Bright Young Things (2003)

Director:

Stephen Fry

Writers:

Stephen Fry (screenplay)
Evelyn Waugh (novel)

Release Date:

3 October 2003 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | War

Tagline:

Sex... Scandal... Celebrity... Some things never change.

Plot:

An adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel "Vile Bodies," is a look into the lives of a young novelist, his would-be lover, and a host of young people who beautified London in the 1930s.

Plot Keywords:

Money | 1930s | Major | Novel | General

Awards:

10 nominations

Cast

Simon McBurney	...	Sneath (Photo-Rat)
Michael Sheen	...	Miles
Emily Mortimer	...	Nina Blount
James McAvoy	...	Simon Balcairn
Stephen Campbell Moore	...	Adam Fenwick-Symes
Stockard Channing	...	Mrs. Melrose Ape
Adrian Scarborough	...	Customs Officer
Jim Carter	...	Chief Customs Officer
Fenella Woolgar	...	Agatha
Dan Aykroyd	...	Lord Monomark
Julia McKenzie	...	Lottie Crump
Bruno Lastra	...	Basilio
David Tennant	...	Ginger Littlejohn
Jim Broadbent	...	The Drunken Major
John Franklyn-Robbins	...	Judge

MPAA:

Rated R for some drug use.

Runtime:

106 min | Canada:105 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | UK:15 | Netherlands:12 | USA:R | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Eltham Palace, Court Road, Eltham, London, England, UK

Company:

Film Consortium, The

Trivia:

Director Stephen Fry commissioned two contemporary songs from The Pet Shop Boys for the movie - a cover version of Noel Coward's The Party's Over Now and a Pet Shop Boys-penned title track. These songs were written and recorded, but were edited out in the last minute because the director decided to stick to period music.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: A television aerial can be seen on the right hand rooftops in the external shot of the hotel that Adam and Nina stay at.

Quotes:

Simon Balcairn: [Telling his fake news story] Never, never, never have such scenes been witnessed in high society, that uneasy alliance between Bright Young Things and old survivors. Perhaps this was the defining moment of our epoch of speed and syncopation. This so-called 20th century of angst...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross: (#2.10)" (2002)

Soundtrack:

Sing Sing Sing

An Excellent Adaptation

Having seen this film at the cinema and thoroughly enjoyed it I purchased it on DVD and then read the book so as to better judge whether the comments that the film was an exceedingly loose adaptation were true. It is certainly true that Fry hasn't stuck to the narrative strictly but the changes he made in the name of good cinema were overwhelmingly the right ones and he actually managed to bring forward some entertaining background characters and relegate some fairly tedious ones. For example Lord Monomark who is a Canadian Newspaper magnate shamelessly based on Lord Beverbrook is rairly mentioned in the book but is superbly played by Dan Ackroyd in the film whilst the PM Walter Outrage who features heavily in Waughs novel is barely mentioned in the film and rightly so as the character in the novel is a complicated amalgamation of contemporary politics (i.e Ramsay Mcdonald and Bonar Law)that even I having studied the period extensively found heavy going. Also whilst the ending is contrived to be too happy it is a marginal improvement on the novel in my opinion which doesn't seem to conclude the book very well. Overall a superb film with excellent production values and peerless period feel for which Stephen Fry should be commended. I just hope that he has a stab at at adapting Decline and Fall which is another excellent Waugh novel.