The city and the big screen

During my Christmas trip to Malta, my schedule was packed with rendezvouses (is that the plural of rendezvous?!), events, dinners...and much needed sleep and rest! One of the items in my diary was scheduled for Boxing Day: a do with my friends at the house of the only married couple in my circle of friends. So far, at least. During the gathering, it was decided, by chance or to fit in with the Christmas season, to watch a Love, actually DVD. It had been a while since I saw that movie. I must say that, on the first time I attempted in watching that movie a few years ago, it had really put me off and/or simply had too many different, unrelated plots going on at the same time for my simple mind to understand. However, a few months after that unhappy attempt, I managed to complete it and, to my surprise, found it rather entertaining. Back to my viewing of December 2009...as my friends and I watched the film, I naturally started pointing out various landmarks around London which have now become part of my daily surroundings and this led me to ponder about the role of London in other movies...

Thus, I recently decided to unearth Notting Hill, possibly the flick which has the most obvious Londonesque flavour associated with it. Now I would like to point out that I am not the world's most ardent Hugh Grant fan; mentioning 2 of his movies in the spaces of a few seconds is mere coincidence (naturally the same cannot be said for the Miss Roberts, the 'Pretty Woman', who plays quite "at home" as a film star in the movie). Also, Notting Hill is not exactly the first movie one would immediately associate with a guy, even one who has a very prominent softer side. The reason is quite simple: for a year, I lived right in the heart of Kensington, precisely in W8, which is right south of Notting Hill, W11. Thus, I thought that Notting Hill would be a good starting point in my quest to find movies featuring familiar London sites. The outcome from the viewing was (to use a word from movie itself) quite a surreal experience!

The shots in Portobello Road and all its colourful activities were certainly not new to me: simply walking along with the crowds, gazing upon the antiques and the pastel-coloured doors is very entertaining. And the spotting of the shop called "ATLAM" always draws my attention each time I walk past it; the name is actually Malta spelt backwards, in case you did not notice; a deliberate naming since 1 of the 2 original partners who set it up was (surprise, surprise) Maltese - a fact verified by verbal inquisition, by me, naturally. Having actually experienced being to Portobello on a market day makes watching the movie so much more 'alive', a feeling I could not fully understand back in 1999 or 2000 whenever I first saw it...and more aspects of London life were to be appreciated in the movie...

The reader might easily recall the night scene when Grant and Roberts get into a private garden after Grant's many attempts to jump over the railing and Roberts' sole successful go. When I first saw the movie almost a decade ago, I could not fully perceive the 'why' and 'how' behind the very concept of a communal, private garden simply because it did not exist in my mind; there are no such things in Malta! However, after almost 2 years here in London, it is very common to encounter one of these private gardens (for a year I actually lived beside Lexham Gardens). These are simply green, open spaces within residential areas, only accessible through locked gates whose access is restricted to a number of residents occupying premises around the gardens. These landscaped pockets are not uncommon and create well-dispersed green lungs throughout London in addition to the larger parks. In fact, in my daily route from Earl's Court to Imperial, I walk by Lexham Gardens, Cornwall Gardens and Queen's Gate Gardens, all within 15 minutes' worth of walking distance.

Perhaps the most "exciting" discovery during my Notting Hill viewing was during the cinema scene. Again, the reader might recall the scene when Grant goes to watch Roberts' latest movie at the cinema. Once more, I did not recall any particular excitement from my part when I first saw that scene a few years back. However, when I now realised that I have actually been in that very cinema (the "Coronet" in Notting Hill), then it is much more noteworthy! I remember that back in the summer of 2008, whilst my room-mate and I were busy working on our M.Sc. projects, we decided to have a well-deserved break and go and watch the latest Batman movie. As I pointed out earlier, we lived close to Notting Hill and opted to go to that cinema, both totally unaware of its previous featuring in Notting Hill. And we actually sat in the same row Grant was in the balcony!

A final interesting line was during the scene when Grant and his mates had to get from Notting Hill to the Ritz quickly and they debate as to which route they ought to take. One of them actually suggests "taking the Cromwell Road and then turning left". Surely I had no idea back in 1999 what the Cromwell Road was but now that I have been walking to and fro up the Cromwell Road at least twice a day for almost a year and a half, I definitely know what and where it is!

Of course, there are many other movies with London in it which come to mind: a couple of Bond movies, Basic instinct 2 and Bridget Jones come to mind. From the Notting Hill movie, at least I can say that most of the London-related stuff was quite realistic and faithful to reality; the same cannot be said to many a time when Malta was featured in movies, particularly The Count of Monte Cristo and Cutthroat Island, when scenes shot in 2 completely different locations on the island are meant to be the same place in the movie! I do not plan to limit my movie viewing to just those featuring London or to spend my time analysing "correctness" or otherwise in the shooting but I am sure that whenever I watch a flick with London as its setting, then I will surely be on the look-out for familiar locations or maybe people: perhaps I will accidentally feature in some movie myself and extend my movie career beyond Troy!