LESLIE HARDCASTLE
I met Leslie Hardcastle at Soho Radio when the studio was on Wardour Street. I had gone there to talk about my forthcoming film ADRIFT IN SOHO.
It was around September 2017. He listened intently to what I had to say live on radio, keeping himself quiet in a corner of the room while I talked to the presenter of the show, Clare Lynch.
I did not not know who he was but we got on well.
He loved the fact that I had included the long forgotten British cinema movement Free Cinema in my film.
To my surprise he seemed to know a lot about it. Not a single person I had met in London before him knew about this cult British cinema movement.
I later learned that he was the eminence gris behind the emergence of the National Film Theatre in the 50s which together with the British Film Institute practically created the monopoly of officialdom of the British cinema culture and more recently, filmmaking via their various quangos.
He was also involved in the start-up of the London Film Festival and the Museum of Moving Image.
Leslie received the top accolade of the British State for services rendered. He was the recipient of the impressive Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1974 Birthday Honours.
I was dealing with the top man himself, albeit, not as active now as when he was administrator of film culture during his warrior years.
It was around September 2017. He listened intently to what I had to say live on radio, keeping himself quiet in a corner of the room while I talked to the presenter of the show, Clare Lynch.
I did not not know who he was but we got on well.
He loved the fact that I had included the long forgotten British cinema movement Free Cinema in my film.
To my surprise he seemed to know a lot about it. Not a single person I had met in London before him knew about this cult British cinema movement.
I later learned that he was the eminence gris behind the emergence of the National Film Theatre in the 50s which together with the British Film Institute practically created the monopoly of officialdom of the British cinema culture and more recently, filmmaking via their various quangos.
He was also involved in the start-up of the London Film Festival and the Museum of Moving Image.
Leslie received the top accolade of the British State for services rendered. He was the recipient of the impressive Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1974 Birthday Honours.
I was dealing with the top man himself, albeit, not as active now as when he was administrator of film culture during his warrior years.
1: Leslie Hardcastle
...on the British film industry.
Ninety years old when I met him, Leslie Hardcastle had been at the top of British film arts for several decades and was now retired. I was at the bottom of it and barely starting out with ADRIFT IN SOHO at the ripe young age of 60.
I was and still am in awe of his pedigree. But we couldn't be further apart in terms of our relationship with the powers that be in the arena of film.
I am a zealous custodian of my film independence (for lack of any other chance to get a slice of the market) and he had been the Keeper of the Secrets for a very long time.
I quickly warmed up to his youthful approach to any issue that crossed his still active mind. By the passion he showed when I spoke to him you could easily have concluded that he was just starting on his journey. That was admirable, I thought.
But my film sense is perhaps the complete opposite of all what Leslie personified in his life.
I was and still am in awe of his pedigree. But we couldn't be further apart in terms of our relationship with the powers that be in the arena of film.
I am a zealous custodian of my film independence (for lack of any other chance to get a slice of the market) and he had been the Keeper of the Secrets for a very long time.
I quickly warmed up to his youthful approach to any issue that crossed his still active mind. By the passion he showed when I spoke to him you could easily have concluded that he was just starting on his journey. That was admirable, I thought.
But my film sense is perhaps the complete opposite of all what Leslie personified in his life.
At the local cafe
When trying to make my own film I had brushes with the BFI, Film UK, then with the Baftas when they told me that they had made an 'administrative error' in choosing my film for the Baftas of 2020 - and they even tried to blame me after making me hire cinemas to show the film! Not that Leslie had anything to do with that as he had his own run-ins with the great and the good throughout his career.
When I started writing, developing, producing, directing, post producing and distributing ADRIFT IN SOHO the British independent sector was and still is non existent. There is more independent production in my home town in Montevideo than in the entire UK.
