R.G. v R.G

Richard Curtis asked me if the cast of #withnailandi still got on well when I joined him on #abouttimemovie. I replied “of course” and this was the result ! It was sadly the last time I photographed#richardgriffiths #oldvic #richardegrant

Tabloid news....

We had to disappoint a number of Withnail punters this year as we sold out of this image as a mounted limited run so we decided to make it available as an 11 x 14” limited edition 100.  Please note that these won’t be available for dispatch until January 2024.   Chin chin, MC

It's all in the name

With these bloody actors on strike I haven’t had many victims to photograph but I’ve finally had time to sort my Withnail archive out.  I realised that this piece of genius doesn’t have a title.  I’m looking for suggestions, if I pick your pathetic attempt you’ll receive an 11 x 14” print of it.  Results will be announced here on Sunday.  Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments below or on FB.  Cin cin, MC

***UPDATE***. The winner is Philip James with ‘Are You the Actor?’  We’ll be in touch to get a print sent out to you. 

Christmas comes early for Withnail fans

Having just approved the layouts for this book, I can honestly say this is the definitive book on our beloved ‘Withnail & I’  I encourage you all to pre-order on the Titan website.  Sadly not free to those that can afford it. MC

Authorised by author and director Bruce Robinson, who provides an exclusive foreword, Withnail & I: From Cult to Classic charts the extraordinary journey of a beloved cult film from being ‘just thoughts really’ to becoming a permanent feature in any list of the Best British Films ever made.

For the first time the surviving players have been interviewed for this book about their parts in the making of the movie, and the lasting effect it had on their lives. Bruce Robinson offers detailed insights into his creative process and influences, while new interviews with the film’s stars Richard E Grant and Paul McGann provide personal insights into the impact that making and living with Withnail & I had.

Illustrated throughout with never-before-seen photography and archive material, and featuring contributions from famous fans like Sam Bain, Margaret Cho and Charlie Higson, this is the definitive, must-have book on Withnail & I.

RELEASE DATE 5th September 2023

What a piece of work...

In January Alex Garland called me out of the blue and asked to meet. Now, this is filmmaker I have wanted to work with so it was a bloody good start to 2022. His project is about two photojournalists in a combat zone.   I got to give Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny a photographer’s insider tips and appeared as a grizzled war photographer alongside them, hopefully I’ll make the cut… 

My Hunger Games family reunited in June for ‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ in Berlin with a new cast of players. As one of the very small group who worked on all of the movies it’s a very special assignment for me. 

But before departing my studio I discovered an image of Richard from the Hamlet scene in Regents Park. It’s never been published so I thought it would be in good taste to release it into the world as our festive offering. Hopefully it will provide some distraction from all the shit that keeps raining down!

They are not selling Boris wigs in Woolworths just yet so Chin Chin my dears.

MC

And the Winner is......

Sorry about the delay in announcing the competition winner but I had to go to New York by mistake and got snowed in.  I had the most marvellous time reading everyones suggestions and it was bloody hard to pick just one but here it is… Simon Whittle in a rare moment of sobriety came up with thIs beauty.  'A Weekend’s Indulgence' which will be known for ever more as the title of the photograph. It was a hoot doing this perhaps we’ll do another one in the future.  We’ll be in touch with Simon to get his address.  Chin Chin.  MC

Deep Dive into the Archive...

Having been invited to exhibit my Withnail images again, my hand was forced into a deep dive of the black and white negatives shot in 1986.

This entailed anchoring myself at a light box with a bottle or two for a few days with a 1960’s soundtrack. It’s been a while since the originals were taken out of the archive and it unlocked some great memories and unearthed some overlooked gems. 

Here’s a taster to enjoy, it’s untitled as yet, and I’ll be adding some additional photos to the website very soon.

Chin chin,

MC

Down & Out in Paris..

Sometimes it seems remarkable to me that I am here writing this missive again and there are still people at the other end of the internet line. Although, I am very probably more often than not in junk mail folders!

As luck would have it I am back with Keanu again and this time he is fighting his way to glory as Mr John Wick. My life has a curious way of repeating itself apparently…

For this year’s festive release I thought that I would print a greatest hit. It is one of my most popular images in the Withnail portfolio and it is signed, mounted and ready to drop into a standard 10x8” frame for those who are too cheap to get it custom framed!

I’ve only made 25 of these due to still being able to maintain gainful employment and being knackered after 19 weeks of night shooting.

