The Healing Power of Movies

The Bafta Awards season is well underway (Sept'12 to Feb 2013) and so I'm in the midddle of seeing many screenings of new movies which members vote on from Dec'12 to Feb'13. The Orange Bafta Awards take place on 10th February 2013 at London's Royal Opera House. I've always loved the power of television and film - that's one of the reasons I wanted to be a producer. I have often found that moments from great movies can contain messages and stir emotions that you can identify with. Freud said that images are the language of the unconscious. I can look back to old and new movies that have affected me or family and friends in some way. I always wanted to translate that powerful moment and message into a commercial - not easy when involving a client and product - but film moments are used as references relentlessly in ad agencies and production companies.

I was lucky to see 'A Life in Pictures' discussion with Dustin Hoffman in person at Bafta this week. He's everything you'd want him to be and more and a much loved neighbour of mine. Totally authentic, funny and surprisingly quite emotional when talking about his personal divorce in 1980 in relation to the multi-award winning film Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) about divorce and how that had affected him - the power of movies! Lord Puttnam has also referred to how movies have got an amazing way of detecting those moments - they speak to us -  and has referred to them in his acceptance speech for his Bafta Fellowship in 2006.

Bernie Wooder, psychotherapist, has pioneered the use of movie therapy to assist his clients and says that seeing emotions played out on the screen is a more powerful experience for many of his clients than talking about an abstract idea. It gives people a resource that endures. Movie therapy can help people change enormously and get to who they really are. My powerful film moments are from: Black Swan, Rebecca, The Remains of the Day, The Lives of Others, Separate Tables, etc. What are yours?

Words that Burn

This week I've been researching and writing 2 speeches and a separate article for a business magazine. I visited the London Library  in St. James Square SW1 and I'm considering becoming a member - it truly is a brilliant and inspiring library. I've always found that if something is troubling me and I write it down I can bring order to the situation and I am able to look at the it more rationally. The power of words....... My blog this week is about the power of words.  I was invited by Lord Saatchi to his Friends and Family opening night of his late wife Josephine Hart's Poetry Week at the Arts Theatre. Over five nights the work of some of the world's greatest poets were celebrated and brought alive with the help of Josephine's words and the poems themselves, read aloud by some of the finest actors. This first night were poems by TS Eliot read by Edward Fox and Harriet Walter. The evening was a real treat.  There was a fantastic audience of family and friends too from Edna O'Brien, Bob Geldorf, Sir Simon Jenkins, Sabrina Guinness, Lord Gowrie, etc etc. I have The Josephine Hart Poetry App on my iPad which I highly recommend too. However there is nothing quite like seeing poetry performed at this level.

St James Theatre Bully Boy

Last Wednesday (October 10th) was World Mental Health Day and I was invited to the charity performance of the play 'Bully Boy' at the St James Theatre in collaboration with Combat Stress. There was a lively Q&A session afterwards with the play's writer Sandi Toksvig, the cast - Anthony Andrews and Joshua Miles, director Patrick Sandford and Commodore Andrew Cameron who is the Chief Executive of Combat Stress.

The play is about a young squaddie in Iraq who is court-marshalled for his role in the death of an 8 year old Arab boy, it's a question of class and rank when his defending officer is a Falklands War veteran. Anthony Andrews is brilliant as the war veteran and Joshua Miles as the young squaddie - his first play - is just excellent. I have never seen a play with a continuous standing ovation before - it is seriously a must see. The energy, the stress the emotion all powerfully portrayed. The Q&A were good too and then we had drinks with everyone afterwards downstairs in the studio bar.

The play highlights a very neglected area of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) soldiers returning from war with little help for them to integrate back into society. So as Sandi said its either The Priory or prison. The soldiers need our support and understanding - that's where Combat Stress comes in but they have had cuts implemented............Sandi's script is very powerful.

My guest was Hugh Lillingston, a Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP and Hypnosis and a teacher of Huna who is one of the practitioners of the warrior programme a charity which has helped many ex-soldiers get their lives back on track. I met Hugh and his wife Catherine through Tracy Worcester.

My next event was a dinner with the entrepreneur, Luke Johnson (Risk Capital Partners) at CSFI (Centre for Study of Financial Innovation) - a financial think-tank in London and New York. I've been asked to produce a TV Channel for Entrepreneurs - so it seems in the same week appropriate that I go to a dinner with one of the UK's most high profile entrepreneurs. Luke was great despite us exhausting him with questions - he answered all of them - no complaints - mind you the food was delicious so I think that may have helped sustain us all.

