You may not know it but i'm also a big specialist of David Lean movies - the great British film director of Lawrence of Arabia, Dr Zhivago, Bridge on the River Kwai, Great Expectations, A Passage to India, and so many more masterpieces.
Back in 2000 I was in the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan, where David Lean had filmed some scenes of Lawrence of Arabia and i was there as i organized a press event with selected french journalists. I had the idea of this press event and proposed it to Columbia Tristar France when they released the french special DVD edition of Lawrence of Arabia in 2000.
I organized everything in Jordan myself and I found back recently my pictures of the tent camp that the Wadi Rum tourism office had put in place at my request RIGHT in front of the famous mountain where was the camp of Auda Abu Tayi in “Lawrence”, huge tent camp which was put in place by Lean closest collaborator, Eddie Fowlie with whom I did in 2000 a documentary that we filmed for a big part ON locations where was filmed "Lawrence", ( but not in Jordan ).
First picture below, the original shot from Lawrence of Arabia.
Below, my pictures of the tent camp for the press event. Click on the first picture below to enlarge it, see the tent camp in small in the middle of the desert, facing the mountain? When the journalists arrived i took care they didn't saw the mountain first. Then i had them in front of me and show them a printed screen capture of the picture above. And then asked them to turn around to discover the mountain. They were all stunned to be right in the frame from the movie! The next days they enjoyed trek around the Wadi Rum in Range Rover and great Arabian food at the camp in the evening! They all loved the trip and Columbia had greta reviews when the DVD was released in France. Columbia received the next year a “corporate” award for "best marketing operation", and they did NOTHING except the check to pay for everything. In fact the ONLY thing they had to do, bring a DVD player, they screwed it and it was a pity as i wanted to also have a screening of Lawrence of Arabia right there in the desert where it was filmed.
Pictures showing the bedouins putting in place days before the big middle tent where guests of the press event had dinner.
THE Wadi Rum mountain from the famous Lawrence of Arabia shot.
The OTHER Wadi Rum mountain that you see in the famous shot of Lawrence and Auda Abu Tayi "army" leaving to attaq Akaba.
More pictures of Wadi Rum...
See the Range Rover car down there in the center, how small it is, it'll give you an idea of the scale of these huge mountain rocks, as well as the others pics below ( click to enlarge the images )…
Guests enjoyed trekking on a rock arch of the Wadi Rum
In fact, i can tell you that no one will ever have again a tent camp put at that place, in the middle of the desert in front of Wadi Rum mountain as the director of the Wadi Rum tourist bureau - who had been very kind - was blamed for that, as he told me at the end, because in fact there is cars running in the desert day or nigh - there is no roads, so they’re really running though the desert - and we had been lucky that our tents camp hadn’t been hit by one of the cars in the night as the drivers may have not seen the camp. Below pictures showing cars tracks in the desert, and one of the Tourist office chief in 2000.
I also did some pictures with a 25 years old handsome bedouin here is my favorite shot, in two versions color and B&W, i like both versions.
Well, i suppose you can call me now “Alain of Arabia”! ;-)
Pictures: copyright Alain Littaye - NO reproduction on any kind authorize without prior written authorization.
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