In 1955, Goretta and Tanner, both in their mid-20s, travelled to London, where they worked at the British Film Institute, organising archives and subtitling French-language films. Two years later, with a grant of £250 from the BFI's Experimental Film Fund, they co-directed and co-wrote Nice Time, a 17-minute documentary on Piccadilly Circus at night, as part of the UK Free Cinema movement. Shot in 16mm on light-sensitive stock over 25 weekends, in what was designed to represent a single average Saturday night in the West End of London, it showed toffs and plebs, buskers, teddy boys, young couples, striptease joints and people queuing for the cinema, with no commentary. Goretta said that his years in London and the making of Nice Time, which won the experimental film prize at Venice, marked him deeply, and influenced his attitude towards independent film-making in French-speaking Switzerland. [The Guardian, 2019]
