My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Stephen Frears

Writer:

Hanif Kureishi (written by)

Release Date:

April 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Plot:

An ambitious Asian Briton and his white lover strive for success and hope, when they open up a glamorous laundromat.

Plot Keywords:

Thatcher | Mistress | London England | Politics | Laundromat

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 5 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Saeed Jaffrey	...	Nasser Hussein
Roshan Seth	...	Ali Hussein
Daniel Day-Lewis	...	Johnny (as Daniel Day Lewis)
Gordon Warnecke	...	Omar Hussein
Derrick Branche	...	Salim N. Hussein
Rita Wolf	...	Tania N. Hussein
Souad Faress	...	Cherry N. Hussein
Richard Graham	...	Genghis
Shirley Anne Field	...	Rachel
Winston Graham	...	Jamaican One
Charu Bala Chokshi	...	Bilquis (as Charu Bala Choksi)
Dudley Thomas	...	Jamaican Two
Garry Cooper	...	Squatter
Neil Cunningham	...	Englishman
Persis Maravala	...	Nasser's Elder Daughter

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Urdu

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:18 | Iceland:16 | Australia:M | Portugal:M/16 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | South Korea:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

245 Queenstown Road, Battersea, London, England, UK

Company:

Channel Four Films

Trivia:

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and A Room with a View (1985) both opened in New York on the same day, March 7, 1986. Both movies featured Daniel Day-Lewis in prominent and very different roles: in A Room with a View, he played a repressed, snobbish Edwardian upperclassman, while in Laundrette, he played a lower-class gay ex-skinhead in love with an ambitious Pakistani businessman in Thatcher's London. When American critics saw Day-Lewis, who was then virtually unknown in the US, in two such different roles on the same day, many (including Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times and Vincent Canby of The New York Times) raved about the talent it must have taken him to play such vastly different characters.

Quotes:

Johnny: [driving Cherry and Salim home, Omar stops by a bunch of street kids, one of whom is Johnny. Omar gets out of the car to talk to Johnny]
[indicating his friends]
Johnny: Like me friends?
Omar: Ring us then.
Johnny: I will.
[indicates the car where Cherry is getting very angry]
Johnny: Leave 'em there. We can do something. Now. Just us.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Do the Right Thing (1989)

Tender , Quirky and Intelligent Drama

I you asked me what this movie is about, I wouldn't be able to tell you. If you asked me if its well made, i'd say no. If you asked me to list my top five favorite movies of all time, This would be one of them.

What is most fascinating about this film for me is the characters. No one is quite what they first seem, and everyone is complicated. Even our protagonist has a hidden, darker side of his personality that is not immediately obvious.

Another strong point are the funny bits. Many "comedy/dramas" tend to follow the "comedy in the first half, drama in the second, and never the twain shall meet" pattern, but this keeps the tone light enough throughout to balance some of the heavier subject matter.

And this film also fits in a romance, one of the sweetest and most complicated I've ever had the pleasure of observing in a movie. Warneke and Day-Lewis have superb dramatic chemistry, and the two characters are obviously very drawn to each other, and love each other, too, but Omar's inherent bitterness and sense of betrayal hang over their relationship, just like our demons do hang over our relationships. Yet by the end of the film we get a feeling that they love about each other MORE than they make each other crazy, or love each other enough to forgive it when they do. I guess thats as much of a happy ending as you can hope for in real life, and you know what, maybe that's not so bad.

I won't spoil anything, but i can tell you there is one shot at the end of the film that, while it doesn't attempt to resolve its characters, accepts them and makes them beautiful in a very human way. But Frears cuts this shot to soon. And that what I took a d*** star off for: The camera-work.

I once read somewhere that you know the directer of a movie is good if reviewers rave about them, but you know they are better if they aren't mentioned at all. If the man behind the curtain is doing his job correctly, he won't be noticed. The acting here fits into this category. You don't notice it because you are focused on the characters. But just for the record, its brilliant.

Rated 15+ in England. There is a lot of kissing, but its pg13 stuff. There's one violent scene at the end and language throughout.

its not by any means a flawless film, but its a layered and very thought provoking one. Highley recommended. And as has been said by others people, its not just good if your gay. I am a herosexual teenage girl and i still thought it was fascinating.