"Football [soccer, for many of us] is a game for gentlemen played by thugs; rugby is a game for thugs played by gentlemen."—Tommy Cameron, bartender at the James Joyce pub in Athens

CITY OF MASKS

A Venetian Thriller

 Reg’d © Library of Congress

A playboy accused of murder disguises himself and leads the police on a chase through Venice.

Think of...

and of...

When Philip’s mistress the Contessa Antonia falls to her death and leaves him money, the police find that his former mistress had done the same—

—and Philip escapes over the rooftops through the Venice labyrinth, changing disguises as fast as he changes protectors.

Someone, he realizes, did kill Antonia, and is now trying to kill the rich American lady who’s taken him in—and who plans to marry him to her virginal niece.

Caught between the police and the murderer, between a crooked lawyer and a gay priest, between women who love and betray him, Philip slips, tears, swims, sails, jumps, races, hide-and-seeks through Venice—his co-star—to the final masquerade.

Proposed cast: Pierce Brosnan (Philip Fanchester)

PHILIP is by profession a lady’s gentleman—and he is a gentleman, despite all the challenges.  He has more fun than he perhaps should but it looks good on him.

Proposed cast: Tamsin Egerton (Audrey)

AUDREY is shy, romantic, protected, intellectual, emotionally a bit of a waif but a perfect lady.  Her aunt Mrs Clark betroths her to Philip almost on a whim.

Proposed cast: Kathy Bates (Mrs Clark)

American and imperious MRS CLARK, robust rather than elegant, takes Philip in when she should turn him over to the police, follows her instinct and trusts him implicitly.

Proposed cast: Lily Cole (Gaby) 

GABY, Contessa Antonia's teenage maid, adores Philip, misses no chance to tease him, helps him escape—and does murder.

Proposed cast: Nick Moran (Father Tomasso)

Father TOMASSO, a man of perfect integrity, hides his old friend against the advice of his fellow priest, who fears that his love for Philip is not entirely Christian.

Proposed cast: Anna Friel (Angela)

ANGELA, beautiful, superficial, much too rich but utterly charming, typifies Philip's old circle and hopes he murdered his mistress so he could be with her. “Angela, darling, anybody can be with you.”

Attached:

And the seventh character is VENICE, the only place this story could happen.

Pretentious Pictures presents a UK-Italian co-production of a Venetian thriller.

Reg’d © Library of Congress

Phedon Papamichael (1924-2008)—art director, playboy, bon viveur, mentor

  He worked with Bogdanovich, Cassavetes and Jules Dassin, and his record as a ladies' man is legendary—names you would know and envy him for, but they've reached a more discreet age now so I'd better not mention them.

He was an extraordinarily handsome man well into his eighties.  Many of the young actresses in Athens were his protégées.  Just when one thought one had met them all someone else came to his elbow and was introduced.  The stunning Despina Mirou (pictured here making up as Blue Girl) first brought him to us, and has been rudderless since he died.  

A pair of coincidences: Zack Norman, who played our heavy, arrived in Athens with a brief from Seymour Cassel to look Phedon up from the old Cassavetes days—and found him on the set!  Which is also where Phedon bumped into our Canadian editor Ion Webster, the son of his former girlfriend.  "I just missed being his father!" he said.

When the production manager pilfered the budget money I turned to my Precious Other and producer-partner, Ioanna, and said "Why weren't you checking her receipts?"  "Don't blame Ioanna," Phedon interrupted, "you didn't want to be distracted and she had to keep the shoot going."  So he supervised even our relationship.  We couldn't have done it without him.  

Now we have to.  Emma Blue was his last film.  I think he'd be proud of how well it's been doing.  Certainly we were proud of him.

He had one lung and smoked two packs a day.  When it finally got him he went through the last grotesque metamorphoses, bedridden but hanging on for months to say good-bye to his son.  (His son is the fine cinematographer of the same name who has photographed so many of the movies we're familiar with.)  We have to assume he was waiting to say good-bye because when Phedon Jr. arrived and spoke with his father, he went downstairs to bring his own son up, and when they got back Phedon was gone.