Behind the Scenes: Far From The Madding Crowd Film (1967)

Julie Christie and Terence Stamp film Thomas Hardy’s ’Far From the Madding Crowd’ includes great behind the scenes footage of the 1967 film from the Dorset countryside. Various shots show a Victorian travelling ’sheep fair’ being set up beside a hill in the countryside as part of the location filming of ’Far From the Madding Crowd’; we see lions in a cage, a clown being made up, a brown horse having black make-up applied to become ’Black Bess’, a large woman in a kind of fairy costume has garish make-up applied and smokes a cigarette. A girl in a Victorian hooped-skirt climbs a ladder and is about to walk a tightrope; director John Schlesinger checks the shot through a view finder and discusses with cameraman - could be Nicolas Roeg (director of photography). The crowd and performers are filmed; we see people crowding into a circus tent, passing costumed characters on a stage at the front. More preparations as arc lamps are adjusted; a man has his teeth painted black. Two characters perform as Punc