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‘The Electrical Life of Louis Wain’ in South London

The FilmFixer team in South London did a lot of work on the Benedict Cumberbatch film, ‘The Electrical Life of Louis Wain’, currently in cinemas.

This delightfully odd biopic chronicles the true story of English artist Louis Wain’s rise to prominence at the end of the 19th century for his surreal cat paintings that seem to reflect his declining sanity. The production included a huge shoot on Walcott Square in Lambeth, which was one of the biggest things FilmFixer have shot in the borough for a number of years.

Walcott Square was closed and dressed with period festive props, and there were also some action scenes filmed with cats!

Wain’s paintings humanised cats by giving them big googly eyes, and showing them gathered round the dinner table, standing on their hind legs, holding golf clubs or driving cars, serving tea and smoking cigars. This eccentric character was credited with influencing Walt Disney and popularising cats as domestic pets in England.

Whittlesey Street also featured, with one day’s exterior shooting for a scene with a horse and carriage moving down street, while characters walk and talk, and people are caught up in an air raid warning.

FilmFixer also arranged for two marshalls from the borough, Phoebe Gussain and Megan Bussey, to help out on the day of the shoot. Megan was a local film practice student from the London College Communications, and Phoebe was a trainee from the Roundhouse Trust Film, Fixer education/training partners.

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