There's no place like home
Watching this year's opening night film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist, I was struck by something I'd previously taken for granted: Edinburgh is perhaps the best and most expensive film set in the world.
Admittedly, The Illusionist is an animated film, dreamt up in the minds of artists inspired by the city, but the attention to detail was near-perfect, the skyline of 1959 looking almost the same as today.
That thought, that our city is a huge plus to any film, hit me again this week as I sat down to watch 1969's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie on DVD.
Shot in and around Edinburgh, it stars Harry Potter's Dame Maggie Smith as the eponymous Jean Brodie, a vibrant young schoolteacher who fights against the rigid structure of her workplace and instils in her girls a passion for life that is otherwise squeezed out of them.
Set in 1939, the film opens with a shot of the castle and the rooftops of the Capital, before setting off on a journey around the city, stopping off in Greyfriars Churchyard, the Grassmarket, Heriot Place and Donaldson's School for the Deaf in Henderson Row as well as various other nooks and crannies of the Old Town.
The list of Edinburgh-set films is a long one, with Trainspotting, Shallow Grave and Restless Natives three of the best remembered, with Jude, Mary Reilly, Greyfriar's Bobby and North and South also utilising cobbled streets that would cost a small fortune to recreate in studios.
More recently, new horror film Outcast and black comedy A Spanking in Paradise were made here, while Hollywood recently came calling when director John Landis shot scenes for Burke and Hare, Star Trek's Simon Pegg and Lord of the Rings' Andy Serkis playing the 19th Century murderers.
Even Bollywood is getting in on the act, with a new film, Mausam, featuring major star Pankaj Kapoor, spotted filming around town just a few weeks back.
While Dame Maggie quite rightly won an Oscar for her moving performance in Jean Brodie, one wonders if Edinburgh herself should have been up for a Best Supporting role back in 1970: a few more star appearances and she's certainly due an honorary gong for services to cinema.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is released on 2 August from Acorn Media.
Admittedly, The Illusionist is an animated film, dreamt up in the minds of artists inspired by the city, but the attention to detail was near-perfect, the skyline of 1959 looking almost the same as today.
That thought, that our city is a huge plus to any film, hit me again this week as I sat down to watch 1969's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie on DVD.
Shot in and around Edinburgh, it stars Harry Potter's Dame Maggie Smith as the eponymous Jean Brodie, a vibrant young schoolteacher who fights against the rigid structure of her workplace and instils in her girls a passion for life that is otherwise squeezed out of them.
Set in 1939, the film opens with a shot of the castle and the rooftops of the Capital, before setting off on a journey around the city, stopping off in Greyfriars Churchyard, the Grassmarket, Heriot Place and Donaldson's School for the Deaf in Henderson Row as well as various other nooks and crannies of the Old Town.
The list of Edinburgh-set films is a long one, with Trainspotting, Shallow Grave and Restless Natives three of the best remembered, with Jude, Mary Reilly, Greyfriar's Bobby and North and South also utilising cobbled streets that would cost a small fortune to recreate in studios.
More recently, new horror film Outcast and black comedy A Spanking in Paradise were made here, while Hollywood recently came calling when director John Landis shot scenes for Burke and Hare, Star Trek's Simon Pegg and Lord of the Rings' Andy Serkis playing the 19th Century murderers.
Even Bollywood is getting in on the act, with a new film, Mausam, featuring major star Pankaj Kapoor, spotted filming around town just a few weeks back.
While Dame Maggie quite rightly won an Oscar for her moving performance in Jean Brodie, one wonders if Edinburgh herself should have been up for a Best Supporting role back in 1970: a few more star appearances and she's certainly due an honorary gong for services to cinema.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is released on 2 August from Acorn Media.
Labels: Edinburgh, Harry Potter
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