Ill Met by Moonlight movie poster – Bogarde as flamboyant Cretan
The Aussies are getting more organised! Even more disturbing the Greek gods appear to have motivated the Melbourne Greek Cultural Centre committee, and in particular the Battle of Crete sub committee, to even more heroic feats of organisation. The screening event that we publicised has moved to a new venue and tickets can be purchased online!
The screening, to be held on 14 May, is moving from the Melbourne Greek Centre, to the Westgarth Cinema in Northcote. Tickets can be purchased here.
We all wish you a very enjoyable and successful evening.
Patrick Leigh Fermor 
As an avid reader of PLF but also a film fan and historian, may I bring a surprising news ? The movie Ill Met By Moonlight was not shot in Crete as most people may think. For some reasons, the producers and director could not shoot the film over there, so decided to use a very similar countryside on the French Riviera, in the arid hills over the city of Nice, plus some street scenes in french local villages. And in the scene when PLF’s team hide from a German spotter plane which definitely looks like a German “Stork”, it is actually a french-built similar machine provided by the French air force or a local gliding centre, I have not been able to find out yet.
Of course, it will not spoil the pleasure of seeing again that wonderful rendering of that Cretan epic… after all, cinema is the art of illusion.
So enjoy the screening, you all “down under”. I wish I was there !
Jean-Pierre Dubois, Nice, France
My Uncle Xan Wallace Fielding apparently was an advisor to Dirk Bogard and he lived in France
and so maybe this is why the filming was done there!!
What do you think?
Best Wishes
Katrina
Hello Katrina,
I do not know, actually.
I once read somewhere that filming on location in Crete appeared to be difficult, possibly for political unrest or some kind of other trouble over there. But I am not totally convinced…
In the foreword to your uncle’s “Hide and Seek”, Robert Messenger states that the Fieldings lived in Uzès, which is a very long way from Nice and the French Riviera, But he also mentions a suit for family property in Nice. So Xan Fielding was familiar with the area, and may have suggested to the producers that filming “Ill met by moonlight” on the hills of the French Riviera could be a satisfactory alternative to Crete ?
I suppose it would be easier to find the explanation in the U.K. proper, possibly in film magazines or appropriate archives and/or memoirs (Dick Bogarde, for instance ?) ?
Best regards
Jean-Pierre
…..well, we Canberrans of Greek origin,beat the Melbournians by two years or so… As an admirer of PLF,of many years,I had purchased a DVD of “Ill met by Moonlight”,which I donated to the Cultural Centre at the Hellenic Club of Canberra”…. the screening of the film brought together Australian students of Greek language & culture,& members of Canberra’s Greek community,many of whom are of proud Cretan heritage,including myself .I am sure the Melbourne screening will be a grander occasion than iur humble gathering & I will be interested to hear of the reaction & interest of the Melbournians.