A Private Function (1984) - FilmAffinity A Private Function Alan Bennett (Story: Alan Bennett, Malcolm Mowbray) Music Tony Pierce-Roberts Cast Comedy | 1940s . Animals Synopsis / Plot Life isn't easy in 1947 Yorkshire where strict post-war rationing is putting the squeeze on the townspeople. But when a married working-class couple (Palin and Smith) discovers that the town s wealthy elite has been secretly fattening up an illegal pig for their own selfish gluttony they hatch an outlandish kidnapping scheme that gives new meaning to the phrase bringing home the bacon! Michael Palin (A Fish Called Wanda) teams with Oscar® winner* Maggie Smith (Gosford Park) in this uproarious comedy in which the laughs come fast (Variety) and the upper class becomes furious! Co-starring Denholm Elliott Pete Postlethwaite and one divine swine this hilarious comedy is alive and unruly [and] the humor keeps boiling up (Pauline Kael: The New Yorker)! Awards 1984 : 3 BAFTA Awards, including Best Actress (Maggie Smith).

5 Nominations Ratings by Movie Soulmates Sex in Cinema: 1984 Greatest and Most Influential Erotic / Sexual Films and Scenes Movie Title/Year and Film/Scene Description Screenshots Angel (1984) Writer-director Robert Vincent O'Neill's film was a wildly-successful New World Pictures' production raking in $23 million - the first in a series of trashy sexploitation films. It was followed by lesser films: Avenging Angel (1985) with Betsy Russell Angel III: The Final Chapter (1988) starring Mitzi Kapture and featuring rampant nudity and misogyny Angel 4: Undercover (1994) This infamous film was one of the most popular teen prostitute tales ever made, although it was very tame. It teased with the tagline: "High School Honor Student by Day, Hollywood Hooker by Night -- Her two worlds are about to collide. It's her choice. Her chance.

Her life." It starred 25 year old Donna Wilkes in the title role as an innocent-faced, flat-chested, pig-tailed teen prep school student named Molly Stewart/Angel who was abandoned by her parents and masqueraded as a Hollywood, Lolita-like prostitute and vigilante (against a necrophilic, raw-egg sucking serial killer (John Diehl) dressed like a Hare Krishna). Angel was protected by well-meaning, off-beat street eccentrics, including paternal transvestite hooker Mae (Dick Shawn), her foul-mouthed bull dyke landlady Solly Mosler (Susan Tyrell), and B-movie actor-turned-street-roaming cowboy Kit Carson (Rory Calhoun). Shower/Locker Room Scene (unknown actresses) For a film of this kind, it was unusual that there were basically no sex scenes or nudity from the main star. There were only two basic instances of nudity - a gratuitous girls' locker room and shower scene, and a few quick glimpses of nude female slasher victim Lana (Graem McGavin) who asked her potential killer: "What are you waiting for, honey?

Why don't you take your clothes off?" - before her body was discovered by Angel, bloodied in the shower. Angel (Graem McGavin) L'Annee des Meduses (1984, Fr.) (aka Year of the Jellyfish) This pretty-to-look-at exploitation film, a tale of sexual intrigue from France, based on writer/director Christopher Frank's own book, masqueraded as an art-house film. Amazingly, Caroline Cellier won the Cesar Award (French) for Best Actress – Supporting Role. In the same year, its sexy star Kaprisky also appeared in the artsy La Femme Publique (1984, Fr.) (aka The Public Woman) - see below. It featured the tagline: "Summer, the south of France...She's 18, less than perfect, and dangerous." The main character of the erotic thriller was pretty femme fatale nymphet Chris (Valerie Kaprisky), a sexually-fixated, vixenish female who was symbolically compared to a stinging jellyfish with a fatal sting.

She actually sustained a jellyfish sting on her left breast, which she showed off later in the casino bar, after rescuing a young swimmer. She was told that the sting-scar would never go away. A menage a trois competition, an exhibitionist sexual rivalry of mother-daughter toplessness, was fought on the gorgeous beaches of the South of France at Saint-Tropez between: Chris Riveaut (Valerie Kaprisky), 18 years old ("less than perfect and dangerous") Claude (Caroline Cellier), Chris' 38 year-old mother, who was feeling "old" and "afraid" inside; she was vacationing in S.

France, while her non-fun-loving husband Pierre (Pierre Vaneck) remained in Paris (but would soon arrive on the scene) Chris (Caroline Cellier) Chris (Valerie Kaprisky) on the Topless French Beaches Chris was suspicious of Romain Kalides (Bernard Giradeau), a rakish, gigolo Don Juanish lover, whom she called a "pimp." (He had nicknamed her "Salome" - a seductive temptress who caused the beheading of John the Baptist.) She knew that he often lured topless sunbathers to his yacht Alauma III for sex, such as Dorothee (Betty Assenza). [Had she been lured there as a 16 year-old by him?] Chris said that "he hunts the girls on the beach. He's a provider...On the port, in the villas, he's a pimp." Romain began to romance her own mother Claude, and a love-triangle rivalry eventually developed. Claude became one of the many female sunbathers invited to Romain's yacht for sex. During her time there on one occasion, she bluntly differentiated between love and sex: "About my mother.

What my mother said about love. 'I don't understand all this fuss and such a waste of time for a matter of orifice.'" At the beach, Chris and Claude also met another married vacationing German couple: Peter Casteline (Antoine Nikola) and his wife Barbara (Barbara Nielsen), and eventually caused issues to develop in their relationship after she lured them into a threesome in their hotel room, beginning with a lesbian-kiss with Barbara. Peter abruptly left to return to Germany the next morning, without Barbara. Chris also began an affair with middle-aged, gray-haired, guilt-ridden, married businessman Vic (Jacques Perrin), a long-time family friend, and was quickly naked in bed with him (She told him: "Are you crazy or what?...I didn't think you would do this..I have to ask my mother for the pill. If you think that's easy."). In another encounter when he disrobed her and hugged her, he began to move down to kiss her sexually.

