A true city of film (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

A true city of film

8:36am Wednesday 11th March 2009 in News By Jim Greenhalf

Sir Michael Caine may or may not be able to dash to Bradford for the screening of his latest film, Is Anybody There, for the gala night of the 15th Bradford International Film Festival.

Word is he’d like to, but Friday also happens to be the last day of filming on his current project.

However, his inclination to come if he can is indicative of the film festival’s reputation and Bradford’s rich history as a place for movie-making.

To mark Bradford’s bid to become the first UNESCO City Of Film, the film festival is screening three movies with a local connection.

Actor Michael Rennie was born in Idle in 1909 and died in Harrogate in 1971. He became the busiest British character actor in Hollywood, appearing in films such as The Robe, Secret Agent, Caesar And Cleopatra and The Day The Earth Stood Still.

In the latter film, showing on Thursday, March 26, he played a dignified, benevolent alien, Klaatu, who lands his spaceship in Washington to warn the world about the danger of proliferating nuclear weapons. Albert Pierrepoint was the Bradford-born genial soul who became Britain’s chief hangman throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The 2005 biopic stars Timothy Spall as the perfect executioner. It’s showing next Monday.

The third film in the City Of Film section is Room At The Top, to be screened on Saturday, the 1958 film version of John Braine’s first and perhaps best novel featuring his most loathsome anti-hero, the bitter and self-obsessed Joe Lampton.

A good deal of the film was shot on location in and around Bradford, including City Hall and Cartwright Hall. Laurence Harvey stars with Simone Signoret and Donald Wolfit.

The outcome of Bradford’s City Of Film bid may be known later this this year.

Tony Earnshaw, artistic director of film festival, says: “We are very keen to underline the idea that film in the UK is not a London-centric things.

“It’s happening across the country and I am proud of the National Media Museum and the film festival that a great deal of it is happening here.

“As unlikely as it may seem to some, Bradford is a shining light in the British film industry.

“The 200 films of various sorts that we are showing during the festival backs that up.”

“We’ve got genuine independent cinema and, for the first time, stand-alone documentaries which are as important as anything else that’s playing.”

Bradford International Film Festival runs from Friday to March 28. For tickets ring 0870 7010200. For more information go to bradfordfilmfestival.org.uk