Notting Hill (film)


Notting Hill is a 1999 romantic comedy film directed by Roger Michell. The screenplay was written by Richard Curtis, author of Four Weddings and a Funeral, and the film was produced by Duncan Kenworthy. The film stars Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, Rhys Ifans, Emma Chambers, Tim McInnerny, Gina McKee, and Hugh Bonneville. The story is of a romance between a London book seller played by Grant and a famous American actress played by Roberts, who happens to walk into his shop.
Released on 21 May 1999, Notting Hill was well received by critics and became the highest-grossing British film of all time. The film won a BAFTA, was nominated in two other categories, and won other awards, including a British Comedy Award and a Brit Award for the soundtrack.

Plot

William Thacker owns an independent book store in Notting Hill, London. His wife has recently left him for another man whom he thinks looked exactly like Harrison Ford and he has a silly roommate named Spike. He meets Hollywood actress Anna Scott when she enters the shop incognito. Later, in the street, Will accidentally spills his drink on her, and she goes to his house to change and, upon leaving, impulsively kisses him. She later invites Will to visit her at the Ritz Hotel, but he is mistaken for a reporter and ushered into a press junket for Anna's new film and must pretend to interview her. Anna asks to be his date to his sister's birthday party that evening, where she gets on well with Will's friends and sister and seems to envy their ordinary lives. The next night, they go on a date; at a restaurant they overhear a group of men disparaging Anna because of her screen image. Will remonstrates with them, and is impressed with how calmly she puts them down. Anna invites him to her hotel room, but their plans change when Will discovers that her movie star boyfriend, of whom he was unaware, has unexpectedly arrived from America to be with her. Will is obliged to pretend to be a hotel worker in order to avoid detection. Will's friends try to help him get over his disappointment. Over the next six months, they set him up on a series of dates, including one with a fruitarian, but he finds it impossible to forget Anna.
One day, a distraught Anna appears at Will's doorstep, in need of a place to hide from a tabloid scandal. She apologizes for the hotel incident, telling Will that her relationship with her boyfriend is in the past. They enjoy spending time together and discovering their shared interests, including Will's print of Marc Chagall's 1950 painting La Mariée. They sleep together that night, but their bliss is short-lived when the paparazzi, tipped off by Will's housemate Spike, besiege Will's house and get pictures of him, Anna, and Spike half-dressed at the front door. Furious, Anna blames Will for the situation, declares that she regrets their time together, and leaves.
Seasons pass and Will remains miserable. At a dinner with his friends, he discovers that Anna, by this time an Oscar winner, is back in London making a film. He visits her location shoot, where Anna sees him and invites him past security, so that he can watch the filming with the intention of them talking privately afterwards. Despite realizing that the film is a period Henry James rendition, Will overhears her dismiss him to a co-star, and leaves without further contact. The next day, Anna comes to the bookshop with a wrapped gift, and asks if she can see him again. He tells her what he overhead at the movie set. She explains that she did not want to truthfully discuss her private life with an indiscreet co-star. He accepts this explanation but rejects her out of fear of being hurt again.
Will meets his friends and sister in a restaurant with the opened gift: Chagall's original La Mariée. They act supportively, half-heartedly backing up his decision. Spike, however, declares Will a "daft prick," and Will realizes his mistake. They race across London to Anna's hotel, where they learn that she has checked out and is holding a press conference at the Savoy Hotel. Will arrives to hear Anna's publicist tell the crowd that Anna will be taking a year off and will be leaving the UK that night. Some reporters discuss "Thacker" the guy Anna had been photographed with on her last trip. Anna says they are just friends. Will, again pretending to be a reporter, asks Anna if she'd consider being more than friends with Thacker if he admitted he'd been a "daft prick" and begged her forgiveness. She says she would, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. After exchanging a few subtle glances with Will, Anna announces that she will be staying in Britain "indefinitely," and the press is abuzz, realizing that Will is actually Anna's love interest. The final scenes show Anna and Will marrying, attending a Hollywood red carpet event, and spending quiet time in a park they had visited on their first date. Anna is now pregnant.

