Iconic film maker Jean-Luc Godard hit the nail pretty much square on the head when he said cinema was the most beautiful fraud in the world.
The Frenchman then ruined it all by claiming: “Photography is truth. And cinema is truth 24 times a second.”
That is a tough one to swallow in this age of computer wizardry and trickery. Whatever Working Title’s new romantic comedy ‘Wimbledon’ is, it is not truth.
A meeting of 21st century technology and 19th century values, maybe.
Suspicious in equal measure of commercialism and change, the reserved All England Club surprised many by opening its arms to Hollywood actors and a British production company for the making of a new romantic comedy within its hallowed grounds.
It was a brave move. The last movie to use Wimbledon as a background hardly set the world alight.
In 1979, ‘Players’ sank without trace despite a cast led by Ali MacGraw and colourful cameos from John McEnroe, Ilie Nastase and Guillermo Vilas, among others.
‘Wimbledon,’ though, should fare better. Director Richard Loncraine is banking on it.
“You have to believe that it’s going to be a classic of its kind, a great film,” he said when asked of his hopes for the movie. “Or at least a lovely Friday night film, because if you don’t then why should the cast or the crew?
“I want this to be the new ‘When Harry Met Sally’.”
Fighting chance
Given that ‘Wimbledon’ is from the stable of ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral,’ ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ and ‘Notting Hill,’ it is fair to say Loncraine has a fighting chance of pulling it off.
Certainly the new offering from Working Title is a return to what the filmmakers with the Midas touch do best.
It unashamedly flogs a brand of Englishness pretty much unfamiliar to any resident of England and will, the producers hope, put the company back on track following the disappointment of ‘Thunderbirds.’
It stars a bumbling, permanently embarrassed, jocular Brit opposite a savvy, confident American love interest. The plot lights the touch paper between the two and stands back.
Audiences can decide for themselves whether or not fireworks explode when the film opens in the United States on Friday and in Britain a week later.
If the movie flops, it will not be for any lack of effort from its leading actors Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany.
The pair enlisted the services of former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash to teach them the basics of tennis. Computer wizardry does the rest.
So much for Godard’s assertion of cinematic truth.
Special effectsNeither Bettany, as rank outsider Peter Colt, nor Dunst, as the feisty, McEnroe-styled Lizzie Bradbury, possess any sporting prowess.
In fact, neither of them had so much as worked out before ‘Wimbledon’ came along.
No matter — the special effects department works magic.
“The thing to do is to serve it wildly out,” Bettany said, when asked how his deliveries looked so professional.
“They like us to use a ball initially to give the computer people a reference point.”
Despite playing a character ranked number one in the world, Dunst was happy leaving all her shots to electronic trickery.
“As long as we do it without the ball I’m fine,” the ‘Spiderman’ star smiled.
Cash clearly had his work cut out, but was won over by the plot and the actors.
“When I first read the script, I thought it was a bit far-fetched,” said the 1987 Wimbledon champion.
“But then you think of (Goran) Ivanisevic winning the tournament...tennis can be like that.”