Scarlett Johanssen in Match Point - Memorable TV Features and Giveaways

"The man who said "I'd rather be lucky than good" saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control. There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net and for a split second it can either go forward or fall back. With a little luck it goes forward and you win. Or maybe it doesn't and you lose."

MATCH POINT is a drama about a young man's rise in society and the terrible consequences of his ambition. The protagonist is torn between two women, and finding no way out, resorts to extreme action. The actors are all English and it is set amongst the English upper class with Scarlett Johansson playing the beautiful American girl who comes between Jonathan Rhys Meyers and his wife Emily Mortimer. Matthew Goode is Emily's wealthy brother who initiates the tragic events. The movie also stars Brian Cox, Matthew Goode and Penelope Wilton and co-stars Ewan Bremner, James Nesbitt and Rupert Penry-Jones.

ABOUT THE MOVIE
In the summer of 2004, Woody Allen came to London to film MATCH POINT, his first production to be made entirely outside of his native New York.

MATCH POINT began principal photography in July 2004 and filming took place for seven weeks in and around London. Locations included some of the city’s most famous landmarks like the Tate Modern, St. James’s Park and one of the more recent additions, ‘The Gherkin’. Interiors and exteriors were used for filming in a number of locations in and around Belgravia; Marylebone, Notting Hill, Chelsea, Covent Garden as well as a country estate in Buckinghamshire.

Allen was fortunate to have the support of some regular and trusted collaborators working with him on MATCH POINT; Producer Letty Aronson, Co-producer Helen Robin, Casting Director Juliet Taylor and Editor Alisa Lepselter. Allen then assembled the majority of his creative team and the technicians for his crew from the wealth of talent available to him in Britain. Not only was it challenging to have an almost entirely new crew; methods of working were different in London than New York. A much less regulated style of working developed compared to the commonly restricted practices of filming in New York. “ Working with a British crew was a wonderful experience. I had a great team; very friendly, enormously efficient and tremendously good at what they did in every department. It was very loose and easy and everyone brought enthusiasm to their work which made the experience very pleasurable” , says Allen.

As the Production Designer, Jim Clay’s role was crucial in introducing Allen to the London landscape and vital in helping to produce an authentic London film. Clay says Allen took this in his stride, “He is one of the most astute directors I’ve ever worked with, very involved and very decisive –he knew immediately whether a location was suitable…for example in Tate Modern, as soon as we went there he immediately embraced it because he could see it’s cinematic value”.

Allen is equally complimentary about working with Clay “Jim Clay was a major contributor. I relied on him to solve a lot of problems and he had very little money to work with. He came up with not only great locations but wonderful sets and great solutions to problems”

Allen much prefers using real locations and where necessary making minor alterations to suit characters. Therefore Allen, Clay and location manager Sue Quinn spent several weeks just looking and picking the places that would provide the right visual sense for the characters. In addition, Clay had to find creative solutions for two important scenes; one which takes place inside a Tate Modern gallery – which were off limits at the Tate itself - and a scene filmed inside the Royal Opera House. With scarce resources and a carefully chosen warehouse building in the east end of London, Clay built his own

version of a ‘Tate’ gallery space and filled it with specially created art. For the opera scene he built a stage set at Ealing studios. Allen says of Clay “ He was so meticulous and imaginative, sometimes quite astonishing, working the same way Santo Loquasto (Allen’s Production Designer for the past 20 years) works, which is on a very limited budget but producing very large impressive sets for me”

London provided something else for Allen that New York does not, the famous British weather, which had for Allen some great advantages. Having often complained in the past that the sun had been the ‘bane of my existence’, he was very happy to find cool temperatures and clouds throughout the summer remarking, “ London has beautiful grey skies when they are overcast, it was cool and the flat light gives a colour saturation to everything that’s very rich and very beautiful for photography”.

Cinematographer Remi Adefarasin was also a new to Allen and had long admired his work. Adefarasin enjoyed the collaboration between all the heads of department in striving to achieve Allen’s desired look for the film. “Woody loves warm tones and we realized that if we all fell over backwards to produce warm sets, clothes, hair and light then nothing would stand out. We did extensive screen tests before the shoot and this was extremely useful” Shooting was always fast and efficient, leaving time within the schedule to re-shoot if necessary. Adefarasin was impressed by Allen’s methods “He likes to look through the lens a lot, stays close to the camera when we’re rolling so he can see the actors faces and does not use a video monitor as he realises they are deceitful”. For Allen working with Adefarasin was a pleasure “he’s tremendous, a very very gifted photographer”.

Also working with Allen for the first time was Costume Designer Jill Taylor whose brief was to keep everything as natural and simple as possible, in keeping with the overall warmth and autumnal colours which the design team were collectively working towards. “It wasn’t a stylised look, we wanted to get everything believable and real within the characters lifestyle”. Striving for accuracy, she researched the upper classes “I interviewed a lot of people and talked through their wardrobes to determine the kinds of things they would wear to certain events”. Taylor also welcomed the additions and suggestions of the cast. For example Penelope Wilton introduced elements of her own style, “Her character is very warm and approachable, hopefully this has come across in her clothes as well and Emily Mortimer brought her own individuality in the way that she put her things together”.