Does anyone else think that this was a great film, largely overlooked? It beautifully portrayed the desire for food and status at the time and was a gentle history lesson for those who hadn't noticed, which was done so well by portraying the harsh times comically and with a superb cast of actors... anyone?
shareJust saw this on cable. Maggie Smith is brilliant as always, and the ending is profoundly sad. A great black comedy (and perhaps a great advertisement for vegetarianism?).
shareI have mixed feelings about this film. Maggie Smith, as you say was great. As was the mother (I forget her name), the supporting characters were similarly very good, but I didn't think Michael Palin was trying very hard.
The film for me did not seem to go very far. We got to know the characters quite well, and the script was very clever in the way we are treated to the story behind the situations the characters are in, but the story never really progressed very far and the film seemed to finish half done.
As a single incident from the life of the village, I guess that sense of unfinished events is accurate, as life goes on, but I could not see any way that the characters had been changed or had evolved because of the incident, and thus was left with a sense of pointlessness.
And as a comedy film, I did not find it particularly funny. There were moments which had potential, but it never really spawned into anything comical
In total I was left slightly bewildered what this film was driving at. It seems to have no point at all.
On the contrary, Private Function has a very generous helping of amusing and comedic moments, some quite inspired and very pertinent to post-war Britain. It's very much in the vein of classic Ealing comedy, which as a genre in itself, was quite brilliant. PF is very British humour, with many layers of subtlety, largely lost on the late-comers.
shareI have to say i love this film to bits. Maggie Snith saying " a spot of sexual intercourse seems to be in order" had me in stitches, and as for Liz Smith even now when i see her in anything(in which she is always brilliant) i just about hear her saying "no pig,no pig". Wonderful film, brilliantly acted by a fantastic cast.
What else can i say, but, it along with Hobsons choice were 2 films i vertually forced my hubby to watch when we 1st got together. He had never heard of either of them but now loves them both as much as i do. I have to say to that watching him laughing and knowing when the funniest bits were coming was a joy.
An under-rated gem but why was it shown (and always seems to be shown) so late on terrestrial GB tv ?
Whenever I see Chilvers' 'big foot' shopsign, I can't help but see this as a reference to the Monty Python TV series opening credits
I agree, it's a brilliant film. But it was on too late last night, it should have been shown when more people could watch.
Whose pig is this????!!!.
I stayed up until 2:30 am watching it and it was so funny, but i wish they hadn't killed the pig :(
"Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for a life" - Maggie Smith
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It's years since I last saw this film - so very glad that C4 decided to show it again; but to echo others: who so late? Most people were back in work the following day! I taped it and watched it when I got home the following night.
This is a wonderful film, very much in the Ealing vein. The intricate layers of social superiority in the town will be recognisable to many. It's wonderful how Maggie Smith 'equalises' things when Richard Griffiths lets spill that they, the professionals, have been up to no good. Palin doesn't do much in this film - he doesn't really have to; he's the naive straight man to the real characters: the greedy farmer, the conniving butcher, the mistanthropic doctor (was Denholm Elliott ever better?), the corrupt policeman, the humourless pedantic civil servant, the ambitious wife.
One thing I'd never noticed before - the pig is called 'Betty' - in honour of Princess Elizabeth, I wonder?!
"Someone has been tampering with Hank's memories."
It was a joy to see some of Britain's finest acting talent all in one scene - Denholm Elliot, Maggie Smith, Richard Griffith, Pete Postelthwaite, Jim Carter.
I'll also agree with DBloodnok that this was Denholm Elliot's greatest roles. He was thoroughly nasty throughout. Looking down on absolutely everyone. Just a year earlier, he'd charmed his way along with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd in Trading Places. Cementing my faith in him as one of Britain's treasured actors. Sadly missed.
You're probably right about the naming of 'Betty' too.
"Ohhh Chimpanzee That! Monkey News": http://www.freewebs.com/the_k_man/
Any lit crit / film studies types out there: there must be a good 10,000 words in a study of A Private Function as a call to arms for the republican movement in Britain:
The pig - Betty - represents the Monarchy in the post-war period. It's torn between the different socio-economic groups of Britain:
- the professional, monied classes (the doctors and accountant)
- the hands of a controlling, socialist government that wants to regulate and destroy it (Wormald paints pigs green, clearly an early nod to the Anarcho-Eco movement)
- an anxious agricultural proletariat that sits in uncomfortable proximity to a new urban Britain
- the lower-middle class - upon whom the Monarchy has for so long depended (it's no accident that Palin's chiropodist wants to befriend Betty while at the same time being in awe of it)
- the strong arm of organised labour represented by Posthelwaite's Nuttol the butcher (note the mise-en-scene when Nuttol goes to kill Betty - he is framed in the doorway of the Chilvers home, hammer in hand - the classic Soviet pose of the worker at bay)
So - the film makers are calling on that body of organised labour to kill Betty, to destroy the Monarchy. Note, however, as the film makers know that, in the long run, their manifesto has no hopes as the professional class (Griffiths' accountant) and the lower-middle class (Palin's chirpodist) find a new pig, a new monarch, for the future.
Now, there's only thing about this theory - it's bollocks. However, a definite essay.....any further contributions, please feel free.
"Someone has been tampering with Hank's memories."
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Hilarious! I'm sure someone in a former poly is cribbing this for his next book as we speak.
Knowing Alan Bennett I wouldn't be surprised if your theory was correct anyway...
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The humour is very subtle in this film and in order to appreciate it you have to understand the aspirations and snobbery of the provincial English petits-bourgeoises. I don't think it's just Americans that would find this hard to understand - I would imagine most English people under 40 or so wouldn't really 'get' it either, in the same way they probably wouldn't appreciate the humour of something like 'Keeping Up Appearances'.
Modern comedy is exemplified in programmes like 'Friends', which just telegraph a series of corny gags to the audience, mixed with a sickly-sweet dose of sentiment, topped with a veneer of c-list glamour.