Film / News
Cary On Christmas
The next Cary Grant Comes Home for the Weekend festival isn’t due until 2018. But the people behind this biennial celebration of Bristol’s most famous son couldn’t resist putting on some events to sate our appetite for all things Cary before Christmas.
To get you in the mood, there are ‘Looking for Archie: Cary Grant’s Bristol’ walking tours on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 November, from 2-4pm. Organised as part of the national Being Human Festival, these take participants on a trundle round Archie’s favourite central Bristol haunts, from the Cathedral to the Cary Grant statue in Millennium Square. The tour is free of charge, but booking is essential. Go here for tickets.
Then it’s back to the nave of Bristol Cathedral on November 23 for a screening of The Bishop’s Wife. Something of a cash-in on the 1940s fad for angelic fantasies in the Here Comes Mr. Jordan and It’s a Wonderful Life vein, this whimsical comedy nonetheless benefits from fine performances all round and bagged five Oscar nominations (including Best Film) back in 1947. David Niven is cast as a grumpy, materialistic bishop who needs divine help to patch up his marriage to Loretta Young and raise cash for a new church. Enter Angel Cary from on high to assist with both tasks. The screenplay benefits from an uncredited polish by Billy Wilder and gifts Cary the line: “The only people who grow old are people who were born old to begin with.” It’s also a great deal better than that bland, anodyne 1996 remake, The Preacher’s Wife.
In a case of life (almost) imitating art, Cary returned to the Bristol back in 1965 to support a campaign to raise funds for restoring the Cathedral’s roof.
Cary Grant photographed by the Bristol Evening Post on the roof of Bristol Cathedral back in 1965
The screening will be introduced by Bristol-based Internet Movie Database founder and self-confessed Cary Grant enthusiast Col Needham. There’s also live music from Free Range Acappella and UWE Big Band, plus bubbly on arrival, hot chocolate and popcorn, and a paid bar. Go here for tickets.
Finally, if your enthusiasm for Cary Grant knows no bounds, you may be interested to know that the festival is taking him on a trip to Germany later in the month. That’s right: Cary Grant Goes to Hanover for the weekend of November 25-26 to mark the 70th anniversary for Bristol’s twinning with the city. Should you wish to hop across the channel before the Brexiteers pull up the drawbridge, they’ll be screening Charade, North by Northwest and Arsenic and Old Lace to our Euro-chums.
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