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If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian text, please contact me.
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Stephen Frears (1941), assistant director for Karel Reisz and Lindsay Anderson,
debuted with the anti-racist short
Burning (1967) and the full-length
thriller
Gumshoe (1971),
and then went to work for television.
The Hit (1984) is a philosophical thriller that is unfortunately ruined by an awful melodramatic ending.
The victim of the kidnap turns out to be a philosophical spectator.
The real protagonist is the seasoned hitman with no emotions and no morals,
who turns out to be something else, either a sado-masochistic pervert or a romantic loner.
An additional protagonist is certainly the arid, desolate and mostly uninhabited landscape through which they drive until the end.
It feels like a cross between a spaghetti western and a noir of the 1950s.
The film opens in a court where a
repented gangster, Willie, testifies against his former partners in crime, including a dangerous kingpin. The gangsters swear revenge.
Ten years later, Parker has become an intellectual and a gentleman in a remote Spanish town. His villa is full of books. He is constantly followed by a bodyguard.
One day four kids break into his villa, wait for him, and kidnap him.
They drive him to a place where they deliver him to two English-speaking men,
the older Braddock and the junior Myron.
Braddock checks the picture of Willie and then, reassuring that he is the wanted man, pays the kids with a suitcase. The suitcase is supposed to contain money but instead explodes when opened. Only one of the kids escapes uninjured because he had stepped away.
As Braddock and Myron drive away with Willie, Willie's bodyguard tries to stop them but they run him over. Willie calmly informs them that the bodyguard was a cop, a fact that will motivate the police to find them.
Braddock rarely talks, Myron is talkative.
They take Willie to an apartment that is supposed to be empty. Instead they
find an old acquaintance of Braddock's,
a middle-aged Australian man, Harry,
who has been staying in the apartment without anybody's permission
and is immediately terrified because he has read in the newspapers of the
kidnap and deaths, and recognizes Willie from a picture in the first page of
the newspaper. Harry realizes that he is now a dangerous witness.
His sexy girlfriend Maggie arrives a few minutes later.
Harry claims that she is 15 and doesn't understand English.
Braddock hesitates. He remembers Harry from a past encounter.
Eventually, Braddock decides to take the girl as hostage so Harry won't call
the police. But then Willie mentions that there is a tempting reward for
the capture of the killers. Braddock returns to the apartment and finds Harry
who is making a phone call. This time Braddock shoots Harry dead.
(We don't see the killing but Braddock tells Myron later that Harry is dead).
He still keeps the girl with them and they drive away towards the French
border.
Willie seems indifferent to the whole plan, despite knowing that he is going to be killed.
Myron is attracted to the girl, who sits in the back seat terrified and speechless.
Willie never tries to escape, even if there are opportunities. He explains
that he has long accepted that everybody has to die.
However, he takes every chance to sows doubts in Myron's mind about Braddock.
They stop in the middle of nowhere to kill the girl who is now a useless hostage but Myron intercedes for her and Braddock eventually spares her life.
Meanwhile, a detective is investigating the deaths of the kids and has found
Harry's body.
During a stop in the desert, Braddock is alone with the girl and says something to her in English and she instinctively reacts, revealing that she is fluent in English.
Instead of being scared, she bites Braddock's hand until it bleeds, and Braddock simply wraps his hand in a handkerchief, as if he's beginning to like her.
They stop in another remote place. Braddock leaves Willie with Myron and takes
the girl with him to go get gasoline. Myron fears that Braddock wants to kill
her and even points a gun at him. Braddock surrenders his own gun to prove that
he won't kill the girl. As Braddock leaves with the girl, Willie takes a nap
after lecturing Myron on the irrelevance of death.
At the gas station the girl screams for help. Braddock has to kill the
gas station boy. The girl tries to escape. Braddock has to fight to restrain her,
but again doesn't kill her. They drive back to the place where they left Myron and finds him asleep. Willie is missing. Braddock however finds Willie a short distance away, contemplating a waterfall. Again, Willie didn't try to escape even if he had a chance. Again, Willie tells Braddock that he's not afraid of dying.
