There is a learned journal called "Artigrama" that is published by the University of Zaragoza. Fifteen years ago it contained an article entitled "Alternative Itineraries". These were for the Spanish possessions in north Africa - Ceuta and Melilla - the Canaries and the Balearics. The theme of the article was film and cinema and specifically its history.
The title hinted at something which wasn't really explored in the article: itineraries, as in tourist trips, based on film and cinema. There is a wealth of potential in Majorca for such itineraries, yet it remains largely untapped. Calvia, to its credit, is one municipality to have established a route based on locations used within its boundaries. Otherwise, the visitor is left somewhat to his or her own devices, eagerly hunting for the likes of Formentor's La Fortelesa, one of the principal stars of the property porn extravaganza that is "The Night Manager". When this enormously expensive estate isn't sending social networks into meltdown, then it is the sight of an unclad Tom Hiddleston (as well as, one might add, a similarly unclad Elizabeth Debicki).
Current film is of course light years away from what it once was. Which brings one back to the itineraries alluded to in that article's title and to one of the names to whom the article gives prominence. The Tramuntana mountain range and its coastline has long been the subject of interest for those with film cameras. While the current day has revealed the likes of Cala Deya or Sa Calobra, back in the day they were filming Soller. And there's one short film in particular.
A relic of cinema history from black-and-white days in 1913 is bound to be described as having "grainy" footage, as cliché demands that this is how it should be described. The Soller film to which I refer, as does the article, is one part of what was entitled "De Palma al Puerto Soller". It is a film of the inauguration of the tram (it can be found on YouTube). One sees gentlemen in their finery climbing aboard the tram, ladies in their finery - white outfits with white hats - children running in front of the tram. What is in a way remarkable about this film is that everything is so recognisable: the track as it makes its way from the station through the town and then on its way to the port.
The film was shot by one Josep Truyol Otero, who can claim to having been one of the pioneers of Mallorcan film if not the pioneer. The tram film was in fact contained within a two-part series with the overall title of "Excursiones por Mallorca". Here were the itineraries, the excursions on the island that Truyol filmed. One was solely about Palma, the other was the trip to Soller and the port.
Truyol, born in 1868, was a photographer. He moved to Barcelona aged nineteen and established a studio there. Some years later, 1900 to be precise, he went to the Exposition Universelle in Paris. At this world fair, he was introduced to the cinema. Three years later, and back in Mallorca, he opened the "Cinematógrafo Truyol". This was where the gardens of Hort del Rei now are, an area of Palma that was to the fore of entertainment around the turn of the twentieth century. This was where the wooden circus building had stood and where, in 1902, the Lyric Theatre (Teatro Lírico) opened.
The Lyric did show the occasional film, but Truyol's establishment was the first true cinema in Mallorca. Unfortunately for Truyol, the owner of the Lyric - Josep Tous Ferrer, something of a media mogul of the era - was to concentrate on films. In 1910, being undercut by the prices at the Lyric, Truyol's cinema closed. He faced financial ruin but in a way it was the making of him. While Tous Ferrer was to oversee more elaborate documentaries showing the wonders of Mallorca, Truyol was dabbling in film technique - double exposure, multiple imaging. The 1913 series was alas to be the pinnacle of his achievement.
He was persuaded to exhibit his films abroad. This proved to be a mistake. Further financial problems were to dog him. His last film work, it is believed, was in 1919. But frustrated and disappointed, he was to set fire to almost all the films he had. The film of the tram's inauguration survived. He continued working as a photographer and died in 1949, never having achieved his ambitions as a film maker.
His contribution to Mallorca's cinema was all but forgotten and so was he. But a few years ago this contribution was recognised. A documentary was made. Its title, poignantly enough, was "La imatge cremada": the burnt image.
Showing posts with label Cinema. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cinema. Show all posts
Monday, March 21, 2016
Monday, July 06, 2015
Lessons Of The Magus: Cinema tourism
Now, before you start thinking this is something dreamt up by the new lot, the idea goes back to the time of the previous lot, though it doesn't seem to have a great deal to do with either lot as such, as the culture department appears to exist in a vacuum of splendidly non-political isolation. So, no need for the department to run the cinema routes concept up the flagpole with the new lot and create an old-lot, new-lot polemic of flagpole proportions: oddly enough, Calvia would appear not to have a councillor with responsibility for culture as such.
"Calvia es Cine" is a concept that has been knocking around for a few months now and would seem to have been inspired, at least in part, by this year being the fiftieth anniversary of the film "Trampa bajo el sol". No, I confess I hadn't either: or its French title "Train d'Enfer". Calvia can, though, boast some better-known films, one of which had a location not so far from the flagpole of Palmanova. The beach featured in "The Damned United"; well it did, according to one source. But wasn't it Santa Ponsa? "Calvia es Cine" would doubtless know.
If the link with the Cloughie film isn't that strong - filming only took a couple of days - it is much stronger with the cove that was declared the first nudist beach in Calvia. Yes, the route would take tourists to the Playa del Mago, aka Playa Portals Vells II, where some might need to avert their eyes. The cinema's association with this cove is so strong that it was renamed after a film that was partly shot there in 1967 - "The Magus". Starring Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn and Candice Bergen, it was a box-office and critical disaster. Caine said of it that it was one of the worst films he was ever involved with as no one had a clue what it was all about. Still, even rotten tomatoes can carry some cachet and have a beach named after them.
