Mi6 HQ / Barbican centre and 50 years of Bond

London will always be London. When you take the subway from Heathrow (British Airways Terminal 5) and comes up at Piccadilly, you realize that London probably is the best city in the world. My last trip took me there for the obvious reason of visiting 'Designing 007 - 50 years of Bond style' at Barbican center. What could be more convenient than a location around the corner.

In Quantum of Solace, M and Tanner are walking out from what is supposed to be the Mi6 headquarters in the film. A little strange since the real secret intelligence hq at Vauxhall Cross had been used as Mi6 during the Brosnan era. The supposedly new Mi6 headquarters are in fact located on top of the Barbican Arts and Conference center and the house is known as the Barbican Frobisher Crescent.

Why this building was used is unknown but then again, Quantum did not deliver many rights and since Gassner was the new production designer (and a very poor one at that) there were evidently no reason to keep anything that was good from the previous films. Gassner has a chance to redeem himself in SkyFall and it seems he will do a better job this time. Furthermore, Mi6 will once again be located at Vauxhall bridge, as seen in the trailers. Just like in The World is not enough the building will once more become the victim of an attack.


"-She wants to know about Slate.
      -Tell her Slate was a dead end!"
 -Tanner and Bond-

M and Tanner are walking in the arcade that runs below the house, on the left hand side. They are coming out in the big opening in the middle of the Crescent (picture to the lower left) and the white blocks on the opposite side of the crescent can be seen behind M in the last scene. 

Overall Quantum struggles with so many problems that it qualifies in the bottom three list but it would be a waste of time to discuss it further here. Sometimes you can forget the past... Instead we are looking forward to the SkyFall premier next month. The latest trailer reveals that we are getting back M's classic office with the padded doors, something that actually was revealed already at the exhibition. M's padded door was on display along with a desk and Mi6 props from SkyFall.

Below are just a few of the things that were on display during the exhibition in London. Listing all the props, outfits and information would take too long, so enjoy the pictures.

Overall the exhibition was elaborately planned and very well designed. One problem was the number of tourists in the first two exhibition halls, but everything got better once you entered into the "casino area", where a number of evening suits, jewelry, playing cards, chips and dresses were on display.

The exhibition closed down in London on Sept 6 and is now going on a world tour. 

Property of a lady - Sotheby's auctions

When agent 009 turns up dead in East Germany with a fake Fabergé egg i his hand, Bond is called in to track down the murderer. The real egg is being auctioned at Sotheby's that afternoon and Bond is keeping an eye out for the seller at the auction, trying to find some leads. After a bidding race against Kamal Kahn, Bond bumps up the price to £500.000 and forces Kamal to buy. The action, and brilliant music by John Barry continues outside of Sotheby's. The auction house is suitably located at New Bond street, no. 34-35. 

Since this is England, you can rest assured that not much has been changed since the film was shot here almost 30 years ago. The main thing different of course being that the entrance has moved to the center of the building, with two big windows on either side. 'The Bond street kiosk' where 007 picks up a magazine has also disappeared. Most likely that was put up for the film, but a magazine shop with the same name can be found at the Bond Street underground station just a few minutes away.

Being a fashionable shopping street ever since the 18th century, Bond street is evidently one of the most expensive strips of real estate in the world. 

"-425', new bidder!

               -

-Have you gone mad?

-Let's see how badly he wants it..."

Bond gives a signal to Smithers who tails Kamal to Heathrow in a London taxi. In the background the Polo Ralph Lauren shop is visible. You can still find the shop in the same building today, surrounded by other luxury shops along the street. Kamal is driven to Heathrow in a Mercedes Benz 600 Pullman, the car of choice for a true villain. Even though Kamal rides in the Pullman version, the Mercedes Benz 600 has been used by Blofeld in both Diamonds are forever and On Her Majesty's secret service.