She pushed him away: "No, it's not for a man...I don't like it." It became clear through a flashback, that he had impregnated her two years earlier, and she had an abortion - poisoning their newly-revived relationship further. She had promised to herself never to get involved with him again, but they continued to see each other on-and-off, and she was irresistible to him. She was becoming exasperated with Vic's tormenting words: "You call me Sunday? You love me? Let me look at you. I'll stay with you. I'll watch you pee. You're me. You're my daughter. Everything I've never had. I've had it!" Chris with Vic In a dramatic climactic scene, Chris blackmailed Romain into taking her on a late-night date on his yacht by threatening to reveal his affair with Claude ("or else I tell my father everything"). She reasoned about how he could use the date as an alibi: "You could use this as an alibi...For you. I'm protecting the mother.

Not, I want to go out with the daughter." The narrator described how jellyfish were invading the shore: "The jellyfish were creeping in by the thousands, discreetly invading the shore like a chorus walking on stage before the opening of the curtain." After a short time at an amusement park, she asked to go to his yacht. On board, misogynistic Romain described how she was a heartless siren or Medusa figure - a scary femme fatale who often lured men to their doom with her sexuality. "She follows me, tracks me down, owns me, snubs me. She flirts with me. In short, she waits for me. First, it was a 16 year old Salome, then 17 and now 18... I thought she would tire of this, but no. She did not tire of it." Chris confronted him: "Why did you screw my mother?" He dismissed her without answering directly: "You don't interest me. And you can't be of any use to me. Is that clear? You scare me. You're so predictable, ordinary, obvious. It's pathetic." He then predicted what her future life would be in a derogatory and demeaning manner.

He even compared her to her mother: "You'll never have your mother's charm and intensity." She retorted: "Your job is to f--k chicks, so f--k me." He refused even though she said she loved him. When she turned away from him, she noticed the water below was filled with jellyfish. [She knew that he had a history of sensitivity to stings and anaphylactic shock.] She decided to become "Salome" by performing a dance in front of him: "If you call me Salome, I must be her type." She stripped down completely naked, turned on boom-box music, and shook her breasts at him. He explained to her, prophetically, why Salome danced: "To have a man murdered." Chris' (or Salome's) Lethal Dance and Aftermath She then twirled toward him and abruptly pushed him overboard into a sea of jellyfish. She watched from the railing above as he struggled and then went into shock and sank after being stung. Reports were that Romain's boat was found, stranded, and he wasn't in it, although his body was found shortly later.

In the final scene before leaving, Chris was swimming totally naked and sunbathing au naturel with Barbara, and appearing affectionate toward her. Dorothee (Betty Assenza) and Miriam (Charlotte Kady) Dorothee The Start of the Dramatic Scene on Yacht: Preparing for Dance - Turning on Music Romain Struggling in Jellyfish-Infested Water Another Country (1984, UK) This British coming-of-age film, an adaptation of Julian Mitchell's play, by director Marek Kanievska, told about an unexplicit relationship between two schoolboys in a 1930s British boarding school: Guy Burgess (Rupert Everett in a star-making role), openly-gay James Harcourt (Cary Elwes) In one scene, the two young males gently cuddled in the moonlight - one of the earliest representations of homosexual romantic love. Bachelor Party (1984) This above-average, irreverent, trashy-vulgar mid-80s teen sex screwball comedy was about typical bachelor party shenanigans.

Twenty-four years later there followed a sequel - with more nudity: Bachelor Party 2: The Last Temptation (2008) The original comedy starred young actor Tom Hanks as school bus-driver Rick Gassko. He ultimately decided to marry his long-time debutante girlfriend Debbie Thompson (Tawny Kitaen), although his party-animal reputation was disturbing to the prospective wealthy in-laws. During Rick's debauched bachelor party (he had vowed to remain faithful to Debbie), Tracey (buxom pinup Monique Gabrielle) appeared in a bedroom to test him. Tracey dropped out of her dress, walked over and sat down at the foot of a bed where the struggling Rick contemplated whether to have sex with her or not. She seduced him with the words: "Rick. Take me, please!" He then imagined heads of different people superimposed on her body that offered advice. Debbie: "Rick. You promised me. You promised me you wouldn't make love to anybody else." Nun: "Don't go back on your word, Rick. Be true. Be strong." Brother: "What, are you nuts? Look at my tits!

They're perfect!" Tracey (Monique Gabrielle) Offering Advice - and With Super-Imposed Heads [See other entries: " Raunchy Teen-Sex Comedies of the 1980s. "] Blame It On Rio (1984) This unfunny and distasteful sex comedy was produced and directed by Stanley Donen (of Singin' In The Rain fame!). It was a remake of Claude Berri's French sex comedy Un Moment D'égarement (1977, Fr.) (aka One Wild Moment) with Jean-Pierre Marielle, and was a younger version of Blake Edwards' 10 (1979). The film followed an awkward May-December romantic entanglement that occurred during a Rio beach vacation between: Jennifer Lyons (17 year-old Michelle Johnson in her debut film role), a nymphet, buxom and voluptuous Matthew Hollis (Michael Caine), a lecherous married businessman, the best friend of Victor Lyons (Joseph Bologna), Jennifer's father Jennifer hung out at the topless beach with her teenaged friend Nicole 'Nikki' Hollis (Demi Moore), the daughter of Matthew.

Vacationing Jennifer (Michelle Johnson) and Teenaged Friend Nikki (Demi Moore) A reluctant "Uncle Matthew" was repeatedly seduced and eventually succumbed to the oversexed, intrepid, frequently nude, and under-aged Jennifer (who in one scene rushed into a nude pose to take a Polaroid picture of herself - and placed a small bouquet of flowers over her private parts just in time). In another scene, after a topless nighttime beach romp, he was left staring up at her bare breasts. She also boldly propositioned him, requesting: "Make love to me." Matthew responded: "I'm 20 years older than you." Without a beat, she replied: "Twenty-eight." (Michelle Johnson) Body Double (1984) Director Brian DePalma's R-rated erotic thriller paid homage to Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) , Dial M for Murder (1954) and Vertigo (1958) .

