{"id":12756,"date":"2018-09-24T06:58:49","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T10:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lawrencecconnolly.com\/archive\/?p=12756"},"modified":"2023-07-07T22:43:29","modified_gmt":"2023-07-08T02:43:29","slug":"this-way-to-egressthe-manchester-sheffield-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawrencecconnolly.com\/archive\/2018\/09\/24\/this-way-to-egressthe-manchester-sheffield-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"This Way to Egress:<\/i>
The Manchester-Sheffield Connection<\/br>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Eighteen years ago. It’s spring. Filmmaker Charly Cantor<\/a> and I are driving around Pittsburgh. It’s his first time in the States, having arrived the day before from London. He’s come to collaborate on a new film adaptation of my story “Traumatic Descent,” and today we’re out looking at locations, places that might provide backdrops for a tale about a slow-burn\u00a0descent into madness.<\/p>\n

We drive down Ohio River Boulevard, past the chemical plants and coke ovens of Neville Island and into the brick-and-brownstone environs of Pittsburgh’s North Side. Charly says it all looks familiar, like the area around Sheffield and Manchester, UK,\u00a0 where he grew up with his friend David Slade<\/a>. He tells me to slow down. Then he turns in his seat, looks back the way we’ve come. “That sign. Did it say Manchester<\/em>?”<\/p>\n

“Yeah. That’s where we are. Manchester<\/em>. Pittsburgh’s North Side.”<\/p>\n

“Can you stop?” He sees something else. “Stop here.”<\/p>\n

I pull to the curb. He gets out and snaps a picture. That’s when I see where we are, on the corner of Fontella and Sheffield. He’s 4,000 miles from home, and he’s just arrived at Sheffield in Manchester. He can’t get over it. It’s not just the names of the places. It’s the look, the working-class feel of it. “When you come to England, I’m taking you to Manchester and Sheffield. You’ll see.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Fast forward four months. Charly finishes the script (now titled This Way to Egress<\/em>), and I’m in London to meet David Slade and talk revisions. We’re sitting in the Riba Cafe. Charly has his laptop on the table and we’re working through the script. It’s going well.<\/p>\n

Perhaps too well.<\/p>\n

Charly has arranged for a car to take us north to Manchester and Sheffield, but the work expands. In the days that follow, we get so caught up in it that we never get around to making the trip north.<\/p>\n

\"\"Charly passed away in 2002. A tragic loss. He left behind two finished films: Appetite<\/em> <\/a>(1998), co-written with George Milton<\/a>; and Blood<\/em> <\/a>(2000), which he wrote and directed.\u00a0 He also left nearly a half-dozen finished scripts. All of them, including the feature-length adaptation of Egress<\/em>, have yet to be filmed.<\/p>\n

Fast forward again. Back to the present. Eighteen year’s after Charly snapped that picture on Pittsburgh’s North Side. Egress<\/em> has been filmed, not as the feature that Charly and I worked on, but as a shorter version co-written with David Slade for the anthology film Nightmare Cinema<\/em><\/a>. And next month that film has its UK premiere in … (wait for it) … Manchester, England.<\/p>\n

You best believe I’ll be there.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The UK premiere of\u00a0Nightmare Cinema<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is part of the 10th edition of Grimmfest<\/a>, an international film festival held each year in Manchester. And so … at last … I’m going to get a look at the place that Charly described so vividly as we stood on that Pittsburgh corner in 2000.<\/p>\n

The premiere will be held at the Odeon Theatre on Deansgate. October 6, 4:00 PM. Afterward, I’ll take part in a brief Q&A session.\u00a0It’ll be like coming home.<\/p>\n

Images:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n