Trinity’s very own Great Court Run is celebrated in Chariots of fire. In the film the Run features a runner trying to dash around Great Court before the clock finishes striking 12. In fact, the filming took place at Eton rather than at Trinity, as the college was not keen to let film crews loose on college grounds.
Srinivasa Ramanujan was a brilliant (but initially unknown) Indian mathematician who came to the attention of G.H. Hardy (Trinity Fellow) and was invited to Cambridge. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1918 and then in the same year became the first Indian to be elected to the Fellowship at Trinity.
No, Steven Hawking didn’t attend Trinity (next door, actually, at Trinity Hall), but Eddie Redmayne (m. 2000) , who plays him in the film, did. Eddie has had (is having?) a successful career in Hollywood, having starred in The Danish Girl, Les Misérables and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, to name just a few. He’s currently starring as The Jackal in The Day of the Jackal series, showing on Sky Atlantic.
Seems like it was an uphill battle for the producers of Maurice to persuade Trinity to allow filming on site. Apparently Ismael Merchant (of Merchant Ivory fame) sent a letter to the college authorities and students were ‘mobilized’ to apply pressure. Permission was finally granted but under specific restrictions. Exterior shots of the college, Great Court and under the Wren Library feature.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (m. 1912), one of the most famous philosophers of the 20th century, studied and taught at Trinity.
Derek Jarman‘s film, in a series of sketches, depicts Wittgenstein’s life from boyhood, through the first World War period to his Cambridge professorship and association with Bertrand Russell and John Maynard Keynes. The emphasis is on the exposition of his ideas and depicts his characteristics as a homosexual, an intuitive, moody, proud, and perfectionistic thinker, and a genius.
Born in Leicester and educated at Gresham’s School in Norfolk and Trinity College, Cambridge, Frears (m. 1960) started his career working as an assistant director in theatre and film while directing many television plays. Frears directed his debut feature film Gumshoe in 1971 and received critical acclaim for his films in the 1980s such as My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Prick Up Your Ears (1987), and Dangerous Liaisons (1988). He also received two Academy Award nominations for directing The Grifters (1990) and The Queen (2006).
The author of the controversial novel ‘Lolita’ (1955) was Vladimir Nabokov (m. 1919), the acclaimed Russian-American novelist. Nabokov attended Trinity after his family had fled Russia following the Revolution, and studied zoology and later Slavic and Romance languages.
The lives of the double agents Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean and Kim Philby, from when they first all met at Cambridge University in 1934 to the Moscow defection of two of them in 1951.
In the film, following the success of his poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”, Byron becomes the toast of London. A few years earlier, Byron had studied at Trinity, ‘engaging in boxing, horse riding, gambling, and sexual escapades’ (according to Wikipedia). And keeping a pet bear, although there is no actual archival evidence to back up that story.
Trinity-related
Chariots of fire (1981)
Trinity’s very own Great Court Run is celebrated in Chariots of fire. In the film the Run features a runner trying to dash around Great Court before the clock finishes striking 12. In fact, the filming took place at Eton rather than at Trinity, as the college was not keen to let film crews loose on college grounds.
The man who knew infinity (2015)
Srinivasa Ramanujan was a brilliant (but initially unknown) Indian mathematician who came to the attention of G.H. Hardy (Trinity Fellow) and was invited to Cambridge. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1918 and then in the same year became the first Indian to be elected to the Fellowship at Trinity.
The theory of everything (2014)
No, Steven Hawking didn’t attend Trinity (next door, actually, at Trinity Hall), but Eddie Redmayne (m. 2000) , who plays him in the film, did. Eddie has had (is having?) a successful career in Hollywood, having starred in The Danish Girl, Les Misérables and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, to name just a few. He’s currently starring as The Jackal in The Day of the Jackal series, showing on Sky Atlantic.
Maurice (1987)
Seems like it was an uphill battle for the producers of Maurice to persuade Trinity to allow filming on site. Apparently Ismael Merchant (of Merchant Ivory fame) sent a letter to the college authorities and students were ‘mobilized’ to apply pressure. Permission was finally granted but under specific restrictions. Exterior shots of the college, Great Court and under the Wren Library feature.
Wittgenstein (1993)
Ludwig Wittgenstein (m. 1912), one of the most famous philosophers of the 20th century, studied and taught at Trinity.
Derek Jarman‘s film, in a series of sketches, depicts Wittgenstein’s life from boyhood, through the first World War period to his Cambridge professorship and association with Bertrand Russell and John Maynard Keynes. The emphasis is on the exposition of his ideas and depicts his characteristics as a homosexual, an intuitive, moody, proud, and perfectionistic thinker, and a genius.
Stephen Frears, director, Trinity alumnus
Born in Leicester and educated at Gresham’s School in Norfolk and Trinity College, Cambridge, Frears (m. 1960) started his career working as an assistant director in theatre and film while directing many television plays. Frears directed his debut feature film Gumshoe in 1971 and received critical acclaim for his films in the 1980s such as My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Prick Up Your Ears (1987), and Dangerous Liaisons (1988). He also received two Academy Award nominations for directing The Grifters (1990) and The Queen (2006).
Lolita (1962)
The author of the controversial novel ‘Lolita’ (1955) was Vladimir Nabokov (m. 1919), the acclaimed Russian-American novelist. Nabokov attended Trinity after his family had fled Russia following the Revolution, and studied zoology and later Slavic and Romance languages.
Cambridge spies (2003)
The lives of the double agents Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean and Kim Philby, from when they first all met at Cambridge University in 1934 to the Moscow defection of two of them in 1951.
Byron (2003)
In the film, following the success of his poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”, Byron becomes the toast of London. A few years earlier, Byron had studied at Trinity, ‘engaging in boxing, horse riding, gambling, and sexual escapades’ (according to Wikipedia). And keeping a pet bear, although there is no actual archival evidence to back up that story.