Just thoughts as always.

MC

Brave New World

I’ve done a few interviews of late, I guess online rags have got some time on their hands, and the most common thing that they want to know is how my work has changed since moving from film to digital.

This has pressured me into analysing my work process which I loathe doing but the truth is that the digital world has transformed my shooting process and not always for the best.

Whilst the new world has placed control of my imagery back into my hands allowing me to delete, colour treat and effectively becoming the laboratory, it has taken away some of the purity.

 Cartier-Bresson’s ‘Decisive Moment’ has been eroded I fear.

Withnail is a good example as I still have the original negatives and know that I shot about 1600 black and white images over the course of the filming days I covered. To give this some perspective, on ‘The Matrix 4’ which I recently completed I was submitting between 600/1000 images per day. The two films are entirely different of course, one had a budget of $200 million and the other was a bowl of rice and a bag of nuts but in some ways maybe when working with film we were more focused knowing we didn’t have an unlimited supply of ones and zeros to fall back on.

I managed to capture the essence of the ‘Tea Room’ scene in 45 frames, lord only knows how many I would rack up today.  

Just thoughts as always…

PRE-ORDER ICONIC PHOTOSHOOT #1

I am currently printing and have just released Iconic Photoshoot # 1 as a limited edition 11 x 14” print. Edition 1/100 is available so get in quick if you want the first one.  The 11 x 14” prints are £150 and available in the Shop now.   Cheers!

2020 in the rear-view mirror..

What a bloody year! It’s difficult to know where to start as we’ve all got our own stories, highs, lows and in between.

I began the year innocently, as we all did, in San Francisco on ‘The Matrix’ with Lana Wachowski at the helm and I have to say that I would never have put a shilling or two on shooting Neo and Trinity at this point in my career. To say it has been a remarkable experience would not do justice to any of the creatives involved but you can make your own minds up next December.

After the US we travelled to Germany in March to continue production at Babelsberg Studios but then the pesky pandemic kicked and I was sequestered in Berlin which turned out to be piece of good fortune for me except for the fact that my cameras were locked down at the studio for 4 months but my chums at Leica DE took pity on me and loaned me some cameras to keep me quiet.

I’m writing this with the impending chaos of carnets and packing ahead before a return home to, hopefully, a better 2021, and have printed 25 prints in 5x7” size of a lovely personal moment of the boys between takes in Regents’ Park mounted and signed and ready to drop into an 8x10” frame. For no particular reason I’m offering them at £45 including shipping which, for those paying attention, is cheaper than last year!

Blessed are the vaccine makers.

Chin chin

Murray

Unexpected fan

An actor pal of mine sent me this article from a while back which I was surprised and happy to read.  It still surprises me the way Withnail & I touches people’s hearts. MC

https://www.redonline.co.uk/reviews/what-to-watch-tonight/a516310/jack-whitehall-my-favourite-thing/

Withnail & I, Paul, Richard Griffiths & Richard E. Take Some Air, Chelsea, 1986

I & Withnail

I’m excited to announce that I am finally able to offer the 30 x 40” pieces from Iconic Photoshoot #1 & #2 again. These 2 contact sheets show the famous images together with the less well known ones and are great examples of how the synchronicity of the actors and myself achieved the final results. Shot at Uncle Monty’s cottage and outside of the boy’s flat during gaps in filming, the exterior flat location on Chepstow Villas was never featured in the film but has become a Withnail shrine due to this photo shoot.

These Giclee prints will be made in collaboration with master printer, Francois Le Blond.  I withdrew these images from the portfolio some time ago because I couldn’t find a printer that I had confidence in to print in this large format. We made some trial prints last week and the results were stunning. These images are truly statement pieces.

Boris made me do it...

Press articles globally celebrated our PM’s Covid recovery aided by viewing Withnail & I featured this image.  In a moment of rare clarity today I recalled that I made a series of prints of said image signed by Bruce, Richard, Paul and myself and had stored them in the wine cellar.. so I have added them to the shop.  It’s amazing what you can find when the pubs are closed.  Chin Chin! MC

Tea Room Revisited...

