Photo: Paul Misso
Cuckfield, and neighbouring village Ansty, were recently used as the backdrop for a new British comedy drama, Portraits of Dangerous Women, an ensemble piece about the lives of four strangers who are brought together by chance, following a bizarre road accident. Swiss born director, Pascal Bergamin who was on set throughout the filming said: “Films with a strong focus on the synergy of characters or observational stories about the absurdities of life have always fascinated me and we’re really excited to be bringing this story to the screen with this incredible cast.”
The crew who started their creative journey at the top of the village in the Queen’s Hall, moved down the high street where they eventually set up shop in independent gallery Artologie to film some of their most complex scenes.
Owner of Artologie, Wendy Rowark was overwhelmed at the prospect of her lovely little gallery being used as the location of a new feature film. “The cast and crew were here at the end of June and filmed inside the gallery for almost six days. It brought quite a stir to the village actually and there was a real buzz on the high street while they were here,” said Wendy. Artologie was picked by the cinematographer and writer who saw it as a great location and visited us not long ago after they had seen the gallery pictures on my website,” added Wendy.
One final and very special location was chosen in Ansty for its remoteness and beautiful setting. Mackrells Farm, owned by Dee Harkin and her family have lived in the same quiet and idyilic spot for a long time now and they were only too happy to offer their home and the grounds for use in the production. “We really had a special time. It made for such a lovely day having some of the cast and crew filming here and one can only hope that their experience of being at Mackrells is similar to our own; that you only have to look up and listen to know you are in a very unique and special place indeed,” said Dee.
Leading names Tara Fitzgerald (Brassed Off; Game of Thrones) and Mark Lewis Jones (Star Wars; Chernobyl; The Crown) are two of the big stars to appear in the film. Matilda James, Casting Director and Creative Producer, shared some of her thoughts on the filming process while in the village. “Most of the crew are all relatively local. The cinematographer Dankuro Shinma, and one of the other producers are both based in Rusper and there were also a number of brilliant trainees who joined the production while on placement from Brighton Film School,” said Matilda. We had a really lovely time filming in Cuckfield (and Ansty) and felt very much looked after throughout. Right now we don’t have any confirmed release dates for the film yet but it’s likely to be next year sometime, so you’ll have to watch this space,” she added.
