Gaunt House (Vanity Fair 2004)

“All the world knows that Lord Steyne’s town palace stands in Gaunt Square…”

—Vanity Fair, Ch. XXXXVII

In Vanity Fair, Gaunt House is the residence of the slimy Lord Steyne, the creep who tantalizes Becky Sharp with status and riches and jewels galore, leading the social climber dangerously close to indiscretion—where she hosts scandalous parties with her benefactor, entertains the Prince Regent with a brazen exotic dance, and lets Lord Steyne toy with her until she loses her dashing Rawdon Crawley forever  In the beautiful 2004 adaptation, the London home of Lord Steyne (played by Gabriel Byrne) was created using two different locations, Wrotham Park for the interiors, and interestingly enough, Bath’s Holburne Museum of Art for the exteriors.

Wrotham Park has already been briefly discussed in a post about Norland Park, for which it served in Sense & Sensibility 2008:

The home chosen to play the Dashwood’s family seat in the 2008 BBC adaptation of Sense & Sensibility was Wrotham Park, a 2,800 acre estate just 17 miles north of Hyde Park, in Hertfordshire. Relative to many houses used in films, Wrotham Park is not especially old, dating back to 1754, which accounts for its Palladian design (an architectural style seen in many of the Washington D.C. buildings and those designed by Thomas Jefferson, for when the style fell out of favor in Europe, it briefly surged in America). Admiral John Byng was its builder and owner, but whether he actually lived in the house is doubtful, for in 1757, shortly after a war expedition in Minorca, he was executed for negligence during that campaign. A descendant of the Admiral’s brother, Robert Byng, now owns and occupies the house.

The Dining Room, the Entrance Hall, and the Drawing Room all make appearances in Vanity Fair.

Bath stood in for London in this film, but the characteristic honey-colored limestone makes it hard to imagine it as anything other than Bath; after a couple minutes, my imagination stopped fighting and decided to pretend that the Crawley’s, Sedley’s, and Osbourne’s all lived in Bath. Anyway, Bath’s Holburne Museum of Art stands in the Sydney Pleasure Gardens (sadly, the only remaining 18th-century pleasure gardens in all of England)and occupies the north end of Great Pulteney Street, and served as the exteriors for Gaunt House. The building was originally built as the Sydney Hotel in 1795-6. A Sir William Holburne retired to a house at 10 Cavendish Crescent (north of the Royal Crescent off Cavendish Drive) after serving as a sailor in the Napoleonic Wars, and during his time in Bath collected over 4000 works, which included impressive Old Master works and a Susini sculpture that once belonged to Sun King Louis XIV, among other things. The collection has been expanded by 2500 works over the years and now features a number of pieces by Gainsborough, Bath’s famous resident painter, and a miniature of Bath’s patron and first Master of Ceremonies, the fashionable Richard “Beau” Nash who revitalized the run-down town into the hip spa destination of the Georgian Era. In 1893, the Cavendish Square collection was moved into the old Savings Bank Building on Charlotte Street, and in 1913, moved again to its final place at the Sydney House, where Holburne’s sister had originally wished it to be located. In 1916, the Holburne Museum in Sydney Pleasure Gardens was opened. Read more about the history of the collection and Sir William Holburne here.

One of the interior galleries of the museum is used in the film; Lord Steyne hits on Becky on the balcony, overlooking the painfully beautiful Great Pulteney Street, and they then move indoors, where Francis Sharp’s painting The Virtue Betrayed hangs on the wall. For more on Great Pulteney’s role in Vanity Fair, check out this bit here.

Jane Austen actually lived quite close to the Holburne House from 1801-1805, at 4 Sydney Place.

The Holburne Museum of Art is currently closed until late 2010 for extensive renovations. With a significant grant from the Heritage Lottery Funds, repairs will restore the museum to it’s original splendor (as Lord Steyne would have kept it); new galleries will be added to alleviate the crowding of works (a good problem to have, I suppose), and a major exhibition gallery will be added; the museum’s library will be moved into a new space in the museum, making its contents available to visitors; and a cafe open to the outside environs will be added, among other things. The iconic front facade will remain intact, but in a literal interpretation of mixing old and new, the rear you see in the picture above will be replaced with a terribly modern glass box. Yuck.

Factual Imagining is 1!