Now that the pesky Covid bastard has got us between the eyes I have no excuses left not to update the ‘Withnail Photos’ blog, I bet you couldn’t wait…

It is remarkable looking back on a single black and white contact sheet of 36 exposures to see how a scene was created and even more extraordinary that 2 iconic images came from that one roll of film.  Back in the day an average shooting day would be 3 rolls of film, on my current assignments those numbers are blown out of the water with an average of about 1000 images (approx. 28 rolls of film) per day. Maybe it’s the lack of booze on set or the association with ‘digital is free’, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

We were only in Stony Stratford for a day’s shooting and covered 2 classic scenes, ‘The Tea Room’ and ‘Booze or Boots?’, starting with the exterior scene with Monty and the Rolls in the drizzling rain and then moving into the Penrith Tea Room.

The Tea Room scenes were always going to be shot quickly as we anticipated that the local middle aged extras could well have issues with Withnail’s foul language which is why the coverage is concise, we never even see Mrs Blennerhassit. I think I shot the scene on 50 f1.4 lens on a Nikon FM2 body, wedging myself into a spot between the camera dolly and a boom operator.  I’m still amazed by that day.

Unearthing Gems....

I spent a rainy weekend finally beginning to archive my past work and of course started with Withnail, Kubrick can wait…I don’t enjoy revisiting my old work but sometimes a forgotten image or moment can transport you directly back to the moment the exposure was made. A number of unseen Withnail images came to light and I thought I would share this shot of a final rehearsal of one of the two scenes we filmed in Regent’s Park.   I don’t remember specifically whether Richard was ad libbing or even quoting from the script at all but whatever he said caused Paul to break character and giggle. 

For a limited time only we are offering this exclusive unseen image of 'Withnail & I' in my online shop presented in a soft white acid free mount and signed by me all ready to drop into a standard 10 x 8” frame plus free UK delivery making it the perfect Christmas gift for any Withnail fan. Chin Chin!  MC

Q & A with the Photographer Part I

What cameras did you use?

I was using Nikon FM2s with fast F1.4 lenses as a lot of the scenes particularly Monty’s cottage and the Camden Town flat had very low light levels. In the pre-mirrorless camera age I had to use a sound blimp which resembled an oversized lunchbox to muffle the shutter noise during filming. My film choices were limited due to extreme exposures and in the 1980s I had to shoot colour and black & white in order to supply the press with both.

At the time of filming did you have any inkling that it might become the cult classic it is today?

It is almost impossible during production to forecast the success or failure of any film I have worked on and if I could I wouldn’t be hanging around on rainy mountaintops capturing images. However one thing was certain that the script and characters were something I had never encountered before and the tightly knit creative group together with the dedicated cast made me feel like we were making something unique. Whilst this feeling is great for ones creative juices it does not necessarily mean the cinema going public will reach for their wallets.

People have come to associate your photographs so closely with the film that it is easy to mistakenly remember the film in black & white. Is that something you were conscious about at the time?

To this day I think of Withnail as a black and white film and I am always taken aback when I watch it and it turns out to be in muted colour. I shot a lot of black and white photographs on Withnail as I knew the results would be better due to the faster emulsions and the push developing. I shot an equal amount of colour but Kodak Ektachrome in 1980s had a low ISO number and was prone to a contrast build up when push developed. Given my choice I would always choose black and white Withnail versus colour Withnail but then again I would choose black and white over colour any day.

You exhibited your W&I collection at the BFI in 2007. How did this come about, where were the negatives and did you think there would be such interest in your photos when you eventually exhibited them?

Due to the untimely demise of Handmade Films and the regular reselling of their catalogue I became the defacto source for photographic needs in the 1990s when Withnail & I was not available on VHS or DVD and whilst the film remained dear to many of our hearts a new audience was only introduced to it by watching a scratchy VHS cassette tape made in the late 1980s. With the advent of digital photography, photographic labs were closing every week around the world and when the lab I was using in London was closing down, they reminded me that they still held a lot of my original material including the Withnail negatives and asked If I wanted them back. The answer was yes. By 2007 after Criterion Collection had finally released Withnail and I as a DVD attracting brand new audiences I was persuaded that their would be an interest in an exhibition. I was taken aback with the turnout to see the photographs and reunite with Paul, Richard & Bruce.

Welcome...

Welcome to my new ‘Withnail & I’ photography site.  Clearly I have set out to showcase my fabulous work of course but also to provide a safe forum where Withnail aficionados can visit to get updates on Withnail related events, catch up with my Withnail blog and even to answer the odd question or two.  Let me know what you think in the comments.. Chin! chin! Murray.  

 P.S. For all my other work visit my Website and Instagram.  Links below: