Shane Meadows has crossed a line by accepting commercial cash for his latest film, and we should condemn him for it | Film

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Shane Meadows' Eurostar-funded Somers Town sets a terrible precedent</h2> </div> </div> <div id="content"> <ul class="article-attributes"> <li> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080830055039/http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/davidcox"> <img class="contributor-pic-small" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080830055039im_/http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/06/12/david_cox_140x140.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="Cox" title="Contributor picture"/> </a> </li> <li id="contrib-shift"><ul> <li class="byline"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080830055039/http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/davidcox" name="&lid={contentTypeByline}{David Cox}&lpos={contentTypeByline}{1}">David Cox</a> </li> <li class="publication"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080830055039/http://www.guardian.co.uk/" name="&lid={contentTypeByline}{guardian.co.uk}&lpos={contentTypeByline}{2}">guardian.co.uk</a>, </li> <li class="date">Tuesday August 26 2008 00:00 BST</li> </ul></li> </ul> <div id="article-wrapper"> <div class="image"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080830055039im_/http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Film/Pix/pictures/2008/08/25/somerstown460.jpg" width="460" height="276" alt="A still from Somers Town"/> <p class="caption">With views like these, why bother going abroad? ... A still from Somers Town. Photo: Optimum</p> </div> <p>A pair of disadvantaged but engaging youths float adrift in the grungy underbelly of an uncaring city. Though they're products of different cultures, they nonetheless bond. Grainy black-and-white photography captures their quirky encounters with local oddballs. In a heartwarming climax, they're redeemed by a caring and beautiful Frenchwoman.</p><p>It's not surprising that <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080830055039/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172206/">Somers Town</a> should have gone down a treat with the liberal-minded classes. But, what about its provenance? Arty films aren't usually conceived by an advertising agency on behalf of a commercial company which then puts up the funding. Yet, the consensus of the worthy seems to be that this, too, is pretty much OK.</p><p>The thinking seems to be this. Film finance is hard to come by. If capitalism is mug enough to stump up cash for art, then art should grab the money and run. After all, no self-respecting auteur is going to let a mere paymaster influence his or her work. The director in this case, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080830055039/http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0276349/">Shane Meadows</a>, is <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080830055039/http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/16/advertising">insistent</a> that his film's funder, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080830055039/http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisure/about_eurostar/company_information/ownership_structure.jsp">Eurostar</a>, "completely understood" his need for creative freedom. He <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080830055039/http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/aug/20/advertising">tells us</a>: "I never once thought about Eurostar when I was making this film."</p><p>Thus, we're asked to believe, Meadows's corporate patron was merely a selfless benefactor, no more out to shape the character of its nursling than a bank sponsoring an opera. So, what actually happens in Somers Town?</p><p>It's true that for much of the film its young heroes mooch about in the shadow of St Pancras entirely heedless of the glorious train company to which their otherwise dismal surroundings proudly play host. Then, it suddenly occurs to one of them that their grotty lives might be transformed if they could take a trip to Paris, where they'd eat cheese and croissants and re-encounter the beautiful Frenchwoman who'd befriended them in a Somers Town greasy spoon.</p><p>So, did they hitch to Dover and stow away on one of those excellent ferryboats provided by P&O? The thought doesn't seem to have occurred to them. After all, wasn't there an even more excellent rail service, whose luxurious terminal was located conveniently close to the squalid council estate on which they lodged?</p><p>Earlier in the movie, these lads had been happy to do a day's work for a fiver apiece. So, you might have thought that at this point finance would become an issue. A typical Eurostar London-Paris return fare last weekend was 拢229. But wait! One of the lucky youngsters had a dad who worked as a labourer at the terminal. He'd already ridden the wondrous train that burrows beneath the sea and shared with us his awe at its celerity. He could get the lads free tickets!