City Spotlight: London Calling!

Hello and welcome to Cinema Wellman. I am your host David and today we’re going to hop across the pond to visit jolly old London for our 4th “City Spotlight” episode that has previously seen us visit San Francisco, New York, and Paris.  

This also happens to be the 100th episode of Cinema Wellman, so cheers to us!

AND Dakota and Lucas are in London as we speak for a delayed honeymoon and F1 experience, so cheers to them!

A quick shout out to the entire staff here at Cinema Wellman who makes this possible week after week.

I certainly wouldn’t be able to do this by myself, so thanks to all of them for lending their production expertise to the show.

We have nine films today due to the exchange rate, and as is the plan for all of our City Spotlight episodes, we’re looking for films in which the city not only provides its setting, but it also functions as a “character” in the film.

If you check out the Cinema Wellman blog, you’ll see all of the London filming locations listed for each film. For the podcast, I’ll just mention the shooting locations that I visited during my trip to London in 2007.

 I had help with that, and those thanks will be given during the closing credits today. 

No way would I have remembered any of where I had been. I didn’t even remember going home in a “Black Car” after a night out. 

We will begin our London Calling! list with London’s most famous secret agent.

Skyfall (2012)

PG-13/143 min/IMDb: 7.8/directed by Sam Mendes

Surrey, Primrose St., Trafalgar Sq., Canary Wharf, Old Vic Tunnels, Suffolk St., Parliament Sq., Isle of Dogs, St. James's, Greenwich

IMDb: “James Bond’s loyalty to M is tested when her past comes back to haunt her. When MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.”

There have been 27 James Bond movies to date, and we’re going to put Skyfall on this list to represent them all. 

Because we think it’s the “most” London of the Bond films. 

One of the best things about this series is how they traveled all over the world over the years, especially to exotic locations.  

Skyfall stays at home for the most part which is why it’s here to represent all the others. 

From James Bond to Rom-Com?! 

What’s going on here lately?

Notting Hill (1999)

PG-13/124 min/IMDb: 7.2/directed by Roger Michell

Notting Hill, Hampstead, Piccadilly, Savoy Hotel, Lansdowne Rd., Craven Hill Gardens

IMDb: “A set of circumstances makes Anna Scott, a famous actress, fall in love with William Thacker, owner of a bookstore in Notting Hill.”

Just as Skyfall is here representing all things Bond, Notting Hill is here to represent all romantic comedies set in London.

And there are quite a few. 

Bridget Jones' Diary, Love, Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sliding Doors fit that bill.

I had not seen Notting Hill, and I was surprised at how much I didn’t hate it. 

I love Julia Roberts, and I love her laugh. I know she’s often criticized, and I’m not sure why. 

I think she’s delightful. 

I DO NOT love all of her movies, and actually hated a couple.

Notting Hill was not among them, and the London here is quite sweet and quaint and a place in which you wouldn’t mind living. 

A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

G/87 min/IMDb: 7.5/directed by Richard Lester

Notting Hill Gate, Mayfair, Winchester Rd., Minehead, Somerset, River Thames, Marlebone Station, Hammersmith Odeon

IMDb: “Over two ‘typical’ days in the life of The Beatles, the boys struggle to keep themselves in check while preparing for a live TV performance.”

This is black & white London, and it’s crisp and clean and chock full of screaming teenage girls.

Oh, and all that Beatles music!

This is such a fun trip in the time machine back to what 60s London must have been like.

Although I don’t think the teenage girls were there unless the Beatles were. 

Blow-Up (1966)

NR/111 min/IMDb: 7.4/directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

Mayron Park, Consort Rd., St. James's St., Chelsea, Notting Hill, Regent St.

IMDb: “A fashion photographer unknowingly captures a death on film after following two lovers in a park.”

London has always been a cinematic city filled with mystery and suspense, and Blow-Up is certainly filled with both.

If that IMDb synopsis sounded familiar, you may be a fan of Brian DePalma’s 1981 thriller Blow Out starring a young John Travolta as a sound man who may have audio evidence of a murder.

That would be an excellent double feature. 

