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How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writer:
Bruce Robinson (written by)
Release Date:
29 March 1990 (West Germany)
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Tagline:
The Career Where Two Heads Are Better Than One
Plot:
Dennis Dimbleby Bagley is a brilliant young advertising executive who can't come up with a slogan to sell a revolutionary new pimple cream...
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Plot Keywords:
Advertising
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Insanity
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Diatribe
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Psychiatrist
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Satire
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User Comments:
a film deserving of another look
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Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Richard E. Grant | ... | Denis Dimbleby Bagley |
 | Rachel Ward | ... | Julia Bagley |
| Richard Wilson | ... | John Bristol, Bagley's Boss |
| Jacqueline Tong | ... | Penny Wheelstock |
| John Shrapnel | ... | Psychiatrist |
| Susan Wooldridge | ... | Monica |
| Hugh Armstrong | ... | Harry Wax |
| Mick Ford | ... | Richard |
| Jacqueline Pearce | ... | Maud |
 | Christopher Simon | ... | Waiter |
| Gino Melvazzi | ... | Waiter |
| Victor Lucas | ... | Tweedy Man |
| Dawn Keeler | ... | Tweedy Woman |
| Kerryann White | ... | Girl in Elevator (as Kerry Ann White) |
| Vivienne McKone | ... | Sullivan Bristol Receptionist |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
94 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Goofs:
Continuity: During the anniversary party, the strap on Julia's dress changes shoulders for one scene. When the dress is on the opposite shoulder, it looks a different colour as well.
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Quotes:
Denis Dimbleby Bagley:
Don't pretend you haven't noticed my cardboard box, Julia, because I know you have!
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in "Melrose Place: My New Partner (#1.23)" (1993)
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Soundtrack:
Oscillate Wildly
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (30 total)
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Bruce Robinson's (and Richard E. Grant's) follow-up to the immortal Withnail & I was doomed to suffer by comparison, yet this acerbic little satire has earned its cult status and looks surprisingly less dated now than it might have for a while in the deluded 90s. In a way it fits in with the 80s filmic representation of the corporate world: immense corner offices furnished in minimalist luxury, slicked-back hair and precisely tailored modish suits, the Greed is Good, Work=Sex ethos of Wall Street and Nine and a Half Weeks. This is the world whose mutant children populate that wonderful harpoon into Hollywood that made Kevin Spacey someone to look out for, Swimming with Sharks. Not all of Advertising works: it's a frightfully talky script, and the nod to Orwell is apt in that Robinson falls prey to Orwell's tendency to forget he's not writing an editorial. I'd like in a satire on advertising to see more advertising being satirized. The visual quality of the film needs to be a little more exaggerated to support the conceit of the talking boil: this wild premise seems to be struggling with a quite conventional domestic-manners comedy by times. Rachel Ward is lovely (and those chic 80s cocktail frocks are just about retro now) but seems to be in another, more serious drama. Still, there are some nice turns and grace notes by the likes of Tony Slattery, Pip Torrens (at least I think he's the one who makes every glance look vaguely creepy), and especially Jacqueline Tong as Julia's wickedly hypocritical cigar-smoking pal. However, the raison d'etre of this is the brilliant, manic, fearless centrepiece performance by Richard E. Grant. Few people drip venom as beautifully. I sometimes feel he doesn't get the wonderfully starmaking parts he should simply because he's such a strong presence he dominates every scene he's in. At any rate, the commentary on advertising is certainly still valid, so this relic from that great decade of small but ambitious British film has life left in it yet.