</p><p>So, we were led to assume, not only does our splendid Eurosuperlink provide a magical route to bliss; it also offers generous perks to its workers. It's Eurostar's owner, London & Continental Railways, that actually runs the infrastructure. When I checked, the company's press officer told me that none of its thousands of staff get free tickets, not even, sadly, him. Perhaps, then, we'll have to put that bit of the plot down to dramatic licence.</p><p>As the lucky youngsters receive their Eurostar tickets, black-and-white gives way to glorious colour, which persists through the joyous finale in sun-dappled Paris. And all this without the director once thinking of Eurostar!</p><p>Apologists for Meadows point out that product placement is already firmly entrenched in film financing. However, Mr Bean's preference for M&Ms doesn't shape his message. Any source of funding brings with it pressures. Public subsidy inspires political correctness. Dependence on box office receipts encourages crowd-pleasing. Nonetheless, the Somers Town case is different. A fateful Rubicon has been crossed.</p><p>Meadows didn't extract money from Eurostar to facilitate a project of his own. He agreed to place his skills at the service of one of theirs. Of course, plenty of directors make commercials, and there's nothing wrong with that. Advertising tries to sell us something, and it doesn't pretend otherwise. </p><p>Somers Town, however, carries no warning message, like the 'Advertorial' banner atop of every page of a sponsored newspaper supplement. Corporate authorship isn't acknowledged until the very last line of the credits, and then simply by the word 'Eurostar' attached to a copyright symbol in tiny type. For its 拢750,000 or so, the company bought not just an advertisement, but the capacity to disguise its advertising as art. A pretty good deal by the current standards of the ad market.</p><p>Some take comfort in the thought that Eurostar is a jolly nice company. If Meadows had made a film on behalf of BA's nasty, polluting service to Charles de Gaulle, he would have had to be roundly condemned. But, this is dangerous ground. Artists of all kinds have always been only too ready to find virtue in almost anyone who offers them money.</p><p>Film-makers' chances of doing this are likely to increase. As newspaper readership declines and viewers increasingly spin through commercial breaks, advertisers are looking for new ways of reaching eyeballs. Advertiser-funded programming has already sneaked its way into the margins of British television, where, paradoxically, product placement remains, for the time being, forbidden. It's not surprising that admen should now be fixing their sights on the hard-pressed world of UK cinema.</p><p>Yet, are we really content that our film-makers should become mere mercenaries, dancing to the tune of vested interests? If they do, they'll still be able to exercise their craft and they may make an easier living than they do at the moment. However, something vital will have been lost.</p><p>The separation of editorial from advertising, in print and broadcasting as well as cinema, is one of the triumphs of our age. Fay Weldon was rightly censured when she <a href="news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/1524437.stm">took money</a> from the Italian jewellers Bulgari to write The Bulgari Connection, which contained dozens of lavish descriptions of Bulgari jewellery. The funding of Encounter by the CIA was properly treated as a <a href="www.amazon.co.uk/Who-Paid-Piper-Cultural-Cold/dp/1862073279">scandal</a> when the truth emerged.</p><p>The idea of the independent creative consciousness, however battered it may sometimes be in practice, is a central building block of our liberal culture. Let's not sell this pass for a mess of pottage.</p><p>There will still, of course, be those who ask why any of this matters if tainted money can still produce good movies. Certainly, Somers Town begins encouragingly enough. The action is fluent and convincing, and the situations are imaginatively realised. Young <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080830055039/http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2129938/">Thomas Turgoose</a> brilliantly fulfils the promise he showed in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080830055039/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480025/">This is England</a>. Yet, once the Eurostar tickets are flourished and the hard sell begins, the whole thing quickly collapses into sentimental absurdity. Truth and huckstering, it seems, just aren't meant to get on.</p> <div id="history-byline" class="send"> <div class="send-inner"> <div class="share-top"> <h3>About this article</h3> <span><a class="sendbyline">Close</a></span> </div> <div class="section"> <h1>Shane Meadows has crossed a line by accepting commercial cash for his latest film, and we should condemn him for it</h1> This article was first published on <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080830055039/http://www.guardian.co.uk/" name="&lid={historyByline}{guardian.co.uk}&lpos={historyByline}{2}">guardian.co.uk</a> on Tuesday August 26 2008. 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Shane Meadows has crossed a line by accepting commercial cash for his latest film, and we should condemn him for it | Film | guardian.co.uk