More successful was "Evil Under The Sun", a Peter Ustinov as Poirot, Agatha Christie romp. And Calvia's claim to fame here is? Cala d'en Monjo near to Paguera. But then there are several locations which can claim some fame, none of which are in Calvia - Cala Deya, Cala en Feliu in Formentor, Cala Blanca and Sant Elm in Andratx, the Raixa estate in Bunyola and, above all, the island of Sa Dragonera. And joining "The Damned United" in more recent years, there was "The Inbetweeners Movie", which had some location scenes shot during - if I recall rightly - a fairly miserable March in Magalluf a few years ago. The film wasn't of course set in Mallorca but in Crete.
To these silver-screen triumphs and bombs need to be added the name of Errol Flynn, who never made a film in Mallorca, merely drank it. But then Illetes wasn't and isn't Magalluf. Hence, a plaque to his heroic alcohol consumption would be something of a high point of the touristic cinema route.
In theory, it's not a bad idea. Cinema can bestow great benefits on tourism, but only so long as films are clearly identifiable with locations, which typically means more than a few minutes' footage here or there. When Calvia's head of culture, Catalina Caldentey, refers to the tourism advantages that have come New Zealand's way because of "Lord of the Rings", she isn't wrong, but here we are talking something of a totally different nature and magnitude to Timothy Spall and Michael Sheen arguing for a short while off the Calvia coastline.
Mallorca, and not only Calvia, has a habit of periodically being in thrall to the cinema industry. Its celebrity-obsessed heritage allows it to fall at the feet of Hollywood, even if it doesn't cough up the 150 grand it should have to the producers of "Cloud Atlas". Mallorca can't be held responsible for total turkeys, though "The Magus" should have provided ample warning, but it can be responsible for thinking that there is some advantage to be gained from glimpses of Sa Calobra or wherever amid movie mayhem that many would rather forget. There is no advantage, unless the world can readily identify locations. Otherwise, they are just locations, lost in the swirl of post-production and lost forever because the movie turns out to be a stinker.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Politics Are Easy With Eyes Closed
Pat Metheny may just be the greatest guitarist in the world. He may even be the world's greatest musician, which would be an accolade that would be impossible to substantiate, so let's just say that as a musician he's pretty damn good and that he's been damn good for over thirty years, as it was back in the late 1970s that the German ECM label released the first album by the Pat Metheny Group. It featured the ten-minute "San Lorenzo", a track, for a jazz outfit, of quite stunning and beauteous melody.
Metheny came to the attention of the wider music public in the mid-1980s thanks to David Bowie doing the vocals for "This Is Not America", which was taken from the soundtrack of the film "The Falcon and the Snowman". At the time, this was the fifth film that Metheny had written the music for. He has since scored many other films and he has just won a Goya, the Spanish equivalent of an Oscar, for the soundtrack to "Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados" ("Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed"), the story of Antonio, a teacher, who drives to Almeria in the hope of meeting John Lennon, who was there filming "How I Won The War". The title of the film, some of you might have realised, comes from a Lennon Beatles song - "Strawberry Fields Forever".
In winning the Goya, Metheny beat off the Mallorcan composer Joan Valent, a name that may well be familiar; he is the director of the Pollensa Festival. Among his many other works and achievements, Valent also wrote - believe it or not - the official hymn (or anthem, if you prefer) of the Balearic Government. This isn't a hymn as such - it is a rather jolly instrumental/orchestral piece that features traditional instruments - and it is something of a curiosity. It is curious in that, whereas mostly all regions of Spain have official hymns, the Balearics does not, but it does have a hymn for its government. (Mallorca, by the way, has its hymn, "La Balanguera", but that's something different.)
Valent's governmental hymn was commissioned by the previous PSOE-led administration of Francesc Antich. It was a piece of music, said Antich, which reinforced messages of cohesion in the Balearics and among the islands' citizens. It cost 12,000 euros and came with an accompanying video. The hymn was to be used on official government occasions, while the video version was to be used for promotion at international travel fairs. The question is, whatever happened to it?
Politics intrude into music and culture when it suits politicians for there to be intrusion or, alternatively, avoidance. Try finding any current reference to Valent's hymn and you will probably draw as much of a blank as I have. I conclude, though I could be wrong, that it has been quietly dropped. It was far too regional for a government that at times appears indifferent to the very region it governs. It was also a work that was commissioned by the other lot.
The Goya gala at which Valent (for "Las brujas de Zugarramundi", entitled "Witching and Bitching" for the international audience) didn't win his award was the occasion for a rare old bitch-in between politicians and the film industry. It might not have been had the national minister for culture (and also education) José Ignacio Wert put in an appearance, but he didn't. It was a snub to the industry and showed a lack of respect on Wert's behalf, said members of the Spanish cinema luverati. There again, Wert, had he turned up, would probably have thought that he might have to endure some bitching in his general direction. His education bill would have been just one source. A bill for which he has no responsibility, the abortion one, would have been another. As it was, this was a source of on-stage complaint and was one reason why the former president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, reckoned that the Goyas had been turned into a gala against the Partido Popular: a witch-hunt amongst the bitching, or something like that.
