Local landmark featuring in French film

Writer-director Etienne Chatiliez breaks for a chat.
Writer-director Etienne Chatiliez breaks for a chat.
Filming of a scene on the belvedere built in Larnach Castle's  South Seas garden.
Filming of a scene on the belvedere built in Larnach Castle's South Seas garden.
The rebranded Larnach Castle this week.
The rebranded Larnach Castle this week.

One of Dunedin's best-known tourist attractions has been renamed Rabbit Castle.

Larnach Castle has had a bright red flag emblazoned with a white rabbit flying from the battlement flagpole in the past week.

A French revolution took place at the castle as a 70-strong crew filmed an international feature film, L'Oncle Charles, on the grounds.

"We were looking for a big location for a rich man, and this is a beautiful place," writer-director Etienne Chatiliez said.

"The film is about a Frenchman who emigrates to New Zealand in his teens and becomes rich from manufacturing sporting goods for rugby.

But he is diagnosed with an incurable disease and returns to France to look for potential heirs."

New Zealand producer Trevor Haysom, of Auckland, who also produced In My Father's Den in 2004, said Larnach Castle was the most suitable location in the country in which to shoot the film.

"They wanted a typical New Zealand environment, with rolling hills and water and a stately home.

"We did a search around New Zealand, but there aren't many stately homes by the sea," he said.

"They love it here and have found it very charming. That harbour view is unbelievable."

The crew shot the film for nine weeks in France before coming to New Zealand last Tuesday to film the final sequences.

The set at Larnach Castle included a belvedere, or deck with a view, in the South Seas garden, and a 5m-high pair of hands clutching a rugby ball, in the main garden.

The star of the film, singer and actor Eddy Mitchell, is a household name in France.

"Dunedin is very splendid. It is a beautiful place," he said.

Mitchell (68) has been beloved in France since he fronted popular 1950s band Les Chaussettes Noires (The Black Socks), before embarking on a solo career in 1963.

He won a Cesar Award, the French equivalent of the Academy Awards, for best supporting actor in 1996 for Happiness Is in the Field, which was also directed by Chatiliez.

Larnach Castle staff this week said they were happy with the temporary makeover.

"This would be our first feature film here for seven or eight years, so it's been very exciting," Larnach Castle marketing manager Deborah Price said.

"We've had Bollywood and Korean films and television shows like Ghost Hunt and travel documentaries here before, but this is our first French film."

Filming of L'Oncle Charles was completed yesterday and the film is scheduled for release in France on March 31.

nigel.benson@odt.co.nz

 

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