Somehow that speech changes Braddock's plan. He suddenly decides to kill both
Willie and the girl, but then he kills Willie (who begs for his life, clearly afraid of dying after all) and he kills Myron. The girl fights and Braddock
accidentally shoots the last bullet in the air. He beats her unconscious but,
again, doesn't kill her (he could have strangled her or smashed her head with a stone of whatever).
The detective is closing in on them. A helicopter finds the three bodies: Willie and Myron dead, and the girl still alive. The cops take the girl to the police station of the border town.
Braddock drives away, stops the car, changes clothes and calmly walks towards
the border. Passing in front of the police station, he is recognized by the girl, and the cops chase him until they corner him in a shop and shoot him dead.
Before the last sigh, he winks at Maggie.
It is never explained why Braddock never killed Maggie, even if she was a useless and dangerous witness and a nuisance.
Nor is it explained why Braddock decides to kill Willie before delivering him to the kingpin.
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), scripted by Hanif Kureishi, is a savage lyrical portrait of two doomed lovers (an introverted Pakistani who opens a laundrette and a charismatic punk who helps him) against the backdrop of racial, sexual and class conflicts.
The TV drama Loving Walter (1982), based on David Cook's 1978 novel,
is a melancholic and pessimistic portrait of a mentally disabled man who,
having lost his parents, is interned in a mental asylum
where he falls in love with a madwoman. They elope and try to start a family,
but she dumps him and he returns to the asylum.
Frears specializes in the border between the tender and the sordid in life.
Prick Up Your Ears (1987), scripted by Alan Bennett and based on the book by John Lahr, is the biopic of a playwright who was killed by his homosexual
lover, who then killed himself.
A scared man wakes up alone.
The police bursts into an empty apartment.
The middle-age writer John is writing a book on the events surrounding the
career of playwright Joe Orton and is interviewing a woman, Peggy, who was
Joe's agent.
Another woman, who turns out to be John's wife, listens to the tape of
the interview and types on a typewriter.
Joe returns at his apartment and faces the wrath of the scared man, who is
his lover Kenneth.
Peggy, invited to dinner by journalists couple, lends them Joe's
diaries.
Kenneth is upset that Joe takes all the credit for his plays and that he
treats him like a housewife.
The film continues with this clever interplay between the writers who are
studying the diaries and flashbacks of Joe's life
(Joe's and Ken's theatrical beginnings,
both aspiring playwrights, the blossoming of their relationship,
the short time in jail, the first contract for Joe, the vacation in
Tangier, all drugs and boys, that first strained their friendship,
the death of Joe's mother).
Finally, Kenneth, in a fit of anger, crushed his lover's skull with a hammer.
And then commmitts suicide.
Sammy And Rosie Get Laid (1987), scripted again by Hanif Kureishi,
follows three couples but the protagonist is the old patriarch who, coming
to London to visit
his son and daughter-in-law, discovers a world of punks, tramps and poor immigrants, a world of promiscuity and amorality.
The film becomes a surreal carnival.
Frears' cinema-vaudeville is full of metaphors that punctuate the apocalyptic
chaos of the "decadent" British civilization.
Dangerous Liaisons (1988) is an adaptation of Laclos' novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses".
The Grifters (1990), one of his best, is an adaptation of
Jim Thompson's 1963 novel.
Un truffatore di piccolo cabotaggio, che ha sedotto un'avvenente ragazza,
viene colpito da un barista che si accorge del solito trucco. La madre,
che lavora per un bookmaker influente e temuto ed e` passata a trovare il
figlio, chiama il medico in tempo e ottiene il massimo dell'efficienza grazie
al fatto che lavora per tanto boss. Il figlio si riprende, ma non sembra
provare gratitudine.
La ragazza ha venduto tutti i gioielli che possedeva e, rimasta senza risorse,
ha persino offerto il proprio corpo al negozio di compravendita degli ori;
e si prostituisce al padrone di casa per pagare l'affitto.
Per soccorrere il figlio, la madre si e` cacciata in un guaio con il boss,
che glielo fa pagare bruciandole una mano con il sigaro, ma poi le da` i soldi
di cui ha bisogno.
Durante un viaggio in treno la ragazza capisce qual'e` l'occupazione del suo
ragazzo, la truffa ai danni degli sprovveduti. Lei gli racconta come si fece
le ossa aiutando un truffatore d'alto calibro, capace di turlupinare centinaia
di migliaia di dollari alla volta.