Wert actually had a prior engagement. It was in London. He was meeting Vince Cable, who is Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. It hasn't escaped the attention of many commentators that Cable and Wert have portfolios which do not coincide. Why, therefore, was Wert meeting him? Something to do with reforming Spanish universities apparently. He did also meet people from the LSE and Cambridge, but the fact that the visit was organised as late as 29 January has led to suspicions that Wert was finding a reason to give the Goyas a miss and so to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the film industry. Politics, it might be said, are easy with eyes closed.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Cinema's Black Weekends
The weekend before last was Black Saturday and Sunday for Spanish cinemas. Box-office takings were at their lowest ever. And they weren't just slightly lower; they were, as "El País"* reported, lower by a whopping 30%. Receipts amounted to not a great deal more than two million euros.
Weather may have had something to do with lower numbers, as also may have had the absence of a real box-office draw, but the slump was of such a level that these explanations aren't sufficient. The fact is that Spanish cinemas are in their own state of economic crisis. The national economic mess has only now really started to affect them; the previous record low before the 30% fall on Black Saturday and Sunday was in April this year.
A factor in this sudden fall, and it is impossible not to conclude that it must be a factor, is the rise in the cost of going to the cinema that was brought about by the increase in IVA to 21%. Though this increase was introduced some nine months ago, Spanish cinema-goers are suffering the cumulative effect of several months of 13% higher tax and have said enough is enough. Black Saturday and Sunday and the weekend in April have not been isolated weekends; four other weekends this year mean that 2013 has registered two-thirds of the worst weekends for box-office takings.
Economic crisis, though, has affected the cinema in a different way. Watching films hasn't become any less popular; indeed, it is probably more popular than ever. What better way of getting around the cost of an evening at the cinema and the 13% rise in IVA than by watching the latest film at home for free? Spain is acknowledged as Western Europe's leader when it comes to copyright piracy.
For some years, the international film industry and especially Hollywood has taken a dim view of Spanish laxness in tackling illegal downloads and piracy. It also hasn't taken that kindly to Spanish courts having ruled on several occasions that file-sharing and the "torrenting" of copyright material, so long as it is for private use, is legal. Hollywood has applied more and more pressure, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has been monitoring Spain's responses to the accusation of piracy champion of Western Europe. It has recently looked favourably on Spain by not putting it back on the so-called 301 Watch List of naughty-boy countries. But Spain is on probation. The USTR performs what it calls "out-of-cycle reviews", which mean that it can add a country to its watch list at any time and not just when it issues its annual list (which it did in May).
The principal reason for Spain having avoided being put back on the naughty list is the law on intellectual property. Originally called the Sinde Law (after the minister in the previous government), it has become a double-barrelled law, Sinde-Wert Law. Yes, its that man again. José Ignacio Wert, this time firmly with his culture hat on rather than his educational one. The legislation was enough to allow the USTR to look kindly on Spain.
The Spanish Government has pretty much admitted that the mere threat of trade sanctions by the USA through a failure to improve its intellectual property record has been the reason for the law; it couldn't have said anything else, once Wikileaks had established the fact. Whether there would ever be trade sanctions is questionable, but the government hasn't been taking any chances. It also wanted to avoid not just being put back on the watch list but being put on the priority watch list along with international copyright pariahs such as China, Pakistan and Russia.
The probation may, though, prove only to be probation. The USTR out-of-cycle review could well unearth enough concerns to put Spain back on the naughty chair, and the reason why is because the law has been proving to be ineffective. Under the law, there is a committee which receives requests to inspect websites suspected of providing material for illegal download. A year after it was set up, the committee had investigated only just over a hundred websites that warranted serious consideration and under a quarter of these investigations resulted in content being removed. Various organisations, such as one for film producers, have already lost faith in the committee's effectiveness and don't bother lodging complaints.
While the cost of going to the cinema may be the main reason for declining box-office numbers, there is another reason, and it is one that the government is still failing to address.
* El País
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Weather may have had something to do with lower numbers, as also may have had the absence of a real box-office draw, but the slump was of such a level that these explanations aren't sufficient. The fact is that Spanish cinemas are in their own state of economic crisis. The national economic mess has only now really started to affect them; the previous record low before the 30% fall on Black Saturday and Sunday was in April this year.
A factor in this sudden fall, and it is impossible not to conclude that it must be a factor, is the rise in the cost of going to the cinema that was brought about by the increase in IVA to 21%. Though this increase was introduced some nine months ago, Spanish cinema-goers are suffering the cumulative effect of several months of 13% higher tax and have said enough is enough. Black Saturday and Sunday and the weekend in April have not been isolated weekends; four other weekends this year mean that 2013 has registered two-thirds of the worst weekends for box-office takings.
Economic crisis, though, has affected the cinema in a different way. Watching films hasn't become any less popular; indeed, it is probably more popular than ever. What better way of getting around the cost of an evening at the cinema and the 13% rise in IVA than by watching the latest film at home for free? Spain is acknowledged as Western Europe's leader when it comes to copyright piracy.
For some years, the international film industry and especially Hollywood has taken a dim view of Spanish laxness in tackling illegal downloads and piracy. It also hasn't taken that kindly to Spanish courts having ruled on several occasions that file-sharing and the "torrenting" of copyright material, so long as it is for private use, is legal. Hollywood has applied more and more pressure, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has been monitoring Spain's responses to the accusation of piracy champion of Western Europe. It has recently looked favourably on Spain by not putting it back on the so-called 301 Watch List of naughty-boy countries. But Spain is on probation. The USTR performs what it calls "out-of-cycle reviews", which mean that it can add a country to its watch list at any time and not just when it issues its annual list (which it did in May).
