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The Blockbuster Issue

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The BLOCKBUSTER Issue

film, Novak, then in her

film, Novak, then in her 60s, revisited the film’s San Francisco locations and joked that she didn’t actually drive the Jaguar herself. “The truth is, I didn’t know how to drive,” she laughed. “They had a little man who pushed on the gas and the brake, but they made me steer. In the movie, it looks easy, but it was harrowing.” Novak’s Madeleine is a sleek but unknowable presence in Vertigo, and her car only adds to her enigma. A Jaguar D-Type features in Steve McQueen’s 1971 epic LeMans. The film icon also owned an ultra-rare 1956 XKSS LeMans racer too The TV version of The Saint starred Ian Ogilvy in a 1975 early prototype XJS Jaguar’s association with British cinema is particularly enduring. It’s almost a byword for 1960s British cool. We can partly thank Michael Caine for that – an actor as intimately connected with the period as the car brand itself. Caine starred in The Ipcress File, The Italian Job and Get Carter, each of them home to classic Jaguar models. In the London spy thriller The Ipcress File you can see the E-Type, S-Type and Mk II in the background of its sinister, modish spin on the English capital. In The Italian Job, the criminal gang relied on two versions of the E-Type Series 1 to pull off their daring heist (although the cars don’t quite survive the journey across Europe – through no fault of their own). Get Carter isn’t technically a 60s movie (it was shot in 1970), but deserves an honorary slot in the best films of that decade simply for its effortless cool and sense of brutal modernism: Caine plays a sharp- suited, sharp-tongued London gangster travelling north to Newcastle in the wake of his brother’s murder – gangsters in pursuit of Caine are behind the wheel of a red Mk II. While considering the 1960s, who can forget the battered Mk II that Richard E. Grant’s Withnail drives in the cult movie Withnail and I, the tale of two mismatched London actors going on holiday to the countryside “by mistake”, as one character puts it? Filmed in the mid-1980s, but set in 1969 the battered car reflects the fading 1960s utopian dream that writer-director Bruce Robinson was exploring. The Jaguar in that film might have seen better days (one headlamp is hanging off, the paintwork is fading and it’s covered in dents), but that’s all to do with its extremely careless owner, not the car. Battered or not, it’s still one of the most iconic vehicles in British cinema. 2000 DIE ANOTHER DAY (2002) Model: XKR Henchman Zao’s gadget-packed car is used to pursue Pierce Brosnan’s Bond in a thrilling chase. CATWOMAN (2004) Model: XJR Catwoman (Halle Berry) purrs at the leaper on the bonnet of the XJR in one particularly feline scene. Nice. OCEAN’S TWELVE (2004) Model: XJ8 The mode of transport for villain and casino owner Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). Proof that bad guys have style. CASINO ROYALE (2006) Model: XJ8 The XJ8 large saloon belongs to Mr White (Jesper Christensen), and is parked outside his mansion when Bond shoots him in the leg. QUANTUM OF SOLACE (2008) Model: Daimler V8 (a version of a long-wheelbase XJ8) One of the henchmen meets his maker getting thrown off the roof of an opera house and landing on the Daimler. The Jaguar off-shoot brand Daimler was for some time the car of choice for the English Queen and the British Royal Family. 32 j THE BLOCKBUSTER ISSUE

CULTURE PHOTOGRAPHY: SPECTRE © 2015 METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIOS INC., DANJAQ, LLC AND COLUMBIA PICTURES INDUSTRIES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Robert Carlyle and Samuel L. Jackson argue in front of a Jaguar XJ6 Series 3 in cult brit film The 51st State In recent years, the Jaguar has continued to enjoy scenestealing roles in a huge variety of movies – lending an air of cool-hearted mystery, class and a whiff of danger to the films it appears in. When Rosamund Pike makes a shocking, theatrical reappearance at the family home in David Fincher’s 2014 film Gone Girl, it’s an XFR she’s driving. When Guy Pearce is desperately trying to piece together the fragments of his memory in Christopher Nolan’s film Memento (2000), he’s behind the wheel of an XKR. Directors know the value of a Jaguar. It suits a better class of villain. That’s why it appears in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Looper (2012) and The Sweeney (2012) – always in the hands of seductive bad guys. But it’s also about taste. Filmmakers like Nolan and Fincher are high priests of modern filmmaking, both notorious for gently controlling every single detail of their movies until they get it exactly right. They know that a Jaguar doesn’t just look good. It enhances the stories they’re telling. It’s more than a car. It’s a performer. Which takes us back to its latest performance in the new Bond movie, Spectre, and that late-night chase through Rome. We watch as the C-X75 tears along the riverside in pursuit of the DB10. You’ll have to see the finished movie yourself to discover more. It’s another star turn to add to a long list of movie-stealing Jaguars. Now, won’t someone just do the right thing and give this car an Oscar? Good directors know that a Jaguar doesn’t just look good. It enhances the stories they’re telling. It’s more than a car. It’s a performer Jason Statham fires up the F-TYPE in Furious 7 Bang up to date: The C-X75 concept tears through Rome in the latest Bond film Spectre 2010 RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2011) Model: XF The XF in the film belongs to the villainous scientist Jacobs played by David Oyelowo. LOOPER (2012) Model: XKR Convertible The XKR is used by mobsters during a shoot-out in this cool sci-fi gangster thriller featuring Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt. GONE GIRL (2014) Model: XFR Scary Amy Elliott- Dunne (Rosamund Pike), the girl referenced in the title of the film, turns up at the end of the story by clattering an XFR dramatically onto the driveway of her home. FURIOUS 7 (2015) Model: F-TYPE Coupé The F-TYPE Coupé here is the villain’s car (of course) with said villain played by toughguy Brit Jason Statham, naturally. Bonus fact: This seventh episode in the Fast and Furious franchise is already its biggest grossing single film (see our Blockbuster Infographic on page 50). SPECTRE (2015) Model: C-X75 This incredible 2010 supercar in the latest Bond film, driven by Hinx in his pursuit of Bond in a late-night car chase along Rome’s River Tiber. THE BLOCKBUSTER ISSUE j 33

 

JAGUAR MAGAZINE

 

Jaguar Magazine celebrates creativity in all its forms, with exclusive features that inspire sensory excitement, from beautiful design to cutting-edge technology.

In this issue, we explore the art of creativity from the Brazilian masters who devised the graceful art of Capoeira, to the Irish artists mixing new culture with old. You will also discover the creative line that links Victorian wallpaper to the iPhone. While the multi-talented actor and performer, Riz Ahmed, explains why it is the right time to reveal his true self to the world.

© JAGUAR LAND ROVER LIMITED 2020

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