Comments on: "Paradigm of nowhere": Shepperton, a photo essay (part 2)

By: Neil Coombs

Neil Coombs — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:15:57 +0000

You may be interested in reading my novel based in Walton-on-Thames over the bridge from Shepperton, inspired by Psychomania and cinema. Have a look for Dark Windows on Googlebooks – if you’d like a review copy, let me know.

By: File 770 » Blog Archive » Snapshots 23

File 770 » Blog Archive » Snapshots 23 — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:55:43 +0000

[...] often used to comment on the contrast between the prim suburban order of Shepperton, where Jim Ballard lived for the past 50 years or so, and the dark, dystopian worlds of his [...]

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:12:30 +0000

I guess it’s the obvious one but parts of African Queen were filmed on the River Ash which runs through the studios. It’s laugahble really as the Ash is one of least attractive, most stagnant rivers I’ve ever had the displeasure of falling into – and hardly foaming with occult energy. I’ve always had it in mind to ‘walk’ the Ash from its source on Stanwell Moor to the Thames at Sunbury but have never managed it.

Other than that I can’t think of a single film that uses Shepperton as a stage set.

Another great piece and good to see you back, Simon.

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:10:30 +0000

Cheers Ian, yes I was really pleased with the effect. It does give the scenarios that ‘toy trainset’ look…

By: Ian Parkinson

Ian Parkinson — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:56:02 +0000

Brilliant! I love the effect that you use on the photographs. It gives them that Ballardian overlit quality, as though you’d made a replica Shepperton in your attic lit by strip lighting – signposts, sheep and tarmac at the edge of deliquescing under the pressure of their own brightness.

By: Jamie Sherry

Jamie Sherry — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:43:35 +0000

Quite right Tim, my error. I don’t if appearing in a low-budget exploitation movie of dubious production quality convinced him that it was time to go, after years of working with Hitchcock, and even getting an Oscar for All About Eve. I actually think he turns in a fantastic performance in Psychomania that for me is reminiscent of Ralph Richardson in The Fallen Idol and Erich von Stroheim in Sunset Boulevard.

By: TimC

TimC — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:28:59 +0000

You’d love it, Simon – it’s the Home Counties undead hippy equivalent of ‘Mad Max’, with Beryl Reid as a Satanist. Great soundtrack too – Trunk Records released it a few years ago.

George (voice of Shere Khan) Sanders plays Beryl’s butler, by the way, and wasn’t the director. The director was Hammer veteran Don Sharp.

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:44:36 +0000

Wow, thanks Jamie — I’d never heard of this film, but your descriptions make it a must-see. ‘Occult Shepperton’ … I smell a new meme …

By: Jamie Sherry

Jamie Sherry — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:18:42 +0000

http://www.famouslocations.com/film-movie-locations/where_was_Psychomania_1971_filmed.htm
I adore that film. It probably seems quite corny and clunky now, but watching it as a Middlesex based 12-year-old, and recognising the locations that it was filmed, was quite an experience. I think it is genuinely unusual – a surreal mixture of humour and disturbing horror/occult. It was filmed mainly in Walton-on-Thames, just south of Shepperton, but included scenes filmed in Ballard’s lair also.
The director, George Sanders, committed suicide just after finishing this film. There have been no confirmed sightings of him riding a bike around Walton.

By: TimC

TimC — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:32:08 +0000

Jamie – now I’m going to have to watch ‘Psychomania’ again. Fantastic, fascinating film – I hadn’t clicked that it was filmed in Shepperton, but I think I’ve still got a VHS lying around somewhere…

By: Tomorrow Museum » Archive » Shepperton

Tomorrow Museum » Archive » Shepperton — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:35:29 +0000

[...] This is an aside titled ‘Shepperton’ dated 3/8/09 Ballardian (now on Twitter!) concludes his photo essay of Shepperton. [...]

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:58:07 +0000

Thanks all — I was really pleased with how it turned out; I just wish I hadn’t waited so long to do the 2nd part. I did one photo with the acid colours, but for the most part I was really pleased with the desaturated, Lomo-like effect of the majority. That’s how Ballard’s version of Shepperton appears to me: vaguely familiar, slightly out of focus, blurred at the edges. The descriptions just followed from that aesthetic, really.