The principal reason for Spain having avoided being put back on the naughty list is the law on intellectual property. Originally called the Sinde Law (after the minister in the previous government), it has become a double-barrelled law, Sinde-Wert Law. Yes, its that man again. José Ignacio Wert, this time firmly with his culture hat on rather than his educational one. The legislation was enough to allow the USTR to look kindly on Spain.
The Spanish Government has pretty much admitted that the mere threat of trade sanctions by the USA through a failure to improve its intellectual property record has been the reason for the law; it couldn't have said anything else, once Wikileaks had established the fact. Whether there would ever be trade sanctions is questionable, but the government hasn't been taking any chances. It also wanted to avoid not just being put back on the watch list but being put on the priority watch list along with international copyright pariahs such as China, Pakistan and Russia.
The probation may, though, prove only to be probation. The USTR out-of-cycle review could well unearth enough concerns to put Spain back on the naughty chair, and the reason why is because the law has been proving to be ineffective. Under the law, there is a committee which receives requests to inspect websites suspected of providing material for illegal download. A year after it was set up, the committee had investigated only just over a hundred websites that warranted serious consideration and under a quarter of these investigations resulted in content being removed. Various organisations, such as one for film producers, have already lost faith in the committee's effectiveness and don't bother lodging complaints.
While the cost of going to the cinema may be the main reason for declining box-office numbers, there is another reason, and it is one that the government is still failing to address.
* El País
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Black Or White: Spanish crisis and the arts
I have been researching a feature on the Barcelona-born artist Joan Miró who, despite having been a supporter of Republicanism, lived quietly enough in Mallorca under the Franco regime. The impression I formed was one of his not having been bothered by the regime so long as he had done nothing to bother it. And Miró didn't bother it. He was only really bothered about getting on with his art.
Miró's abstract paintings and sculptures could have symbolised any number of things. One of the beauties of abstracts is that they can mean everything or they can mean nothing. The observer can interpret them as he sees fit, projecting his own prejudices, opinions and attitudes onto the painter's canvas in creating a perception as to what the artist actually means. The obscurity of meaning makes proof very difficult. So long as the artist keeps his thoughts to himself, which is pretty much what Miró did, then a regime is none the wiser as to what he might be thinking or not.
Obscurity of meaning helps. I fancy that autocrats and technocrats can't get their heads around anything that isn't black or white. I imagine them to be incapable of understanding irony or innuendo. Only if a painting, a song, a film slaps them firmly in the face with an unequivocal message, be it pro or anti, will they get the meaning. Some artists got away with things during the Franco era because the authority figures were probably too thick to understand. Andrés Rábago, the cartoonist, was one such artist.
Alternatively, the regime may have felt it necessary to cut the arts world some slack. By the fifties it had stumbled on the realisation that the arts world was a potential source of making it look better to the rest of the world. This is one reason why so much effort was put into attracting film-makers, an effort that produced the Charlton Heston-Sophia Loren epic "El Cid", a film of magnificent cinematography but one that did rather gloss over some of the true nature of El Cid - that of having been a mercenary.
At the same time as the regime was looking to Hollywood and foreign money in order to give Spain a more acceptable global image, it wouldn't have been wise to have been stamping down too much on its own artists. Of course, it did do and had done. Federico García Lorca, one of Spain's most important poets of the twentieth century, was executed in 1936. But then that had been a time of war. Twenty years on, things were a bit different.
The arts world doesn't operate in a cultural, social, political or economic vacuum. An artist who wants to get on and flourish when the politics are repressive has to be a Leni Riefenstahl. A leftie like García Lorca in 1936 stood no chance. When the gloves of repression are removed and artists' hands can be waved with full freedom of expression, the canvases on which they work change completely. But making appropriate artistic gestures under unrestricted democratic regimes bring their own problems. Too often they can appear to be ones that veer towards a political extreme, usually the left, and so open themselves up to criticisms of being overly and overtly political.
Spain's artists of today face just this dilemma, those who haven't jumped ship and gone abroad. There may be democracy in Spain, but the arts world doesn't always benefit from such democracy. The artist Santiago Sierra has pointed out that art which deals with economic crisis in Spain doesn't get a great deal of visibility, a key reason being that critical thinking or expression is deterred because the major art collectors happen to be banks or the state.
Another member of the arts world, the film director Isabel Coixet, has chosen to mostly work abroad, but her latest film was shot in Catalonia. It portrays a Spain four years from now, one that has descended into anarchy. Doom-laden messages from the arts world are natural responses to poor or deteriorating circumstances.
Pedro Almodóvar's latest film - "I'm So Excited" is its English title - is unusual in taking a very different approach. He has made a highly camp comedy in which scandals involving the government and the royal family make the film appear as though it were a metaphor for them. Almodóvar hadn't foreseen these scandals, but whether he had or he hadn't, comedy, rather than apocalyptic visions, can be a better way of getting a message over. But not to politicians. Democratic the times may be, but present them with a metaphor which isn't black or white and they won't have a clue.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Miró's abstract paintings and sculptures could have symbolised any number of things. One of the beauties of abstracts is that they can mean everything or they can mean nothing. The observer can interpret them as he sees fit, projecting his own prejudices, opinions and attitudes onto the painter's canvas in creating a perception as to what the artist actually means. The obscurity of meaning makes proof very difficult. So long as the artist keeps his thoughts to himself, which is pretty much what Miró did, then a regime is none the wiser as to what he might be thinking or not.