"Poetry is thoughts that breathe and words that burn" - Thomas Gray.

The Healing Power of Nature

My blog this week is about how nature and our physical and visual surroundings can deeply affect us. One of my daily treats is to exercise for @ 30mins in Kensington Gardens. It happens to be a 4 minute walk from my house and it is one of the joys of living in this area. The beautiful trees and gardens, the lake, the cute dogs, bumping into neighbours, the wild flower area to encourage bees etc., the sunshine, the rain, the seasons! It's nature in all its glory - I love it - as well as the exercise giving me a feel good factor, I find nature spiritually enriching. As it is often said "its the simple things in life". Nina Simone got it right with her song 'Feelin'  Good' - listen to those words. It is a well known fact that appreciating and getting close to nature is good for us - but our physical surroundings at home and work do affect us too. I love having a beautiful home to come back to - the orchids, the fire, the cosy sofas - that's why I love to make properties look great! A visual feel good factor.  Very important to our spirit and soul. It's proven that a lovely office has a huge impact on the way staff perform too. None of that hot desking either!  Give everyone their own nest not to procrastinate but to make them feel happy.......that's one of the reasons why I started my own business. Flowers grow in the sunshine.

Talking of visual feasts I was invited last Monday to a Harvard Business School evening at Kensington Palace. It's 5 minutes from my house so we just walked there. Kensington Palace has been newly transformed by a 2 year (much needed!) £12 million refurbishment undertaken by Historic Royal Palaces. The evening was about the challenges and triumphs and the planning and realisation of the project.  We arrived to a champagne reception by the Kings Stairway - a wonderful backdrop - then sat in the magnificent King's Gallery for the discussion and then drinks were served in the King's Drawing Room and Cupola Room. It really was an interesting evening - I love history brought to life and leaving the Palace on a dark moonlit night was very filmic - you felt you were in the deepest darkest Dorset countryside but High Street Ken was 2 minutes away!

My next visual feast was seeing Mike Newells film adaptation of Charles Dickens classic 'Great Expectations' at the Mayfair Hotel. It really is one of the best cinemas to view a movie by the way. The film is well worth seeing and looks wonderful. The DOP (director of photography) is John Mathieson who I have worked with on commercials - it looks stunning. Fantastic cast and Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch is brilliant.

My third visual feast was having lunch in the brasserie at the St. James Theatre (SJT). Le grand fromage of SJT very kindly bought me and a business associate - Caroline Garnham of Family BHive network - lunch. The food was not only a visual feast but tasted delicious too. Now you may think I'm biased but the brasserie is well worth a visit on its own, but great to have an early supper there before seeing a theatre production - and they do prosecco by the glass!

My fourth visual feast was a week-end in the country - heaven, heaven, heaven. It really looked like my favourite poem by John Keats 'Ode to Autumn' - season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.......the photos were taken on one of our walks - soothing eh?

National Poetry Day was 4th October 2012

We Are What We Eat

This week my blog is about the food we eat and being aware of how that food is produced and where it comes from. A healthy body is part of making life grand and what we feed our bodies is of prime importance. We think with our bodies so what goes on in the inside shows on the outside. So feed your body the best primal foods you can and being aware of how that food is produced is part of the process. I met Tracy Worcester at a Christies event last year and we've been friends ever since. She single handedly started 'Pig Business' which investigates the rise of factory pig farming, a system which abuses animals, pollutes the environment, threatens human health through dangerous overuse of antibiotics and wrecks rural communities. Her film now in 21 languages, has had a huge impact across the world by highlighting the utter horrors associated with the modern industrial-scale pig production.

Zac and Ben Goldsmith co-hosted a dinner at Sake no Hana restaurant with Tracy this week on the subject of the film 'Pig Business' to help raise funds so Tracy and her team can go out and make more country-specific versions of the film and distribute. The event was not only successful but fun too with many of Tracy's fans and supporters - from Dominic West to Evgeny Lebedev to the rest of the Goldsmith family, Brian May, etc etc.  We are what we eat so it makes sense to feed your body the best and question where that food comes from.

Talking of good food I was invited to LA Suite West in Inverness Terrace, W2, for lunch on one of those now rare sunny September days. We sat outside on the terrace and the food was fresh, seasonal, simple and delicious - well worth a visit.

