Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 11, 1995 TAG: 9511140015
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
``Dennis Potter: The Last Interview'' is one of the most remarkable things you'll ever see.
Potter, creator of such offbeat productions as ``Pennies From Heaven,'' ``The Singing Detective'' and the newly released ``Lipstick on Your Collar,'' died last year from pancreatic cancer. A few weeks before his death, he sat down with British television producer Melvyn Bragg to talk about his life and his work. At the time, Potter knew the end was close and had to sip from a flask of liquid morphine to balance pain and consciousness. This tape is his testament.
He talks about everything from smoking - ``It's easier to pull a gun in America than a cigarette out of your pocket'' - to God - ``a rumor, if you like.'' But he's mostly concerned with politics, the decline of the British press, his own writing both past and present, and his life. Throughout, his calm sense of purpose is unshakable.
He's at peace with his dead father - how many men can say that? - and with himself. There's no self-pity or recrimination. Instead, he's a man who is completely free and unafraid to speak his mind. And his most important point, the one that he states as strongly as he can, is to live in the moment, to appreciate the present as fully as you can because nothing else is certain.
That may be simple wisdom, but it's worth repeating and Potter states it with rare eloquence.
And now for something completely different ... well, sort of different.
Potter's ``Lipstick on Your Collar'' was made for British television, but don't count on seeing it broadcast anywhere in this country. With straitlaced conservatives guarding the public morality, no network public or private would touch this funny, sexy, irreverent miniseries. But conventional TV's loss is home video's gain. This is what your VCR was made for.
The series, available on three two-hour tapes, is a musical fantasy with an occasionally firm grip on reality. The setting is London, 1956, as the Suez Canal crisis looms. In a small intelligence department of the War Office, Pushkin scholar Francis Francis (Giles Thomas) arrives from rural Wales to translate Russian.
The more experienced Pvt. Hopper (Ewan McGregor, from ``Shallow Grave'') tries to show him the ropes. But just when the story threatens to become a boring politico-historical tale, these midlevel civil servants break into a lip-synched version of ``Little Bitty Pretty One,'' complete with a very naked blond angel in the background. Then the lovely Sylvia (Louise Germaine) appears. She's an archetypal '50s blond bombshell. Francis is smitten.
Fortunately, she lives right upstairs. Unfortunately, she's married to the violent Cpl. Barry (Douglas Hershall).
Beyond the fantasy scenes - which might have been the Russ Meyer version of ``How to Succeed in Business'' - the whole production has that wonderful off-center quality for which Potter is so justly famous. The supporting cast will be familiar to fans of British film and television.
In the end, Potter's tale is about a lot of things - Cold War politics, rock music, class, theater - but it's mostly about love, hopeless love and all the craziness that it involves.
``Dead Funny'' is one of those inspired, quirky little independent films that will find an appreciative audience on home video. It's a comic mystery that manages to combine genuine laughs and spooky, nightmarish moments without diminishing the effect of either. For comparative purposes, think of ``Desperately Seeking Susan'' and ``The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag,'' but this one's an original.
The story begins with Vivian (Elizabeth Pena) returning from work to her mess of an apartment. It's half-painted in a rainbow of colors and filled with the debris of last night's party. If that weren't enough, her boyfriend Reggie (Andrew McCarthy) is dead in the kitchen. There's a samurai sword in his chest and, no, this isn't another of his practical jokes. Vivian doesn't know what she should do until her ditzy and none-too-sober friend Louise (Paige Turco) shows up. Together they ``reason'' that they've got to figure out who did it before they call the police.
The script by Cindy Oswin and director John Feldman then moves back and forth in time, filling in the details of the year-long relationship between Viv and Reggie, and slipping back into the present. The device works well, particularly when Viv's Women's Support Group shows up for a meeting, and the film arrives at a neatly twisted ending. Feldman was also responsible for the video cult hit ``Alligator Eyes.''
Next week: the long-awaited return of guilty pleasures!
New Releases This Week:
Crimson Tide **1/2
Starring Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman. Directed by Tony Scott. Buena Vista/ Hollywood. 115 min. Rated R for strong language, some violence.
This is first-rate Hollywood escapism; polished, well-crafted and hollow. Though the filmmakers have concocted a reasonable premise for a thriller, the film is really nothing more than an updated World War II submarine adventure. Stars Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman do their usual good work in familiar roles.
| - M.M.
Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home *
Starring Jason James Richter, Michael Madsen. Directed by Dwight Little. Warner. 94 min. Rated PG for mild comic violence and frequent use of the word ``butt.''
Like most sequels, this one's an exercise in imitation. What little story there is has to do with an oil spill. Most of the time, the screen is filled with attractive Pacific Northwest scenery and slow-motion shots of killer whales cavorting in the water. The movie looks like a National Geographic special without all that bothersome information.
| - M.M.
THE ESSENTIALS
Dennis Potter: The Last Interview ****
New Video. 70 min. Unrated, contains some strong language.
Lipstick on Your Collar ***
New Video. 360 min. Unrated, contains strong subject matter, nudity (gratuitous and otherwise), sexual scenes, scatological humor.
Dead Funny ** 1/2
A-Pix. 91 min. Rated R for subject matter, strong language, sexual content, brief nudity.
by CNB