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From: mgh@hou5h.UUCP (Marcus Hand)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: A Private Function
Message-ID: <408@hou5h.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Mar-85 23:24:07 EST
Article-I.D.: hou5h.408
Posted: Mon Mar 18 23:24:07 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 19-Mar-85 08:04:16 EST
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ
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I went to see A Private Function a couple of weeks back and I still haven't
read any reviews, so here goes...


			A Private Function
			++++++++++++++++++

			  by Marcus Hand

Michael Palin (Monty Python, Rippin' Yarns), Maggie Smith (Prime of Miss Jean
Brodie, California Suite and many others) and Denholm Elliot (Raiders, Making
Love, etc.) team up in this unlikely sounding comedy about a chiropodist
(Palin), his socially ambitious wife (Smith) and local dignitaries led
by the town doctor (Elliot).  Essentially, the story revolves around the
efforts of the three local professionals to put on a dinner to honour
the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip during the serious rationing
of immediately post-war Britain.  I won't spoil the intricacies of the
plot by spelling out the details, but suffice it to say that many comic
situations arise through various peoples reactions to a large contraband
pig being especially bred forthe occasion.

Michael Palin demonstrates his brilliant sense of timing and love of the
incongruous repeatedly.  Maggie Smith shows just the right mixture of
enthusiasm and disdain for the antics of the principles.  She is practical
yet very concious of image,  the elegant hostess, yet once in a while her
accent slips.  All the while she is caught between becoming one of
the social elite and the realities of life -- looking after a slightly
crazy mother who steals food, caring for her chiropodist husband with his
naiive but honest ambitions, and earning her crust teaching snotty nosed
children to thunder around on out-of-tune upright pianos.  Denholm Elliot
is superb as a very unsympathetic family doctor who seems to have forgotten
his hippocratic oath and begrudges the beginnings of socialised medicine,
"Do you realise that any one of THEM can walk in off the street and DEMAND
treatment?"  Scheming, conniving and horribly snobbish, Elliot is magnificent
in his uncompromising mean-spiritedness.

The movie is based on a short novel by Alan Bennet, and takes place in a
small Yorkshire town.  Consequently, those of you who enjoyed the scenery
of "All Cretaures Great and Small", the James Herriot vet series, will get
another chance to see some of those splendid hills.  I don't know who the
technical credit goes to -- look at an advertisement in the paper -- but

whoever they are, they have done a craftsman like job on this movie, just
the right amount of pace, beautiful photography, etc, tec...

Two final points:  while watching the movie it occurred to me that there
was a deeper message about the corrption of the new middle class by the
old underpinning the comedy, but it was so lightly played that I wasn't
sure if it was intentional.  Secondly,  this movie has been chosen for the
gala opening of FILMEX in LA this year,  an unusual accolade for a comedy.

Do go, I hope you enjoy this movie as much as I did.

PS.  In NY it is being shown with a bizarre short (c. 5 mins) about a
mouse called Dr. DeSoto, who was "a very good dentist, indeed" because
he never hurt any of the animals he treated.  Of course, he wouldn't
treat the dangerous ones like cats,  but all the others held him in very high
regard.  The cartoon is narrated by Vivien Stanshal of Bonzo Dogs Doodah
Band, and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells fame and is as charming and witty
as it is short.  I hope it continues to play with the main feature when this
movie gets out on general release.
have been in
-- 
			Marcus Hand	(hou5h!mgh)