Arts diary: French moviemakers focus on the Borders

Published on Wednesday 10 June 2009 19:45

HOLLYWOOD on the Tweed, as Peeblesshire is becoming known in "the industry", took another leap forward with the news that madcap French spy comedy Imogène was being filmed there.

Producers on the film, starring Lambert Wilson, the bilingual French actor known for his role as The Merovingian in the Matrix films, descended on Neidpath Castle for several days' shooting earlier this month.

It comes just after Sir Walter Scott's home at Abbotsford was the location for a German crew working on Whiteout.

Imogne is a 12 million re-make of a French television series from the 1990s. It also stars leading French talent Catherine Frot as a feisty Scottish redhead.

Ros Davis, of Film Focus, said: "The Borders have brilliant locations, the advantage of being close to Edinburgh, and can look English, can look Scottish, can look Highlands."

According to the synopsis of Imogne on production company UGC's website, "She's a Scottich (sic] redhead, who likes rugby and bagpipes. She lives in London but regards herself as an exile. She has a lousy character and she can really knock back whiskey (sic]. She is from the McLeod clan, yet her name is Imogne McCarthery! (sic].

"Against all odds, she is entrusted with a secret mission: to take the plans of a new war plane to a contact in Scotland, in Callander… her home town!"

Set in 1962, it's all in French, for release in France. To see ourselves as other see us? The mind boggles.

Bewitching role

EDINBURGH actress Kathryn Howden got her first gig at the Lyceum more than 20 years ago in a Dario Fo comedy, but she is better known for playing anguished mothers and the like. True to form, she will play the lead role of Janet Horne, the last woman to be executed for witchcraft in Scotland, in The Last Witch, the flagship Scottish play at this year's Edinburgh International Festival. In the new drama, written by Rona Munro, Hannah Donaldson appears as her daughter, Helen, and the cast also includes Andy Clark.