Boy Meets Girl (1994)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Ray Brady

Writers:

Ray Brady (writer)
Jim Crosbie (writer)

Release Date:

1994 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama | Horror

Tagline:

Too controversial to release

Plot:

A man meets a woman in a bar, the two go back to her flat and begin watching porno films. The man passes...

Plot Keywords:

Torture | S&M | Serial Killer | Surgery | Violence

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Tim Poole	...	Tevin
Danielle Sanderson	...	Julia
Margot Steinberg	...	Anne Marie
Susan Warren	...	Woman in chair
Nathalie Khanna	...	Tevin's Wife
Myuki Smith Khanna	...	Tevin's Child
Pierre Smith Khanna	...	Tevin's Child
Georgina Whitbourne	...	Female Victim on Monitor
Robert Haynes	...	Branded Man
John Reid	...	Hanging Man
Ray Brady	...	Laughing Man
Chris Read	...	Whipped Man
Pam Hogg	...	Woman in Bar
Patrick Lelarge	...	Person in Bar
Sam Taylor-Woods	...	Person in Bar

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Certification:

UK:(Banned) (video rating) (1995) | UK:18 (original rating) (1995) | UK:18 (video re-rating) (2001) | Australia:R

Company:

Kino Eye

Trivia:

Although the film was passed uncut for cinema in 1995 the video certificate was rejected and the film ended up banned by the BBFC for 8 years due to its controversial subject-matter. It was finally passed fully uncut on DVD in 2001.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Snuff Machine (2006)

Dark & Profound

I felt obliged to watch this movie, it had such a reputation. I finally just got hold of it on DVD, released in the UK after several years of being banned on DVD/Video, uncut in cinemas. Considering it supposedly micro low budget it was considerably better than I expected. The script was superbly written (the script full script is a DVD extra, when played in a DVD Rom it can be printed)and the performances excellent. The film is very dark, probably one of the darkest films I've ever seen, on a par with Mac Naughtons Henry portrait of a serial killer. Like Henry the question is begged one would anyone want to make a film so bleak and disgusting? What was the motivation for the Director to write such a nihilistic work. Brady in his Director's commentary explains that the political context at the time in the UK was such that films that glamorized violence(when violence was perceived to be entertaining) were being passed by the censors and any films that showed realistic violence, pain, suffering etc were perceived by the censors to be dangerous and potentially damaging viewing material and were subsequently immediately banned. Brady said that his motivation for making Boy Meets Girl was to provoke and challenge the censors into a public clarification of this problem and arguing that irreparable damage was being done to the sensibilities of British audiences in that they were slowly and insidiously being desensitised to violence by watching films where the pace of the narrative never allowed the time to portray or dwell on the subsequent casual effects of violence and the repercuations to the whole community that surrounds an individual that has experienced an act of violence. Brady argued that the way films were being edited, to conform to censorship guidelines, was more likely to lead to potential dysfunctional behaviour by viewers of films with violent content. I now fully understand what the furore in the press when Boy Meets Girl was originally released. The polices of the British censors have changed in the last couple of years and the majority of their previous decisions made under there old management reversed. Brady seems to have been proved right. The board was in deed in trying to protect British viewers from corruption were in truth, doing more harm than good and in reality desentising British audiences to violence. The looby that Brady was a leading advocate of and the arguments that he was so often crucified for by conservative critics has indeed proven to be the vanguard of an essential and important movement towards social change, possibly the most important change in the viewing habits in the latter part of the last century. By understanding the problem in context one can understand why Boy Meets Girl was made. A brave and important film - to quote one reviewer. At times very hard to watch, but powerful essential viewing. Recommended.