Not sure if this should be on the Skybar but what about a thread on films either set in Wales or about Wales? Good ones, bad ones, dodgy accents, Welsh language, English language, old or new. I'll start off with a little known film called The Phantom Light.

It was directed by Michael Powell of Powell/Pressburger fame in the 1930's. It's basic premise is ghostly goings on on the north Wales coast which turn out to be not so ghostly and eventually sorted out by a cockney lighthouse keeper - a sort of pre cursor to Scooby Doo.

The film is interesting due to a number of characters speaking in Welsh which is probably a rarity for that time. Also this is one of Michael Powells first films as director and contains early examples of his sympathetic approach to photographing the natural landscape as seen in later films such as A Canterbury Tale and I know Where I'm Going.

Regretably the Welsh are treated as at best backward and at times malevolent and there is a huge hint at inbreeding in that all the characters seem to be called Owen or Owens. The cockney lighthouse keeper gets to the bottom of the mystery whilst the locals seem incapable of thinking for themselves. It's a bit like the King Solomans Mine sort of film with the superstitious natives being sorted out by the 'white man'. This is really disappointing as Powell went on to make films that gave a heroic quality to all manner of nationalities - the English, the Scots, the Greeks, the Australians and even the Germans! Was this the prevalent mindset at the time or was it a one off? I remember watching this one on a Monday Matinee on ITV (remember them) as a child and even then I was bowled over that there was a film about Wales yet dismayed at the same time at the negative representation. It's worth a look though, even if for curiosity value.

Any more?

Well, look you Morgan, if it's dodgy accents your after, it has to be John Ford's multi Academy Award winner 'How Green was My Valley'. None of the actors were in fact Welsh, let alone Welsh speaking, but it strangely managed to tank Citizen Kane (often regarded as one of the top films ever made) at the Oscars, winning best picture in 1942 along with four others.

A 'slightly newer oldie' also springs to mind, namely 'Tiger Bay' with Hayley Mills and Horst Bucholz. I actually bought this one about two years ago to try to spot stil standing elements of the old docks. It was almost impossible to reconcile the two. As a stand alone film it was nevertheless quite enjoyable.

I also quite enjoyed Very Annie Mary with Rachel Griffiths and Matthew Rhys, which I think was out about 5 years ago. This was set in a small village 'in the Valleys' and concerned a simple character with a beautiful untrained operatic style voice (Griffiths) whose friend had a terminal illness. Sounds a bit 'Screen 2 at Chapter' but the film was quite funny, and aimed at a mainstream audience. The film relied heavily upon strong, but sometimes OTT characters in the village.

Well, look you Morgan, if it's dodgy accents your after, it has to be John Ford's multi Academy Award winner 'How Green was My Valley'. None of the actors were in fact Welsh, let alone Welsh speaking, but it strangely managed to tank Citizen Kane (often regarded as one of the top films ever made) at the Oscars, winning best picture in 1942 along with four others.

A 'slightly newer oldie' also springs to mind, namely 'Tiger Bay' with Hayley Mills and Horst Bucholz. I actually bought this one about two years ago to try to spot stil standing elements of the old docks. It was almost impossible to reconcile the two. As a stand alone film it was nevertheless quite enjoyable.

I also quite enjoyed Very Annie Mary with Rachel Griffiths and Matthew Rhys, which I think was out about 5 years ago. This was set in a small village 'in the Valleys' and concerned a simple character with a beautiful untrained operatic style voice (Griffiths) whose friend had a terminal illness. Sounds a bit 'Screen 2 at Chapter' but the film was quite funny, and aimed at a mainstream audience. The film relied heavily upon strong, but sometimes OTT characters in the village.

I don't actually think Tiger Bay used many locations in Cardiff although I believe it did make use of Loudon Square before it was knocked down. What a pity that was when comparing it with the new Loudon Square.......:bash: It also used locations in Newport, Barry and Caerphilly as I remember.

A film that did use a lot of Cardiff locations was Human Traffic. I think this film is very underated. Some superb set pieces, a great cameo from Howard Marks and probably the only film that actually dealt with the clubbing scene in the UK with any degree of reality. It was a decent effort from a first time director and one of the few occasions when a proper Kairdiff accent has been heard on the silver screen (from the director himself) rather than the halfway between Bridgend and Merthyr sing song effort that seems to be the central casting Welsh accent. Justin Kerrigan is directing a new film set in Cardiff called I know You Know with Robert Carlyle. He's a fine actor but will he sound like he's impersonating an Indian....? :)

I know of no other films set in Cardiff apart from the above. I always thought the Cardiff Dead/Prince of Wales books by John Williams would make fine screenplays but there doesn't seem to be anything on that front which is not suprising given the state of the Welsh film inductry. Anyone know any different?