Its tagline provided a big clue to the film's plot: "You Can't Believe Everything You See" It opened with struggling, claustrophobic B-film actor Jake Scully (Craig Wasson) discovering his live-in girlfriend Carol (Barbara Crampton) cheating on him. The film's centerpiece was a later scene in a swanky LA bachelor pad in which Jake was house-sitting in place of fellow thespian 'Sam Bouchard' (Gregg Henry) in the Hollywood Hills. Jake was set up to voyeuristically watch (through a high-powered telescope) the beautiful, rich, dark-haired neighbor Gloria Revelle (Deborah Shelton) performing a self-pleasuring, seductive dance in her apartment across the way. The film's twists were that Holly Body (Melanie Griffith), a porn queen 'body double', had been hired to impersonate Gloria by wearing a dark-haired wig and dancing in the apartment. Soon afterwards came the infamous set-up murder (a very grisly scene) by Gloria's abusive (and separated) husband Alexander Revelle (Gregg Henry), using an erect power drill, and disguised as a disfigured Native American.

That night as he rested on his revolving bed and drank Jack Daniels straight from the bottle, Jake watched late-night adult cable TV, listening to an interview with a porn star named Linda Shaw (Herself) of Linda Shaw Enterprises (known for such X-rated flicks as "The Mating Game," "One Night at a Time" and "Bold Obsession"). He also watched a short promotional clip of bleached-blonde adult film porn queen Holly Body in an X-rated porn shoot titled Holly Does Hollywood ("The Gone With the Wind of Adult Films" according to Eros Magazine; Erotic X Film Guide called it "A Hedonist's Heaven"). Her familiar-looking, self-pleasuring dance in the porno film caused Jake to wonder whether Holly might provide a link to Gloria's murder. He immediately rented the video from the "Adult Section" of a local 24 hour video rental store, and watched Holly's full-length performance. Shortly thereafter, Jake entered the business of hardcore X-rated films, in order to meet Holly. He participated as a nerdy-looking supporting actor in a short music-video scene with her.

It was an X-rated 'film within a film' - shot to the tune of "Relax" by British pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood. During the filming of the actual raw sex scene with her, after Jake had spotted her in a room labeled "Sluts," he spoke his short amount of dialogue to her: "I like to watch." He became so involved in the scene (he also fantasy-imagined being in the arms of Gloria for a moment, as the camera spun around 360 degrees) when making love to her that the 'money shot' was not visible to the startled cameraman who asked: "Where's the cum shot?..The cum shot. I thought we were doing 'Body Talk' here, not 'Last Tango.'" When Jake expressed a desire to hire Holly to be in his own porn film ("I want you in my picture"), she asserted upfront, to prevent misunderstandings later on: "I do not do animal acts. I do not do S & M or any variations of that particular bent. No water sports either. I will not shave my pussy, no fist f--king, and absolutely no coming in my face.

I get $2,000 a day and I do not work without a contract." When he asked about a routine of "a woman alone, getting herself off, it's got to be really hot," she claimed that self-pleasuring was her speciality: "I have a routine that is a sure-ten on the peter meter." Jake was tipped off that the "show" ("masturbation routine") that Gloria had put on in the house nearby had been performed by Holly ("That was you in the Revelle house"). He was able to have Holly confirm that "Sam's" voice during a phone conversation was the same as the man who had hired her to perform for two nights. She helped Jake to unravel the conspiracy underlying the murder - learning that it was more than "a little practical joke" but a case of murder instead. In the conclusion, it was revealed at a reservoir site that Sam had been disguised as the killer-Indian (with latex face-makeup). He admitted angrily to Jake: "You ruined my surprise ending" - and ended up getting pushed backward to his death in the churning reservoir water below.

The End Credits Sequence The film's final credits rolled over a Psycho -like scene shot in a shower featuring how an actual body double (named Mindy) for a naked shot was substituted into the film for the lead actress (Denise Loveday). Mindy told Jake (opposite her as a vampire) to be careful: "My breasts are very tender. I've got my period." After fondling her, Jake bit into her neck, causing a cascade of blood down her naked chest. Watching from the side, Holly advised the robed actress watching the nude double - "You know what? You're gonna get a lot of dates when this comes out." [Note: This was De Palma's answer to his critics for using a 'body double' for Angie Dickinson in the opening of Dressed to Kill (1980).] Carol Holly: "You're gonna get a lot of dates..." Bolero (1984) After Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981), this was the third film featuring blonde-haired, blue-eyed Bo Derek that was directed by her Svengali husband John. It was a tale of sexual awakening that was released unrated, due to its rampant and lengthy sexual content and nudity.

From its nine Golden Raspberry (Razzie) nominations, it won six awards (including Worst Actress, Worst Picture, and Worst Director). The film was also nominated as one of the Worst Pictures of the Decade. However, it was taglined with: "An adventure in eXtasy" and "The Hottest Erotic Film of the Century." Bo Derek played the role of "overeducated" Lida MacGillivery (aka "Mac"), a Rudolph Valentino fan in the 1920s, who early on confessed to her Spanish girlfriend Catalina (aka "Cat") Terry (Ana Obregon): "But in the ways of love, we're kindergarten toddlers" - and expressed how she soon desired to "wallow" in "eXtasy" on the hot sands of Morocco, after having obtained her inheritance as a "rich bitch." When she graduated from her strict all-girls English boarding school, she stripped down topless to her underwear and streaked about in the garden, amazing her chauffeur/guardian Cotton (George Kennedy) about how much she had "grown well" since childhood. In N.

Africa, she forwardly introduced herself to a "real sheik" (Greg Bensen), boldly offering: "I have come all this way to give you something you may not even want. My virginity...Will you take the gift?" The next day, after arriving at the Arab sheik's ocean-side sand-dune encampment by aeroplane, "Mac" received a lesson in sensual belly-dancing before being undressed in his tent. Old-style title cards described: "And now...the gift is without a wrapper." The sheik asked for "milk and honey" - in the infamous scene, he dripped honey onto her naked breasts and body and began licking the sweet substance.

