Notting Hill (film)

Notting Hill is a 1999 romantic comedy film directed by Roger Michell. The screenplay was written by Richard Curtis, and the film was produced by Duncan Kenworthy. It stars Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, with Rhys Ifans, Emma Chambers, Tim McInnerny, Gina McKee, and Hugh Bonneville in supporting roles. The story is of a romance between a British bookshop keeper (Grant) and a famous American actress (Roberts) who happens to walk into his shop in London's Notting Hill district.

Released on 21 May 1999, Notting Hill was well received by critics and was the highest-grossing British film of all time. At the 57th Golden Globe Awards, the film received three nominations – Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Roberts) and Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Grant). It also earned two BAFTA nominations, and won a British Comedy Award and a Brit Award for its soundtrack.

William Thacker owns a travel book store in Notting Hill, London. Divorced from his wife who left him for another man, he shares a flat with Spike, a flaky and sloppy Welshman.

One day, famous Hollywood actress Anna Scott enters the shop and buys a book. Shortly after she leaves, Will goes to buy his colleague Martin a juice, but bumps into Anna while rounding a street corner, spilling it on her. He takes her to his flat across the street so she can change. When leaving, she impulsively kisses him.

Anna later invites Will to visit her at the Ritz Hotel. Upon his arrival, he is mistaken for a reporter and ushered into a press event for her new film. When asked, Will says he writes for Horse & Hound magazine. Anna asks to be William's date at his sister Honey's birthday party later that evening. Though his friends and family are surprised, she gets on well with everyone and enjoys herself. Later, the two enter a private neighbourhood park, where Anna again kisses Will.

At a restaurant the next day, Will and Anna overhear a party of men at a nearby table discussing her, first praising and then disparaging her and equating actresses to prostitutes. He confronts them, then she introduces herself and calmly insults the stunned men.

Anna invites Will to her hotel room, but after discovering that her movie star boyfriend, Jeff, has unexpectedly arrived from America, he leaves. Over the next six months, Will's friends Max, Bella, Bernie and Tony arrange a series of dates for him, but Will, heartsick over Anna, is uninterested in another relationship.

One day, a distraught Anna appears at Will's doorstep, needing to hide due to a tabloid scandal. She apologises about Jeff and says their relationship is over. They discover shared interests, and discuss Will's print of Marc Chagall's 1950 painting La Mariée, with Anna saying it shows "how love should be" and that "happiness isn’t happiness without a violin-playing goat" as depicted in the painting. They make love that night. The next morning paparazzi, inadvertently tipped off by Spike, besiege the house and take photos of Will, Anna, and a half-dressed Spike at the front door. Furious, she blames Will and leaves.

Several seasons pass, and Will remains miserable. When he discovers Anna is back in London making a film based on a Henry James novel, something he had suggested, he visits the set unannounced. She asks him to wait until shooting is done, but he leaves after overhearing her being dismissive about him to another actor.

Anna comes to the bookshop the next day, bringing a wrapped gift. Will says he overheard what she said about him to her co-star. Anna explains that she was merely trying to keep her personal life private. She proclaims that she loves him, and pleads to rekindle their relationship. Will says no, explaining that he would not recover if she left him again.

Will meets his friends and sister at a restaurant with Anna's partly opened gift: Chagall's original La Mariée ("The Bride"). They halfheartedly support his decision about Anna until Spike arrives and calls him a "daft prick". Will admits his mistake, and everyone races across London to find Anna, who is holding a press conference at the Savoy Hotel. They arrive just as her publicist announces that Anna is taking a year off and is leaving the UK that night.

A reporter asks about the embarrassing photographs taken at Will's flat, and Anna says they are just friends. Will asks her if she would consider being more than friends if he begs her forgiveness. She says she would, then requests that the reporter repeat his question, "How long are you intending to stay here in Britain?" Smiling, she answers "Indefinitely".

Anna and Will marry, their wedding cake featuring the violin-playing goat from La Mariée. Spike and Honey also marry. Anna is pregnant as she and Will spend time in the private park that they visited on their first date.

