Industry and fans worldwide are waiting for the next James Bond movie No time to die whose premiere is scheduled at the end of October and that, for the moment, is being simply nicknamed #25 by aficionados counting down the days.
To name this movie saga also in present times means recalling memories that have been piling-up along many years.
Generations of moviegoers were raised daydreaming about the British super-hero’s cars, gizmos, and over-the-top settings where he did act, and will again.
Fans worldwide are now ready to preserve their nostalgia with dedicated expositions, where the James Bond world of emotions is quietly challenging and winning, as usual, probably its most hateful enemy of all: the passing of time.
Inspired by a celebrity-chasing mood, we recently came across a newly opened exposition about Goldfinger, whose great part was filmed in the Ursern Valley.
It was indeed by the third instalment of the franchise, Goldfinger, that the managers of Eon Productions took a ground-breaking decision for this saga that was, and still is, one the biggest jewels of their crown: the James Bond movies would have to be shot in the best location in the world, to upgrade the legendary movie hero into a distinguished connoisseur of high-living style and made the locations where the plot took place worth to enter into legend.
Well, we all now know how audiences worldwide did react.
When Goldfinger came to cinemas, on 22nd December 1964, immediately became a box-office hit.
As today we are adjusting figures after inflation, by the date of its debut Goldfinger is still one of the highest worldwide grossing movies of all the franchise, with an astonishing US$ 912.257,512 raised at the box-office, third in line after the top-scorer Skyfall, that grossed $ 1.108.561,008 after his 8th November 2012 debut, the first-ever James Bond movie released with the new ultra-sophisticated IMAX-Image Maximum high-definition technology, and Thunderball, released on 29th December 1965, that grossed $1.014.941,117.
Anyway, these are just introductory notes: because after the location, the production, and the plot, there is an additional element that makes the James Bond franchise an undisputed time-breaking feature: the actor.
In the leading role of Goldfinger you probably remember the best James Bond ever, Sean Connery.
Once this background is set, we are ready to experience throughfully the magic of the special exposition “James Bond in Ursern: in the footsteps of Goldfinger” , that opened last June at the Talmuseum of Andermatt and will continue until 16th October.
This exposition is the result of a successful team-playing effort by two long-standing James Bond aficionados, Steffen Appel, and Peter Waelty, co-authors of the book “The Goldfinger Files- The Making of the Iconic Alpine Sequence in the James Bond Movie “Goldfinger“, printed by Steidl, which deals indeed with this super-production, and whose story we all remember.
The English secret service, under instructions of the Bank of England, is chasing the supervillain Auric Goldfinger, an international gold smuggler.
James Bond is assigned on this case and tails Goldfinger’s Rolls Royce Phantom III from its landing in Geneva up the Ursern Valley.
During his mission, James Bond meets a gorgeous lady, Tilly Masterson, impersonated by the actress Tania Mallet, whose car, a 1964 Ford Mustang convertible, the Aston Martin of the British agent will shred the tires in a breath-taking road-race over the Furka Pass.
That’s nearly all, as far as the story of the movie goes; at the same time, that’s nearly all also to understand why the legend of Goldfinger is still continuing in Ursern Valley.
The filming took place from 5th to 12th July 1964 and the crew was hosted at Bergidyll Hotel, a typical chalet-style residence still open in Andermatt, not far away from The Chedi, which today probably is the foremost landmark in the region.
The exposition James Bond in Ursern: in the footsteps of Goldfinger brings the visitor’s memory back to sixty years ago, when the world was a simpler and a more genuine place, the kind of dreamland that nowadays we are chasing into the digital virtuality, probably because we gave up dreaming that a place like this can still exists for real.
In 1964 very few people in Andermatt were aware of the popularity of James Bond’s character, and did not excessively troubled themselves to wonder why journalists and photographers travelled to the Ursern region to cover the movie shootings.
Nevertheless, the magic of Goldfinger is indeed still lingering all over, and many of the memorabilia shown at the Talmuseum will remember it to the visitors.
For instance, at “James Bond in Ursern: in the footsteps of Goldfinger” is possible to find a copy of the original screenplay of the movie director Guy Hamilton, that directed other three James Bond movies, along with the cardigan he wore during the filming of Goldfinger, and also the viewfinder he used to focus the locations before rolling the cameras.
The museum is also displaying a collection of autographs signed by Gert Fröbe, the German actor that in the movie plays the supervillain Goldfinger, as well as autographs signed by Desmond Llewelyn, that will go on to impersonate the Q character until “The world not enough” with Pierce Brosnan, in 1999.
The visitors of “James Bond in Ursern: in the footsteps of Goldfinger” will also find John Barry’s music score of Goldfinger and, that’s for sure, it nearly impossible to refrain from mumbling the famous opening title sung by Shirley Bassey.
On display, there are also the stage clothes worn by Sean Connery and the actress Tania Mallet, that after shooting Goldfinger unexpectedly become a fashion model. Even the life of Ms Mallet after Goldfinger seems indeed to be a story coming out from a vintage fairy tale of its own.
Being the cousin of the Oscar-winning British actress Dame Helen Mirren, Tania Mallett, that was only twenty-three when appeared in Goldfinger, probably when acting in Andermatt got struck by the contrast between the quiet life in the Ursern Valley and the hype that moved the James Bond fans back in the UK and worldwide.
This background perhaps convinced Ms Mallett that the popularity she gained as sidekick of the British super-agent would not have lasted in time.
Therefore, after Goldfinger she started turning down acting, to become instead of the most sought-after fashion models in the fabulous world of the Swinging London, in the Sixties, along with glamour legends such as Twiggy, and Jean Shrimpton.
This is just a summary of the many memories that the Talmuseum of Andermatt is ready to remember to the visitors of the exposition “James Bond in Ursern: in the footsteps of Goldfinger”, along with the British super-hero world of magic that audiences will soon find in cinemas worldwide to be continuing in the next movie #25 franchise.
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EON Productions Ltd
