THE MONUMENTS MEN
George Clooney’s film brings together both stars of our two retrospectives: Cate Blanchett and Hugh Bonneville.
In the last months of the war, with the Third Reich teetering on the brink of collapse, the German army is ordered to destroy every piece of looted art in its possession. In a race against time, President Franklin D. Roosevelt mobilises a seven-man platoon comprising museum directors and art historians to rescue the cream of the world's artistic and cultural treasures from the hands of the enemy and return them to their rightful owners.
But with no previous experience of weapons and tactics, the hastily assembled group soon face a rude awakening when they experience their first live action behind enemy lines. As well as Blanchett, Bonneville and Clooney himself, the all-star cast includes Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman and Jean Dujardin.
Hugh Bonneville writes: “We shot part of the Normandy landing sequence at Camber Sands, near Rye. Nearby, in Winchelsea’s New Inn, we filmed a moment at a bar when my character is recruited to the team. There’s also a voice-over in the film - a letter my character has written home: George Clooney, the Sound Recordist and me, hunkered down in a B&B bedroom above the pub.”