The Dirty Sanchez film is part set in south Wales. Pritchard even wears a City shirt in a few scenes.

I know this thread has died on it's arse but I'm going to make an attempt to resurrect it anyway...!

The Last Days of Dolwyn was made in 1948 and is most remembered for being Richard Burtons first film. It's almost prophetic as it deals with a Welsh valley being flooded to provide a reservoir for Liverpool! This was 20 years before Tryweryn. Richard Burton comes back to the village he was born in to persuade the locals not to poose the flooding and start a new life in Liverpool. You have to suspend belief in that no-one in the village recognises Burton's character (he had been cast out many years before) except for his mother! There is a melodramatic twist at the end. It's a real curiosity piece particularly given that the premise came true just 2 decades later.

A modern film that I think is very underated is Twin Town. It's a bit cartoonish but I think it suffered with the unfair comparisons to Trainspotting. If you are Welsh there is so many quotable lines from the film and Bryn Cartwright's small time local hood character is genius. I like the fact that it used Welsh stereotypes such as male voice choirs and subverted them at the same time. I remember Barry Norman complaining that he wouldn't expect this type of film to come from the Welsh who he described as lyrical and poetic. This used to be the benevolent One Tory stereotype for the Welsh before we became sheep shagging windbags in the 1980's. As soon as Barry Norman said that I couldn't help but think the film had done what it had set out to do.

Not sure if this should be on the Skybar but what about a thread on films either set in Wales or about Wales? Good ones, bad ones, dodgy accents, Welsh language, English language, old or new. I'll start off with a little known film called The Phantom Light.

It was directed by Michael Powell of Powell/Pressburger fame in the 1930's. It's basic premise is ghostly goings on on the north Wales coast which turn out to be not so ghostly and eventually sorted out by a cockney lighthouse keeper - a sort of pre cursor to Scooby Doo.

The film is interesting due to a number of characters speaking in Welsh which is probably a rarity for that time. Also this is one of Michael Powells first films as director and contains early examples of his sympathetic approach to photographing the natural landscape as seen in later films such as A Canterbury Tale and I know Where I'm Going.


From this, it sounds like it was remade recently as 'Half Light' with Demi Moore. Although, having checked on imdb, both films have very different synopsis (Phantom Light - Lighthouse keeper murdered and light keeps shining, Half Light - Author loosing Son, goes to 'Scotland' to get over it, makes love to a guy, finds out later he's been dead for 8 years) - so maybe not.

Although it was filmed in Wales around Anglesey, they reset it to Scotland - probably because more Americans have heard of Scotland than Wales.

I'm not sure it was a remake. It sounds like quite a different story to me. Bloody annoying that the location was changed to Scotland. Even though it was panned any film with Demi Moore in is going to raise the profile of Wales.

There have been a number of films filmed in north Wales but not may set there. Inn of Sixth Happiness with Ingrid Bergman used Snowdonia as a stand in for China! First Knight with Richard Gere and Sean Connery was also filmed in north Wales as was the Englishman who went up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain (even though it was set in south Wales and apparently based on a true story relating to Gwaelod a Garth a village on the outskirts of Cardiff).

One film that was filmed and set in north Wales and a great film at that is Hedd Wyn. I've got mixed feelings about Welsh language films. They all seem a bit 'worthy' - a bit Arts Council grant if you know what I mean - although quite a lot of British films seem to feel the same to be fair. But this one stands on it's own merits. It's based on a true story of a poet who posthumously won the Eisteddfodd during the First World War which would seem fairly dry, unpromising material but in an understated way is very poignant and dramatic. Highly recommended. After that I'm struggling to come up with films set in north Wales.

I remember seeing the film Coming Up Roses (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE4DB123BF932A2575AC0A961948260) years ago. It was billed as a comedy but I found it really sad. It was a Welsh language film with English subtitles set in Aberdare at a time of depression. The story is about the last cinema in the town closing down and efforts of the two remaining employees to save it.

A new Welsh film has been released today - The Baker. It's been universally panned. Oh dear.

Oh - and talking of films made in north Wales, but set elsewhere, you've missed out the most famous - Carry on up the Khyber!

Tomb Raider 2 also used North Wales as a double for China.

Carry on Up the Khyber! I didn't know that. That is something to boast about...!

Oh - and talking of films made in north Wales, but set elsewhere, you've missed out the most famous - Carry on up the Khyber!

Tomb Raider 2 also used North Wales as a double for China.

Dronkula

If you are interested I've found this great website specifically about locations used in north Wales for films/tv -

www.moviemapnorthwales.co.uk