Film Finances at the BFI Southbank
Into the Open
Until recently, FFI had received little academic attention; opening its archive for a special issue of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television began to fill that gap.
The resulting BFI Southbank event brought together historians James Chapman, Sarah Street, Justin Smith, and Sue Harper alongside FFI co-president Steve Ransohoff, UK consultant Graham Easton, and director Mike Leigh, who has worked with FFI since High Hopes (1988) through Mr Turner.
Quotes From the Historians
Panelists spoke to what the archive reveals about British New Wave cinema, producer Harry Saltzman, Tom Jones (1963), and 1970s British independent films such as The Wicker Man, Don’t Look Now, and Lisztomania.
The Contemporary Perspective
A panel discussion between Mike Leigh and Graham Easton offered a working filmmaker’s and consultant’s view of what the completion-guarantee relationship looks like today.
Continuity
The day’s throughline traced back to Robert Garrett’s original 1949 concept, with longtime consultant John Croydon as a recurring figure.
Croydon’s CV
After leaving Ealing in 1946 and heading production at Rank’s Highbury Studio, Croydon set up an independent outfit, Coronet Films, after Highbury closed in 1949.
One Wild Oat
Croydon’s first FFI association was as a producer seeking a guarantee; it was the third film FFI ever bonded (after The Woman in Question and The Adventurers), and gave Audrey Hepburn her first feature-film role, opposite future My Fair Lady co-star Stanley Holloway.
Croydon’s Reports
Croydon wrote his first FFI report — on Tom Brown’s Schooldays — in 1950 after wrapping One Wild Oat, and went on to write over 1,000 more across the next 30 years, including reports on Richard III (1955), Peeping Tom (1960), Dr. No (1962), Zulu (1964), and Cabaret (1972).
“The Coach Who Laid Out the Game Plan”
Cabaret producer Cy Feuer used this phrase to describe Croydon’s — and FFI’s — role on a production: less a financier looking over your shoulder, more a coach who had already walked the field.