Free Unity by Michael Arditti Page B

really was too short!). I’m only sorry that you chose such a dreary day. If you’d wanted to watch a chauffeur park a Rolls Royce ten times, you could have taken the tube to BondStreet. In fact, that was all too familiar a pattern. Unbeknownst to anyone (apart from Fliss and her entire family, who thought it not worth a mention), Schloss Benthall is in the direct flight-path of an American airbase. As the five-hundredth plane roared past, we started to suspect that they were under secret instructions from Hollywood to fly as often and as low as possible. Even so, I hope that you picked up enough tips to impress the boys – if only with your inside knowledge of the factors that can disrupt filming. I’m sorry if I failed you on the ‘dish-the-dirt’ front. I know what an old gossip you are! When I’m summoned to MGM, I promise to give you the exclusive story of my love-nest with the stars. Speaking of which, Fliss sends her love.
    Meanwhile, why the sudden attack of reticence? Of course I’d be happy to jot down a few observations of life on set for your English class. What’s more to the point is whether you’ll be prepared to shoulder the additional guilt such a letter is bound to inspire (I know that’s below the belt, but you deserve it). There’s no point in my trying to squeeze into Size 4 shoes, so I’ll just have to hope that the boys are interested in the same things I am (which, if you believe Fliss, is more than likely). I give you full permission to discard or embellish whatever you wish.
    I think that my overriding impression is one of muddle, although I don’t suppose that that’s very helpful (‘Clarity of thought, Dent minor. That’s what’s kept the upper classes up!’). Wherever you look, there are people busy with their allotted tasks. The grips are laying cables from the generator vans and tracks for the cameras. The electricians are installing lighting rigs. The sound engineers are checking … well, I leave you to guess. The actors are being ferried between wardrobe and make-up, while their stand-ins seize a solitary moment of glory in front of the focus puller’s tape. And yet out of all the mayhem, the crash of equipment and egos, there somehow emerges a film.
    My second impression is harder to convey. It has to do withvulnerability. As with the planes, we’re forever at the mercy of forces beyond our control. Take last Monday. We were filming at the Führerbau, the former Nazi reception building. (For all Wolfram’s talk of psychic resonance, I find it spooky. Lord knows how the drama students cope. Cambridge ghosts were oppressive enough and few of them were mass murderers. 35 ) The scene in question was one where Unity and Diana take Lord and Lady Redesdale to tea with Hitler. Although it could hardly have been simpler – an establishing shot of Martin Bormann greeting the group on the steps and ushering them indoors – tension was heightened on account of its being the two Geralds’ (Geraldine’s and her father’s) first day on set in Munich. Apart from the hanging of two giant eagles above the doors, the building itself required remarkably little transformation, but Gerhard (the Director of Photography) spent hours adjusting the lighting. Wolfram’s trademark ‘Seid ihr fertig?’ became ever more pointed, but Gerhard refused to be rushed. Then, the moment he declared himself satisfied, the heavens opened. So we all trooped inside to a mock-up of Hitler’s office, which had been prepared as a contingency , only to find that the sky had turned so overcast that it too had to be relit.
    Dora – that’s Dora Manners in case you’re wondering (although I think I introduced her to you in England 36 ) – who’s playing Muv, 37 put it best when she compared it to queuing for bread in Russia. As soon as it’s your turn, they run out of supplies. In ourcase, it’s Gerhard who’s cast as the villain. Every shot, however short, requires its own lighting. First we do the