It is normal for the cinema to come back again and again here.
“In the book, I wanted to give Robbie and Cecilia what they didn't have in life. I like to think of it not as a weakness, or a running away, but as a final act of kindness. I gave them their happiness.” It is Briony's final confession in Atonement, Already performed by Vanessa Redgrave. What was that happiness that she gave to lovers Robbie (James McAvoy) and Cecilia (Keira Knightley)? In a small country house on top of a cliff, with the most spectacular views of the Seven Sisters cliffs.
That idyllic cottage is not a computer effect, it's real. Are real. They are a group of houses, former coastguard cabins, which belong to the Seaford village in East Sussex and that 13 years after the release of the wartime romance adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel, have found another new host, Alice Creed (Gemma Arterton), the protagonist of In Search of Summerland (Theatrical release September 11).
The little house of happiness in 'Expiación'.
The producer Guy Heeley it is the link between Atonement and Summerland. He had worked on the first one and they had to look for an idyllic country house for the second one, one that seemed isolated and camouflaged in an infinite, wild, rebellious nature, like Alice. He remembered the houses in Seaford. “I went to see them about a year ago and then we started talking to Carolyn, who owns the house. I think she felt that her house was the house of the script. She loved the script, she loved the writing. She was aware that her house was absolutely that space."
On the slopes of her house, looking at the choppy sea that consumes the white walls of the incredible Seven Sisters, Alice studies and writes her thesis for vindicate the role of women in folklore and literature, banishing the myth of the single woman with cats of which she is also accused in her town for living alone, without a husband or children.
She feels more comfortable collecting pebbles at the foot of those cliffs or on top of them looking for castles in the sky: mirages that speak of a path to Summerland, the pagan idea of paradise.
Gemma Arterton is inspired by these cliffs.
The place without construction, almost virgin, attracts many period productions such as Atonement or In Search of Summerland (located in the midst of World War II). In addition, they are better preserved than other known English cliffs with the same characteristics, such as the White Cliffs of Dover.
“Having these wonderful views of Seven Sisters every day, the sky is different. The sea is different. Having this amazing landscape to work with. It is a very immersive place It makes you feel like you're in a remote place in a different time period." says the actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw, that she plays Alice's old flame, in this unique historical drama between women.
POP DESTINATION
Two years ago Seven Sisters became mandatory stop for South Korean tourists, after an influencer and the protagonists of a reality show posed there. If to that they added that these chalk cliffs, so called because they are seven eroded hills (to which an eighth is being added), appeared in a Quiddich match in Harry Potter, what more did they want? It did not matter that the walk from London was not so short (more than two hours).
Seven sisters who love the sea.
Luckily, the fever has died down a bit (even before 2020) because massive attractions don't sit well with these centuries-old landscapes. just need to see Return to Hope Gap (Theatrical release October 16) to understand the solitary charm of **this always airy corner of the south of England. **
The protagonist of this family drama remembers her mother sitting on the beach crowned by the Seven Sisters, watching him as a child, in her happy place, not knowing if she was happy then. His mother, years later, returns to that same place, looks dangerously into her abyss, being profoundly unhappy.
This spectacular landscape makes the drink of the movie starring Annette Bening and Bill Nighy such as parents, residents of the charming seaside town Seaford, that are separated from one day to the next. The story is real, based on the life of the screenwriter and director of the film, William Nicholson, that he found at the end of the path on these cliffs the beginning of his freedom.
Annette Bening and Bill Nighy with a cliff wall between them.