British actor Stephen Fry’s directing debut is inspired by Evelyn Waugh’s satirical novel Vile Bodies. The hero of the story, set in the 1930s among London’s snobbish “upper crust,” is the young writer Adam Symes, who unexpectedly finds himself penniless. Will he be able to improve his finances by marriage to the wayward Nina?
Stephen Fry was inspired by Evelyn Waugh´s Vile Bodies for his debut as a director. This famous British author´s second novel was first published in 1930. Fry however has set the action in the late 1930s, in order to emphasise the parallel between the carefree heroes - members of London´s "upper crust" - and the period leading inevitably to the tragedy of World War II. The hero of the story is Adam Symes, a young writer snugly tucked into this snobbish society, who unexpectedly finds himself without means. Marriage to the wealthy but wayward Nina seems the best solution. With his budget and social status dependent on his reckless relationship to money, Adam tries to improve things through gambling - and writing. Important roles in the story are played by Nina´s eccentric father, the Canadian newspaper magnate Monomark and the conspiratorial Father Rothschild. These are among the "leaders" of a world which doesn´t deserve too charitable a view, a society chasing after experience, zigzagging between sexual scandals, and flirting with drugs.
104 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Stephen Fry
/ Screenplay Stephen Fry podle románu / based on a novel by Evelyn Waugh
/ Dir. of Photography Henry Braham
/ Music Anne Dudley
/ Editor Alex Mackie
/ Producer Gina Carter, Miranda Davis
/ Production Bright Young Films LTD
/ Cast Stephen Campbell Moore, Emily Mortimer, Michael Sheen, Fenella Woolgar, James McAvoy, Guy Henry, Dan Aykroyd
/ Contact The Works Film Group
Stephen Fry (b. 1957, London) is a film and television actor, as well as a writer of television scripts. Since his student days he has been an integral part of the tradition of British intellectual humour (appearances include a TV version of the Cambridge Footlights Revue, 1982; the series "Alfresco," 1983; "Jeeves and Wooster," 1990; the comedies A Fish Called Wanda, 1988 and Peter´s Friend, 1992). For the title role in Wilde (1997) he was nominated for a Golden Globe and took Best Actor at the Seattle IFF. With the cast of Robert Altman´s Gosford Park (2001) he won the Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2002 he was a guest at Karlovy Vary.
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