Obscurity of meaning helps. I fancy that autocrats and technocrats can't get their heads around anything that isn't black or white. I imagine them to be incapable of understanding irony or innuendo. Only if a painting, a song, a film slaps them firmly in the face with an unequivocal message, be it pro or anti, will they get the meaning. Some artists got away with things during the Franco era because the authority figures were probably too thick to understand. Andrés Rábago, the cartoonist, was one such artist.
Alternatively, the regime may have felt it necessary to cut the arts world some slack. By the fifties it had stumbled on the realisation that the arts world was a potential source of making it look better to the rest of the world. This is one reason why so much effort was put into attracting film-makers, an effort that produced the Charlton Heston-Sophia Loren epic "El Cid", a film of magnificent cinematography but one that did rather gloss over some of the true nature of El Cid - that of having been a mercenary.
At the same time as the regime was looking to Hollywood and foreign money in order to give Spain a more acceptable global image, it wouldn't have been wise to have been stamping down too much on its own artists. Of course, it did do and had done. Federico García Lorca, one of Spain's most important poets of the twentieth century, was executed in 1936. But then that had been a time of war. Twenty years on, things were a bit different.
The arts world doesn't operate in a cultural, social, political or economic vacuum. An artist who wants to get on and flourish when the politics are repressive has to be a Leni Riefenstahl. A leftie like García Lorca in 1936 stood no chance. When the gloves of repression are removed and artists' hands can be waved with full freedom of expression, the canvases on which they work change completely. But making appropriate artistic gestures under unrestricted democratic regimes bring their own problems. Too often they can appear to be ones that veer towards a political extreme, usually the left, and so open themselves up to criticisms of being overly and overtly political.
Spain's artists of today face just this dilemma, those who haven't jumped ship and gone abroad. There may be democracy in Spain, but the arts world doesn't always benefit from such democracy. The artist Santiago Sierra has pointed out that art which deals with economic crisis in Spain doesn't get a great deal of visibility, a key reason being that critical thinking or expression is deterred because the major art collectors happen to be banks or the state.
Another member of the arts world, the film director Isabel Coixet, has chosen to mostly work abroad, but her latest film was shot in Catalonia. It portrays a Spain four years from now, one that has descended into anarchy. Doom-laden messages from the arts world are natural responses to poor or deteriorating circumstances.
Pedro Almodóvar's latest film - "I'm So Excited" is its English title - is unusual in taking a very different approach. He has made a highly camp comedy in which scandals involving the government and the royal family make the film appear as though it were a metaphor for them. Almodóvar hadn't foreseen these scandals, but whether he had or he hadn't, comedy, rather than apocalyptic visions, can be a better way of getting a message over. But not to politicians. Democratic the times may be, but present them with a metaphor which isn't black or white and they won't have a clue.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, April 27, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Renoir cinema to close
The Renoir cinema in Palma, known for showing art-house and English films, is to close by the middle of May. The closure is the result of what the owners Alta Films describe as an "unsustainable situation" which has seen losses over the past eight years.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Thursday, December 22, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - A new festival for Pollensa
With the appointment of a new director for the Pollensa Music Festival, the anticipation is that the festival will embrace other elements of the arts, notably cinema and literature. The concept should be in place for next year, but a question is: where's the funding coming from?
Sunday, August 07, 2011
The Hornblower Effect?: Film and tourism
An old friend of mine used to return after months away on location and relate stories of derring-do and actors behaving badly. He was the producer of the "Hornblower" series of films, a highly successful franchise, to use an Americanism, and one that used a series of locations around Europe. The fifth film in the series, which aired in 2001, was mostly filmed in Menorca.
You can still find references to "where Hornblower was shot" on websites to do with Menorca. But what was the enduring benefit to the island of the film's location? Was there a "Hornblower" effect?
Perhaps there was, but if there was in tourism terms, it was shortlived. Menorca has spent the years since then confirming its position as the Balearics basket case. The island may still derive some kudos from "Mutiny" having been filmed there, but it has been worn away along with the memory of the film itself.
The relationship between film location and tourism is one I've considered before ("Lights, Camera, Inaction", 21 March). And the issue is cropping up again thanks to a burst of excitement surrounding the possibility that Mallorca might be a location for the filming of David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" (Tom Hanks, Halle Berry).
Note that I say "a location" and not the "the location". The distinction is important not just in terms of the use of the indefinite as opposed to the definite article. It is also important because, though the filming might indeed bring benefits, these would be as nothing compared with those which would be derived were it to be filmed almost entirely in Mallorca.
The most obvious example of a location benefiting in tourism terms from a film, as I mentioned in the previous article, was that of New Zealand and the publicity it attracted because of "Lord Of The Rings". The setting of Tolkien's trilogy was so well known that no one could have been mistaken into thinking they were really looking at Middle Earth and not at a land of sheep and rugby players.
