Mercedes Driver

Mercedes Gleitze. Not a new model of German automobile. You’ve probably never heard the name. She (she’s a she, not an it) was the first British woman to swim the English Channel and an all-round remarkable person.

The same can be said of Elliott Hasler. Last night saw (at the fabulous [and at risk] Curzon Mayfair) the premiere of his debut feature film, the unusually titled ‘Vindication Swim’, which he wrote at the age of 18 after reading a newspaper article about Mercedes, who was born in Brighton, as was Elliott.

It took him over three years to shoot the film which is highly ambitious being a period drama (set in the 20s) and involving extensive shooting on the open sea. Whenever the Channel off Brighton was reasonably calm and the weather OK he had to scramble his cast and crew, including his lead actress Kirsten Callaghan (making a knock-out debut), old-school character actor John Locke (who recently appeared in the brilliant ’Poor Things’) and Victoria Summer (‘Saving Mr Banks’ as Julie Andrews). Kirsten, as totally committed as all the cast and crew, did all the sea swimming herself. They come across as a family engendered by Elliott.

Elliott called in no end of favours. Period vehicles and horse-drawn carts for the street scenes. Background artists from local am-dram groups from Rottingdean to Worthing. Huge attention to detail, extending to making this one of the lowest carbon footprint feature films of all time.

Through sheer dint of will this low-budget independent British movie is now getting a good release of over 300 UK showings and Elliott and his team are setting off on a month of post-screening Q&As all round the country. Picnik Entertainment have come in firmly behind the now 23-year-old’s stand-out calling card, amplifying the huge talent of ‘Vindication Swim’ ‘s prime mover.

The cherry on the cake of last night’s premiere was the presence of Ronnie Wood. No moss will gather on this young rolling stone – Elliott is now working on his follow-up feature, also South coast based (with Graham Greene’s ‘Brighton Rock’ at its heart).

Mercedes Gleitze (who was finally honoured in 2022 with a blue plaque in her native city) attempted the cross-Channel swim seven times before finally securing that swimming first on 7th October 1927. Persistence, resilience, vision, inspiration from a committed parent (in Mercedes’ case her German-born father, in Elliott’s his accountant father as producer who no doubt stretched the sub-£400K budget to its limit – Simon, Elliott & I first met in Brighton in January 2023 and they made an immediately charming duo), boldness, humility, winning the loyalty of a rock-solid team – the maker of this remarkable film and its subject share many outstanding qualities. Mercedes’ name is now becoming more known. Elliott’s, without a shadow of a doubt, will soon be.

Photo: Stewart Weir

Premiere at Curzon Mayfair 28/2/24

Elliott Hasler, Kirsten Callaghan, Victoria Summer, John Locke

124 Freshfield Road, Brighton

The Casting Game No.229: Leonard Cohen

Al Pacino (Godfather II era) AS…

Leonard Cohen

 

OR

Dustin Hoffman AS…

Leonard Cohen

This round inspired by the documentary ‘Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song (2021- dir. Daniel Geller & Dayna Goldfine) – the first 7 minutes

The Casting Game No. 45 – The Aussie Connection

Ben Mendelsohn (as seen in ‘Bloodline’)

as

Noah Taylor

• 

• 

Ben Mendelsohn:

Born 1969

Australian

Break-out role in ‘The Year My Voice Broke’ (1987)

Noah Taylor:

Born 1969

Australian

Break-out role in ‘The Year My Voice Broke’ (1987)

The excellent ‘The Year My Voice Broke’ (1987 dir. John Duigan – who also directed the delightful ‘Flirting’ (1991))

also starring Noah Taylor, and the recently rechristened Thandie Newton/Thandiwe Newton

The Casting Game No. 228

Matthew Broderick

AS

Rami Malek in ‘The Little Things’

The Casting Game No. 127 – moody 60s male leads

Sean Connery

AS

Stanley Holloway (in Eva – 1962)

The Casting Game No. 403 – bushy eyebrows

John Cassavetes

AS

Martin Landau

I was watching John Cassavetes’ Opening Night (1977) at the Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Square last night when this one occurred to me. I’m looking forward to seeing one of my new Red Bull Media House commissions in the same cinema later this week.

As a bonus casting prompted by the same film I offer…

Ben Gazarra

AS

Liev Schreiber

(This one’s a bit harder to capture in photos, it’s attitudinal as well.)

The Casting Game: Reservoir Dogs

To celebrate the arrival of Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood (which has grown on me since watching it last week) I’ve recast where it all began for Quentin, Reservoir Dogs

Jonah Hill

as

Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn)

Joss Ackland

as

Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney)

Dominic West

as

Marvin (Kirk Baltz)

Chris Isaak

as

Mr Blonde (Michael Madsen)

Malcolm Allison

as

Mr White (Harvey Keitel)

Paul Weller

as

Mr Orange (Tim Roth)

The Casting Game No. 55

Benedict Cumberbatch

as

Kenneth Williams

The Casting Game No.s 102 & 103 – Triple Frontier special

 

Charlie Hunnam

as

Jonny Wilkinson

and

Oscar Isaac (in Third Frontier)

as

Ian McShane (in The Battle of Britain)

The Casting Game No. 99

Kenneth Branagh played by (hello!) Jason Isaacs

Kenneth Branagh (in his latest movie)

played by

Jason Isaacs (who took the Edgware coach to school with me back in the day)