If you haven’t seen this blockbuster, I suggest you do. There’s no need to be a tennis fan to glean huge enjoyment from the production design, the soundtrack, even the acting, quite apart from the thwack of ball on racket. If you have seen the film, you will know about the messy love triangle between Tashi, Patrick and Art and have felt the simmering heat of sexual tension that underpins the storyline.
Move over Fiona Butler, the Athena postergirl of the 1970s, whose hand-on-bare-bottom, tennis-court photograph graced every schoolboy’s wall, and hello Zendaya, the red-hot rising megastar whose role in Challengers, alongside co-stars Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, has had us reaching for a cooling sip of lemon barley water.
It seemed appropriate that, as the film was released over here and as we embark on the British tennis season, I should be asked to participate in an annual tennis tournament in the south of France, known among the privileged invitees as the Cup du Cap.
Denne historien er fra June 05, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra June 05, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