The point is that, with a single location, the connection can be made and made very forcibly. With multiple locations, the connection is far less strong, to an extent that it may carry little or no force. Yes, a location could be promoted as having featured in a particular film, but it would rather depend on the prominence given to the location and to the extent to which it would be evident.
One site in Mallorca that is being mentioned is Sa Calobra. The problem is that unless you know what you're looking for, you wouldn't necessarily know what you were looking at. A dirty great arrow doesn't suddenly appear over Tom Hanks' head pointing to Sa Calobra with an accompanying legend announcing "Sa Calobra, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Tramuntana mountains".
The fact that Sa Calobra, on the coastal periphery of the mountain range, is in the running does raise the spectre of what happened when there was talk of the island of Cabrera being used for filming ("Betsy And The Emperor"). The environment ministry vetoed it because of the island's sensitive ecology. The Tramuntana are more robust but they are also ecologically protected. One can already hear the sounds of the enviro lobby preparing their complaints were there to be film crews trampling over the countryside.
This is premature though. No agreement has been reached as to the location. Croatia is another place that is up for the gig apparently.
But assuming Mallorca were to be chosen, what benefits other than to tourism might follow? One might be that to the island's film industry. Yet would producers from Hollywood and elsewhere suddenly descend on Mallorca with all manner of blockbusters to be filmed? Only if the locations are what they want. "Cloud Atlas" might help in putting Mallorca more on the location map, but you might be surprised to learn that film companies, producers, location managers and whoever are already well aware of the island's locations. As indeed they are of those in pretty much any part of the world you care to mention.
Location databases, full of thousands of images, exist for all sorts of places. They exist to promote the locations but also to aid the decision-making of producers from foreign lands. Palma Pictures, for example, has a database of some 30,000 images.
"Cloud Atlas" would be a feather in Mallorca's cap, but the benefits can be overestimated. A single-location blockbuster is what would really bring about the benefits, but, and notwithstanding the fact that the Hornblower films were made for TV and were not Hollywood, never forget the lack of the Hornblower effect in Menorca.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
A comment about this article has been sent by an anonymous correspondent. The reason I ask for comments to be sent by email is that very often they are anonymous. Some anonymous comments I will post, some I will not. Into this second category falls the comment about this article which suggests that there is something "malitious" (sic) about it, though quite what escapes me. It is an article about what benefits might be derived from film locations; nothing more.
You can still find references to "where Hornblower was shot" on websites to do with Menorca. But what was the enduring benefit to the island of the film's location? Was there a "Hornblower" effect?
Perhaps there was, but if there was in tourism terms, it was shortlived. Menorca has spent the years since then confirming its position as the Balearics basket case. The island may still derive some kudos from "Mutiny" having been filmed there, but it has been worn away along with the memory of the film itself.
The relationship between film location and tourism is one I've considered before ("Lights, Camera, Inaction", 21 March). And the issue is cropping up again thanks to a burst of excitement surrounding the possibility that Mallorca might be a location for the filming of David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" (Tom Hanks, Halle Berry).
Note that I say "a location" and not the "the location". The distinction is important not just in terms of the use of the indefinite as opposed to the definite article. It is also important because, though the filming might indeed bring benefits, these would be as nothing compared with those which would be derived were it to be filmed almost entirely in Mallorca.
The most obvious example of a location benefiting in tourism terms from a film, as I mentioned in the previous article, was that of New Zealand and the publicity it attracted because of "Lord Of The Rings". The setting of Tolkien's trilogy was so well known that no one could have been mistaken into thinking they were really looking at Middle Earth and not at a land of sheep and rugby players.
The point is that, with a single location, the connection can be made and made very forcibly. With multiple locations, the connection is far less strong, to an extent that it may carry little or no force. Yes, a location could be promoted as having featured in a particular film, but it would rather depend on the prominence given to the location and to the extent to which it would be evident.
One site in Mallorca that is being mentioned is Sa Calobra. The problem is that unless you know what you're looking for, you wouldn't necessarily know what you were looking at. A dirty great arrow doesn't suddenly appear over Tom Hanks' head pointing to Sa Calobra with an accompanying legend announcing "Sa Calobra, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Tramuntana mountains".
The fact that Sa Calobra, on the coastal periphery of the mountain range, is in the running does raise the spectre of what happened when there was talk of the island of Cabrera being used for filming ("Betsy And The Emperor"). The environment ministry vetoed it because of the island's sensitive ecology. The Tramuntana are more robust but they are also ecologically protected. One can already hear the sounds of the enviro lobby preparing their complaints were there to be film crews trampling over the countryside.
This is premature though. No agreement has been reached as to the location. Croatia is another place that is up for the gig apparently.
But assuming Mallorca were to be chosen, what benefits other than to tourism might follow? One might be that to the island's film industry. Yet would producers from Hollywood and elsewhere suddenly descend on Mallorca with all manner of blockbusters to be filmed? Only if the locations are what they want. "Cloud Atlas" might help in putting Mallorca more on the location map, but you might be surprised to learn that film companies, producers, location managers and whoever are already well aware of the island's locations. As indeed they are of those in pretty much any part of the world you care to mention.
Location databases, full of thousands of images, exist for all sorts of places. They exist to promote the locations but also to aid the decision-making of producers from foreign lands. Palma Pictures, for example, has a database of some 30,000 images.