If you’ve ever seen any of the Austin Powers movies, that’s the hip, artsy London shown in Blow-Up.

Groovy, baby. 

Next up is a London horror triple feature since London has hosted more horror films than it has rom coms over the years.

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

R/97 min/IMDb: 7.5/directed by John Landis

Earl's Court, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Hampstead Heath, London Zoo

IMDb: “American college students David Kessler and Jack Goodman on a walking tour of Britain are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists.”

I can’t count how many times I’ve seen this as it was a staple in my college years.

At the time, it featured the best possible special effects in the business with Rick Baker transforming David into the werewolf.

We had never seen anything like that before.

Griffin Dunne is exceptional as Jack, David’s dead and quickly decomposing friend. 

David, as the werewolf, runs amok through two places I visited: Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. 

When I was in London, I did not see a werewolf, but I actually did go to Lee Ho Fuk’s for a dish of beef chow mien.

Thank you, Warren Zevon. 

28 Days Later (2002)

R/113 min/IMDb: 7.5/directed by Danny Boyle

Westminster Bridge Rd., Trafalgar Square, Isle of Dogs, Piccadilly Circus, Mayfair, Bank Junction, Canary Wharf, Haymarket, St. James's Park, Soho

IMDb: “Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.”

Not only is this horror London, but it’s also horror deserted London. 

Director Danny Boyle pulled some shenanigans to shoot Oscar Winner Cillian Murphy wandering through an absolutely empty London at the start of 28 Days Later.

The fast zombies show up soon after to crowd things up, but those opening shots are amazing to watch. 

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

R/99 min/IMDb: 7.9/directed by Edgar Wright

Highgate, Crouch End, Muswell Hill, Hampstead, High Road, New Cross Monson Road (The Winchester!)

IMDb: “The uneventful, aimless lives of a London electronics salesman and his lay about roommate are disrupted by the zombie apocalypse.”

Let’s all go to The Winchester!

These shooting locations were all in South London, and I didn’t venture to that part of the city, although I wish I hit The Winchester. 

More London zombies, the slow variety here, and this one is played for an awful lot of bloody laughs. 

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost team up, which is always a good time.

We’re going to finish up with “Gangster London.”

The Long Good Friday (1980)

R/114 min/IMDb: 7.6/directed by John Mackenzie

Brixton, St. Katharine Docks, Canary Wharf, Isle of Dogs, Westminster, Heathrow Airport, Paddington Rail, Savoy Hotel, The Strand, Wapping, High Rd., Tower Bridge

IMDb: “An up-and-coming gangster is tested by the insurgence of an unknown, very powerful threat.”

Gangster London, Bob Hoskins, gangsters on meat hooks, a 35-year-old Helen Mirren, and pre-development, seedy Canary Wharf. 

This is gritty and nasty.

Canary Wharf when it was a rough place before being transformed into the banking center of Europe. 

Helen Mirren, on the other hand, was always a beautiful and classy woman.

No transformations needed.

 

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

R/107 min/IMDb: 8.1/directed by Guy Ritchie

Columbia Rd., Camden Town, Park St., Cheshire St., Hackney, St. John St.

IMDb: “Eddy persuades his three pals to pool money for a vital poker game against a powerful local mobster, Hatchet Harry.”

This was not shot in any touristy parts of town, so it makes sense I missed these locations. 

More London gangsters, but our protagonists here (including a young Jason Statham) are more on the fringes of those gangsters.

I love the editing and shot choices Ritchie makes, I love the music, and I love all the colorful characters involved in this botched heist movie.

I know a lot of people hate this movie because they say they can’t understand anything that’s being said.

My response to that is, that’s why a CC button exists.

Well, that is a wrap from here at Cinema Wellman for our London Calling! City Spotlight episode.

A special thanks to my friend John for his help with this episode. He lived there for three years, and we visited London together, so he was able to tell me which shooting locations I had seen during my visit.

Cheers for the assist!

We hope you’re back next week when our Director’s Corner/Wes Anderson Lovefest finally happens.

Hope to see you for that, and until then, take care.