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MATCH POINT
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CREDITS |
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While she waits for that big acting break, Nola pays the rent by working in trendy clothes boutique Paul & Joe, 39 Ledbury Road, some way to the west in Notting Hill.
Still further west, in the villagey enclave of Holland Park, Chris and Nola steal a clandestine lunchbreak at stylish restaurant Julie's, 135 Portland Road, W11 (www.juliesrestaurant.com). Maybe Woody Allen should bring out his own series of guides to the best bars, hotels, art-house cinemas and restaurants. Julie's, by the way, is just around the corner from David Hemmings’ photographic studio in Sixties classic Blow Up.
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Match Point film location: a clandestine lunchbreak, Julie's, Portland Road, Holland Park
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Yes, it’s another great place to eat - back in the West End, a block north of Marble Arch tube. Locanda Locatelli, 8 Seymour Street, is the glamorous Italian restaurant in which the Chris's infidelity is almost uncovered when a friend recalls seeing him hail a taxi near Nola's flat.
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Match Point film location: Chris is almost caught out: Locanda Locatelli, Seymour Street, Marble Arch
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Chris's life continues to get more complicated when he gets engaged to Chloe. Nola is surprised to see him coming out of jeweller Asprey, 165-169 New Bond Street – since he'd told her he was on holiday in Sardinia. In fact, Chris always seems to be caught leaving expensive shops in this movie. He gets the chance to boast his good fortune when he bumps into old tennis opponent Henry (Rupert Penry Jones) as he exits another jeweller, Cartier, 175-176 New Bond Street.
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Match Point film location: murder at Nola's flat: Clarence gate Gardens, Glentworth Street, Marylebone
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There’s no need for Nola to be so apologetic about the flat into which she moves. The good news is it’s 64-84 Clarence Gate Gardens, a classy block on Glentworth Street between Marylebone Station and Baker Street, and within minutes of Regent’s Park. Not too bad for a struggling actress. The bad news? Chris is on his way to rid himself of his increasingly inconvenient past.
Dominating Cambridge Circus is the huge red brick and faience frontage of the Palace Theatre. Built in 1890 as an opera house for Richard D’Oyly Carte, it’s traditionally the home of long-running musicals (the illuminated signs for Flower Drum Song can be seen in Victim) – and currently hosts Monty Python musical Spamalot. Chris scoots across town in a cab to meet fiancée Chloe to catch a performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Woman in White, at the Palace, after bumping off his pregnant lover. The theatre was temporarily transformed into the exterior of the ‘St James Theatre’, at which Lady Windermere’s Fan premières in Wilde, with Stephen Fry as the flamboyant playwright.
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Match Point film location: Chris disposes of the incriminating evidence: Queen's Walk, Hopton Street
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Chris throws incriminating evidence into the Thames on Queen's Walk at the end of Hopton Street, beneath Blackfriars Bridge. Gone now are the tennis-style ‘netting’ (added for the movie) and the image of a little girl carrying a red balloon by guerrilla graffiti artist Banksy. This corner isn’t always as secluded as Chris finds it. You’re likely to be caught up in crowds visiting the Tate Modern, which, as you can probably tell, was originally Bankside Power Station. While the more famous old Battersea Power Station stumbled from one failed scheme to another, Bankside streaked ahead to a new, wildly successful lease of life as Tate Modern. Chris had earlier bumped into Nola in the gallery.
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Match Point film location: Chris bumps into Nola at the gallery: Tate Modern, Bankside
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The Tate has another identity imaginatively bestowed on it in Richard Loncraine’s Thirties-set Richard III, where it becomes the ‘Tower of London’, a massively intimidating Eastern European-style prison. It was the villain’s ‘Kenworth Laboratories’ in Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London, while the vast Turbine Hall became the interior of the ‘Ark of the Arts’ for Alfonso Cuaron’s Children Of Men (as a kind of consolation prize, the exterior is poor old Battersea Power Station). Of course, it’s really all sweetness and light inside, with stunning exhibition spaces and a not-bad café. Stop for a little refreshment, like Bridget (Renée Zellweger) and chums, who hang out here in Bridget Jones’s Diary.
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Match Point: an apartment to die for: Parliament View Apartments, Lambeth
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How much more high-profile can you get than the undulating profile of the apartment complex overlooking the traffic island at the southern end of Lambeth Bridge, where doting (and rich) daddy Alec Hewett installs his daughter Chloe and son-in-law Chris? If the floor to ceiling glazing is not ostentatious enough for you, why not rub it in by calling the whole shebang Parliament View Apartments? In the words of The Producers’ Max Bialystock, “When you've got it, flaunt it!”. As poor Nola finds out, this really is an apartment to die for.
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