What movie might cause a reasonable person fall in love with England?
July 22, 2018 6:02 AM Subscribe
Any era, any location, any genre, any production date. Extra points if it would also make you want to travel and explore there.
The Holiday
posted by Sassyfras at 6:15 AM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Sassyfras at 6:15 AM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
For me it was (1993) The Secret Garden.
posted by lieber hair at 6:37 AM on July 22, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by lieber hair at 6:37 AM on July 22, 2018 [6 favorites]
I prefer the older Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version for plot/casting, but the 2005 Joe Wright-directed "Pride and Prejudice" is great for the scenery. And speaking of scenery, the Merchant/Ivory Emma Thompson-starring "Howard's End" doesn't exactly scrimp on the stuff either (same could be said for the Kenneth Lonergan version, but that's a miniseries, and currently requires a Showtime subscription).
posted by thivaia at 6:40 AM on July 22, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by thivaia at 6:40 AM on July 22, 2018 [3 favorites]
Any Thomas Hardy novel made into a movie.
posted by james33 at 6:41 AM on July 22, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by james33 at 6:41 AM on July 22, 2018 [3 favorites]
It depends. Richard Curtis romcoms make me angry, but I've met people who were inspired to travel because of them. Even though you can't actually visit Hogwarts because of all the magic guarding it, Harry Potter tours are popular.
The George Gently series made me want to visit north east England (even though parts were shot in Ireland).
posted by betweenthebars at 6:59 AM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
The George Gently series made me want to visit north east England (even though parts were shot in Ireland).
posted by betweenthebars at 6:59 AM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
The Ang Lee "Sense and Sensibility" is also good for scenery.
posted by zadcat at 7:04 AM on July 22, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by zadcat at 7:04 AM on July 22, 2018 [5 favorites]
I should be able to list a dozen films, Anglophile that I am but in transit at the moment so I offer up another tv series, Escape to the Country (YouTube has episodes). Yes, a reality show but I guarantee there are no references to granite countertops or stainless steel appliances, just gorgeous, gorgeous scenery and village life. Most of the time it seems they "are still exploring their options" at the end.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:43 AM on July 22, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:43 AM on July 22, 2018 [8 favorites]
Chariots of Fire for me.
"God made me for China. But he also made me fast"
posted by johngoren at 7:44 AM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
"God made me for China. But he also made me fast"
posted by johngoren at 7:44 AM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Another TV reommendation, but Poldark is like 75% gorgeous coastal scenery shot during the golden hour of sunlight and a hot guy either reaping without a shirt or broodily galloping and adorable horse along the the coast.... Definitely made me want to visit Cornwall.
posted by TwoStride at 7:58 AM on July 22, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by TwoStride at 7:58 AM on July 22, 2018 [5 favorites]
The 1980s mini-series adaptation of Brideshead Revisited.
posted by praemunire at 8:42 AM on July 22, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 8:42 AM on July 22, 2018 [5 favorites]
The Remains of the Day.
posted by Melismata at 8:43 AM on July 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 8:43 AM on July 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
I don't have a movie recommendation, but The Great British Bake-Off was really charming to me, I liked all the pretty greenness and how nice people were. I mean, if you really need a movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail technically has scenery...but I don't know if that movie counts.
Bridget Jones' Diary was fairly accurate scenery wise of my time in London though. That movie was not at all reflective of the actual time I spent in London, but the Tower Bridge!
posted by yueliang at 9:49 AM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Bridget Jones' Diary was fairly accurate scenery wise of my time in London though. That movie was not at all reflective of the actual time I spent in London, but the Tower Bridge!
posted by yueliang at 9:49 AM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Among Giants follows a rag-tag crew painting power tower poles near Sheffield. Lovely scenery with bonus pub parkour.
posted by Jesse the K at 10:29 AM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Jesse the K at 10:29 AM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Pride. And seconding All Creatures Great and Small.
It's weird, thinking about the many, many British films I've seen, I can think of few that focus on the landscape, or present a city as a character, the way many US films do. Partially I pick internal social dramas to watch I guess but.. Interesting.
posted by latkes at 11:57 AM on July 22, 2018 [3 favorites]
It's weird, thinking about the many, many British films I've seen, I can think of few that focus on the landscape, or present a city as a character, the way many US films do. Partially I pick internal social dramas to watch I guess but.. Interesting.
posted by latkes at 11:57 AM on July 22, 2018 [3 favorites]
Oh, actually and ironically, 28 Days Later and Children of Men lovingly linger over landscape and urban environments. They show a visual and aesthetic picture of the places in a way that really made me intrigued about the physical space. Hm...
posted by latkes at 11:59 AM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by latkes at 11:59 AM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Not a movie but Season 1 of The Trip is beautifully and lovingly shot in the north of England.
posted by paulash at 1:23 PM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by paulash at 1:23 PM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Paddington and Paddington 2.