Tim: interesting that you also spotted the carpet war(e)house! And your river shot is lovely: that part of Shepperton certainly isn’t generic.

Jonathan: I fully agree! But it’s otherworldly because we’ve absorbed Ballard, right?

Mike: ‘fantastic but recognizable’ — succinct and accurate.

Jamie: I chose UDC as my guidebook because it’s set completely in Shepperton.

John & Jamie: which films do you know of that have been set in Shepperton? I’d love to track some down.

By: Jamie Sherry

Jamie Sherry — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:02:17 +0000

In response to John – Yes, that is a wonderful side-effect of the studios being situated there. A whole host of films, particularly in the 60s and 70s, and often horrors, use the locale a great deal. ‘Psychomania’ feels like it’s filming was being watched by Ballard from his back bedroom window with binoculars. I also love the anecdote of Ballards about him turning a corner in his car and seeing the set for Empire of the Sun at Shepperton Studios. His home in Shanghai perfectly recreated around the corner from his new home in Shepperton. Makes one salivate with psychogeographical pleasure…

By: John Coulthart

John Coulthart — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:08:53 +0000

The thing which I find most striking is how familiar the shops and the roundabout are from many minor feature films which use them as locations. Shepperton, Bray and other small towns close to UK film studios turn up continually. In one of HR Giger’s books he has a photo of the King’s Head pub where he used to lunch during the filming of Alien and I recall it being that same part of the high street which is used by Ray Harryhausen as a supposedly American town from which the balloon departs at the beginning of Mysterious Island.

By: Jamie Sherry

Jamie Sherry — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 12:07:59 +0000

Really compelling stuff Simon. I like that you have focussed on UDC here, not necessarily an ignored Ballard novel, but one that is shunted aside for his more spectacular or experimental fare. This report, academic, personal and like a psychogeographical travel guide, almost made me homesick. Welcome back.

By: Mike B.

Mike B. — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:26:29 +0000

Great stuff Simon, even more lively and edifying than part 1. The photos capture the place precisely.

Visiting the boat chandler’s a few yards from your site of the Cessna drowning, I bought a copy of ‘Shepperton Story’ by Valerie Brooking, published by the Sunbury and Shepperton Local History Society, revised and reprinted 2008.

There is a short chapter on Shepperton in Literature with quotations from, among others, Oliver Twist, Three Men in a Boat, and, of course, The War of the Worlds. The chapter ends: ‘Although the authors of these extracts knew the area, none was actually living here at the time of writing. A present day author, J.G.Ballard is a resident, his varied works include the highly acclaimed “Empire of the Sun”, made into a major film. His book “The Unlimited Dream Company” is set in a fantastic, but recognizable Shepperton.’

Thank you for bringing us another insight into this fantastic, but recognizable, place.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:41:20 +0000

A fine photo essay, well done! Many people miss how visual a writer Ballard is.

I live in Richmond, another location with an H.G.Wells connection. Despite being only a short train trip from Shepperton I did not visit the town until finally getting round to “walking the Thames” (well worth it by the way). In Shepperton I was immediately struck by (1) how absurdly normal it was, and (2) how other worldly it was. Strange that a place can be both things at once. I’d be surprised if it has changed much since 1960 and as the London area will always need water, motorways and suburbia perhaps it never will.

I notice on the Shepperton Village Information website [www.shepperton-info.co.uk/] today the new main news items are typically Ballardian. The gratuitous shooting of swans (why?) and a piece of bafflingly mindless road rage.

By: BJ

BJ — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:46:13 +0000

Amazing conclusion!

Congratulations on getting it done, and thank you for such an amazing look into the world of Ballard once again.

By: TimC

TimC — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:18:10 +0000

Worth the wait! Interesting to see this following my own visit last summer.

The spot you identify as where Blake crashed into the river looks to be directly by the hotel (the Warren Lodge) where I stayed with Messrs McGrath and Bonsall -
http://flickr.com/photos/2ubh/2693503186/

I also zeroed in on the defences at that carpet shop -
http://flickr.com/photos/2ubh/2689806331/