South Africa in the
1950s was a pretty grim
place. Apartheid was
on the upswing, you
couldn’t buy bread on Sundays,
and you certainly did not dance on
Sundays – at least not officially.
But you did in Pretville.
In Pretville you danced all
the time.
This outrageously colourful
small-town dorpie has all the
colour, style and optimism of
1950s American movies, and all
the classic features of real South
African village life.
Okay, there probably weren’t
many South African 1950’s dorps
where there was no racism
or homophobia, but all the
characters are there – the sharp
guys, the gossiping, cake-baking
tannies, and the plaasjapies
coming into town to spend their
wages on the weekend.
And that’s what the movie
Pretville was all about.
Not much of a plot, really – two
white guys fight over a pretty girl,
one gets arrested by the black
cop, while the coloured gay mayor
tries to bring peace back to the
sweet little community.
And everyone dances. And
sings.
All the time.
Sweet movie – something like
Herman Charles Bosman meets
Bollywood – and, in most cases
that’s where it would end.
But producer Paul Kruger did
one thing very differently. When
he built the set for the movie,
he eschewed the traditional
cardboard fronts held up by
wooden struts, and interiors made
from papier mâché, and built the
set from bricks and mortar.
So it’s still there – it’s the core
of Hartiwood.
On weekends and holidays the
set is open for business.
You can eat hamburgers
and drink milkshakes in the
diner – served by miniskirt-clad
waitresses of course – wander
around the set, and walk into the
plush ’50s-style cinema and watch
the movie that shows the outside
of that building, and the exact
diner where you just had your
’50s-style meal.
There are lots of movie-set
theme parks the world over, but
this is one of the very few – if
not the only one – where you can
watch the movie made on the set,
on the set.
As you walk outside the
theatre, you’re back in the movie.
A few things have changed.
The Town Hall has become the
movie theatre, and some of the
interiors have been redone for
another movie – French Toast.
A somewhat more
sophisticated offering, French
Toast is a romantic comedy set
in Stellenbosch and Paris, and
it’s also part of the free screening
programme at Pretville.
Some of the Paris interiors
have been recreated in Pretville,
while some exteriors were built
a kilometre or two down the road –
also from bricks and mortar,
not cardboard and paste, and
that’s now a restaurant.
As you enter the premises of
French Toast Koffie Kafee, it feels
like you are in Montmartre, and the
Café Alexandre is just like it is in
the movie. .