TV Times

TV Times

Love in many shades
The film ‘Love Actually’ is a new romantic comedy about lots of different kinds of love with different kinds of people. ‘Love Actually’ will be released at Majestic Cinema from July 16.

The movie, the directorial debut of celebrated screenwriter Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Notting Hill) with a stellar ensemble cast including Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy, Keira Knightley, Martine McCutcheon and Rowan Atkinson.

Love Actually in the tradition of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’s Diary set in contemporary London in the weeks before Christmas, tells one story which weaves together a spectacular number of love stories-sometimes romantic, sometimes sad, sometimes stupid-all funny in their own way.

Everywhere you look, love is causing chaos. From the new bachelor Prime Minister, who falls in love 30 seconds after entering Downing Street to a loser sandwich delivery guy who doesn’t have a hope with the girls in the UK, so heads for Wisconsin; from a jilted writer who escapes to the south of France to nurse his broken heart to an aging rock star trying to make a comeback at any price; from a bride having problems with her husband’s best man to a married woman having trouble with her husband; from a schoolboy with a crush on the prettiest girl in the school to his architect step-father with a crush on Claudia Schiffer.

These London lives and loves collide, mingle and finally climax on Christmas Eve again and again and again-with romantic, poignant and funny consequences for all.

Curtis set Love Actually in the city he has called home for the last two decades, London, but also includes jaunts to Marseille (the airport, a restaurant, Aurelia’s house) and a villa in Vidauban, France (Jamie’s retreat)-a change for the writer/director (and a setting which underlines the difficulties facing the very British Jamie in such a very foreign place. ‘Throughout my career, I’ve been proud of the fact that I’ve never had a day of filming outside of London-I’d never taken any of my characters outside of the city and thought I’d been very wise about that.

Principal photography began on September, 2002 and continued for 13 weeks, with shooting on soundstages and on locations in and around London (private residences, various business, a church, boating base and even a racecourse building standing in for an American Airport).

Richard Curtis talks about Love Actually, “the idea of writing a film about a prime minister had first occurred to Curtis more than 20 years ago, after Conservative Edwards Heath had served in the office from 1970-74.

“General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed- but I don’t see that-seems to me that love is everywhere” Curtis says. “Often it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy but it’s always there- fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, friends and strangers. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that love actually is all around.” The director and writer adds. Love Actually is produced by Duncan Kenworthy, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.

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