July 4, 2009
Lord Elgin & some stones of no value
In 1985, film director Christopher Miles (who is also now a member of the Marbles Reunited campaign) made a film about the Parthenon Marbles. The film was shown on Channel 4, but there have also been private viewings of it at the Houses of Parliament & Greenwich University in the last few years.
Thoroughly researched, the film is structured in an interesting way, where rather than a merely historical retelling of the story, much of it is based on the text of the actual letters sent back to England by Elgin – but then the scenes cut back to the modern day studio where the actors discuss the issues amongst themselves based on the information that we know now. It is also the first film to feature a very young looking Hugh Grant (playing William Hamilton – Elgin’s Private Secretary), alongside Lord Elgin played by Nigel Havers.
Christopher has now put a lot of information (original images from the filming, plus his own comments on the film etc.) on his website.
Read more about the film here.
- The Athenian Acropolis – from antiquity through to modern times : February 1, 2012
- Jackie Chan & the British Museum : September 18, 2005
- What is lost when historical context is destroyed? : September 7, 2009
- Responses to John Carr’s comments on the Marbles : January 27, 2008
- PASOK reiterates their intentions to reunify the Elgin Marbles : November 6, 2009
- Martin Clunes to star in drama about cultural artefact restitution : August 16, 2006
- Is Marbles Reunited “yet another campaign”? : March 22, 2007
- Elgin family to return some stones of no value to their country of origin : April 18, 2008
Jan-Willem Anker said,
02.12.10 at 4:10 pm
Does anybody know whether ‘Lord Elgin and some stones of no value’ was put out on DVD? Hope to hear from you, Jan-Willem Anker (Amsterdam, The Netherlands).