"Do I look like turning down a villa in the south of France?" he asks. Lady Grantham (Maggie Smith) with her usual wonderful sarcasm in Downton Abbey: A New Age (in theaters April 29). That bitch and English manners have made her her favorite character throughout six seasons of Downton Abbey and two movies.
and that villa in the south of France that she mentions is the premise of this new film: Lady Violet has inherited a beautiful house with sea views near Toulon. Whose? The mysterious Marquis de Montmirail who has just passed away. The matriarch wants to leave it to Sibby, the daughter of Tom and the late Lady Sybil, since she is the only one of her great-grandchildren who will not have a natural right to inheritance from her. There is only one problem, The Marquis's Widow (Nathalie Baye) She doesn't want to give them the villa so easily, so a good part of the Crawleys will have to travel and show up there to fight for what is theirs and discover secrets from Lady Grantham's past.
Isobel Merton (Penelope Wilton) and Lady Grantham (Maggie Smith).
"Me he had always wanted to take the Crawleys to Europe and the Riviera in particular because it is an area of Europe to which the English upper classes traveled”, explains the producer Gareth Neame. "We had never seen the family venture beyond the borders of the country." In fact, we haven't even seen them go much further than the confines of the house and its garden or the town of Downton.
“In the television series, we had a trip to the Scottish Highlands, a few trips to Northumberland and the family home of Bertie Pelham in Brancaster”, recalls Neame, creator of the series together with screenwriter Julian Fellowes. “And there was an episode in which Lady Rose was presented at the court of the Buckinham Palace for the London Season, the season of social events in London”.
Relax on the Côte d'Azur.
HOLIDAYS ON THE Côte d'Azur
Dover, Calais and the historic and glamorous Blue Train to Nice. And then a beautiful curvy drive along the cliffside roads (which look a lot like the scenes in To Catch a Thief). That is the trip that half of the Crawleys undertake to visit their new inherited village.
The choice of the area was not accidental, as with everything Fellowes does and writes (Gosford Park, the golden age), there was a historical reason. “The English aristocracy greatly influenced in the genesis of the Riviera as an exclusive destination and many traveled from northern Europe to escape the harsh winters, Neame account. But right at the time this movie is taking place, in 1928, was also transforming in a summer area.
Tom and Lucy enjoying the beach.
“Traditionally, Côte d'Azur villas have been winter retreats because they were considered too hot in the summer months. People like F. Scott Fitzgerald and movie stars of the era they began to make it fashionable to spend the summer in those destinations”, says Hugh Bonneville or Lord Grantham.
Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) in fact, she signs up for the trip to tell in her magazine why Fitzgerald, Zelda or Coco Chanel they had fallen in love with the area and were getting the hotels to stay open in the summer too.
THE VILLE
"As it happened with Highclere Castle, the first villa we saw was the one we ended up staying in, and the truth is that it was impressive”, he says Donald Woods, art director of the film, although they even saw the one that belonged to Karl Lagerfeld in Monaco. "I had views of the Mediterranean and beautiful gardens, plus its own private beach. It had plenty of space and views for outdoor dining, situations where we rarely see the Crawleys."
The interior of Villa Rocabella.
Villa Rocabella was the chosen one. A beautiful house near Toulon, which contrasts sharply with the sobriety of Highclere Castle or Downton Abbey.
“The villa in general gives off a relaxed air, with lots of light, sun and sea, surrounded by sumptuous and infinite vegetation and the beauty of the flowers and plants of the Mediterranean,” says Woods. As they point out in the movie itself “It is a house to enjoy”. And that will be a family gathering place in summer. Good holidays we will see there if the saga does not end in this second film.
A LITTLE MORE OF ENGLAND
Downton Abbey: A new era begins with a wedding, that of Tom (Allen Leech) and Lucy (Tuppence Middleton). For the sequence, which is the reunion with all the characters, they also looked for a house that was somewhat opposite to that of the Crawleys, that represented that situation between classes that Tom personifies.
The big wedding.
They found it in Belchamp Hall in Suffolk a red brick Queen Anne style house, built in the 17th century, which also had a beautiful church in front where the ceremony is held. The whole wedding is inspired by that of The Godfather, "without the blood" Woods confesses.
Family portrait in Downton.
In addition, in England they shot the Harwick's Electric Palace Cinema, a historical cinema and in the Royal Yacht Britannia, anchored in Scotland, which they passed off as the ocean liner that takes them to the mainland.
And of course, Highclere Castle is once again the protagonist. This time with new characters, because she will receive “to those vulgar people of the cinema”. Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) she will accept a shooting to be able to pay for the maintenance of such an old and elegant mansion.
Lord Grantham, Lady Mary: Passing the baton.