Bright Young Things (2003)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Stephen Fry

Writers:

Stephen Fry (screenplay)
Evelyn Waugh (novel)

Release Date:

3 October 2003 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | War

Tagline:

Sex... Scandal... Celebrity... Some things never change.

Plot:

An adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel "Vile Bodies," is a look into the lives of a young novelist, his would-be lover, and a host of young people who beautified London in the 1930s.

Plot Keywords:

Money | 1930s | Major | Gossip | Customs

Awards:

10 nominations

Cast

Simon McBurney	...	Sneath (Photo-Rat)
Michael Sheen	...	Miles
Emily Mortimer	...	Nina Blount
James McAvoy	...	Simon Balcairn
Stephen Campbell Moore	...	Adam Fenwick-Symes
Stockard Channing	...	Mrs. Melrose Ape
Adrian Scarborough	...	Customs Officer
Jim Carter	...	Chief Customs Officer
Fenella Woolgar	...	Agatha
Dan Aykroyd	...	Lord Monomark
Julia McKenzie	...	Lottie Crump
Bruno Lastra	...	Basilio
David Tennant	...	Ginger Littlejohn
Jim Broadbent	...	The Drunken Major
John Franklyn-Robbins	...	Judge

MPAA:

Rated R for some drug use.

Runtime:

106 min | Canada:105 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | UK:15 | Netherlands:12 | USA:R | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Eltham Palace, Court Road, Eltham, London, England, UK

Company:

Film Consortium, The

Trivia:

The film is produced by Doubting Hall Productions, reflecting Colonel Blount's (resident of Doubting Hall) foray into film-making in Evelyn Waugh's "Vile Bodies", the book on which the film is based.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: A television aerial can be seen on the right hand rooftops in the external shot of the hotel that Adam and Nina stay at.

Quotes:

Simon Balcairn: [Telling his fake news story] Never, never, never have such scenes been witnessed in high society, that uneasy alliance between Bright Young Things and old survivors. Perhaps this was the defining moment of our epoch of speed and syncopation. This so-called 20th century of angst...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in 2005 Glitter Awards (2005) (V)

Soundtrack:

Sing Sing Sing

Manic Depressive.

The film Bright Young Things, adapted from Evelyne Waugh's acclaimed fable; Vile Bodies is manic in its pace. As such it is reminiscent of His Girl Friday (1940) with its legendary speed of comedy delivery. The difference with His Girl Friday the speed of the comedy delivery is applied to loquaciousness with a bit of slap stick. Director Stephen Fry of Bright Young Things on the other hand utilises speed to articulate the decadence of the period. As such he is affective in his endeavour of making his point of a decadent aristocracy.

The depressing aspect of the film is that the aristocracy are portrayed as decadent party animals, unlike the poor who in their pursuit of escaping their worries are (in today's post modern Britain) often labelled as 'feckless' by the tabloid press. But as the impoverished poor struggled to feed themselves across Europe during the inter-war period, the aristocracy idly carried on without social conscience or obligation to responsibility. Such decadence at the expense of the poor contributed towards the rise of extreme politics in Europe during the 1920s.

Contributing to the masses' public perception of the idle rich decadence of the inter-war period was the tabloid press. The press baron in the film is shown as suppressing the realities of the issues affecting the ordinary people of Britain for profit, and thereby concealing truth.

While Fry adeptly captures the decadence of the 20s in Bright Young Things, Peter O'Toole steels the film with his outstanding satirising of the stereotypical English eccentric. As the eccentric of the upper classes O'Toole's character Colnol Blout is the epitome of English two faced diplomacy of the ruling classes. The example being when he writes a cheque out for £1000 to help his prospective son-in-law to marry his daughter, when he signs it in the name of Charlie Chaplin. A typical English snub no less!

Excellent film, well acted and brilliantly directed.