Bright scatty things (Bright Young Things (DVD))

Member Name: cswann

Product:	Bright Young Things (DVD)
Date:	08/10/04 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lively, Pertinent to today's audience

Disadvantages: Strange choice of music and hairstyles

Not many of us remember them, but the 1930s were wild, wild times. Between the two wars in England, it was a time when people were glad to be alive, and tended to make the most of it, and for the privileged rich classes at least it provided some hedonistic, extravagant experiences. For the "young things", again from the privileged classes, it was a world of nightclubs, jazz, cocaine, dancing, drinking, gay sex - yes, it was all going on in those days.

Stephen Fry's first film as director is an adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel, “Vile Bodies”, which was written in 1930. In many ways it offers an updated, modern look of those times as well. I suppose what I’m saying here is that it isn’t that convincing as a period drama. The soundtrack, for instance, features jazzy music, which is almost right, but much of it was written specially for the movie, and has a much more modern feel that it really should. The haircuts also don’t seem to be quite right for those times. It may be that all of this is intentional.

Because, the message, loud and clear is - plus ca change!

There's a feeling that much of the point of the film is to make precisely this point, especially in relation to the press/ the media and famous people.
The kids in the movie are aware of the press, they hate them, but are aware that they can't live without it - the sensationalism started here, folks.
And perhaps it's true that this is the most successful aspect of the film, because although there are plenty of colourful characters in it, there's not a lot about the characters that made me really care about them, and even though quite a bit 'happens' to the characters, these events are definitely not as significant as the overall messages we draw from the film - the price of fame, and the shallowness of people. Well, those were the things I took away from it, anyway.

Stephen Campbell Moore plays Adam Symes, the central character in a story full of colourful characters. Moore is a newcomer, and very talented, but in a way the character he plays is so dull that I didn't really register his performance that much - the character is a similar one to that played by Jeremy Irons in Brideshead Revisited - you know, in the sense that most of the interesting things happen to other people.

Ands there are some great actors playing some wonderful characters in "Bright Young Things."

Jim Broadbent plays The Major, who seems to live in hotels, and get drunk a lot – no-one is really sure wether he really is a genuine Major or not though..
There’s Dan Ackroyd, as Lord Monomark, a pompous newspaper owner.
Then there’s Emily Mortimer, Martin Sheen, Imelda Staunton, Julia McKenzie, Richard E. Grant and Simon Callow.
Stockard Channing is wonderful as an evangelist who organises a choral turn, at a high society event, which is all very surreal. I read somewhere that Stephen Fry wrote the song they perform.

That's some cast list, I think you’ll agree?
And then, to top it all, there are two extremely underused actors - Sir John Mills character (just has to sit and sniff some coke, he doesn’t have to say a word) and Peter O’Toole, who plays Syme’s potential father-in-law, and sadly only appears in one scene.

Fenella Woolgar and James McAvoy are very impressive, great to watch, mainly due to their scandalous behaviour. Woolgar plays Agatha, a blonde scatterbrain (oh, those stereotypes), and she has some very funny scenes driving a racing car. AcAvoy plays Simon Balcairn, an Earl and a gossip columnist, who accompanies her in search of wild times. They are the two typical “bright young things”, in fact.

To sum up, I enjoyed some parts of the movie. Visually it is great to look at – the modern cinematography and fast editing actually suited the subject matter, if not the period it was set in. It was very witty, and I also loved Fry’s cameo appearance, as a cab driver.
Overall, then perhaps a bit like Great Gatsby.

Not really much of a dark side, still a bit frivolous
Perhaps the thing that annoyed me most about it, was that the film has absolutely no sense of period whatsoever and seems littered with borrowings from across the 20th century. Waugh's novel was about the Jazz Age of the 1920s. Fry's world is a kind of incorrectly jazzy 30s, with added 21st century haircuts.

Overall, it's really a bit frivolous, and loses the opportunity to look at the darker side of life in those times - but then frivolity is, in essence, what it's all about.
There are some scenes towards the end of the movie which are set during the Second World War - which are quite strange because they offer an updating of the story that was never present in Waugh's book (as it was written 10 years before the War)

The DVD includes a commentary from Stephen Fry, which as you would expect, is very witty. Behind the scenes features also add to things nicely.
Cost (for the DVD) - £14.39 at amazon.co.uk

It doesn't appear to be available on video.

Summary: