way up. I care desperately about the ‘look’ of a film but it’s not what drives it. If you don’t get the script right, you’re all wasting your time.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
The Gathering Storm, to be aired soon, was originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
THE DP VIEW
PETER HANNAN BSC
The toughest nut to crack? This time of the year [November]. It’s been dark and miserable and the only scene we have in the sun is scripted for rain. It used to be that this was one of the best times to shoot – classic golden light, slicing low. We haven’t seen that for a couple of years.
We were allowed to shoot at Chartwell and one of the reasons we were there was to be able to see out- side but we haven’t been able to because of the weather. It has an extraordinary dining room with almost three sides of glass looking out over a wonderful valley but because of the rotten weather we probably saw it about twice – which is sad.
It’s meant to be bright and sunny, that’s the reason the Churchills were there and it even comes up in the script. He bought the house because he particularly loved the view.
We’ve provided artificial sun, fil- ters endlessly on and off, and basical- ly got away with murder – much of it due to a wonderful team of sparks.
As for the Fuji, it saved my life really. For instance the scene we just shot [in the gathering gloom of a mid- November afternoon in Greenwich], we couldn’t have done that without the 500 Tungsten. I was shooting wide open and I still got contrast. ■
Photos main and top right: Vanessa Redgrave as Clemmie and Albert Finney as Winston Churchill;
top left: Ronnie Barker as Churchill’s butler; above left: Director Richard Loncraine on the set of The Gathering Storm