Prick Up Your Ears
Prick Up Your Ears | |
---|---|
Directed by | Stephen Frears |
Screenplay by | Alan Bennett |
Based on | Prick Up Your Ears by John Lahr |
Produced by | Andrew Brown |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Oliver Stapleton |
Music by | Stanley Myers |
Production companies | Civilhand Zenith Entertainment |
Distributed by | Curzon Film Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 111 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £1.9 million[1] |
Box office | $1.6 million[2] |
Prick Up Your Ears is a 1987 British film, directed by Stephen Frears, about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell. The screenplay was written by Alan Bennett, based on the 1978 biography by John Lahr. The film stars Gary Oldman as Orton, Alfred Molina as Halliwell, Wallace Shawn as Lahr, and Vanessa Redgrave as Peggy Ramsay.
Plot
Islington, 9 August 1967. Literary agent Peggy Ramsay knocks on the door of playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell, but nobody opens. She calls the police. They find the corpses of the two men. A decade later theatre critic John Lahr visits Peggy Ramsay because he wants to write Orton's biography. They find Orton's diaries, and Peggy tells Lahr about Orton's life.
Orton and Halliwell's relationship began at the
Cast
- Gary Oldman as Joe Orton
- Alfred Molina as Kenneth Halliwell
- Vanessa Redgrave as Peggy Ramsay
- Frances Barber as Leonie Orton
- Janet Dale as Mrs Sugden
- Julie Walters as Elsie Orton
- Bert Parnaby as The Magistrate
- Margaret Tyzack as Madame Lambert
- Lindsay Duncan as Anthea Lahr
- Wallace Shawn as John Lahr
- Joan Sanderson as Anthea's Mother
- Richard Wilson as Psychiatrist
Casting
Ian McKellen was originally envisioned as Halliwell.[3] McKellen explained: "I needed a holiday – I'd been working so hard – so I just kept saying 'no, no, no', but when I saw the film I really regretted not having done it."[4] Maggie Smith turned down the role of Ramsay, saying that she did not want to perturb her sons by starring in a film that featured homosexual promiscuity and murder.[5] Keith Allen was in talks to play Orton before Oldman was cast.[3]
Reception
Prick Up Your Ears has a 95% rating at review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 37 reviews, with an average score of 7.7/10.[6]
Roger Ebert awarded Prick Up Your Ears four stars out of four, describing Redgrave's performance as "superb", and praising the work of Oldman and Molina: "The great performances in the movie are, of course, at its center. Gary Oldman plays Orton, and Alfred Molina plays Halliwell, and these are two of the best performances of the year... [Oldman] is the best young British actor around".[7] Variety noted: "The script is witty, the direction fluid, with one of the homosexual orgy scenes in a public toilet almost balletic, and the depiction of the lovers' life in their flat suitably claustrophobic."[8]
Vincent Canby was less enthused, writing: "The film covers the main events of the Orton life in a manner that is nothing less than distracted. One has little understanding of the fatal intensity – and need – that kept Orton and Halliwell together." He nevertheless had praise for the film's acting.[9] Similarly, Pauline Kael lauded Redgrave but said the male relationship was unconvincing and suffused with "modern-style psychosexual moralizing", and that "unlike Orton, it [the script] takes no real delight in misbehaving."[10]
Oldman earned a
References
- ^ "Back to the Future: The Fall and Rise of the British Film Industry in the 1980s - An Information Briefing" (PDF). British Film Institute. 2005. p. 27.
- ^ "Prick Up Your Ears (1987)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
- ^ a b Lang, Brent (24 August 2017). "'Prick Up Your Ears' at 30: Alfred Molina Reflects on Film". Variety. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
- ^ "Ian McKellen". Larry King Now. 2 December 2015. 19 minutes in. Ora TV. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
- ISBN 978-1474600231.
[Smith's] reaction to Alan Bennett's screenplay, which dealt in homosexual promiscuity and murder, was to retreat behind the excuse of not wanting to embarrass or upset her sons.
- ^ "Prick Up Your Ears". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (8 May 1987). "Prick Up Your Ears movie review (1987)". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on 12 October 2012. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
- ^ "Prick Up Your Ears". Variety. 1 January 1987.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (17 April 1987). "Film: Joe Orton's Life, in 'Prick up Your Ears'". The New York Times.
- ISBN 978-1-250-03357-4.
- ^ a b c "Film in 1988 | BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
- ^ "Winners & Nominees 1988 | Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture". Golden Globes. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
- ^ "Prick Up Your Ears (1987) - Awards". AllMovie. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Prick Up Your Ears". Festival-Cannes.com. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
External links
- Prick Up Your Ears at IMDb
- Prick Up Your Ears at the BFI's Screenonline
- Prick Up Your Ears at Rotten Tomatoes