Just below Sotheby's, to the left on Bond street, you can find Conduit street. This was the location where the famous Bond tailors Anthony Sinclair and Cyril Caslte, who made the suits for Sean Connery and Sir Roger respectively, had their shops. When walking down on Bond street, you should turn left in to Burlington gardens and take a walk down Burlington Arcade where you can find the vintage Rolex store at 'The Vintage Watch Company'. They have an unparalleled collection of vintage Rolex watches if you want to do some window shopping for a 1962 James Bond Rolex Submariner. 

"-You could have been stuck with it!

-I doubt it, he had to buy..."

-Bond and Fanning-

Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild / Palmyra - part 1

In Never say never again Bond is taken to Largo's home in North Africa, Palmyra. The exterior shots pictures Palmyra like some kind of fort, but the interior scenes were filmed at one of the most beautiful buildings on the Côte d'Azur, namely Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild at Saint-Cap-Ferrat. It was constructed between 1905 and 1912 by the Baroness Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild who was a part of the Rothschild banking family of France. The villa is situated on the narrowest part of the Saint-Cap-Ferrat peninsula, overlooking the Mediterranean on both sides.

Largo enters with Bond and Domino only to have Bond captured and imprisoned. After a quick dialogue with Domino she is taken away and put up for sale in the courtyard, a very stupid scene. This courtyard and exterior of Palmyra was filmed at the citadelle in the center of Villefranche-sur-mer, which is only a few kilometers away.

                     "Bond, the game is over!"  

The Baroness definitively chose one of the best sites on the Riviera for her house and among her other accomplishments is the commission of the Rothschild Fabergé egg in 1902. The villa is surrounded by nine gardens, all with a different theme, for instance a Japanese, a French, a Spanish and a rose garden. The entire estate was registered as a historical monument in 1996. Also the rooms in the house have a different theme and the villa holds along with art and exceptional furniture the Baroness' own extensive collection of French porcelain.   

Unfortunately they were preparing an opera at the time of my visit so the main hall was filled with chairs and spotlights. Even though this is probably the least interesting Bond location on the entire Riviera, the villa is beautiful and the theme gardens are magnificent by themselves and well worth a visit, even if you are not normally into flowers.

The house can also be seen in the last part of the mini-series "If tomorrow comes" by Sidney Sheldon, starring Tom Berenger, Madolyn Smith and Liam Neeson from 1986. It is then called 'Villa di Nantegna' and is the subject of a break in and the theft of a Da Vinci.

 "It holds Béatrice's collection of French porcelain, considered to be the richest in France, if not the World."

Visit the foundation's website to find out about events and opening hours. 

villa-ephrussi website

Arriving in Côte d'Azur

In Never say never again, Bond travels to the south of France in pursuit of Largo and his yacht. He arrives with British Caledonian airways to the tones of Sophie Della's ''Une chanson d'amour'' and the camera pans over Monaco and port Hercule to show Bond's arrival to the Riviera (followed by the stupid and badly written 'Felix Leiter scene' at the airport). 

In the next scene we see Bond's plane land at the airport in Nice Côte d'Azur. That makes this view contradictory since Bond's plane would not fly over Monaco coming from London. But perhaps director Kershner wanted to picture a classic, beautiful view over the Riviera and Monte Carlo is a convenient site and definitively well recognizable. 

Monaco has changed a little since 1983 but almost all the buildings on the 'front row' are still recognizable. The biggest change of course being the expanded pier, a construction that took place in 2001 in order to accommodate lager cruise ships. 

Not much more needs to be said about this fabulous location. Monte Carlo is definitively one of the most beautiful Bond locations in the world and a personal favorite of mine...

Sophie Della's song of love is the perfect soundtrack for flying into Nice. It is truly a remarkable approach when you're flying alongside the coast and finally lands, with this music in your ipod.

Happy landings! 

The Skinny Bridge - Amsterdam

In Diamonds are forever 1971, Bond travels to Holland, posing as diamond smuggler Peter Franks in order to find the smuggler's contact in Amsterdam - Tiffany Case. The establishing shot over Amsterdam pictures "The Skinny Bridge" which connects Kerkstraat with Nieuwe Kerkstraat on either side of the river Amstel. The bridge is one of the city's most iconic landmarks.  