Upset after her lover fell asleep (from hookah-smoking) and she was covered in thick honey, she complained: "I'm all dressed up with no place to go!" Bo Derek as "Mac" The next stop for "Cat" and "Mac" was Spain, where "Mac" flirted with dark-eyed, sexy bullfighter Angel Sacristan (Andrea Occhipinti), but had to compete with his young almost 14 year-old "gypsy child" Paloma (under-aged 15 year-old Olivia d'Abo) and with the fighter's naked and jealous outdoor hot-tub, red-headed girlfriend Natty (Corinne Russell). Paloma bragged about her ripe feminine shape as she was rinsed off by "Mac" after her sudsy bath: "I am woman ready. Juicy, too." Soon, "Mac" gave herself to the matador at sunrise, as she predicted ("Fruit's about to fall from the tree"), although she first had to give him a lengthy and wet tongue kiss in his ear! Before a roaring fire, she then asked before offering her maidenhood: "Right now, will you show me everything? Do everything to me?

Show me everything I can do to you? Am I too greedy?...Is there enough that I can give to you? So that you can give ecstasy to me?" After being painfully penetrated during intercourse, she told him: "I'm not a virgin anymore." Shortly later, she received the gift of a honey-colored horse and the acquisition of his wine business. But their love and the possibility of marriage was tested when he was gored in the genitals by a bull, although she was certain he wouldn't be permanently impotent: "That thing is going to work. I guarantee you this." Meanwhile, Cat lost her virginity to Scottish solicitor Robert Stewart (Ian Cochrane), assuring him: "This is unbelievable. I love it. And the hurt - I love the hurt." To arouse the impaled Angel, "Mac" took a nude and bareback horseback ride, but was disappointed in his reaction ("You're a hard man to seduce"). Before attempting love-making, she urged: "You say that we never found ecstasy. That it was like quicksilver, always promising next time. Angel, I want ecstasy.

Let's find it." He cried out: "Make me whole again" and she accepted his challenge to be seduced ("I guaranteed it"). She assured him after he said that he loved her: "Well, my dreams take me beyond infinity. What love you must have for me. I guaranteed it." Soon after, she was straddled atop him, applauding his firmness ("Bravo!") and they fulfilled making love in a smoke-filled Heaven, in front of a neon sign reading: Extasy. She exclaimed: "Look! 'X.' I was right." They were soon married in a church ceremony, as the film abruptly ended.

"Mac" Bo Derek The Bounty (1984, US/UK) Roger Donaldson's adventure yarn was a fairly faithful remake of the oft-told tale of the ill-fated HMS Bounty, which had been told twice earlier: MGM's Best Picture winner Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) with Clark Gable and Charles Laughton Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) with Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard In this modern PG-rated version, the Polynesian native inhabitants were frequently bare-breasted, unlike in the two previous versions, as they interacted with the British sailors. The main ill-fated romance threatening to endanger the voyage commandeered by Captain Bligh (Anthony Hopkins) was between: Fletcher Christian (Mel Gibson), the mutinous Master's Mate Mauatua (Tevaite Vernette), a lovely maiden, Fletcher's free-spirited tropical island native girlfriend/lover, the Tahitian King's daughter Mauatua (Tevaite Vernette) Crimes of Passion (1984) British director Ken Russell's erotic thriller was a neon-lit, dark, "guilty pleasure" cult tale.

The unrated-uncensored video version contained non-theatrical (semi-pornographic) extras and deleted scenes - including a dominatrix S & M scene in which a policeman (Randall Brady) was handcuffed to a bed by the hooker and then aggressively sodomized with his own nightstick during intercourse, as he bled from his restrained wrists and from her spiked stiletto heels. The film's central character was leading a double life as: 'China Blue' (Kathleen Turner), a moonlighting, kinky LA street-walking, pill-popping prostitute Joanna Crane (also Kathleen Turner), a prim but workaholic fashion designer She plied her fleshy wares in a grungy downtown area filled with XXX adult stores, bars, live nude and peep shows. She wore a platinum wig and light blue silky dress and frequented the Paradise Isle Hotel for tricks. Her entrance in the film was with male client Carl (John G. Scanlon) who insisted that she role-play for him a beauty pageant contestant named Miss Liberty 1984 - and then euphemistically blow his "instrument" - she tantalized him with her sex-talk while unzipping his pants: "I'm very gentle.

And then I run my little hand all over it. Up and down, and up and down. And then I-I fondle it so softly, so softly. Hmm, I love the look of it. Oh, I love the feel of it, so smooth and firm. Oh, I love to wrap my fingers around it and tenderly caress it. Well, I like to lift it to my mouth and wrap my lips around it. And then I just wait for that sweet, sweet music to come pouring out." Often while having sex, she would imagine Japanese erotic art prints or other exaggerated drawings of enlarged male genitals. Her next client had a sexual fetish of pretending to stalk and attack her, before "raping" her in her room. Hooker China Blue (Kathleen Turner) China Blue was also repeatedly accosted and stalked by a deranged, perversely psychotic, amyl nitrate-sniffing, self-proclaimed preacher named Reverend Peter Shayne (Anthony Perkins) calling himself a "messenger of God" - who carried a chrome-steel vibrating dildo - one of his sex toys in his doctor's bag (China Blue asked prophetically: "What are you gonna do? F--k someone to death?

You'd like to, wouldn't you?"). He believed he was China Blue's savior ("Save your soul, whore!"). The preacher told her: "I'm bringing you something greater than a hard-on" - while she explained how her profession completely fulfilled her clients' fantasies: "This is a fantasy business, Reverend. You can have any truth you want....Why don't you f--k me? That'll save me...I'm healthy as a horse. I'm fit as a fiddle and ready for cock...I'm Cinderella, Cleopatra, Goldie Hawn, Eva Braun, I'm Little Miss Muffin, I'm Pocahontas, I'm whoever you want me to be, Reverend." When investigating whether China Blue was selling patented design secrets, home electronics store owner and security expert Bobby Grady (John Laughlin) escaped from his own 12-year dull marriage to Amy (Annie Potts), who faked orgasms, into an obsessive, erotic relationship with China Blue. During their first intense sexual encounter (for $50) that she fantasy role-played as a flight attendant ("We're here to serve you.

