ON LOCATION
Five more films where the British landscape plays a starring role
A WITHNAIL AND I
“What good’s the country?” sniffs Richard E Grant’s Withnail before the titular pair of out-of-work actors escape their Camden hovel for a cottage in the Lake District in this 1987 black comedy. The wild Cumbrian weather is far from welcoming. “We’ve gone on holiday by mistake…”
B THE GO-BETWEEN
A long hot August in Victorian Norfolk is the setting for the 1971 film version of LP Hartley’s classic novel. Endless summer meadows and grasslands provide the backdrop for this symbolism-heavy story of repressed and doomed forbidden love, starring Julie Christie.
C LOCAL HERO
Set in the fictional village of Ferness on the west coast of Scotland, Bill Forsyth’s much-cherished 1983 film features idyllic coastal shots at every turn. The plot is all about the landscape: whether the locals will permit a Texan oil company to build a refinery there. Nature ultimately prevails.
D THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN
Again, the plot of this 1995 Hugh Grant film pivots on its setting’s geography. Grant plays an English cartographer who travels to the Welsh village of Ffynnon Garw to measure the sizeable promontory that dominates the local landscape.
E KES
Although set in the mining town of Barnsley in Yorkshire, this wonderful tale of a boy and his pet kestrel – released in 1969 and directed by
Ken Loach – largely takes place in the glorious countryside at its edges. Fifteen-year-old Billy Casper finds a freedom and expression in nature in marked contrast to his destiny working down the pit.