Today is FI’s 1st birthday!!! Since it’s conception on August 4th, 2008, when getting 10 views a day was cause for celebration, FI has received 35,324 views and has won an “Excessively Diverting Blog Award!” Thanks to all the people who leave comments and visit regularly—you guys are awesome! I hope this blog’s second year will be as great and fun as the first.

In honor of this momentous occasion, I am giving away 2 scrumptious costume dramas: BBC’s 2009 Tess of the d’Urbervilles, starring Gemma Arterton, Hans Matheson, and Eddie Redmayne, and ITV’s 2008 Pride & Prejudice spoof Lost in Austen, starring Jemima Rooper and Elliot Cowan.

Actually, these DVDs have sat unwatched on my shelf since last Christmas. Why? Well, silly me, I asked for them for Christmas, and my parents ordered them from the UK, since they were not yet available over here. Did I stop to think that I would have to buy a multi-region DVD player in order to play my new DVDs? No. So, these are Region 2 DVDs, which means they will only play on Region 2 or multi-region (or region-free) players. I have the US versions now, and these DVDs (freed from their plastic wrappers—I was curious to see what the inside looked like—but otherwise untouched) are free to a new home. What better time to give them away than FI’s first birthday!

If you still want them, all you have to do is leave a comment by August 31 responding to the question below. I will then put everyone’s name in a hat, and draw one winner for both DVDs. I will cover shipping.

If you could star as any English costume drama character (past or present), who would it be?

My answer? Anne Elliot in Persuasion 2007 (played by the extraordinary Sally Hawkins). Anne is my favorite Brit Lit heroine, and who wouldn’t want to run around Bath in Regency garb? (Not to mention kiss that dashing Captain Wentworth? )

Tuesday Trivia: Molland’s Marzipan

“I believe that Molland’s marzipan is as fine as any in Bath.”

Thus claims Elizabeth Elliot in Persuasion 1995. It’s one of many subtle and pleasing tributes this film pays to the novel:

They were in Milsom Street. It began to rain, not much, but enough to make shelter desirable for women, and quite enough to make it very desirable for Miss Elliot to have the advantage of being conveyed home in Lady Dalrymple’s carriage, which was seen waiting at a little distance; she, Anne, and Mrs. Clay, therefore, turned into Molland’s, while Mr. Elliot stepped to Lady Dalrymple, to request her assistance. (Chapter 19)

According to Molland’s, a community and resource website for Austen fans, “the Oxford Illustrated Edition of Persuasion, ‘The Bath Directory for 1812 has: “Molland Mrs. Cook and confectioner, 2, Milsom-street.”‘ Thus, Molland’s was a real shop in Bath in Jane Austen’s time.”

Again, in The Image of Georgian Bath, 1700-2000, Peter Borsay states, “It was while taking shelter in Molland’s—not a pseudonym but the real name of a confectioner’s on the street—that [Anne Elliot] reestablished her acquaintance with Wentworth” (261).

Nowadays, Goldsmiths and and Waterstones Booksellers occupy 1 & 4 Milsom Street, respectively. Shoon’s (a UK shoe store with multiple locations) Bath retail shop at 14 Old Bond Street served as the location for Molland’s in the 1995 film, not far from where the real confectionary would have stood. Milsom Street was the shopping epicenter in Georgian Bath, the heart of Bath Fashion, and it remains a popular retail location today.

Newby Hall as Mansfield Park (2007)

Mansfield Park 2007 is an anomaly in the world of film, a 90-minute production shot entirely in one location: Newby Hall, in Ripon in North Yorkshire.

The estate has been in the same family since 1748, when it was bought by William Weddell from a grandnephew of Sir Edward Blackett, an MP for Ripon in 1689 who built the main block for the current house with Sir Christopher Wren’s guidance. William Weddell is responsible for bringing some of the finest neoclassical architects to Newby after his Grand Tour to transform the house into a suitable home for his new tapestries and countless Roman treasures. One in particular, Robert Adam, left the most significant mark on the manor, and Newby is now considered one of Britain’s finest Adams houses. Adam’s studied for years on the Continent, and his neoclassical style emphasized detailed decoration that created a flowing, graceful, curved look, a step away from the typical Palladian style that dominated during the day. His designs were influenced by other cultures as well as the much-copied Greeks and Romans, notably Etruscan, Italian Baroque, and Byzantium styles.

