Unfolding 'The Aryan Papers'

Anyone venturing down to the Southbank this month should definitely take a detour to the BFI's excellent Gallery space. One of the few spaces in the country devoted purely to video installations, this month the Gallery hosts an effort by artists Jane and Louise Wilson. Tying in with the BFI's Kubrick Season the installation showcases Kubrick's lost film The Aryan Papers. Despite entering the latter stages of pre-production (with even some of the leading roles being cast) The Aryan Papers never made it to the screen, being abandoned in the mid 90s when Kubrick decided that the Holocaust was unfilmable. The installation collects together the visual fragments of the project which survive, including photos from a pre-production location recce and chiefly images from the costume fittings of intended lead actress Johanna ter Steege. These images are accompanied by newly shot footage of Steege in costume and in the locations featured in the photographs, giving us a tantalising glimpse of what might have been. Steege also narrates the piece, talking us through the casting process and her discussions with the seminal director.

With its utilisation of materials that would otherwise be languishing in an archive to explore a relatively unknown area of film history, the project fits perfectly with the BFI's aims and ambitions. The fragmentary nature of the surviving materials from The Aryan Papers is intensely cinematic and the piece strikes just the right note of melancholy and the viewer can't help but feel sad that Johanna ter Steege in particular never got the moment in the limelight which must have seemed so assured at the time. The story of the film's troubled production is so interesting that it would make a facinating full length documentary and the installation is a fantastic addition to the BFI's excellent Kubrick season.

Companion Idol - Part Two

Well how time flies! Since my last Companion Idol post we have a new Doctor! That makes this game slightly trickier, as we now have to think of actresses who would not only make good companions, but actresses who would make good companions for Matt Smith. My original plan was to look at ‘Mrs Peel’ type companions in this post, characters like Leela, Romana and Zoe whose intelligence puts them on an equal footing with the Doctor (I would have suggested Parminder Nagra, Hayley Attwell and Rosamund Pike as potential 'Mrs Peels'). Thinking about it now though a ‘Mrs Peel’ would be the wrong way to launch a new series, as such characters are obviously a lot harder for an audience to identify with, and with a new Doctor for the audience to get to know as well a 'girl next door' may be the best way to go.

Incidentally, one of my previous suggestions, Michelle Ryan, is now out of the running having been cast as Lady Christina de Souza in the upcoming Easter special Planet of the Dead. Lady Christina looks to be far more in the ‘Mrs. Peel’ mould than any previous new series companions so it'll be interesting to see how this dynamic works out.

So, while new companion will have to be more in the ‘Girl Next Door’ role, but will also have to be markedly different from Rose, Martha and Donna. A companion from the past or the future would be a brave and welcome move, as companions like Charley and Zoe show how such characters can be successful. I still think Olivia Hallinan and Sheridan Smith would make excellent companions and would suggest adding Emma Rigby, one of the few genuinely charismatic actors in Hollyoaks, to the list. Jemima Rooper would also be fantastic, but, like Sheridan Smith she has already been snagged by by Big Finish, to play the audio incarnation of comics companion Izzy.

But what if the production team decide to bamboozle us with someone completely unexpected? In that case I'd suggest Olivia Coleman would make a lovely older lady companion (although it might look like the Doctor is travelling through time with his mum! Actually that could be quite fun...) Or if they opt for a bloke they could do a lot worse than the brilliant Russell Tovey.

R for Restoration

In 2006 the kind folks at 2 Entertain released The Andromeda Anthology, a DVD set collecting all surviving material from the early 60s sci-fi serial A For Andromeda and its sequel The Andromeda Breakthrough. Following in the footsteps of the exemplary Quatermass serials of the 50s the series is interesting for a number or reasons, chiefly for launching the career of future international star Julie Christie who takes the role of the titular Andromeda.

Like so many TV shows of the time the master tapes of A For Andromeda were destroyed after it was felt that they had outlived the chance of overseas sales and repeats. Consequently only one full episode survives today (an overseas film print recovered in 2005) with a handful of film inserts (some in stunning condition) from the rest of the serial also remaining. Luckily included among these film inserts are the serials climatic final scenes.

For the DVD release 2 Entertain reconstructed the show by utilising the complete set of telesnaps (photos taken directly from the TV by photographer John Cura) held by director Michael Hayes. While commendable, the reconstruction is somewhat flawed as the telesnaps are accompanied only by subtitles to describe the action, making the 2 hours+ running time something of a hard slog. A narration would have made the whole project a lot more watchable, and with a little creativity could have been cleverly linked to the original episode introductions, in which one of the surviving characters is interviewed about his involvement in the Andromeda Project.

It’s with a sigh of relief that the viewer reaches the sixth episode, Face of the Tiger, and is reminded that there are such things as moving pictures! Here, understandably it is Julie Christie’s performance as Andromeda which holds the most interest for film fans and it’s easy to see why she went on to such success and acclaim. However with the move to sound and vision the production's main flaw becomes apparent; the show's protagonist John Fleming (played by Peter Halliday) lacks any discernable charisma. Scenes such as the one where he 'teaches' Andromeda about human emotions by kissing her are heavy handed and more than a little creepy. This reviewer couldn't help but feel that if he's the best defence humanity can muster maybe the aliens have a point in wanting to wipe us out!