posted by tavegyl at 2:31 PM on July 22, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by tavegyl at 2:31 PM on July 22, 2018 [4 favorites]
Oh, I know not for everyone, but surely Richard Curtis -- "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Notting Hill"/"Love Actually" etc. Divisive answer, I know, but if you love them, you really, really love them and the England they portray.
posted by heavenknows at 3:32 PM on July 22, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by heavenknows at 3:32 PM on July 22, 2018 [5 favorites]
The Detectorists (tv) is filmed in Suffolk and is pretty.
posted by thebrokedown at 3:32 PM on July 22, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by thebrokedown at 3:32 PM on July 22, 2018 [3 favorites]
Any list of classic 'Englishness' on film would have to include Powell and Pressburger's deeply peculiar A Canterbury Tale (1944). This short film presented by the Guardian's film critic Xan Brooks revisits some of the locations in A Canterbury Tale and tries to explain its appeal.
Not to everyone's taste, but my personal choice would be Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract (1982), which is, among other things, a homage to seventeenth-century English landscape gardening (filmed at Groombridge Place in Kent), and Drowning by Numbers (1988), which is a loving tribute to the landscape and coastline around Southwold in Suffolk.
posted by verstegan at 3:57 PM on July 22, 2018 [4 favorites]
Not to everyone's taste, but my personal choice would be Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract (1982), which is, among other things, a homage to seventeenth-century English landscape gardening (filmed at Groombridge Place in Kent), and Drowning by Numbers (1988), which is a loving tribute to the landscape and coastline around Southwold in Suffolk.
posted by verstegan at 3:57 PM on July 22, 2018 [4 favorites]
The 1995 version of Persuasion. Lots of rambling in the countryside and then pretty scenes in Bath.
posted by BeHereNow at 7:22 PM on July 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by BeHereNow at 7:22 PM on July 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
I'm with latkes, 28 Days Later was the first thing that sprang to my mind.
My partner and I have been watching a lot of British/UK crime dramas on Netflix lately. One we watched, Hinterland, was a) not very good and b) actually set in Wales, but, man, the place is absolutely gorgeous. Broadchurch is another good one, and that's actually England. Most modern UK crime series have some lovely landscapes in them, with nice quaint old villages and the like. The Detectorists is also very geospatially charming.
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:00 PM on July 22, 2018
My partner and I have been watching a lot of British/UK crime dramas on Netflix lately. One we watched, Hinterland, was a) not very good and b) actually set in Wales, but, man, the place is absolutely gorgeous. Broadchurch is another good one, and that's actually England. Most modern UK crime series have some lovely landscapes in them, with nice quaint old villages and the like. The Detectorists is also very geospatially charming.
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:00 PM on July 22, 2018
Oh and Remains of the Days from uhhhh 1993 I think? (As, on preview, Melismata notes above.)
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:02 PM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:02 PM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Seconding Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility. Unbelievably beautiful in that way that aches sweetly.
posted by fairlynearlyready at 11:40 PM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by fairlynearlyready at 11:40 PM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Mr Holmes, has Ian McKellan playing a retired Sherlock Holmes set in the English countryside with some scenes in London. For me it managed to capture something about English life that I haven't seen elsewhere.
posted by 92_elements at 12:43 AM on July 23, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by 92_elements at 12:43 AM on July 23, 2018 [3 favorites]
Seconding Detectorists. Not a movie, but it will make you want to move to a Southeastern village immediately and take up metal detecting.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:33 AM on July 23, 2018
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:33 AM on July 23, 2018
Get Carter is a fantastic depiction of the North East, albeit much changed
If by "England" you actually mean "the United Kingdom" then Local Hero is an absolute love letter to the Highlands. See also The Wicker Man although perhaps less.... enticing
posted by el_presidente at 4:40 AM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
If by "England" you actually mean "the United Kingdom" then Local Hero is an absolute love letter to the Highlands. See also The Wicker Man although perhaps less.... enticing
posted by el_presidente at 4:40 AM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Somewhere or other Doris Lessing writes of being naturalised in the red earth and veldt of Zimbabwe and all her references for home and landscape being of soft grey-and-green England, pink fairies, pastel flowers etc. That really spoke to me: I too grew up in a radically different place with England being this temperate ideal that my mother, often homesick, longed for with feelings she just wouldn't have had if she hadn't been a little estranged from it.
Ideals stay ideal, I think, if you never manage to achieve them - because once you do achieve them, you're struck by all the fascinating stuff never to be seen in the ideal. With that in mind here's my choice for films that capture some things I love about this place that I think are absolutely characteristic and not given enough credit:
A Hard Day's Night.
The Full Monty.
HOT FUZZ.
posted by glasseyes at 8:22 AM on July 23, 2018 [4 favorites]
Ideals stay ideal, I think, if you never manage to achieve them - because once you do achieve them, you're struck by all the fascinating stuff never to be seen in the ideal. With that in mind here's my choice for films that capture some things I love about this place that I think are absolutely characteristic and not given enough credit:
A Hard Day's Night.
The Full Monty.
