Action: Great Britain

There’s an archaic tie between Great Britain and cinema: just think that the first moving images that were displayed on a celluloid film were made in London, at Hyde Park in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor who patented the technique in 1890. From that debut, a long history of stories, faces, environments started to spread around and they became the protagonists of the seventh art. We decided to go deep into it between England and Scotland by choosing four famous movies in order to feel the moods of the places that were captured and told by the movie directors. To do so, we must start from the Cinema Museum, a London institution based at 2 of Dugard Way, in Lamberth (a wide district of the Big London that was born 1965), in the workhouse where Charlie Chaplin lived. It’s a unique collection of “memorabilia”, from the origins to the present time that includes the equipment, the movie posters, the art déco furnishing, the objects and an archive of hundreds of books, millions of photos and more than 5thoousand kilometres of film. The indoor pub is the end of this exciting route, it’s one of the best locals of Kennington.

Searching for Elisabethin Southern England

Elizabeth – The Golden Age” is the colossal of 2007 directed by the Pakistani Shekhar Kapur. The work is dedicated to the life of Elizabeth I. There’s a great care for the reconstruction of the historical environment although, as it often happens, the original places were replaced with different ones: for instance the Ely cathedral in the Est Anglia built in 673 became the Whitehall palace, the residence of the Queen while the Gothic Winchester cathedral was used as the background of the sequence that shows the Queen pushing her people to take up arms against the Spanish King. The majestic country-house belonging to the earl of Salisbury (already used in Batman and Lara Croft movies) in the Saxon village of Hartfield was used to set Mary Stuart’s apartments. Saint John’s College in Cambridge was used as the background of the scene showing the first meeting between Elisabeth and the adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh. It’s a series of amazing locations that are the perfect starting point at the discovery of Southern England whose attractions include some Medieval villages, some seaside resorts, the Portsmouth harbour and the car museum of Beaulieu.

Dancing with Billy Elliotin the Durham County

Billy Elliot” is a movie released in the year 2000 written by Lee Hall and directed by Stephen Daldry which took inspiration from the true story of the dancer Philip Mosley. The background is the miners’ strike of 1984 in Northern England. Many scenes were shot in the Durham County in a number of villages that shared the same fate: they were born to host the heavy industry’s workers mainly the miners and they were almost wiped out when this economic sector went through its most serious crisis. This area still keeps some true treasures like the little town of Durham, its Norman cathedral and its bridge, both dating back to the 11th century that were both entered in the Unesco Heritge. Billy’s house is at 5 Ashtin street in the village of Easington Colliery while the scene on which the boy is dancing in the street was shot a few miles away in Dawdon Embleton Street. The suspended bridge captured in the scene that shows Billy while he’s going to the audition with is dance teacher is in Middlesborough, it’s the Tees Transporter Bridge whose construction dates back to 1911, it’s still the only bridge of this kind that can be used in Great Britain.

The princess’ castles

The Queen” is a movie released in 2006, directed by Stephen Frears which is about the facts that happened after the death of Lady Diana. This movie was almost entirely shot in Scotland and it contributed to build the success of some amazing castles and their ghosts. The first two locations used in the movie are in the county of Aberdeenshire: the first one is the Balmoral Castle, it was used as the setting of the Royal residences, it dates back to the 14th century. The second one is the Fraser Castle, a fortified construction dating back to the 15th century. The legend goes that a murdered princess wonders at night and plays the piano. If we move to Southern Ayrshire we’ll see the Castle of Culzean which is another movie setting: it’s the sandstone construction that is perched on a rocky cliff overlooking the Firth of Clyde. According to the legend there are at least seven ghosts in this castle among which a pide piper. The tour of the region also includes the village of Ayr where the Tam O’Shanter Inn is set between the towers and the bridges. It was opened in 1749 and it was mentioned by the writer Robert Burns in his novel, it’s the most ancient pub of Scotland.

The Highlands’s brave heart

"Braveheart” was a movie released in 1995, acted and directed by Mel Gibson. It’s the story of William Wallace, the famous Scottish hero. The best way to “be part” of this colossal movie is wearing your trekking boots and walk around the untouched charm of the Higlands, a wild land where the glaciers have shaped the highest peaks of the island. In the range of a few kilometres there are many villages related to the life of William Wallace that were used as the setting of the movie. The first village is Elderslie, the hero’s homeland which is a district of Glasgow nowadays, in this area there are also the ruins of the Auchenbathie Tower that belonged to the Wallace family. In chronological order the second village is Lanark, at the foot of mount Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Great Britain where the young William spent his childhood. The village of Stirling can’t be missed, it’s the place where the hero defeated the English army, an episode that is documented by The National Wallace Monument: a museum tower where you can see the memorabilia among which the real sword that belonged to Wallace. Lastly the huge castle of Dumbarton stands out on a bluestone dome. It’s the most ancient island’s fortress and it was also the prison where Wallace was jailed before being moved to London where he was sentenced to death.