[Newby Hall's] Adams interior provided the perfect setting for gracious Georgian living,” states the Hall’s website, and in August and September of 2006, a crew of 60 filmed for 12 hours a day for sixweeks. Executive producer Suzan Harrison said,

It had the right look, the right period, the right scale of a house for a baronet, beautiful grounds, delightful owners and an estate manager who helped us to organise the whole enterprise. Mercifully, we didn’t have the usual problems with telegraph poles and overhead wiring; the landscape around Newby Hall is refreshingly free of visible 21st century nuisances. (The Press)

“Because we bent over backwards for them, 100 per cent of the film was shot here,” says Stuart Gill. “Their generator truck was parked up here from the start of filming and didn’t have to move until it was a wrap. We could have held them at arm’s length but we were aware that the more we worked with them, the better a production it would be. The better for them, the better for us. It’s positive PR. (“Stealing the Show,” Yorkshire Post).

However, Newby is a considerable tourist destination, with a number of attractions and charms that are not historically accurate, like the massive flock of sheep that had to be rounded up quickly when filming exterior scenes. Harrison did note that the greatest headaches came from vehicles and planes creeping into shots that “could disrupt hours of filming,” thanks to the wide vistas around Newby. Fanny’s room, her attic hideaway, was previously a storage room, and everything had to be moved in in order to make the room homey (but not too homey, thanks to Mrs. Norris); in fact the whole house turned into one big game of “musical chairs,” as furniture was ferried in and out of rooms to suit the designer’s needs. One stage that had been critical in the production was only just being dismantled and carried out the back as a bride arrived for her wedding at the front door!

The estate’s current owners are Mr. and Mrs. Compton, and guided tours through the Hall multiple times a day for the majority of the year. Newby can boast impressive gardens that cover over 40 acres (the original garden was designed by Peter Aram for Sir Edward Blackett in the last decade of the 17th century, but the current gardens are mainly the creation of the current owner’s grandfather), as well as an Adventure Garden for children (and children at heart), Sculpture Garden, and a charming Woodland Walk.

Persuasion 1995

I have to admit I was not especially eager to watch this movie—partly because I was so enamored with the 2007 version, and partly because I thought Anne Elliot (played by Amanda Root) looked very homely. But I hadn’t watched a new costume drama in some time, and this was the last of the “modern” (1990 or younger) Austen adaptations I had yet to see.

I must applaud the film for its meticulous attention to detail regarding the story Jane Austen wrote. Five stars for accuracy! Mr. Elliot’s financial ruin of Mr. Smith is left out, but that is the only deviation I noticed. Despite its faithfulness to the novel, there is a lighthearted quality to Persuasion 1995 that I never felt in the book. Indeed, compared to the 2007 adaptation, this film is a happy stroll through the gardens in springtime. Of all Austen’s novels, Persuasion is said to be the most melancholy, but you wouldn’t know it from watching this movie. There are some scenes where Anne’s heartache can be clearly felt and seen, complete with touching piano score, but they number few, and I found myself smiling more often than not. That’s not necessarily criticism, but I prefer the more hopeless, dramatic, sorrowful feel of the recent version.

Amanda Root makes a very capable Anne Elliot, but I found her portrayal to be somewhat too dominant. She was outspoken in scenes in which I could have never imagined Anne to have said a word. Of all the characters, she was perhaps the easiest to look at, but the hardest to believe.

I only thought Anne looked homely because I hadn’t seen the rest of the cast. My goodness. I will not lie—I like to see attractive people in movies; they don’t have to knock me my off my feet, but if I am to sit there for 2 hours, I do like to have decent-looking people to watch. In that regard, this movie was painful (just stare a moment at the cross-eyed Mrs. Smith and you will understand). Even the men were ugly—Captain Wentworth, played by Ciaran Hinds, was the only tolerable male in the movie, but even he doesn’t hold a candle to Rupert Penry-Jones. Wait, I lied. When I saw Charles Hayter walk into the room (played by Isaac Maxwell-Hunt), I was praying that they took some creative liberty and added some significant character into the story so I could see more of this charming fellow. I am surprised the females in the room didn’t die at his feet, with what the state of men in Somerset—for once, I could understand Sir Walter’s rude comments. I don’t believe I have ever made such a study of Regency attire in a movie before.