Cast

Uncredited cast
Casting notes
developed the film from thoughts while lying awake at night. He described the starting point as "the idea of a very normal person going out with an unbelievably famous person and how that impinges on their lives". In an interview with GQ in 2018, Hugh Grant claimed the film was based on real life and loosely followed a friend of Richard's who fell in love with an 'extremely world-famous person who allowed to mention'.
The film has been likened to "a 90's London-set version of Roman Holiday". However, Curtis has said that he had not seen the 1953 film.
Four Weddings and a Funeral director Mike Newell was approached but rejected it to work on Pushing Tin. He said that in commercial terms he had made the wrong decision, but did not regret it. The producer, Duncan Kenworthy, then turned to Roger Michell, saying that "Finding someone as good as Roger, was just like finding the right actor to play each role. Roger shone out."
Curtis chose Notting Hill as he lived there and knew the area, saying "Notting Hill is a melting pot and the perfect place to set a film". This left the producers to film in a heavily populated area. Kenworthy noted "Early on, we toyed with the idea of building a huge exterior set. That way we would have more control, because we were worried about having Roberts and Grant on public streets where we could get thousands of onlookers." In the end they decided to film in the streets. Michell was worried "that Hugh and Julia were going to turn up on the first day of shooting on Portobello Road, and there would be gridlock and we would be surrounded by thousands of people and paparazzi photographers who would prevent us from shooting". The location team and security personnel prevented this, as well as preventing problems the presence of a film crew might have caused the residents of Notting Hill, who Michell believes were "genuinely excited" about the film. Location manager Sue Quinn described finding locations and getting permission to film as "a mammoth task". Quinn and the rest of her team had to write to thousands of people in the area, promising to donate to each person's favourite charity, resulting in 200 charities receiving money.
"The major problem we encountered was the size of our film unit. We couldn't just go in and shoot and come out. We were everywhere. Filming on the London streets has to be done in such a way that it comes up to health and safety standards. There is no such thing as a road closure. We were very lucky in the fact that we had 100% cooperation from the police and the Council. They looked favorably on what we were trying to do and how it would promote the area."
– Sue Quinn

Stuart Craig, the production designer, was pleased to do a contemporary film, saying "we're dealing with streets with thousands of people, market traders, shop owners and residents which makes it really complex". Filming began on 17 April 1998 in West London and at Shepperton Studios. Will's bookshop was on Portobello Road, one of the main areas in which filming took place. Other places within Notting Hill included Westbourne Park Road, Golborne Road, Landsdowne Road and the Coronet Cinema. Will's house, 280 Westbourne Park Road, was owned by Richard Curtis and behind the entrance there is a grand house, not the flat in the film that was made up in the studios. The blue door was auctioned for charity. The current door is blue again. The Travel Book Store is located at 142 Portobello Road. After filming for six weeks in Notting Hill, filming moved to the Ritz Hotel, where work had to take place at night, the Savoy Hotel, the Nobu Restaurant, the Zen Garden of the Hempel Hotel and Kenwood House. One of the final scenes takes place at a film premiere, which presented difficulties. Michell wanted to film Leicester Square but was declined. Police had found fans at a Leonardo DiCaprio premiere problematic and were concerned the same might occur at the staged premiere. Through a health and safety act, the production received permission to film and constructed the scene in 24 hours. Interior scenes were the last to be filmed, at Shepperton Studios. The final cut was 3.5 hours long, 90 minutes edited out for release.
The film features the 1950 Marc Chagall painting La Mariée. Anna sees a print of the painting in William's home and later gives him what is presumably the original. Michell said in Entertainment Weekly that the painting was chosen because Curtis was a fan of Chagall's work and because La Mariée "depicts a yearning for something that's lost." The producers had a reproduction made for the film, but had to get permission from the owner as well as clearance from the Design and Artists Copyright Society. Finally, according to Kenworthy, "we had to agree to destroy it. They were concerned that if our fake was too good, it might float around the market and create problems." The article also noted that "some experts say the real canvas could be worth between US$500,000 and US$1million."
The film features the book Istanbul: The Imperial City by John Freely. William recommends this book to Anna, commenting that the author has at least been to Istanbul. In reality, Freely taught at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, and was the author of nine books about the city.
In the last scene of the film, Will is shown reading the 1994 book Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières.

Soundtrack

Original music was composed by Trevor Jones. A main score was written, and excerpts were used throughout the film. The score was broken down into two songs for the soundtrack. Several additional songs written by other artists include Elvis Costello's cover of the Charles Aznavour song "She". Charles Aznavour's original version can be heard during the opening credits while Elvis Costello's version is played at the end of the movie. Other songs are Shania Twain's remixed version of "You've Got A Way", as well as Ronan Keating's specially recorded cover of "When You Say Nothing at All"; the song reached number one in the British charts. Pulp recorded new song "Born to Cry", which was released on the European version of the soundtrack album.
The song played when Will strides down Portobello Road is "Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers. Tony and Bernie play "Blue Moon" on the piano at Tony's restaurant on the night it closes. Originally, Charles Aznavour's version of "She" was used in the film, but American test screening audiences did not respond to it. Costello was then brought in by Richard Curtis to record a cover version of the song. Both versions of the song appear in non-US releases.
The soundtrack album was released by Island Records.
US version track listing
  1. "No Matter What"– Boyzone
  2. "You've Got a Way" – Shania Twain
  3. "I Do "– 98 Degrees
  4. "She"– Elvis Costello
  5. "Ain't No Sunshine"– Bill Withers
  6. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?"– Al Green
  7. "Gimme Some Lovin'"– Spencer Davis Group
  8. "When You Say Nothing at All"- Ronan Keating
  9. "Ain't No Sunshine"– Lighthouse Family
  10. "From the Heart"- Another Level
  11. "Everything About You"- Steve Poltz
  12. "Will and Anna"– Trevor Jones
  13. "Notting Hill"– Trevor Jones
The film score and original music was recorded and mixed by Gareth Cousins and Simon Rhodes.

