Development The idea started in 1968 when
Christine Edzard travelled from Paris, where she was assistant to the designer
Lila de Nobili, to work on the sets of
Zeffirelli's
Romeo and Juliet (1968) in Rome. There she met
Richard Goodwin, associate producer for
John Brabourne who was making
Romeo and Juliet. Edzard and Goodwin became a couple and decided to make a movie together. Conceived of as a filmed ballet, Goodwin and Edzard approached Frederick Ashton, former director of the Royal Ballet, to be choreographer. Ashton later said: "I was not certain that with films dominated by violence and sex the time was right for such an explosion of sheer charm. But now I think the public is more than ready for something like this." The film was given the go ahead by Forbes during his period as head of production at
EMI Films. Forbes recalled that the EMI Board were not enthusiastic, and
Nat Cohen had never heard of
Beatrix Potter, but Forbes had complete artistic control for any movie made with a budget under £1 million so could easily gain approval. It was the first collaboration with Goodwin by Edzard, who is known for her meticulous filmmaking, often based on Victorian English sources. The couple went on to found
Sands Films. Their productions since include
Stories from a Flying Trunk (1979),
The Nightingale (1981),
Biddy (1983),
Little Dorrit (1987),
The Fool (1990),
As You Like It (1991),
Amahl and the Night Visitors (1996),
The IMAX Nutcracker (1997), ''
The Children's Midsummer Night's Dream (2001) and The Good Soldier Schwejk'' (2018). John Brabourne said Goodwin and Edzard "made all the costumes in their own house and we used my production company. Christine brought in that fantastic man,
Rostislav Doboujinsky, who did the masks. It was all their conception, their idea, so I got behind it and pushed it but I thought it only fair that Richard should have the Producer credit." With
Christine Edzard, Doboujinsky made the masks “on which much of the picture's success depended”. Doboujinsky's original masks for the film, made of bike helmets, polystyrene, hand-sewn hair and vision holes covered in gauze, had to be recreated for the stage, with a larger field of vision for the dancers. The artist used moulds of the originals, drilling hundreds of holes at the front and covering the mask in nylon hair “using electrostatic charges.” The music was arranged by John Lanchbery, who had previously worked with Ashton on
La fille mal gardée,
Les Deux Pigeons and
The Dream, based on themes by
Balfe, George Jacobs,
Ludwig Minkus,
Jacques Offenbach,
Arthur Sullivan and others. Producer Richard Goodwin called the film "a diversion... a souffle... it is an entertainment." ==Cast==