Please remember that although we may run out of Pan Am coffee, we'll never run out of T-W-A-Tea"), she sucked on his bare toe and then had sexual intercourse with him in multiple positions (viewed as silhouettes behind a gauzy curtain), while the reverend peeped on them from an adjoining room. In the startling conclusion, an assault in Joanna's apartment by the reverend (claiming he was saving China Blue) resulted in his death (his last words were: "Goodbye, China Blue") after he was stabbed in the back by his own razor-tipped dildo/vibrator (dubbed "Superman") in a role-reversal and costume twist (he was wearing China Blue's dress and a wig). She saved Grady from being stabbed by the Reverend with a pair of sharp scissors. The film ended with Grady attending a marital therapy group where he admitted he was in a new relationship with Joanna: "I was scared s--tless to come back here. I told Joanna, and she took me in her arms and she said, 'It's OK to be scared.' I felt stronger and freer and more like a man than I've ever felt before in my life.

Then we f--ked our brains out." Rev. Peter Shayne The Reverend's Death La Femme Publique (1984, Fr.) (aka The Public Woman) French sex starlet Valerie Kaprisky starred in this artsy and stylish French "film-within-a-film," inspired by Dostoevsky's novel The Devils, and directed by Andrzej Zulawski. The very dark and enigmatic film of exploitation included plentiful scenes of complete nudity and heated sex, as the main character struggled for self-discovery - to break free from her victimization and eventually score a victory over various dominating mentors. The non-linear plot was about the life of: Ethel (Valerie Kaprisky), living in Paris as a young struggling actress, taking jobs as a nude model In the film's opening, she allowed a voyeuristic photographer to shoot pictures of her, to make ends meet, as she performed frantic, convulsive, and lewd interpretive dances. During the second session while she went into a sweaty frenzy, the photographer fell dead at her feet.

Ethel (Valerie Kaprisky) Dancing and Frantically On Display For a Photographer The aspiring, struggling and inexperienced actress also auditioned for the lead role in a costume period drama based on Dostoyevsky's The Possessed. Soon after, abusive, pretentious and flashy filmmaker Lucas Kessling (Francis Huster) seduced her on her apartment's stairs, and continued to sexually dominate her. She lost touch with reality while assuming the role, as the director acted antagonistically toward her and victimized her - angrily deriding her acting ability and for not revealing her emotions. He forced her to strip naked for a sex scene in front of a number of cast and crew - she wore sunglasses to shield herself. A confusing yet intriguing sub-plot about the political assassination of an Eastern European prelate, in which Ethel was substituting as the replacement dead wife of coerced Czech immigrant and film crew-member Milan Mliska (Lambert Wilson), was unsatisfactorially realized.

Ethel (Valerie Kaprisky) Friday the 13th, The Final Chapter (1984) The Friday the 13th films provided the premise that sex was punishable, and that one surviving Last Girl (virginal) would remain alive until the end, because she was most like the killer and had remained childlike. To live up to its reputation as a film series with randy, horny teens and copious amounts of sex and nudity (that required murderous retribution), the fourth film in the franchise, Friday the 13th, The Final Chapter (1984) , featured two skinny-dipping scenes - one in broad daylight, and one at night. At Crystal Point next to the lake, a large group of teens decided to go swimming, but without a suit, Samantha (Judie Aronson) stripped down and joyfully dove in.

Two fraternal twins that the group had just met, Tina and Terri (Camilla and Carey More), jumped in with identical bikinis, but then removed their bathing attire underwater, and alternatingly bobbed up and down in the water to display themselves to the other males on shore, to entice them to also "come on in." Pretty soon, everyone was naked (there were some glimpses of bare-assed males too), except for embarrassed Sara (Barbara Howard) who lounged on the dock and refused to "strip and dip." When Samantha asked the resistant Sara to join them, she tricked her by pretending to be drowning, and then pulled her friend into the water, revealing her topless self once again in a blur of motion. Because Samantha seemed to be the most sexually-liberated female in the group (she earlier described that she had developed a reputation for herself in the 6th grade), she was the first of the teens at the rented house to be murdered.

In a second skinny-dipping scene at night, a miffed Samantha stripped naked after cursing her two-timing, unfaithful boyfriend Paul ("Screw you, Paulie"), swam out to a yellow/blue rubber raft floating in the lake, and as she was lying on her stomach in the bottom of the raft (after calling out: "Come on, Paul, I know you're out there"), the hand of an unseen killer held her left shoulder down as she was stabbed (from underneath the raft) through her abdomen, with the bowie knife piercing out the center of her back through her spine. Paul received sexual justice shortly after -- he was shot in the crotch with a spear-gun. Other deaths were directly paired to sexual activity: in the medical center, crass morgue attendant Axel (Bruce Mahler) made out with naughty Nurse Morgan (Lisa Freeman) accompanied by an erotic aerobics video - he lost his life with a bone hacksaw to his neck, while she was cut down the length of her chest with a scalpel. A fat hippie hitchhiker (Bonnie Hellman) who was eating (fellating) a banana was stabbed through the back of her neck.

Sara had asked sex partner Doug (Peter Barton) to sleep with her in the bottom bunk. In the bedroom, she prepared for love-making by stripping to her bra and panties, and donning a silky white robe as she primped in front of a mirror, before surrendering her virginity to him in the shower - his face and skull were crushed, while she was killed by an axe to the chest. The only other significant instances of nudity in the film occurred in a "film within-a film" - when a group of the teens were watching a vintage black/white stag movie on a reel-projector in the living room, and the images of nude females in the old film were juxtaposed with various scenes of sex and violence in the real-world around them. The Vintage B/W Stag Movie Sequence When one sole male named Ted (Lawrence Monoson) was left watching the flick, he enticingly asked one of the nude screen images: "So you wanna give the ol' Teddy Bear a kiss?" (a masturbatory comment). Immediately, he was phallically impaled through the screen itself.

