Cast
| Julie Andrews........................Felicity,
Countess of Marshwood
Colin Firth.............................Peter Engleton, Felicity's nephew Stephen Fry...........................Crestwell, the butler Jeanne Tripplehorn.................Miranda Frayle William Baldwin.....................Don Lucas William Atterton.....................Nigel, Earl of Marshwood Sophie Thompson..................Moxie (Mrs. Dora Moxton) |
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Movie Locations
| One of the most imposing structures on the Island is the Nunnery outside
of Douglas–once the site of a 12th-century convent dedicated to St. Bridget.
Built in baronial style and surrounded by extensive gardens and parklands, the current mansion house dates back to 1797 and the Taubman family. The merging of the two family names Taubman and Goldie surfaced in the official records of 1829 when Captain John Goldie-Taubman was elected a Member of the House of Keys. The Nunnery has long been considered the family seat of the Goldie- Taubman family and is closely associated with Speakership of the House of Keys. |
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The convent was founded between 1187 and 1190 by Aufrica, sister of King Reginald of Mann and Isle and wife of John de Courcy of Ulster. Only fragments remain in the restored chapel on the estate. According to historical accounts, the old convent was a magnificent structure and the Prioress a person of considerable importance–a Baroness of Man who had temporal as well as spiritual jurisdiction. |
The Nunnery is currently a private residence which is owned by millionaire
businessman Graham Ferguson Lacey. A recent newspaper article stated
that it may become the site of the Isle of Man College’s business school.
| Site of the eyewitness account on Murph's page, Kirk Braddan—the
parish church of Braddan—is on the Douglas-Peel road just outside the western
edge of Douglas on the Isle of Man and is a landmark on the Isle's TT motorcycle
race course. It is dedicated to St. Brendan and was built in 1876
on a design by John Loughborough Pearson in the Early English style.
It is a large, pleasant building faced outside in local stone.
The south porch shown on the right was the spot where Julie Andrews and Colin Firth filmed their scene, which consisted of her running up the steps and saying one line. |
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Film99 interview with Julie Andrews (broadcast October 6, 1999)
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This December is the centenary of actor and playwright Noel Coward. Jonathan Ross visited the set of 'Relative Values', the new movie adaptation of Coward's play, currently filming in the Isle of Man. It marks the return of Julie Andrews to the big screen, with her first feature film in eight years. Excerpts follow. (Full interview here) |
Julie: Oh, that's easy. Lots of things really. It's a wonderful role for a lady. The cast are superb— Stephen Fry, Colin Firth, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Sophie Thompson, Edward Atherton—and the director is a very talented young man that I admire. So, put them all together and it seemed natural to want to do it.
Jonathan: Could you tell me about the story?
Julie: It's about a countess, the lady I play, who owns Marshwood House and all the estates. Her son, Lord Marshwood has long been an admirer of ladies and has had many, many amours but he's really gone off the deep end and fallen in love with a Hollywood star. Her reputation is not superb and he decides he's going to marry her. It takes place in 1954, when things were changing just after the war. She tries very hard to embrace a new concept and new idea. But, knowing that her son is not deeply in love and that it's just a passing whim, she's very anxious that she preserve her nest. It's very witty, very funny. The Hollywood star's ex-boyfriend shows up and I do what I can to stir the pot. It's charming.
Jonathan: Your co-stars are in awe of you.
Julie: Well, I'm very grateful for the way my previous roles have sort of kept going. Nobody could be more unbelievably lucky than I've been. First of all, they are movies that come around again and again and again. It's not just a fashionable thing. Children love them and adults love them too and so, in that respect, I'm very lucky. Jeanne Tripplehorn plays the American star and she's just become a new buddy. We've had tremendous giggles together and have bonded wonderfully. Colin Firth plays my nephew and we've also had wonderful scenes together. Edward Atherton's the most delicious looking boy and I think he really looks like he could be my son. Sophie Thompson stands a good chance of just walking away with the movie, and maybe an Oscar, you never know.
The return of our fair lady
She is beyond mere stardom, having ascended to the status of Beloved National Treasure. People who like Julie Andrews do not merely like her: she taps wellsprings of unconditional affection.
It's a fact not lost on Christopher Milburn, the producer of Relative Values, who can barely believe she is in his film. "To me, it's bizarre that I'm working with Julie Andrews," he says. "She's a legend. And a true professional with no airs and graces. She's thoughtful, genuine and very nice.
"There were all sorts of more obvious people for this part, I suppose. Judi Dench, maybe, or Maggie Smith.
"But we felt Julie was spot-on when it came to the character of the countess and could lend humour without taking it over the top and making it too theatrical."
In the Isle of Man, then, Andrews is in stoic mood. We meet in a big manor house known as the Nunnery, set in sweeping grounds in the south-west of the island.
Between scenes, Andrews, a silk dressing-gown over the beige trouser suit she is wearing for the day's filming, sweeps into an imposing dining room and sits beside a long table used for a banquet sequence in Relative Values.
In Relative Values, which Coward labelled a light comedy, she plays a widowed English countess living in a stately home. Her co-stars include Jeanne Tripplehorn and Billy Baldwin as Hollywood movie stars, Colin Firth in a Coward surrogate role as her witty nephew, Sophie Thompson as her maid and Stephen Fry as an astute butler.
Ex-actors Paul Rattigan and Michael Walker updated Coward's 1951 play by three years, including scenes in Hollywood and the south of France. Christopher Milburn and director Eric Styles are a British film team who have already made Dreaming of Joseph Lees, a minor-key period drama with a love triangle, which is now awaiting release.
When they offered Andrews Relative Values, she found it irresistible. "I'd seen Dreaming of Joseph Lees and was very impressed," she says. "This script is terrific and it's a lovely role. It's rather nice to be playing a countess. And it was a chance to work with people like Colin Firth and Stephen Fry."
Andrews acknowledges that there is currently something of a vogue for Coward in this, his centenary year. "I'm hoping this film might do for Coward what other films did for E M Forster and Jane Austen," she says. "That is, spark a revival."
Relative Values should open next May.
Film-makers catch new Coward
fever
A £3.5 million production of Relative Values, starring
Julie Andrews, Colin Firth and Stephen Fry, has just started its six-week
shoot on the Isle of Man. Christopher Milburn, producer of RelativeValues–a
1951 social satire–said that Coward had been "underexposed for some time"
but his "wit and writing are as relevant today as when he wrote".
'Values' set to roll
Los Angeles-based Overseas FilmGroup and the Isle of Man Film Commission
are backing the £3 million ($4.8 million) adaptation of Noel
Coward's "Relative Values," set to begin production July 31 in Britain.
Julie Andrews, Billy Baldwin, Colin Firth, Stephen Fry, Sophie Thompson
and Jeanne Tripplehorn will star in the satire of the values of the British
post-war classes written by Paul Rattigan and Michael Walker. It
will be directed by Eric Styles and produced by Christopher Milburn for
Midsummer Films.
Scenes from the 1951 London Play