Anyway, enough of that griping. Maybe I am being too harsh, because I the overall acting in the film was splendid. Sir Walter’s vanity was priceless; Mary Musgrove was thoroughly irritating; Elizabeth Elliot (yikes!) was everything you could expect from a spoiled, favorite daughter. Henrietta and Louisa had no compunctions whatsoever. Admiral and Mrs. Croft were the best of the best—I want relations like them! Actually, I think I was smiling so much because I found the characters so spot-on. Bath also got a huge role in this movie, with sweeping shots of the Assembly Rooms, the Pump Room, Georgian architecture, and Roman colonnades. It was a delight for the eyes! In fact, one of the things that struck me about this film was the feeling of actually watching Regency men and women, as if a camera had been placed by an advanced race of extraterrestrials to record these people in the year 1814. The sweeping shots that I mentioned did much to enhance this feel; the cinematography wasn’t choppy or limited—this costume drama breathes. It exhales Regency life with every shot. Bravo.

Where the book leaves off, this movie goes a little farther, adding some scenes at the end that nicely wrap up the story. Rarely, after the initial marriage proposal, does an Austen adaptation include more than a minute or two of additional footage, and Persuasion 1995 adds about 5 minutes of cutesy stuff.

I enjoyed this faithful film, but I was not particularly moved. The historical accuracy and attention to detail was impressive, though, which always makes a movie worthwhile in my book  I give it 5 stars for adaptation, and 4 for overall enjoyment.

Longbourn P & P 2005

Groombridge Place, “a 17th Century moated manor house” was used for the Bennet home of Longbourn in the 2005 Pride & Prejudice. Located in Turnbridge Wells, in Kent, the home stands within the popular Groombridge Gardens, which were designed and constructed in the 1600’s to entertain the privileged guests of the manor. The gardens have been expanded over the centuries, and an Enchanted Forest was created; one can imagine the likes of which would have certainly enchanted Regency travelers, with roaming alpacas, deer, and giant rabbits (as well as a rare zeedonk, a cross between a zebra and a donkey), as well as playgrounds, exotic plants, and statues of giant reptiles! The Enchanted Forest also houses the Raptor Centre; founded in 1977, it is now the largest rehab and conservation center for birds of prey in southeast England.

It is believed a settlement has been present on the grounds where Groombridge Place (a private home, not open to the public, unfortunately) stands since the Saxon times, around 1000 AD. In 1239, William Russell was granted the Lordship of Groombridge, and he built a moated castle on the site. The lordship passed to Henry de Cobham in 1261, who became the 1st Baron Cobham. Groombridge then passed to the Earls of Clinton and then to Thomas Waller around 1400, whose family held the estate until the 1600’s (Charles, Duc d’Orleans, was actually held at Groombridge after Agincourt, writing most of his poetry there before returning to France some 24 years later). In 1604, Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, purchased the estate and built a number of houses in the town, but his grandson’s gambling problem necessitated selling Groombridge to a John Packer in 1618, and the architect Phillip Packer built the present-day house in 1662. After his death, Groombridge Place remained largely devoid of inhabitants, and in 1919, the house was bought by Mr. S.W. Mountain, who made a number of improvements. In 1991, Groombridge estate was sold, the furniture auctioned off, and the leisure gardens opened to the public.

By the time pre-production was beginning on P & P, the house had actually recently been bought by a chairman of a film and television production company, who readily agreed to let the production crew turn Groombridge into a 18th-century lesson in “British realism”; instead of your typical polished costume drama home, this Longbourn would be slightly messy, looking more than a little worn out. In short, Longbourn would look lived in—it would look like the home of 5 unmarried girls with a scatterbrained mother and working, uninterested father. (Check out this Telegraph article, “A house in want of a fortune.”)

The production was fortunate to want to use the house as the Bennet family home at a time when the property had changed hands (for only the second time in 400 years), and the new owner was persuaded to delay his own plans for interior redecoration until after the Bennets and production crew had moved out. Sarah Greenwood (Production Designer) and her art department were able to transform the house interior to late 18th Century shabby chic. ‘Longbourn’ became a house overrun with young women. The home of a genteel family but not a wealthy one, where the only tranquillity is to be found in Mr Bennet’s library. On the exterior, Lizzie’s duckboard bridge was built across the moat, windows were changed to match the period portrayed, and the tidy courtyard became the manure-rich, animal refuge of the various farmyard creatures kept for the family table. (Working Title Films)

The Director, Joe Wright, says “It is quite unusual for a film of this size to be shot entirely on location where the camera had the luxury of seeing outside from inside and vice versa.” Part of the Director’s idea was to create a reality which allowed the actors to relax, and cast members “instead of retiring to their movie trailers between scenes, would head for their own Groombridge bedrooms.” (Press & Media)

Tuesday Trivia: 186 Fleet Street

The story of the demonic barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney Todd, has been around since 1846, when it was a part of a penny dreadful titled The String of Pearls, though a number of urban legends served as the prototype for the character (including one briefly mentioned in Martin Chuzzlewit). Historically, Todd’s barber shop was said to be connected Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop, No. 186 Fleet Street, and the shop’s sign in the 2007 Oscar-winning movie Sweeney Todd shows that very number.