The party that the teens held in the rented house was literally a "dead f--k" party - a phrase used repeatedly in the film. Twins: Tina and Terri This was a brainless, soft-core beach-bunny exploitation sex comedy, with the tagline: "If You Don't Know What They Are, You Don't Know What You're Missing." It was originally a Playboy TV movie, but was released as a feature film, directed by Mark Griffiths. It was followed by an equally-inane sequel Hardbodies 2 (1986). The film told about three divorced, middle-aged horny guys ("hard-ups with hard-ons") who rented a Venice Beach condo. They took lessons from local blonde beach bum/stud Scotty Palmer (Grant Cramer) (with girlfriend Kristi (Teal Roberts)) on how to score with young "hardbodies" and beach bunnies by "dialoguing" and offering them a BBD ("bigger and better deal"). Commentator Joe Bob Briggs counted 44 breasts in the film, many of which appeared in the photo-scene when about a half-dozen females partially stripped and competed with each other to show off their breasts.

The Impromptu Nude Photo-Session with Hardbodies (Tina Riccio) (Juli Lawrence) Irreconcilable Differences (1984) This PG-rated dramatic comedy was from the screenwriting (husband-and-wife) team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Myers. It told about precocious, 9 year-old Casey Brodsky (Drew Barrymore) who was suing for divorce from her Hollywood career-driven, self-absorbed industry parents: script-writer Lucy Van Patten Brodsky (Shelley Long) and writer/director Albert Brodsky (Ryan O'Neal). Each character told their story, viewed through flashbacks, from the courtroom. One of the most ironic breast-baring scenes occurred in this film. Lustful and prideful film director Albert wanted starlet and aspiring actress Blake Chandler (aka Amanda) (26 year-old Sharon Stone in her earliest major film role) to do a nude scene for the Brodsky's second film. The producer David Kessler (Sam Wanamaker) objected, remarking that the topless scene would give their PG-rated film an R rating.

Suddenly, Blake briefly lowered her top for director to reveal her breasts, and Albert assented: "Works for me." [The breast exposure was the basic reason for the PG-rating!] Amanda, aka Blake Chandler, was also a conniving homewrecker and the Hollywood Hills house-maid for the Brodskys. [Note: The film was basically a fictionalized tale regarding the marriage and divorce of film-maker Peter Bogdanovich to his wife Polly Platt. The Blake Chandler character was loosely based on muse Cybill Shepherd. Albert's musical flop Atlanta (Gone With the Wind turned into a musical, with Blake as Scarlett O'Hara) was a thinly-veiled spoof of Bogdanovich's flop At Long Last Love (1975), the film he made for and with Shepherd.] Blake (Sharon Stone) Love Letters (1984) (aka Passion Play) Director Amy Holden Jones' R-rated romance drama, a Roger Corman production, was about obsession and adultery.

The tagline was: "Sometimes It's Right To Do the Wrong Thing" A couple involved in a passionate love affair ("I want you to want me") were: Anna Winter (Jamie Lee Curtis in a serious film role), an unmarried San Francisco DJ and radio personality Oliver Andrews (James Keach), an older married, wealthy photographer She was encouraged to pursue him after reading about the 'double life' of her mother's extra-marital affair in some poetic and emotional 'love letters' (dated 1966 and signed "Joseph") that she had found after her mother's death, recounting a love affair that lasted for 15 years.

Anna began to recreate her mother's own indiscretions in her own love affair Anna (Jamie Lee Curtis) Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984, UK) Director Michael Radford's grim adaptation of George Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984 expressed how Big Brother had invaded the idyllic love affair, beginning in the countryside, between two who then continued to conduct an illicit tryst (often in full-frontal nude scenes): Winston Smith (John Hurt) Julia (Suzanna Hamilton), Winston's sensual and free-spirited girlfriend Julia (Suzanna Hamilton) and Winston Condemned for Falling in Love in the Countryside After they made love and were discovered (betrayed) having an illicit sexual liaison in a rented room above a pawn shop, both were detained, questioned, tortured and brainwashed. Winston suffered an excruciating torture/brain-washing by O'Brien (Richard Burton in his final film role) in Room 101 - repudiating his former love for Julia and professing only a love for an image of Big Brother by film's end.

Julia (Suzanna Hamilton) Purple Rain (1984) Director Albert Magnoli's loosely-autobiographical and wildly-popular concert film and musical drama was made at the height of singer Prince's popularity. It starred the sexy pop icon Prince, partially playing himself. The film's plot concerned the jealous rivalry that developed between: The Kid (Prince), the leader of Minneapolis pop rock band The Revolution Apollonia (Apollonia Kotero), the Kid's sexy, aspiring singer/girlfriend, who joined an all-girl group named Apollonia 6, backed by house band leader Morris Day (as Himself) The film was noted for the scene of Apollonia riding on a motorcycle into the countryside with the Kid, and then being persuaded to dip and "purify" herself in the freezing cold waters of Lake Minnetonka. She stripped off her black biker jacket, and jumped in. The Kid shockingly rode off, only to return, and finally let her get on the bike and give him a kiss on the cheek.

With double entendre, he commented that she must be 'wet' from the lake: "Don't get the seat wet." In a sexually-explicit scene in his parents' basement, the Kid caressed and stroked Apollonia from behind, while she was wearing only tiny red-thong underwear. They also made love, in a brief scene, in a hayloft. During the nasty and salacious song "Darling Nikki", the bare-chested Kid - bathed in reddish light - sexually taunted Apollonia in the audience and basically implied that she was a nymphomaniac (a "sex-fiend" who liked to "grind"). As he performed, the high-heeled Kid gyrated and flopped around atop the amplifier-speaker. At the film's conclusion, he sang "I Would Die 4 U" while using the neck of his guitar to make masturbatory gestures. Apollonia Apollonia and The Kid Savage Streets (1984) This classic 80s crime-action exploitation film, directed by Danny Steinmann, was about the theme of vigilante justice.

