Photos
- Self
- (as His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales)
- Self
- (archive footage)
Storyline
Did you know
- Quotes
Kenneth Branagh: The first day of rehearsal of "Peter's Friends," he walked into the room where, uh, I was about to start directing him and the others, and, uh, I was about to say "good morning, Stephen," and he said "Beethoven was an extraordinary man!" "What?" "Beethoven was an extraordinary man! Mozart, even - even more so. To describe them as fit for purpose would be an understatement. They have a direct hotline to God. They - they - creatively, they're absolutely perfect and aesthete." "Stephen, what... what... what are you talking about? We're about to start rehearsing 'Peter's Friends,' our comtemporary film comedy." "Brahms is another one! Uh, Bach!" I said "Stephen, what... is going on?" "Well, they knew exactly what they were doing, they were wonderful at it, they were masters - " I said, "Are you feeling slightly self-conscious about rehearsing this dance?" "Yes! That's it, that's it, I don't want to dance. I've got this bloody awful body and I don't want to do it. I'm not Mozart and I'm not Beethoven." "Well, they weren't dancers, were they." And he went - I mean - *five minutes* of the most *brilliant* articulation of the nature of genius on the way to saying "I'm quite shy about doing the very silly dance where we all have to wear stockings and suspenders." But he could easily have said "uh, could we do this quite slowly and quietly, 'cos i'm a bit nervous." I hasten to add that all five of the other actors in that dance had done just that, it's just that they hadn't given the four-page speech that Stephen had.
This film was shown as part of the BBC4 season to mark the birthday of Stephen Fry and it was one of the few films that he wasn't actually in other than clips. The film instead just lines up the people who know him and have worked with him over the last few decades of his career. I say "just" but really it is the contributions that make or break this type of film and, in this case, they mostly make it. The film is well structured to look at aspects of Fry's career, which also more or less moves forward chronologically as well. The clips are well chosen because they are rarely weak and almost all of them illustrate the point being made about Fry's abilities.
The contributions are built around these really well and are edited to be concise, meaningful and useful within the context of the film. It also helps that the vast majority are from those who are close to Fry specifically people like Laurie, Branagh, Thompson and others. When they speak it is easier to listen because they aren't just saying what the man in the street would be able to say as a fan they are speaking as colleagues and friends. There are still contributions from those who are speaking from much more of a distance but these are more limited and used as much. True one of them is Prince Charles so I'm not saying they are the usual "d-list" celebs used in clip shows like "50 greatest ways to fill 3 hours of TV scheduling" but then having Russell Brand show up with nothing of value to say flew in the face of this somewhat.
Although it is a clip and comments film, it is still quite interesting and enjoyable as it is warmly affectionate and built on solid and personal opinion from a mostly very good selection of contributors. Fans of Fry will enjoy it as it is just another chance to enjoy the charm, wit and intelligence that has made him a success.
- bob the moo
- Sep 10, 2007
Details
- Runtime59 minutes
- Color