On the other hand, indie films in the U.S. are always thriving and my film has done better in the indie circuit in America than in the UK, where it was ignored. ADRIFT IN SOHO won awards in U.S. indie festivals and it was at the New York City Independent Film Festival where it was Official Selection that an American distribution company saw it and loved it and put it on the market where it still is available (see link below). When trying to distribute ADRIFT IN SOHO in the UK I found out that every single cinema seat in any cinema is pre-hired by a Hollywood studio. I was grateful to Prince Charles Cinema and Whirled Cinema to allow me to give the film a UK run of a week or so.
In the 1980s you could see me at least three nights a week at the National Film Theatre doing my own theory course in filmmaking via watching the most amazing movies ever made. I'm glad to say Leslie Hardcastle still had an active hand in that entity during that decade because I made the most of it. I remember being mesmerised by the film legacy of Greta Garbo as shown in a retrospective at the NFT among many others.
When I started writing, developing, producing, directing, post producing and distributing ADRIFT IN SOHO the British independent sector was and still is non existent. There is more independent production in my home town in Montevideo than in the entire UK.
On the other hand, indie films in the U.S. are always thriving and my film has done better in the indie circuit in America than in the UK, where it was ignored. ADRIFT IN SOHO won awards in U.S. indie festivals and it was at the New York City Independent Film Festival where it was Official Selection that an American distribution company saw it and loved it and put it on the market where it still is available (see link below). When trying to distribute ADRIFT IN SOHO in the UK I found out that every single cinema seat in any cinema is pre-hired by a Hollywood studio. I was grateful to Prince Charles Cinema and Whirled Cinema to allow me to give the film a UK run of a week or so.
In the 1980s you could see me at least three nights a week at the National Film Theatre doing my own theory course in filmmaking via watching the most amazing movies ever made. I'm glad to say Leslie Hardcastle still had an active hand in that entity during that decade because I made the most of it. I remember being mesmerised by the film legacy of Greta Garbo as shown in a retrospective at the NFT among many others.
2: Leslie Hardcastle
...on independent filmmaking
A few weeks later after the Soho Radio interview I organised a visit to his flat in Great Pulteney Street to talk about Free Cinema and perhaps to film an interview.
At the time I had just finished my film so I was not keen on massive and heavy outside broadcast equipment and film trucks. So I took my iPhone, a simple palm LED light (failed in the middle of the interview) and my best intentions.
The result is the impromptu interview you can find in this article. We talked far more than what you can follow in these iPhone samples.
At the time I had just finished my film so I was not keen on massive and heavy outside broadcast equipment and film trucks. So I took my iPhone, a simple palm LED light (failed in the middle of the interview) and my best intentions.
The result is the impromptu interview you can find in this article. We talked far more than what you can follow in these iPhone samples.
3: Leslie Hardcastle
...on Soho
When the time came I did invite Leslie to the first public screening of ADRIFT IN SOHO which was at the Dolby Cinema in Soho Square sometime early in 2018.
He came out of the screening very angry. He gave a a three out of five stars, which was not bad. But he had his misgivings about my approach to Free Cinema and Soho. I was not surprised. My film is an iconoclastic, caustic, un-pseudosentimental, totally independent, no-holds-barred attack on officialdom, creative monopolies of any kind and especially the power of bureaucrats over creative endeavours.
Back in the pre-Thatcher period of the 70s the State was seen as a benefactor. Thanks to Leslie Hardcastle the BFI and the NFT survived her anti-arts onslaught and thrived (today the NFT has been amalgamated to the BFI Southbank, sadly).
But now it's run on a tight leash which is not good. In the 50s it sponsored Free Cinema, which is about social conscience. That would be unthinkable today when The King's Speech is preferred.
I do welcome the State as a preserver of creative work of any kind. But not much as the originator of creative work. This should be left to the individual with the finger on the day to day pulse.
At the very most, the State should help young producers and directors to start out in their careers. Probably by subsidising scripts without being able to choose any!