The story was told with filthy lines of sexual banter, such as: "Gonna play 'hide the sausage.' I'm gonna hide that sausage so far up you that Christopher Columbus couldn't find it." "You stuck up c--t! I wouldn't f--k him if he had the last dick on Earth." 25 year-old Linda Blair made a trashy appearance in one of the main roles, after starring in the TV movie Born Innocent (1974), Hell Night (1981) and the woman-in-prison film Chained Heat (1983). It was made, in apparent homage, to Charles Bronson's Death Wish (1974) and I Spit On Your Grave (1978), and also ran afoul of the MPAA censors. Blair won the Worst Actress Razzie award for her role.

There were two street-smart gangs from the 'savage streets' - fierce and ruthless high-school gang rivals: The Satins, headed by Brenda (Linda Blair), a gang of senior-year HS girls The Scars, headed by drug-pushing greaser Jake (John Dryer) In the school gym, while the Satins and others were in the showers (displaying gratuitous full-frontal female nudity in an obligatory shower scene) after an aerobics class, blonde cheerleader Cindy Clark (Rebecca Perle) engaged in a cat-fight against Brenda. Although Brenda and Cindy were not naked, there were other bare girls watching and scuffling in the background. [Later, a second catfight took place in a classroom, when Brenda completely tore off Cindy's top and thoroughly embarrassed her.] Obligatory Shower Room Sequence Locker Shower Room - First Catfight: Cindy (Rebecca Perle) vs. Brenda Meanwhile, the Scars were dragging Brenda's deaf (and mute) sister Heather (pre-scream queen Linnea Quigley) into the boy's locker room bathroom in a very nasty rape sequence. They attacked her, ripped off her clothes, drew circles around her nipples, and then one-by-one raped her.

The penetration during her rape was emphasized by Brenda's wide-mouthed scream - and a cut to a loud telephone ringing in the school's office. The gang left her totally naked and unconscious on the tile floor after they fled. Veteran actor John Vernon (Blair's Chained Heat co-star) as high school Principal Underwood in a small cameo role, told the Scars punks: "Go f--k an iceberg." Soon after, the group also chased after and murdered Brenda's best friend Francine (Lisa Freeman) who was thrown from a bridge onto concrete below. Tough-chick Brenda, who had been suspended from school, took a long hot bath (revealing her large chest) as she languidly smoked a cigarette and contemplated what to do next, as the camera slowly panned toward her until it reached a closeup of her face, to the tune of John Farnham's "Justice for One." She decided to seek revenge and hunt down the criminal gang members with supplies from the army surplus store: bear traps, a cross-bow, and flammable liquids. In the concluding vengeance scene, after a thug named Fargo told Brenda: "First, I'm gonna f--k you.

Then, I'm gonna slice you into little pieces," she replied: "Sounds nice and kinky to me. Too bad you're not double jointed... because if you were, you'd be able to bend over and could kiss your ass goodbye." Rape of Heather (Linda Blair) Second Time Lucky (1984) The New Zealand/Australia production by director Michael Anderson was actually an unfunny comedy. It was advertised as "A Devilishly Funny and Sexy Comedy" and the story of how "two teenagers go back in time." Cute, curly-haired and petite star Diane Franklin displayed ample nudity - she was equally nude in the teen drama The Last American Virgin (1982) and later appeared as the French student love interest of John Cusack in Better Off Dead (1985). The sexy comedy began with a "double-or-nothing" bet between white-garbed God (Robert Morley) and a fiery, drag-queen-like Devil (Robert Helpmann). They decided to replay the Adam and Eve story in the Garden of Eden - to see whether Eve (and Adam) would take a bite from the apple (re-enacting man's fall from grace through seduction a second time).

The Devil wagered that temptation would still plague mankind. The first two people also had modern-day human counterparts: Adam Smith (Roger Wilson), geeky Evelyn (Diane Franklin), bespectacled They were taken from a wild party held at Adam's house (with a few topless female students dancing and playing cards!) back to innocence in the garden, where Adam was warned by angel Gabriel (Jon Gadsby), disguised as a motorcycle cop who had busted up the party, about the temptation of sexual feelings (symbolically, his immediate erection) after first glimpsing the beautiful Eve bathing fully naked in a waterfall. After meeting her, he goofily talked about her breasts as they ate watermelon together: "We're kinda different...Well, like here, I've got nothing but two little lumps.

You got two big lumps and then you got two little ones on the ends." She naively responded: "Perhaps they're meant to make me float when I swim." Diane Franklin as Evelyn/Eve They went swimming and ate bananas - when she looked down and noted his penis: "You got a banana too" - and he added: "Two berries besides," while she complained: "Not fair, I have nothing." Later as they laid down together for the night, he held onto her right breast, calling it convenient to hold onto, as she observed: "All your banana and berries seem to do is get in the way." The next morning at the Tree of Knowledge, the Devil (earlier disguised in the form of a Muppet-like snake) succeeded in having Eve take a bite from one of the forbidden "delicious" apples to then reveal "all the secrets of life," and she sought to convince Adam to follow her lead. He saw that she was "different" as she seductively held the apple out for him. He thought: "It must be because of the apple" -- but she claimed "nothing happened." He looked at her breasts: "Your lumps seem bigger. Your eyes are different.

What's happened?" She assured him: "Don't worry, look. I'll show you" as she took a bite, let her hand slip down his chest to his aroused genitals (Gabriel called it a "danger signal"), and offered the apple to eat. Afterwards, the disobedient couple were banished, as their love story proceeded through history as various personages representing Eve and Adam (in scenes set in Ancient Rome, in Europe during the Great War, in 1920s US - an era with flappers, gumshoe police lieutenants and gangsters, and in the 1980s with Adam as a rock star in a band named Damn Mad and Eve as a Louise Brooks-like supporter) - they continued to be tempted with having sex and exhibiting their true love for each other - and eventually "won." After abundant nudity in the garden scenes, Eve exhibited one breast to Roman military officer 'Adam' as a seductive Roman lady, and as a nurse defiantly bared both breasts before a WWI firing squad to provide the gunners with her bare heart as a target. When the two returned to the present in the aftermath of the party and kissed, Adam's bedroom door magically opened.

