NitroX
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| (.700 member) |
| 26/10/09 07:43 PM |
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Re: A man in the house?
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Great film. I was in Nairobi last summer and asked the driver to take me to the Karen Blixen house. I was the only visitor and the house was in need of repair, but you could still feel the aura of the place. Inside there were photos of the real Denys Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen, as well as Redford and Streep. The lawn and porch looked much the same and it was easy to visualize the film being shot there. The interior layout was very attractive, but photos were prohibited!
I visited the house in the modern suburb of "Karen" in 1988 and the house at that time was in reasonable condition. Lots of tourists including some buses. I had walked half the way there after trying to use a local bus (manatu). Was dropped off on the way back because I had missed the right stop, being the side of the road somewhere/nowhere. Supposedly another bus heading in the right direction could pick me up there, but decided not to trust African timetables so walked the seven miles or so to the house. Enjoyed the gardens and the house, now part of an urban suburb but the gardens are large and the area was not closely settled. On closing hour hoped to hitchhike with some tourists back to town, but no luck and all had left. Managed to catch a matatu (local mini bus) back to the central bus station and was the only mazungu (whitey) in the bus and the school girls behind me found my non-black non-curly hair intriguing.
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picked up a copy of Out of Africa at the airport in Nairobi and read it on the flight back. I found that the filmmakers took considerable liberties with the truth, but it made for a good film.
Incidentally Karen Blixen also uses a lot of "writer's licence" in her stories too.
Some of the characters are completely fictional. But great stories non the less.