B. Monkey (1998)

Alan Furnace is a young man with the perfectly proper, quiet life of a London school teacher. But beneath all of that decency lies a burning desire for excitement and he just found it. ... See full summary »

Director:

Michael Radford

Writers:

Andrew Davies (novel), Chloe King,

Stars:

Asia Argento, Jared Harris, Rupert Everett

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Asia Argento	...	Beatrice
Jared Harris	...	Alan Furnace
Rupert Everett	...	Paul Neville
Jonathan Rhys Meyers	...	Bruno
Julie T. Wallace	...	Mrs. Sturge
Ian Hart	...	Steve Davis
Tim Woodward	...	Frank Rice
Bryan Pringle	...	Goodchild
Clare Higgins	...	Ms. Cherry
Simone Bowkett	...	Angie
Marc Warren	...	Terence
Camilo Gallardo	...	Barman (Conrans)
Michael Carlin	...	Carlo
Paul Ireland	...	Barman (Kings Head)
Elizabeth Ash	...	Nurse (as Elisabeth Ash)

Storyline

Alan Furnace is a young man with the perfectly proper, quiet life of a London school teacher. But beneath all of that decency lies a burning desire for excitement and he just found it. She's a woman unlike any other: Unruly Irish eyes, Latin lips... her name is Beatrice, but on the streets they call her B. Monkey. She's about to take him on an outrageous, dangerous and sexy ride through the wild side of London.

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Plot Keywords:

teacher | love | italian | thief | monkey | 

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Taglines:

Trouble never looked so good

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexuality and language, and for violence and drug content

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English Italian French

Release Date:

15 July 1999 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Agria omorfia

Filming Locations:

Ealing Studios, Ealing, London, England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$17,436 (USA) (10 September 1999)

Gross:

$34,524 (USA) (17 September 1999)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Miramax Films, Scala Productions, Synchronistic Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the reasons why Michael Caton-Jones quit the project was because Miramax head, Harvey Weinstein, nixed his proposal of casting Sophie Okonedo in the lead.

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Quotes

Beatrice: Tomorrow is a long way off, Alan. I might have forgotten you by then.

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Connections

Referenced in Jersey Girl (2004)

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Soundtracks

"LOOK WHO'S PERFECT NOW"
Written and Composed by Eric Pressley / Gary Clark / Keely Hawkes (as Keeley Hawkes)
Performed by Transister
Published by Open Bar Music
Courtesy of Windswept Pacific Music Limited/Chrysalis Music Limited/EMI Music Publishing Ltd./Mechanical Panther Music
(P) Virgin Records Limited
Licensed by courtesy of Virgin Records Limited/Universal Music (UK) Ltd.

User Reviews

All this useless beauty.

I love this movie like it's a woman. The reviewers have once again missed the ferry -- what we have here, folks, is an honest to God(ard) B-movie tone poem, an exercise in sensual, physical, SURFACE beauty that will send any self-respecting Keatsian aesthete straight to Hyperion ( the palace of visionaries, not the Miramax book division. ) Thanks to director Michael Radford -- who I wrongly assumed to be eighty or ninety years of age on the basis of his last movie, Il Postino -- B. Monkey is as seductive as the single bar of red neon that illuminates the opening shot. The movie will surely gain minor but devoted cult status in the years to come, while its lead actress, Asia Argento, will probably have to buy a house with very tall gates. ( Because I'm quite tall myself, and a good climber. )

How to describe B. Monkey without resorting to banal adjectives like you'd find on cartons of Haagen-Daz, "luscious" and "velvety"? Well, I see it as sort of a disreputable cousin to Bertolucci's ravishing Besieged; other people, no doubt less pretentious, will compare it to the kind of movie Steven Soderbergh has been making lately -- a cool, jazz-inflected, proudly inconsequential genre flick. But Radford has his own style -- impossibly trendy -- and he's a genius at evoking the loneliness and beauty of big cities everywhere.

This is a director's movie, to be sure, but make no mistake: Asia Argento is no slouch when it comes to decorating the frame. She's compact, tough, and fierce-eyed, her unconventional beauty only enhanced by a strong nose that would look terrific underneath a centurion's helmet. Like Louise Brooks or Anna Karina, she's a vamp for the ages, mesmerizing for no good reason ( much like the movie itself. ) It doesn't hurt that she's matched with the brilliant Jared Harris, whose interior performance perfectly complements her exterior one, or that the atavistically lordly Rupert Everett is on hand to do his Wilde thing. Even pretty boy Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is a bit more animated than usual; he throws open car doors briskly and with conviction.

Yes, the plot is inane. No, it doesn't really matter. B. Monkey, in the end, amounts to no more nor less than the sum of its impressionistic moments. The world is a glittering tomb where we all languish in oh-so-gorgeous isolation, or something. As Jared Harris says early in the movie, deejaying at a local hospital: "This next one is for all you romantics out there. Get well soon."