Viva Brighton Issue #69 November 2018

FILM
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Cinema By The Sea
Sussex on celluloid
“I’ve always been intrigued by the show
business associations that Rottingdean has with
the rest of the world,” says Marcus Bagshaw,
self-confessed film fanatic and curator of the
Cinema By The Sea exhibition at The Grange
Museum in Rottingdean. “This exhibition is
a celebration of the Golden and Silver ages
of British Cinema and their associations with
Sussex, Brighton in particular.”
The associations are numerous: the 1953 comedy
classic Genevieve was partly shot on location
in Brighton, as was, of course, the 1947 film
noir Brighton Rock. Both are explored in the
exhibition. Other displays showcase glamorous
Hollywood idols with local connections: In April
1969 Barbra Streisand spent eight days filming
in the Royal Pavilion for the fantasy musical On
a Clear Day You Can See Forever. And Elizabeth
Taylor, whose breakthrough film was the 1944
Hollywood adaptation of Enid Bagnold’s National
Velvet, became lifelong friends with Bagnold and
regularly visited Rottingdean to see her.
“Another star attraction is Audrey Hepburn”,
says Marcus, “she was photographed by Illustrated
magazine as a 23-year-old starlet in June 1951
on Rottingdean beach, by the village pond and
posing next to Rottingdean windmill, much
of it in vivid colour. This was one of the great
discoveries of the exhibition, for me. To have
those associations with a star who became so big
and is still loved, revered and celebrated today.
It truly did start in Sussex and ultimately in
Rottingdean, who could have predicted that?”
The photographs offer an extraordinary glimpse
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