Today, 186 Fleet Street is the home of Dundee Courier’s print shop, and St. Dunstan’s Church stands next door.

New “Bright Star” Trailer

Bright Star, a notable Cannes film spotlighting the romance of poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, is coming to theaters this fall! And I about died when I saw this beautiful trailer—my favorite quote brought to life!

Directed by Academy-Award winner Jane Campion, it stars Ben Wishaw as the Romantic poet and Abby Cornish as Fanny.

Tuesday Trivia: Wuthering Heights: The House

Wuthering Heights, the family home of the Earnshaw’s in Emily Bronte’s haunting novel of the same name, is as much a character in the story as Heathcliff or Catherine. Unfortunately, for the production team on the 2009 adaptation of Wuthering Heights, simply finding a house that sat upon the moors proved impossible, much less finding one with some Gothic characteristics worthy of the imposing manor. Grenville Horner, the Production Designer, says in a behind-the-scenes video on Masterpiece Classic’s website, “You can’t find a house like that on the moors. They don’t exist; they just don’t. Nobody builds a house in the wilderness on the moors, you know?” So Wuthering Heights became a compilation of many different locations. The house chosen for Wuthering Height’s exterior shots, East Riddlesden Hall, was placed onto the moors using CGI, and the team built a physical gate to the house used for shots of people riding in from the barren wilderness and for blending in the CGI hous into the landscape of the physcial moors. The end result is stunning—I was under the impression that such a characteristically Brontean house could be visited!

Bits n’ Pieces: July 21

We have our first Emma promo video!

And a promo for Garrow’s Law:

 

Little Dorrit was only broadcasted on PBS, but it garnered 11 Emmy nominations this year: Outstanding  Art Direction, Outstanding Cast, Outstanding Cinematography, Outstanding Costumes, Outstanding Directing, Outstanding Hairstyles, Outstanding Miniseries, Outstanding Music Composition, Outstanding Supporting Actor (Tom Courtenay and Andy Serkis), Outstanding Writer (go Andrew Davies!); all “For a Miniseries or Movie.” The Tudors, costume drama porn, received 5 nods.

 

The Independent has a lengthy article on bringing the Pre-Raphaelites to screen in the BBC’s new drama Desperate Romantics. There are spoilers at the end, but the first few paragraphs detail how the series came to life. “Entourage with easels” became the “tagline” when pitching the project, for both the writer of the original novel, Franny Moyle, and Peter Bowker, the screen writer, wanted to give the production a modern feel and attract viewers who might otherwise be scared away by “stuffy, old dramas.” Apparently, Desperate Romantics has been taking hints from The Tudors. Oh, and here’s a new interview with Aiden Turner, who plays Dante Gabriel Rossetti, about life on set. The show starts tonight across the pond.

 

Russell Crowe, whom we will be seeing sometime in May of 2010 as Robin Hood, says that talks are underway for a follow-up to his 2003 naval film, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Oh happy days! The movie was based on Patrick O’Brian’s novel series about Captain Jack Aubrey (Crowe) during the Napoleonic Wars.

Crowe told The Associated Press on Friday that a script based mostly on the eleventh novel of Patrick O’Brian’s 20-novel series, The Reverse of the Medal, had been written, but that discussions were at a very early stage.

“There’s still a long way to go,” the New Zealand-born actor told AP at a cricket match between England and Australia in London. He said talks had been taking place with the owner of the rights to the novels.

Master and Commander is not the most exciting movie by naval war movie standards, but I think the film conveys brilliantly the emotion of life aboard a British vessel during the heyday of naval warfare. And the acting is superb. I certainly hope this sequel gets the green light.

 

A new two-part documentary, The Scandalous Adventures of Lord Byron, starring Rupert Everett, is set to air at 9 pm on July 27 on Channel 4. Everett, moving forward with his new “career” as a history presenter after his last documetnary on Richard Burton, will retrace Byron’s travels, and I believe dress up like the anti-hero a number of times. This should prove interesting, if it shows up on YouTube.