Uncredited cast

Casting notes

Richard Curtis developed the film from thoughts while lying awake at night. He described the starting point as "the idea of a very normal person going out with an unbelievably famous person and how that impinges on their lives". In an interview with GQ in 2018, Hugh Grant claimed the film was based on real life and loosely followed a friend of Richard's who fell in love with an 'extremely world-famous person who [Grant wasn't] allowed to mention'. Much like the film, Curtis's friend was an everyday person who met the well known celebrity in a shop (Harrods) and they ended up having a relationship.

The film has been likened to "a 90's London-set version of Roman Holiday". However, Curtis has said that he had not seen the 1953 film.

Four Weddings and a Funeral director Mike Newell was approached but rejected it to work on Pushing Tin. He said that in commercial terms he had made the wrong decision, but did not regret it. The producer, Duncan Kenworthy, then turned to Roger Michell, saying that "Finding someone as good as Roger, was just like finding the right actor to play each role. Roger shone out."

Roberts originally didn't want to play the role as she thought the pitch sounded terrible.

Curtis chose Notting Hill as he lived there and knew the area, saying "Notting Hill is a melting pot and the perfect place to set a film". This left the producers to film in a heavily populated area. Kenworthy noted "Early on, we toyed with the idea of building a huge exterior set. That way we would have more control, because we were worried about having Roberts and Grant on public streets where we could get thousands of onlookers." In the end they decided to film in the streets. Michell was worried "that Hugh and Julia were going to turn up on the first day of shooting on Portobello Road, and there would be gridlock and we would be surrounded by thousands of people and paparazzi photographers who would prevent us from shooting". The location team and security personnel prevented this, as well as preventing problems the presence of a film crew might have caused the residents of Notting Hill, who Michell believes were "genuinely excited" about the film. Location manager Sue Quinn described finding locations and getting permission to film as "a mammoth task". Quinn and the rest of her team had to write to thousands of people in the area, promising to donate to each person's favourite charity, resulting in 200 charities receiving money.

Stuart Craig, the production designer, was pleased to do a contemporary film, saying, "We're dealing with streets with thousands of people, market traders, shop owners and residents, which makes it really complex". Filming began on 17 April 1998 in West London and at Shepperton Studios. Will's bookshop was on Portobello Road, one of the main areas where filming took place. Other locations in Notting Hill included Westbourne Park Road, Golborne Road, Landsdowne Road and the Coronet Cinema. Will's house, 280 Westbourne Park Road, was owned by Richard Curtis and behind the entrance there is a grand house, not the flat in the film that was made up in the studios. The blue door was auctioned for charity. The current door is blue again. The Travel Book Store is located at 142 Portobello Road. After filming for six weeks in Notting Hill, filming moved to the Ritz Hotel, where it had to take place at night. Other locations were Savoy Hotel, the Nobu Restaurant, the Zen Garden of the Hempel Hotel, and Kenwood House.

One of the final scenes takes place at a film premiere, which presented difficulties. Michell wanted to film at Leicester Square but was declined. Police had found fans at a Leonardo DiCaprio premiere problematic and were concerned the same might occur at the staged premiere. Through a health and safety act, the production received permission to film and constructed the scene in 24 hours. Interior scenes were the last to be filmed, at Shepperton Studios.

The final cut was 3.5 hours long; 90 minutes were edited out for release.

The film features the 1950 Marc Chagall painting La Mariée ("The Bride"). Anna sees a print of the painting in William's home and later gives him the original. Michell said in Entertainment Weekly that the painting was chosen because Curtis was a fan of Chagall's work and because La Mariée "depicts a yearning for something that's lost." The producers had a reproduction made for the film, created by British artist Thomasina Smith, but first had to get permission from the owner as well as clearance from the Design and Artists Copyright Society. Finally, according to Kenworthy, "we had to agree to destroy it. They were concerned that if our fake was too good, it might float around the market and create problems."

The film features the book Istanbul: The Imperial City (1996) by John Freely. William recommends this book to Anna, commenting that (unlike another book in the store) the author has at least been to Istanbul. Indeed, Freely taught at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul and was the author of nine books about the city.