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.