Propone a lui di riprendere quell'attivita', ma lui si spaventa della sua
aggressivita` e la caccia. Lei si mette alle costole della madre. E infatti
lui scopre che la madre sta giocando a un gioco pericoloso con il boss e che
il boss l'ha capito. La mette in guardia appena in tempo. Lei fugge, e la
ragazza la segue fino a un motel. Poi nottetempo penetra nella sua stanza.
Il giorno dopo nella stanza trovano il corpo di una donna apparentemente
suicida e nella sua auto una tonnellata di soldi. Chiamano il figlio perche'
venga a riconoscere il cadavere: il ragazzo finge di riconoscerlo, ma in
realta` il viso e` sfigurato e lui nota che la mano destra non ha la bruciatura
del sigaro.
The TV movie Snapper (1993) was another peak of his career.
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Accidental Hero (1992) is an odd drama for Dustin Hoffman.
The horror movie
Mary Reilly (1996),
a variation on "Jekyll and Hyde" archetype
written by Christopher Hampton, reunited Frears with
the Dangerous Liasons duo of John Malkovich and Glenn Close, but the
protagonist role is given to Julia Roberts as an unlikely Irish maid.
The Van (1998)
The Hi-Lo Country (1998)
High Fidelity (2000), based on the novel by Nick Hornby, is a comedy that deconstructs the time and the
feelings of the protagonist in a clever manner, to the point of turning into
a psychiatric analysis of the protagonist's insecurity and its causes.
Laura has just left Rob, the owner of a record store that specializes in
collector items. Rob is heartbroken and tries to cope with the event by
revisiting the women who dumped him in the past. Between one flashback
and the other, Rob works at the record store, helped out by two psychotic
fans of rock music whom he never truly hired: the arrogant and rude Barry and
the shy and neurotic Dick. Liz, a friend of Laura, calls to console him.
Rob keeps thinking of Laura, but at a night club he meets a sexy singer.
Liz reveals to Rob that Laura has left him for a neighbor, Ian. Rob is
madly jealous. Laura tells lies to Liz who now despises Rob. Rob chats
with Bruce Springsteen about his problems. The point is that he wants
Laura back. Maybe it's the cumulative effect of so many rejections.
Nonetheless, he sleeps with Marie. But then when Laura tells him that
she has slept with Ian he cries like a baby. One of the girls who dumped
him before, Charly, returns his call and invites him to a party. He can
thus realize that she's a stupid woman not worth his time. Ian confronts
him at the store and asks him to respect Laura's decision.
Rob would like to hit him but can't move. Laura's father dies and Rob
is invited to the funeral. After the funeral, they make love in the car.
So they are back together. The moment Laura moves back in, Rob meets
Caroline, a sexy fan of his and a music critic, and begins fantasizing
about her.
Laura, instead, has taken seriously his idea of starting a music label
and has organized a record release party that will also mark the official
return to the scene of Rob, a legendary disc jockey. Rob is scared,
especially when he learns that Laura has invited Barry's band to perform
live. Rob even offers Barry money not to perform. Instead, Barry's band
is a success. Rob is tired of fantasizing about women and asks Laura to
marry him.
Liam (2000), adapted by Jimmy McGovern from Joseph Mckeown's novel "Back Crack Boy", is a naturalist drama set during the Great Depression.
Dirty Pretty Things (2002), written by Steven Knight, deals with the
wave of refugees and illegal immigrants of the era.
Mrs Henderson Presents (2005), written by Martin Sherman, is a mediocre nostalgic melodrama set during World War II.
The Queen (2006)
Cheri (2009), based on Colette novels, is a period piece set during the "belle epoque".
Tamara Drewe (2010) is a satirical adaptation by screenwriter Moira Buffini of Posy Simmonds graphic novel.
Lay the Favorite (2012) is the funny story of a penniless woman who tries to get rich in the decadent world of Las Vegas.
Philomena (2013), scripted by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, is one of his most poignant melodramas.
The biopic
Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), written by Nicholas Martin,
is set in the 1940s in New York.
Victoria and Abdul (2017), written by Lee Hall, is a biopic of
Queen Victoria.
The Lost King (2022)
What We Do Next (2022)
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