                                 "- I always fancied a trip to South Africa...

                                  -You're going to Holland!" 

Tiffany Case has received the diamonds from Mrs Whistler and is waiting for Peter Franks to arrive. The two gentlemen assassins Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd are killing off everyone involved with the diamonds on Blofeld's orders, hence Mrs Whistler ends up in the canal after delivering the diamonds to Tiffany Case. They are standing on the Skinny bridge taking pictures of the dead Mrs Whistler who is fished out of the canal by the police at the time of Bond's arrival. Tiffany's house is located not very far from the bridge and her apartment can be found on Reguliersgracht 36.


"Mrs Whistler did want some pictures of the canals for the children."

We only see the city in the first scene when the canal boat is going under the bridge and immediately after when Bond drives Peter Franks' Triumph Stag up to Tiffany's house. But Amsterdam is a beautiful city with its 17th century canals and since Bond's visit is rather short, the town is not shown to its full potential. Amsterdam as a location is a bit wasted in the film and in my opinion, this is characteristic for all three of Guy Hamilton's films from the 70's (Diamonds, Live and let die and Golden gun). Beautiful cities like Hong Kong, Macau, Amsterdam and New York are used without a single panoramic view or a nice establishing shot. Just compare Bond's arrivals in Rio, Corfu or India with the boring airport scene later in Diamonds where simply a loud speaker is announcing Bond's arrival to Los Angeles. The Amsterdam scenes struggles with the same problems, beautiful surroundings are missed out or ignored. The film itself has bigger problems than that, for example the Blofeld character, Felix Leiter, the poor cutting and lack of serious story but that is better discussed elsewhere.

The present bridge was built in 1934 but it originates from 1691 when the first bridge at the site was constructed. It got its name from the locals, calling it Magre Brug because it was very narrow. Unfortunately after almost 200 years the bridge was demolished and replaced with a new one due to the very bad state. 50 years later the new bridge also needed repairs but it was replaced with a new, slightly bigger bridge, that looked the same. A story told to tourists about the original bridge is that it was built by two sisters who wanted to visit each other every day, but ran out of money and that is why it was called the Skinny Bridge. There seems to be very little truth to this story.

In the film the tour boat is going north through the bridge and Mrs Whistler is probably fished out of the canal at the same location as the boats to the right.

Diamonds is by many considered a classic, but the only thing that should be considered a true classic in this film is the magnificent title song, sung by Shirley Bassey and the soundtrack by John Barry. Also the production design by Ken Adam is worth mentioning.

"Basing Bond in Britain" - Skyfall videoblog

The latest videoblog from the official Bond site 007.com gives us a look behind the scenes from the filming in London. Sam Mendes and Craig talk about the famous sites and how London will be pictured in the film. Both Mendes and Craig are exited to shoot SkyFall on location in Bond's home city.

SkyFall London videoblog

 "We tend to shoot in the more expected areas, but I hope in more unexpected ways and unexpected angles. So we are at Whitehall, we are at Wauxhall Bridge..."
-Sam Mendes on the London locations-

Craig walking into the National Gallery at Trafalgar square. Meeting Q?

"Sam and I wanted to make it British." 
-Craig-

BOAC - Keeping the British end up

"James Bond, his stomach queasy from the BOAC version of an English country house breakfast. It was just 10 a.m. on a blue and golden late September morning and the BOAC Monarch Flight 505 from London had landed at Idlewild...'' -Ian Fleming- in 'James Bond in New York'

The British airline BOAC (British Overseas Airways Cooperation) has played a relatively small part in the Bond films despite the fact that it was a British state airline, and perhaps even a cultural icon that stood at its height in the 50's and 60's. It was also Fleming's airline of choice for Bond in a few of the novels, including the short story 'James Bond in New York'. Fleming also mentioned BOAC in e.g. 'Goldfinger' and Bond is flying to the United States in the novel 'Diamonds are Forever' on a BOAC Stratocruiser.

