On Saturday I was one of six hundred invited guests attending the double launch of the newest additions to The Kove Collection’s 15 establishments, most located in Camps Bay, Bilboa restaurant and Chinchilla Rooftop Café & Bar, both with a spectacular view over the Camps Bay Beach. Continue reading →
Tag Archives: promenade
‘Black Butterflies’ movie honours poet Ingrid Jonker, good for Cape Town tourism!
The just-released (in South African cinemas) internationally-produced movie ‘Black Butterflies’, about the life and death of South Africa’s Sestiger poet Ingrid Jonker, is a contrast between the most beautiful Cape Town scenery, and the dark days of our political past and the unhappy life of this talented writer. The movie location is identified as Cape Town, and should attract international movie-goers to our beautiful city.
Dutch actress Carice van Houten and actor Rutger Hauer, who both don’t get the South African English pronunciation perfectly correct, play Jonker and her father, respectively. The movie tells the unhappy story of how Jonker’s mother died when she and her sister were young children, were sent to stay with their grandmother, and sent back to their ‘Pa’ when she passed away. He was a severe and critical father, and Member of Parliament, heading up the Publications Control Board, and ironically even her book of poems had to be vetted by him and his Board. They were never close, and it was his rejection of her that probably led to the sad end to her life. Desperate to find love, she had relationships with great writers such as Jack Cope, Uys Krige, Jan Rabie, and André Brink. The movie weaves the political history of the country in the ‘Sixties into the story, and ends with the reading of her poem “Die Kind wat Doodgeskiet is deur Soldate in Nyanga” in English by the then newly inaugurated President Nelson Mandela at the opening of Parliament in 1994. He called her ‘one of the finest poets of our country’. Ex-President Thabo Mbeki awarded the Silver Order of Ikhamanga to Jonker posthumously, for her contribution to literature and human rights. 
The movie was shot in March and April last year, and contains the most beautiful beach and sea shots at Llandudno, and Cape Town generally is the location for the movie, with the exception of a few scenes shot in Amsterdam. Other Cape Town locations are the playgrounds and the Promenade in Sea Point, Clifton’s Second Beach (where Cope and Krige shared a bungalow), Bo-Kaap, Table Mountain, Chapman’s Peak, Strandfontein, and Noordhoek Beach. The movie ends with Jonker walking into the sea at Three Anchor Bay in July 1965, becoming our country’s Sylvia Plath.
The movie is a co-production between the German Comet Film GmbH and South African Spier Productions (Pty) Limited, with post-production done by Bavaria Films in Germany. The name of the movie comes from the line in one of Jonker’s poems: “For the sun that I now cover forever with black butterflies”. While Jonker wrote her precious poetry in Afrikaans, the movie has the English translations, for practical purposes. Paula van der Oest is an Oscar-nominated director from Holland, reports the Cape Argus. She loved the work of Jonker, and wanted to expose it to a larger audience. South African actor Graham Clarke, playing Krige, does not do a believable Afrikaans-speaking-English accent. Irish actor Liam Cunningham is a most sympathetic Cope, whose relationship with Jonker dominates the movie. Oddly, André Brink is not mentioned by name in the movie, even though the movie notes outside the cinema refer to his name. Brink is called ‘Eugene Maritz’ in the movie, played by local Nicholas Pauling. Brink’s book A Fork in the Road contains an overview of Jonker’s life, and her effect on his life.
‘Black Butterflies’, Cinema Nouveau, Cavendish Square. See the movie trailer here.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
Plettenberg Bay has a whale of a new Main Road!
A project spread over more than 4 years to redesign the Main Road of Plettenberg Bay between the Upper Deck (at the Dolphin roundabout) to The Grand Cafe has been completed, and is a model of urban design and art, particularly as it has incorporated the most unusual art work in the road redesign, which was manufactured in Plettenberg Bay.
The highlight of the urban artwork, which is spread every 25 – 30 meters along the road, is the large whale tail at the newly constructed roundabout at The Grand Cafe. Other pieces represent the area through works entitled Seaweed, Tree, Flower, Thistle, African Totem, Chalice, Aloe, Fish, Youth, Maiden, Woman, Man, Cup, Bird, Reeds, Flame, and many more.
The design for the artwork was the inspiration of Mario Bonadei, of Bonadei Architects, Cape Town based architect and urban designer, who was awarded the project by the Bitou municipality of Plettenberg Bay. His design brief was to create the best promenade in the world, integrating both sides of the street. His design did not only address the road surface and parking, but also incorporated urban and landscape art.
Bonadei felt that trees would take too long to grow to make a statement on the Main Road, and thus looked for another way to do this. He wanted urban artwork to play a role in illuminating the road at night, and it had to be lightweight, be wind resistant, be locally made, and reflect the Garden Route and the marine wealth of Plettenberg Bay.
A project team that Bonadei put together with input by Lisa Murray, the owner of Limited Edition in The Heath outside Plettenberg Bay, her Manager Oliver Koetter, and her husband Keith, who owns a modern sawmill company in Plettenberg Bay, created the 36 pieces of urban art for the road. Koetter oversaw the production of the artwork, with regular inspiration from Bonadei.
Township residents from Plettenberg Bay were involved in the project. Stainless steel was hand-bent into cages, from which the urban art shapes were created. Coloured plexiglass (the strong plastic from which aeroplane windows are made) strips were incorporated into the design, to add colour. Each artwork has a base, in which a light is contained, and to which the artwork is bolted.
Bonadei is working with owners of buildings on Main Road, to upgrade their buildings, to add to the road architecture that he has created for this beautiful town.
For more information contact Mario Bonadei, Bonadei Architects, Cape Town, tel 021 686-7318.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com