Certifications

Release

The film had its premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square on 27 April 1999 and opened in the UK on 21 May 1999 and in the United States the following week.

Critical reception

The film had generally positive reviews, scoring an 83% "Certified fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes based on 100 reviews with an average rating of 7.07/10, the website's critical consensus reads: "A rom-com with the right ingredients, Notting Hill proves there's nothing like a love story well told -- especially when Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts are your leads." Variety's Derek Elley said that "It's slick, it's gawky, it's 10 minutes too long, and it's certainly not "Four Weddings and a Funeral Part 2" in either construction or overall tone", giving it an overall positive review. Cranky Critic called it "Bloody damned good", as well as saying that it was "A perfect date flick." Nitrate said that "Notting Hill is whimsical and light, fresh and quirky", with "endearing moments and memorable characters". In his review of the film's DVD John J. Puccio noted that "the movie is a fairy tale, and writer Richard Curtis knows how much the public loves a fairy tale", calling it "a sweet film". Desson Howe of The Washington Post gave the film a very positive review, particularly praising Rhys Ifans' performance as Spike. James Sanford gave Notting Hill three and a half stars, saying that "Curtis' dialogue may be much snappier than his sometimes dawdling plot, but the first hour of Notting Hill is so beguiling and consistently funny it seems churlish to complain that the rest is merely good." Sue Pierman of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel stated that "Notting Hill is clever, funny, romantic– and oh, yes, reminiscent of Four Weddings and a Funeral", but that the film "is so satisfying, it doesn't pay to nitpick." Roger Ebert praised the film, saying "the movie is bright, the dialogue has wit and intelligence, and Roberts and Grant are very easy to like." Kenneth Turan gave a good review, concluding that "the film's romantic core is impervious to problems". CNN reviewer Paul Clinton said that Notting Hill "stands alone as another funny and heartwarming story about love against all odds".
Widgett Walls of Needcoffee.com gave the film "three and a half cups of coffee", stating that "the humor of the film saves it from a completely trite and unsatisfying ending", but criticised the soundtrack. Dennis Schwartz gave the film a negative review with a grade of "C-" citing "this film was pure and unadulterated balderdash". Some criticised the film for giving a "sweetened unrealistic view of London life and British eccentricity." The Independent derided the film for being unrealistic. In particular, the film was criticised for failing to reflect the demographic of the area:
"only Curtis could write a movie about Notting Hill, London's most diverse borough, and not feature a single black face in it."

Lists

Notting Hill was 95th on the British Film Institute's "list of the all-time top 100 films", based on estimates of each film's British cinema admissions.

Box office

The film opened over the Memorial Day weekend in the United States and Canada, the same weekend as , and opened at number two for the weekend, grossing US$27.7million over the 4-day weekend, the biggest opening for a romantic comedy film, beating My Best Friend's Wedding. Notting Hill made another US$15million the following week. One month after its release, Notting Hill lost its record for highest-grossing opening weekend for a romantic comedy film to Runaway Bride. The film grossed £31 million in the United Kingdom and US$116,089,678 in the United States and Canada, with a worldwide gross of US$363,889,678, making it the highest-grossing British film of all time, surpassing the record set by Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994, and the seventh highest-grossing film of 1999.

Awards and nominations

Notting Hill won the Audience Award for Most Popular Film at the BAFTAs in 2000, and was nominated in the categories of The Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding British Film of the year, and Best Performance by an Actor in a supporting role for Rhys Ifans. The film won Best Comedy Film at the British Comedy Awards. The film's soundtrack won Best Soundtrack at the 2000 Brit Awards, beating Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. The film won Best British Film, Best British Director for Roger Michell, and Best British Actor for Hugh Grant at the Empire Awards.
The film received three nominations at the Golden Globes, in the categories Best Motion Picture– Comedy/Musical, Best Motion Picture Actor– Comedy/Musical for Hugh Grant, and Best Motion Picture Actress– Comedy/Musical for Julia Roberts.