"Breakfast came, that inappropriate assortment of foods that BOAC advertise as ‘An English country house breakfast’ [...] Cheerful start to flying the Atlantic, reflected Bond, and then they were all walking across the tarmac and up into the big Boeing and, with a burst of oil and metanol smoke, the engines fired one by one. The chief steward announced over the loudspeaker that the next stop would be Shannon, where they would dine, and that the flying time would be one hour and fifty minutes, and the great double-decker Stratocruiser rolled slowly out to the East-West runway."
  -Ian Fleming- in 'Diamonds are forever'

It would also have been the natural choice for Bond traveling to British colonies like Jamaica or the Bahamas in the early films. Their luxury 'Monarch service' that Fleming wrote about in 'James Bond in New York' was introduced by BOAC in 1951 and offered sleeper accommodation across the Atlantic. This service was introduced  for example between London and NY in their Boeing Stratocruiser. However, the Stratocruiser had been retired from passenger service already in 1959 and with the arrival of the new 'jet age', the Boeing 707 was the obvious choice for Bond when flying to Jamaica in Dr No.

Dr. No

Help yourself...

But even though Pan Am was the airline of Bond's choice in Dr. NO, the BOAC logo featured in the film. Bond is offering his taxi to two stewardesses from BOAC and the name can also be seen in the terminal. Could this be a nod to some of the old Fleming novels? The man taking Bond's bags to Mr Jones' car has a BWIA (British West Indian Airways) overall, which also was a subsidiary of BOAC at the time.

From Russia With Love

Except the bridal suite...

Again, BOAC is visible in From Russia with love, but this time in Istanbul at Bond's hotel. A desk stand with the BOAC logo, holding some folders, is briefly seen at the reception desk. Under the logo you can read the advertising slogan "World leader in air travel" (only visible in Blu-ray).

Thunderball

BOAC was also the airline of choice for Major Derval and his "social secretary" Fiona Volpe in Thunderball. Bags with luggage tags from BOAC are visible in their hotel room when Count Lippe is taking the watch from the dead Major Derval. The picture to the left is an example of a BOAC luggage tag from the same time so there can be no doubt about the tags in film. The letters LON can be seen next to the speedbird logo and LONDON can be read above. Since Derval is a NATO officer, it is likely that he and Fiona Volpe have been flying in with BOAC to London from the United States. The luggage tags would have been from British European Airways if they would have come from a city in Europe, like Paris or Rome for instance, so it is certain that they have arrived on an intercontinental flight.

The Spy Who Loved Me
After that rather quick appearance in Thunderball it would take another 12 years until the name would be seen again. For some reason Q is carrying a cabin bag from BOAC when he meets with Bond in Sardinia in The spy who loved me, 1977. By this time BOAC hade merged with BEA (British European Airways) and formed a new airline, today's British Airways. (In the novel 'Dr No' Bond is traveling with BEA to Jamaica.)

Q, have I ever let you down?

Since the merger took place already in 1974 and BOAC had ceased operations, Q's bag is not a product placement. Does anyone know why that bag was used?

Frequently!

The earlier films was not as meticulously planned when it comes to accessories and props as it is today, so I suppose it is possible that the bag was something that they just got hold of during filming. Either way this is the last time, to my knowledge, that BOAC is visible in the series. But already in Moonraker, an advertising billboard with British Airways would be seen (covered in the earlier post).

BOAC was the first airline to carry the Queen, when she came back to England from East Africa, following the death of her father, King George VI in 1952. A few months earlier, in 1951, the first royal flight by BOAC took place when they transported the then Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh to Montreal in a Stratocruiser. A Royal airline, fitting for Bond...

In loving memory of Marvin Hamlish who passed away on Monday 6 August 2012. 

Nobody does it better.