Saw two films recently. They had nothing in common except they both featured a stiff (dead body), but no fuzz (police). Neither were there any briefs (lawyers) shooting the breeze
The first film The Ides of March, is the work of producer/writer/director/leading thespian and all-round Renaissance man George Clooney taking the lid off US
The other film with a stiff and no fuzz, had the puzzling title of Tyrannasau. Written and directed by actor Paddy Considine, it has won many awards including the Grimmest Film of the Year. It is also seen as forming part of the Second Golden Age of British Cinema. The First Golden Age of course was the 1940’s when Ealing Studios reigned supreme culminating in 1949 when the studios achieved their apotheosis with the outstanding comedies Passport to Pimlico, Whisky Galore, and Kind Hearts & Coronets being released to both critical and public acclaim. No problem finding a cinema to screen these masterpieces with Ealing boasting at least five cinemas at the time and all of them on the studios’ doorstep. A different story today though for Tyrannasau. As every Ealing resident can confirm, all the old Picture Houses have been turned into offices, churches or unseemly building sites. One of them, the Walpole which was one of the country’s first talkie palaces, is now a nondescript block of offices in Bond Street . Of course it’s worth recording that talking pictures spelt the end of Chaplin’s career – another reason perhaps for him to air spray out any mention of the leafy suburb in his memoirs.
Whilst Ealing now has a pub The Sir Michael Balcon dedicated to the driving force behind the Studios, one wonders what the great man’s thoughts would be about the present dearth of film venues in his old stomping ground. Another fine mess you’ve got me into. But who is to blame? The local authority, the major film exhibitors or a general malaise about an art form of which we should be justly proud? Whilst it’s true to say no local flea pits operate any more, at least Ealing Studios are still churning out films which makes them the oldest functioning film studios in the world.
Tyrannasau starts with a man kicking his dog to death whilst Ides of March features a political speech being recited by an aide as a sound check. No prizes there for guessing the more shocking opening? The respective endings are the dog killer after some porridge, gets ensconced with a charity shop worker who incidentally is still doing bird for killing her husband, whilst in Ides , George Clooney, blackmailed by the aide, is adopted as the presidential candidate after he seduces and impregnates a young intern who subsequently kills herself. I suspect apart from acting as a spoiler this dodgy summary has put you in a bit of a quandary about which film you want to catch first, but take it from me they are both worth a viewing
In 1955 Ealing produced a film with the ambivalent title The Ship That Died of Shame, about wartime colleagues who buy up their old Navy boat to indulge in a bit of smuggling activities that subsequently turn sour. The ship at the time could be read as a metaphor for Ealing Studios which finally sank under the waves four years later. However, with the benefit of hindsight the ship could just as easily be seen as the Borough of Ealing that has shamelessly bequeathed to its citizens a cinema-less town centre.
Given our on-going sub-narrative of the lack of cinemas in Ealing, one can only speculate how Ealing Studios at their height would have tackled a possible film.
Group of people watch as the last local cinema in the area closes its doors for the last time. They decide to take action, and set up their own cinema in a church hall. Whilst they get support from local people the powers that be give them hassle, with the result that they are ordered to close down During their last screening of Passport to Pimlico, the ceiling collapses and amongst the rubble is a sealed casket containing gold sovereigns and an ancient parchment, which declares that the hall is to be used in perpetuity as a theatre for the benefit of the community and to be funded by the Duke of Bergundy, and the City of Lon…………
Sound a tad familiar? True, but I am sure you agree that in the hands of the legendary Ealing screen-writer T. E. B.Clarke it could well form the basis of another classic Ealing Comedy? But what about real life?
Well apart from the gold sovereigns, the parchment, the Duke of Bergundy, and a few other bits and bobs, everything else is true. A group of Ealing enthusiasts have indeed set up a cinema in their local church hall, and it’s right to say that so far, there are no stiffs ,and no fuzz but given the target readership of this esteemed organ , there could well be flurry of briefs in the offering.
For more information contact:-
Pitshanger Pictures
St Barnabas Millenium Hall,
Pitshanger lane