He came out of the screening very angry. He gave a a three out of five stars, which was not bad. But he had his misgivings about my approach to Free Cinema and Soho. I was not surprised. My film is an iconoclastic, caustic, un-pseudosentimental, totally independent, no-holds-barred attack on officialdom, creative monopolies of any kind and especially the power of bureaucrats over creative endeavours.
Back in the pre-Thatcher period of the 70s the State was seen as a benefactor. Thanks to Leslie Hardcastle the BFI and the NFT survived her anti-arts onslaught and thrived (today the NFT has been amalgamated to the BFI Southbank, sadly).
But now it's run on a tight leash which is not good. In the 50s it sponsored Free Cinema, which is about social conscience. That would be unthinkable today when The King's Speech is preferred.
I do welcome the State as a preserver of creative work of any kind. But not much as the originator of creative work. This should be left to the individual with the finger on the day to day pulse.
At the very most, the State should help young producers and directors to start out in their careers. Probably by subsidising scripts without being able to choose any!
At the local cafe with Leslie Hardcastle
As an example, the very successful Netflix series critical of the monarchy, The Crown, could never have been made by a State sponsored benefactor.
It had to be left to the American platform to take the risk the official ire and meddle with the accepted recent history. The BBC is too busy covering royal funerals, weddings, births and birthdays!
But my admiration towards Leslie Harcastle continues to this day and this is why his last interview about the film business and Soho is finally published.
He was excited about my interview as if it had been his first one ever.
He was excited about Soho as if he had just moved in. In fact, he lived all his life in Soho.
It had to be left to the American platform to take the risk the official ire and meddle with the accepted recent history. The BBC is too busy covering royal funerals, weddings, births and birthdays!
But my admiration towards Leslie Harcastle continues to this day and this is why his last interview about the film business and Soho is finally published.
He was excited about my interview as if it had been his first one ever.
He was excited about Soho as if he had just moved in. In fact, he lived all his life in Soho.
Leslie Hardcastle (left) and director Lindsay Anderson at Britannia Hospital premiere in 1982..
I wished I had known Leslie during the pre-production of ADRIFT IN SOHO. It happened that I tried several times to buy footage of the original Free Cinema documentaries from the BFI to use in my film. I wrote several letters, rang numerous times and never got and answer. I decided to recreate them myself.
Leslie was an indefatigable lover and administrator of films. British archival legacy is second to none in the world thanks to him and I hope it continues.
Rest in peace dear Leslie. Your job is done.
Leslie Hardcastle died on March 14, 2023 at the age of 96.
Leslie was an indefatigable lover and administrator of films. British archival legacy is second to none in the world thanks to him and I hope it continues.
Rest in peace dear Leslie. Your job is done.
Leslie Hardcastle died on March 14, 2023 at the age of 96.
The door of Soho Radio on Wardour Street. Presenter Clare Lynch at the door.
Photo by Pablo Behrens.
Photo by Pablo Behrens.
Soho in the 1970s. Photos by Leslie Hardcastle.
Leslie at home with some of his prized possessions.
Activist to the end.
ADRIFT IN SOHO can be seen in full here free with adverts or on Amazon Prime, iTunes, Google Play and Microsoft Movies in paid form.
LESLIE HARDCASTLE OBITUARIES
BFI obituary here 'BFI controller with transformational impact.'
Westminster Extra here 'Soho mourns the man who kept going'.
The Times here 'Longtime controller of BFI National Film Theatre.'
The Telegraph here
LESLIE HARDCASTLE OBITUARIES
BFI obituary here 'BFI controller with transformational impact.'
Westminster Extra here 'Soho mourns the man who kept going'.
The Times here 'Longtime controller of BFI National Film Theatre.'
The Telegraph here
Pablo Behrens, director of ADRIFT IN SOHO and author of this exclusive article for SOHO IMAGE
at the Euro Accessories hat shop on Berwick Street.
at the Euro Accessories hat shop on Berwick Street.