"Cloud Atlas" would be a feather in Mallorca's cap, but the benefits can be overestimated. A single-location blockbuster is what would really bring about the benefits, but, and notwithstanding the fact that the Hornblower films were made for TV and were not Hollywood, never forget the lack of the Hornblower effect in Menorca.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
A comment about this article has been sent by an anonymous correspondent. The reason I ask for comments to be sent by email is that very often they are anonymous. Some anonymous comments I will post, some I will not. Into this second category falls the comment about this article which suggests that there is something "malitious" (sic) about it, though quite what escapes me. It is an article about what benefits might be derived from film locations; nothing more.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Lights, Camera, Inaction: Film in Mallorca
On Thursday and Friday, a conference will be held at the Chamber of Commerce centre in Palma. Its theme will be that of the cinema and tourism. It will look at how film can benefit tourist destinations. The conference has been arranged by the Mallorca Film Commission, an organisation within the Mallorca Tourism Foundation, and one charged specifically with promoting the opportunities associated with the visual media in Mallorca.
Amongst the speakers at the conference will be Stefan Roesch, author of a book entitled "The Experiences Of Film Location Tourists" and a leading expert on film tourism. In his book he presents case studies regarding film tourism and which concern three films (or film franchises) - "Lord Of The Rings", "Star Wars" and "The Sound Of Music".
The filming of "Lord Of The Rings" in New Zealand received enormous publicity and resulted in a boom in tourism, even to parts of the country that previously had not experienced high levels of tourism. The tourist wanted to see locations, although any evidence of filming itself was no longer apparent.
There is, though, an immediate and obvious issue with each of these films. They were not any old film. The fact that parts of New Zealand and Tunisia ("Star Wars") might have benefitted from tourism doesn't seem that surprising, given the blockbuster nature of the films. Much tourism to the city of Salzburg continues to be solely due to "The Sound Of Music", over 40 years since the film was released. Other films mentioned by Roesch that go back in time to the first film which had a real impact in terms of film tourism, "Mutiny On The Bounty" in 1935 and subsequent tourism to Tahiti, are similarly either epic or huge box-office successes.
The question is, therefore, how does a destination derive benefits from a film if it isn't a major cinematic event. The fact that a conference on film tourism is taking place in Palma indicates intent, that of extracting benefit, but unless a film comes along that has genuine box-office appeal and international exposure, then does it really make that much difference? Moreover, how does Mallorca go about ensuring that it is the location, even assuming a producer has a film he or she deems suitable for filming on the island? It would be good to find out because the recent record of Mallorca and film does not inspire much confidence.
Yes, we may have had "The Inbetweeners" and "Mad Dogs" (on TV), but so what? Other efforts have come to very little. Take as an example the case of Al Pacino's "Betsy And The Emperor".
In December 2009, the environment ministry rejected the use of the island of Cabrera for the film's shooting. The reason given was that the island's ecology was too sensitive to have film crews and actors tramping all over it. The reason was probably fair enough; Cabrera is a protected nature area as it is. But the rejection was symptomatic of how differing priorities can scupper what might be beneficial projects. It is perhaps no coincidence that the Chamber of Commerce's building has been chosen for this week's conference. It was this body which was the fiercest critic of the environment ministry's decision.
There are other examples. A film with obvious Mallorca connotations, "Mr Nice", was not filmed in Mallorca, but in Alicante. Another film, "King Conqueror", about Jaume I of Aragon and starring Jude Law and Tim Roth, appears to have sunk without trace (if it hasn't sunk, then perhaps someone could let me know).
Also sunk has been the Mallorca International Film Festival, a victim of funding being withdrawn by the tourism ministry and a huge embarrassment as a consequence, not least to the admirable Colm Meaney who was present at a grand launch of the festival in London. The festival would seem to be returning in some guise later this year, but it is not the same. Meaney, who was filming last year on the island for Toni Bestard's "The Perfect Unknown", would have every right to feel let down, given the support he has looked to give the local film industry.
Were a serious film to come out of the island, the benefits for Mallorca would be significant and especially, you would think, for out-of-season tourism. The number of visitors that might wish to tour around sites of inland or coastal Mallorca would almost certainly be of a scale to make out-of-season excursions viable exercises, which at present they are not.
If Mr. Roesch and the other speakers at the conference have got some sound advice as to how such a boost to tourism might be effected, then it will be worthwhile hearing it. The trouble is whether anyone, not least the odd producer with a mega-millions budget to chuck at a Mallorca-based blockbuster, will be listening.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Amongst the speakers at the conference will be Stefan Roesch, author of a book entitled "The Experiences Of Film Location Tourists" and a leading expert on film tourism. In his book he presents case studies regarding film tourism and which concern three films (or film franchises) - "Lord Of The Rings", "Star Wars" and "The Sound Of Music".
The filming of "Lord Of The Rings" in New Zealand received enormous publicity and resulted in a boom in tourism, even to parts of the country that previously had not experienced high levels of tourism. The tourist wanted to see locations, although any evidence of filming itself was no longer apparent.
There is, though, an immediate and obvious issue with each of these films. They were not any old film. The fact that parts of New Zealand and Tunisia ("Star Wars") might have benefitted from tourism doesn't seem that surprising, given the blockbuster nature of the films. Much tourism to the city of Salzburg continues to be solely due to "The Sound Of Music", over 40 years since the film was released. Other films mentioned by Roesch that go back in time to the first film which had a real impact in terms of film tourism, "Mutiny On The Bounty" in 1935 and subsequent tourism to Tahiti, are similarly either epic or huge box-office successes.