I also went to Angharad McAlpine (nee Rees) the actress of Poldark fame, memorial service at St. Pauls Church in Knightsbridge yesterday. The church was packed - I'm not sure how we squeezed in. A wonderful event in celebration of Angharad's life. Her son Rhys had worked for me in his school holidays many years earlier and I'd worked with his late father Christopher Cazenove on the Scottish Widows commercials that I'd produced in the 90's. There were wonderful addresses by Rhys and Julian Fellowes, readings by Edward Fox and family members and Lulu sang the best rendition of 'Smile' I have ever heard!  If we weren't all emotional by that time - we soon were. However the sun shone through the church windows which I'd like to think meant Angharad approved of it all. Amen.

Luck

I mentioned last week that I was going to talk about 'luck'.  I landed on my feet at an early age in my career. Many people have asked me since how did you manage that? I just expected to. I didn't realise at the time that I attracted my own luck by expectation in my thoughts. I knew if I worked hard and found the area I wanted to be in - in my case TV producing - I was in the right place at the right time, but in retrospect I realise that luck, whether good or bad is actually manifested by the way we think. I just naturally thought the best! So expect the best! Talking of best - I went to see the film 'Untouchable' which has just opened in London but has broken box office records around the world. A French comedy based on a true story about the friendship that develops between a wealthy quadriplegic and his unlikely caretaker. I laughed, I cried - its great! Omar Sy as the black Muslin ex-con caretaker is fantastic - watch his dance sequence! I've been playing Earth Wind & Fire on my iPhone ever since. It's a must see. Perfect timing too just as the Paralympics are changing perceptions about disability - impeccable Mr. Weinstein!

I also went to see the documentary Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel at Bafta this week. Researched and produced by her granddaughter-in-law. I have been a fan of DV for as long as I can remember - one of the great doyennes of the fashion industry who demanded the best of life. Courageous, dramatic, determined and funny - well worth seeing.

Don't you think London seems to be rocking at the moment despite the global woes? It really is one of the best cities to live. We really are lucky to have such amazing entrepreneurs and designers who want to live here too. I went to the London Design Festival party at the V&A Museum - what a turn out and in such glorious surroundings. Thank you London!

Fearless

My blog this week I realized was all about being 'fearless'.  I love and applaud people who are prepared to stick their neck out and start their own 'thing' - be it a business, a book, a theatre production, a film or indeed a blog! It requires true courage and strength of character - to dig deep - your 'thing' will reveal bits of who you are whether you like it or not. So I would encourage readers to find a career that is about the essence of who you are - don't fear being your authentic self and find your true passion! That way it won't even feel like work.  I was lucky to have landed on my feet at an early age but that's another story - next weeks blog is about attracting luck! Being involved with the St. James Theatre I like to check out the competition.  I was invited by my friend Olivia to Home House evening at Regents Park Theatre of 'Midsummer Nights Dream' last week. This is indeed a fearless production - a fantastically powerful modern day version of this Shakespeare comedy with chavs and hoodies at the heart of a gypsy community - I loved it!  Original music, fantastic set, great acting. Just as a side - Lady Lucy French was Head of Development at Regents Park Theatre before she became Director of Development at the St. James Theatre.

I also saw Joe Wrights film of 'Anna Karenina' at Bafta on Saturday. Again talking of fearless this is a brave theatrical production that worked for me! I loved it - the surprise is Jude Law playing the rather dull cuckolded husband.

Yet more celebratory parties of the opening of St. James Theatre this week sponsored by Laurent Perrier - good fun was had by all and a fantastic turnout! Can't wait for the September 18th when we open with Anthony Andrews in Bully Boy written by the wonderful Sandi Toksvig...........

Life is an Epic Production

I started 'Life is an epic production....." because one of the biggest buzzes I got from producing and running my own production company was finding and developing talent - be it a director, producer or acting talent. I have also mentored many friends children over the years who have worked for me in their school holidays. It's wonderful to see people grow and embrace their success. It's my way of giving back too......to all those people who helped me along the way when I first started. Talking of talent - we had one of our first parties at St. James Theatre this week on 5th September and Camilla Kerslake sang for all our guests from this fabulous Italian marble staircase and then down in the studio. She is the girl who Gary Barlow first signed to his new label 'Future Records' in 2009. She has since performed as Cosette in Les Miserables. What a voice - what a talent!

The staircase in the foyer from where Camilla sang is a sculptured staircase designed by international award winning artist and designer, Mark Humphrey. Crafted in Pietra Santa, by Pocelli Marmi, where Michelangelo carved David. The work of the staircase celebrates the best of British design alongside Italian craftsmanship! It's beautiful!.

The party was pretty good too - a fantastic turnout of people from Lord Archer to Tracy Worcester to His Excellency Khaled Al-Duwaisan Kuwaiti Ambassador to London etc. Thank you for a wonderful evening team!