HOT FUZZ.
posted by glasseyes at 8:22 AM on July 23, 2018 [4 favorites]
And, not Billy Elliot, (the working class is betrayed in that film, which stings even more considering the results of Thatcher's war against the miners) but Swan Lake, the film of the ballet by Matthew Bourne. The beginnings of Adventures in Moving Pictures is so mixed up with The Arts Council and the formerly generous funding landscape for new work and experimental approaches and artist-led work not just across the arts but in film as well: that ballet is the culmination of some really progressive, collaborative, fantastically creative thinking, which in its day was wonderfully British.
posted by glasseyes at 8:40 AM on July 23, 2018
posted by glasseyes at 8:40 AM on July 23, 2018
The Ian Curtis Biopic ‘Control’ is very visually striking, it’s a wonderful evocation of Northern Britain in all its brutal glory.
posted by Middlemarch at 9:52 AM on July 23, 2018
posted by Middlemarch at 9:52 AM on July 23, 2018
I want to echo All Creatures Great and Small. I so wanted to belong with James, Sigfried and Tristian.
posted by daybeforetheday at 1:00 AM on July 24, 2018
posted by daybeforetheday at 1:00 AM on July 24, 2018
"Sense & Sensibility" is great.
Nth-ing "The Remains of the Day" (adaptation of the Kazuo Ishiguro novel set in pre- and post-WW2 England) and the 1991 "Howards End." Also the 1985 "A Room with a View" (not only did it make me want to travel to England, it made me want to travel to Italy). All three are superb films with the same primary production team: James Ivory (director), Ismail Merchant (producer), Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (screenwriter), Richard Robbins (composer), and Tony Pierce-Roberts (cinematographer). "Howards End" and "A Room with a View" are based on my two favorite E.M. Forster novels, which are set in the early 1900s.
Most modern UK crime series have some lovely landscapes in them, with nice quaint old villages and the like.
Agreed, and this is one of the reasons why I love watching British mysteries. If you're open to more TV series, here's a few more that haven't been mentioned yet (there are so many!) with great location-based filming around England:
- "Rosemary & Thyme" often showcases locations in England; it's about two women solving murders while working as professional gardeners. (Some of the episodes are set outside of England but they should be obvious from the show descriptions.)
- "Poirot" with David Suchet (I prefer the earlier seasons set in the 1930s). It's because of this show (e.g. his flat in London) that I fell in love with modern / art deco style from the era.
- "Vera" with Brenda Blethyn - set in contemporary times in NE England.
- "Grantchester" - mostly set in 1950s Cambridgeshire, with some lovely shots of the River Cam and King's College Cambridge.
- "Foyle's War" - mostly set in WW2-era Hastings / SE England.
Speaking of Brenda Blethyn, it's been a while since I've seen it but I remember the movie "Saving Grace" featuring some nice locations around Cornwall. ("Doc Martin" is actually sort of a spinoff from the movie.)
And if you're interested in Scotland, "Shetland" (another mystery show) has some stunning scenery that certainly makes me want to visit.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 8:00 PM on July 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Nth-ing "The Remains of the Day" (adaptation of the Kazuo Ishiguro novel set in pre- and post-WW2 England) and the 1991 "Howards End." Also the 1985 "A Room with a View" (not only did it make me want to travel to England, it made me want to travel to Italy). All three are superb films with the same primary production team: James Ivory (director), Ismail Merchant (producer), Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (screenwriter), Richard Robbins (composer), and Tony Pierce-Roberts (cinematographer). "Howards End" and "A Room with a View" are based on my two favorite E.M. Forster novels, which are set in the early 1900s.
Most modern UK crime series have some lovely landscapes in them, with nice quaint old villages and the like.
Agreed, and this is one of the reasons why I love watching British mysteries. If you're open to more TV series, here's a few more that haven't been mentioned yet (there are so many!) with great location-based filming around England:
- "Rosemary & Thyme" often showcases locations in England; it's about two women solving murders while working as professional gardeners. (Some of the episodes are set outside of England but they should be obvious from the show descriptions.)
- "Poirot" with David Suchet (I prefer the earlier seasons set in the 1930s). It's because of this show (e.g. his flat in London) that I fell in love with modern / art deco style from the era.
- "Vera" with Brenda Blethyn - set in contemporary times in NE England.
- "Grantchester" - mostly set in 1950s Cambridgeshire, with some lovely shots of the River Cam and King's College Cambridge.
- "Foyle's War" - mostly set in WW2-era Hastings / SE England.
Speaking of Brenda Blethyn, it's been a while since I've seen it but I remember the movie "Saving Grace" featuring some nice locations around Cornwall. ("Doc Martin" is actually sort of a spinoff from the movie.)
And if you're interested in Scotland, "Shetland" (another mystery show) has some stunning scenery that certainly makes me want to visit.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 8:00 PM on July 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Hot Fuzz
posted by emotionalmotionsickness at 9:38 AM on July 25, 2018
posted by emotionalmotionsickness at 9:38 AM on July 25, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by alex1965 at 6:11 AM on July 22, 2018 [7 favorites]