Lomography

What can Johnny Depp do for St Ives?

Apart from the occasional scientific geniuss such as Humphrey Davy or photo opportunities in Roche by David Camorron, England (?actaully not England, more a Royal Duchy) the U.K.'S poorest "county" rarely gets into the national news headlines for various reasons. All too often Cornwall gets noticed for closed tin mines, gridlocked road traffic, ship wrecks, complaints about Rick Stiens p[honey accent, take-over bid, poshing up Padstow or hooray henry's taking over Polzeath. So yesterdays reports (02;03;2010) that Jonny Depp may film the next chapter of the PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN (parts of it) in some of the more Anglicized parts of Kernow (Cornwall) , St. Ives........is the biggest prospective cultural boost for the small Celtic Nation for at least a decade, since theme park Edens establishment and the begrudgingly almost got their own university but yea but no its the University of Plymouth sectr college yah yah. Will Depp mania be a good thing?Not necessarily, films and TV series such as Poldark, Twelfth Night, the bond movie Die Another Day and Saving Grace have savoured Cornwalls rich and wild scenery. Apart from the high murder rate, Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca must be judged good for Cornwalls image, although Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs (1971) invoked local anger at the rediculous image of the local characters in the film be portrayed as sex crazed idiots. The Camomile Lawn (1992) made them appear as sex crazed toffs, niether were accurate and the false notion about Cornish Smugglers and wreckers is an English idea to tag tourism, The Cornish nation are truly god fearing and hard working, the means to shift contraband goods would truly elude those hard working impoverished folk, Surely then Johnny Depp as lovable Capn Jack Sparrow is a bit of a misleading idea but with Penelope Cruz as his co-star, its narrow streets and steep clifftops and pounding seashore could make some epic scenery. And did'nt D H Lawrence and Frieda live happily out at Zennor on the Penzance Road until aledgedly driven out by xenophobia - although actually it was the furious war crazed British Moral Right represented by yer local police what started the xenophobic ball rolling, so no need for Depp to put on a Rick Stien accent or look for some distant ancestors. All right so St. Ives crawls with tourists, but judicious editing can keep them out of shot, so it rains a bit too, according to hostile briefings from the Devon Turist lobby, But if neccesary, the filmakers can rewrite a few scenes to be shot in the films other key maritime location Hawaii. Migel Gwynn