The question is, therefore, how does a destination derive benefits from a film if it isn't a major cinematic event. The fact that a conference on film tourism is taking place in Palma indicates intent, that of extracting benefit, but unless a film comes along that has genuine box-office appeal and international exposure, then does it really make that much difference? Moreover, how does Mallorca go about ensuring that it is the location, even assuming a producer has a film he or she deems suitable for filming on the island? It would be good to find out because the recent record of Mallorca and film does not inspire much confidence.
Yes, we may have had "The Inbetweeners" and "Mad Dogs" (on TV), but so what? Other efforts have come to very little. Take as an example the case of Al Pacino's "Betsy And The Emperor".
In December 2009, the environment ministry rejected the use of the island of Cabrera for the film's shooting. The reason given was that the island's ecology was too sensitive to have film crews and actors tramping all over it. The reason was probably fair enough; Cabrera is a protected nature area as it is. But the rejection was symptomatic of how differing priorities can scupper what might be beneficial projects. It is perhaps no coincidence that the Chamber of Commerce's building has been chosen for this week's conference. It was this body which was the fiercest critic of the environment ministry's decision.
There are other examples. A film with obvious Mallorca connotations, "Mr Nice", was not filmed in Mallorca, but in Alicante. Another film, "King Conqueror", about Jaume I of Aragon and starring Jude Law and Tim Roth, appears to have sunk without trace (if it hasn't sunk, then perhaps someone could let me know).
Also sunk has been the Mallorca International Film Festival, a victim of funding being withdrawn by the tourism ministry and a huge embarrassment as a consequence, not least to the admirable Colm Meaney who was present at a grand launch of the festival in London. The festival would seem to be returning in some guise later this year, but it is not the same. Meaney, who was filming last year on the island for Toni Bestard's "The Perfect Unknown", would have every right to feel let down, given the support he has looked to give the local film industry.
Were a serious film to come out of the island, the benefits for Mallorca would be significant and especially, you would think, for out-of-season tourism. The number of visitors that might wish to tour around sites of inland or coastal Mallorca would almost certainly be of a scale to make out-of-season excursions viable exercises, which at present they are not.
If Mr. Roesch and the other speakers at the conference have got some sound advice as to how such a boost to tourism might be effected, then it will be worthwhile hearing it. The trouble is whether anyone, not least the odd producer with a mega-millions budget to chuck at a Mallorca-based blockbuster, will be listening.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Making Movies
Jaime 1 - the movie. Jaime, Jaume, Chaime, James - choose your language - same one-time Aragonese king, conqueror of Mallorca, vanquisher of Moors. Shooting is just starting, Tim Roth is starring, though not as Jaime.
This is not Hollywood. The film is to be directed by a Valencian; the producer is from a Valencian studio. Still, it will be an international fim, shot in English. It will be the tale of arguably the most important figure in Mallorca’s history, albeit that he was born in Montpellier, France. Quite what the film will cover I have no idea, but I somewhat doubt that it will delve too deeply into the fact that Jaime was, among other things, a massive figure in establishing the Catalan language; he was a patron of this, making it the official language and himself writing in the language.
Some of the filming will occur in Mallorca - in Palma and Santa Ponsa to be precise. That it is not to be some huge Hollywood costume-drama blockbuster is a shame in a way. What could be better than a major international film using Mallorcan locations for attracting ever more tourists (hopefully of a winter variety). Perhaps, therefore, this is another potential solution for Mallorca’s winter woes. Or maybe a soap opera. Classy boats, intrigue, back-stabbing, bitchiness, fraud cases, poseurs in the yacht clubs - yes, Howards’ Way goes to Mallorca. But then they did a soap set in Spain - the wonderfully awful Eldorado. Doesn’t mean they shouldn’t give it another go. Tell you what, I’ll write the script. Piece of cake.
QUIZ
Yesterday - The Fortunes. Today’s title - album by?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
This is not Hollywood. The film is to be directed by a Valencian; the producer is from a Valencian studio. Still, it will be an international fim, shot in English. It will be the tale of arguably the most important figure in Mallorca’s history, albeit that he was born in Montpellier, France. Quite what the film will cover I have no idea, but I somewhat doubt that it will delve too deeply into the fact that Jaime was, among other things, a massive figure in establishing the Catalan language; he was a patron of this, making it the official language and himself writing in the language.
Some of the filming will occur in Mallorca - in Palma and Santa Ponsa to be precise. That it is not to be some huge Hollywood costume-drama blockbuster is a shame in a way. What could be better than a major international film using Mallorcan locations for attracting ever more tourists (hopefully of a winter variety). Perhaps, therefore, this is another potential solution for Mallorca’s winter woes. Or maybe a soap opera. Classy boats, intrigue, back-stabbing, bitchiness, fraud cases, poseurs in the yacht clubs - yes, Howards’ Way goes to Mallorca. But then they did a soap set in Spain - the wonderfully awful Eldorado. Doesn’t mean they shouldn’t give it another go. Tell you what, I’ll write the script. Piece of cake.
QUIZ
Yesterday - The Fortunes. Today’s title - album by?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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