Even though Adam thought he had known her for centuries, Eve was mystified (Eve: "How could you have? I've only known you for five minutes" Adam: "Funny, seems more like ages"). Adam placed a red apple (with two bite marks on it) outside his door when the two entered to finally consummate their love, as the credits rolled. Eve (Diane Franklin) Sheena (1984) Ex-Charlie's Angels TV star (in its final season in the mid-70s) Tanya Roberts starred in The Beastmaster (1982) (with another nude bathing sequence) and then in this poorly-acted action adventure film by director John Guillermin. The 'turkey' of a film, shot on location in Kenya, was designed to capitalize on Roberts' recent fame and sexuality, and claimed in its tagline: She Alone Has the Power to Save Paradise She portrayed the title character, loin-clothed Sheena, Queen of the Jungle (like a female Tarzan), based on the famous late 30s comic strip, who showered in a waterfall and bathed in a lake.

Tanya Roberts as Sheena, Queen of the Jungle Most of her subsequent films, except for an appearance in the James Bond film A View to a Kill (1985) (marking Roger Moore's last appearance), were direct-to-video and cable releases. Sheena (Tanya Roberts) The Terminator (1984) The Terminator (1984) was an early, low-budget James Cameron-directed action film. It told about a bleak future run by cyborgs and endo-skeletal robots. In the midst of its terrific action sequences, there was a touching love scene in the Tiki Motel (with background piano music) in the year 1984 between: Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), a strong female Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), her time traveling protector Kyle had journeyed back from the future year of 2029 to save and love Sarah. He had volunteered with future resistance leader John Connor (who was fighting against the robots in the year 2029) to go back in time to protect her.

She felt that she was a trembling, scared disappointment for him, and then asked: "The women in your time, what are they like?" He answered: "Good fighters." She steered the question differently: "That's not what I meant. Was there someone special?...A girl, you know." He succinctly replied: "Never." He said he only possessed her torn and faded picture given to him by John: "John Connor gave me a picture of you once. I didn't know why at the time. It was very old, torn, faded. You were young like you are now. You seemed just a little sad. I used to always wonder what you were thinking at that moment. I memorized every line, every curve. I came across time for you, Sarah. I love you. I always have." Although he realized he had been forward and possibly foolish ("I shouldn't have said that"), she kissed him, and they made passionate love together -- their conceived child would become humanity's future savior, John Connor. During their love-making, the camera cut to a metaphoric visual closeup of their two hands locked together, gripping and squeezing each other and then releasing.

Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) Until September (1984) Director Richard Marquand, known just a year earlier for Star Wars: Episode 6 - Return of the Jedi (1983) , also directed this soapy romantic drama. 'Good girl next door' Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) lead actress Karen Allen shed her inhibitions as a lonely American tour guide named Mo Alexander. Nude Mo Alexander (Karen Allen) She was stranded in Paris for three weeks, during which time she engaged in an affair to married and suave French international banker Xavier de la Perouse (Thierry Lhermitte). While she was bathing, he confessed her love for her, and she jumped up into his arms. During one of their many love-making sessions, she thought she had small breasts, but he complimented her on their "beautiful proportions." She told him: "My husband liked big breasts." Mo Alexander (Karen Allen) Zombie Island Massacre (1984) Director John N. Carter's low-budget, awful cult-horror entry in the zombie sub-genre from Troma, had the most misleading zombie film title of all time.

It was a Friday the 13th styled slasher film with a minimal amount of zombies (only during a fake voodoo ritual). The tongue-in-cheek tagline described various killings: "HAVE A FUN-FILLED VACATION! Toe-Tapping Machete Head Dances! Glamourous Zombie-Style Cosmetic Surgery! Fabulous Air-Conditioned Tiger Pits!" and "A Caribbean Vacation to Die For." The film was famous for starring Rita Jenrette, the estranged wife of famed US Congressman John Jenrette (from South Carolina who was convicted in the Abscam case) in her debut feature film role - she showed off her large breasts in a few instances (a shower and two love scenes) in the film's first ten minutes. Earlier, Jenrette had made headlines as a semi-nude Playboy model (April 1981) (and again in May 1984) - labeled as: "the sex pot of Washington's Capitol Hill set." A group of American tourists on vacation at a Caribbean resort went on a tour-excursion to the island of San Marie, to watch a live-voodoo ceremony in the jungle, performed with lamb's blood to resurrect a corpse.

Among the tourists were middle-aged, balding Joe (Ian McMillan) with his blonde, voluptuous wife Sandy (Rita Jenrette). With their tour bus disabled and their driver and guide gone, the group became stranded, and took refuge by walking to an abandoned mansion. They were killed off one-by-one - supposedly by voodoo practitioners or zombies. The film's twist was that the slashers/killers (often costumed in grassy weeds) were drug traffickers searching for cash and wrapped cocaine bags in a wooden case. Ludicrous death scenes included head-beating, drowning, strangulation, a bamboo booby trap, decapitation, impalement by a spear, and head-slashing with a hurled machete. Sandy (Rita Jenrette) A Private Function (1984) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error In post-war Britain, food rationing continues, leading a married couple to become involved in the flourishing bacon black market.

Director: From $9.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 29 titles created 16 Oct 2011 a list of 30 titles created 10 Nov 2012 a list of 29 titles created 29 Jan 2015 a list of 32 titles created 9 months ago a list of 30 titles created 4 months ago Title: A Private Function (1984) 6.6/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 3 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 3 wins & 3 nominations. See more awards » Videos In 1905, after 10 years of missionary work in Africa, the Rev. Charles Fortesque is recalled to England, where his bishop gives him his new assignment - to minister to London's prostitutes.... See full summary » Director: Richard Loncraine She falls in love with a broken down former NYC hotel doorman, who tells Judith vaguely that he was in the hotel business.

Director: Jack Clayton The story of the rise of a madame of a suburban brothel catering to older men, inspired by the real experiences of Cynthia Payne. Director: Terry Jones After his girlfriend's pregnancy forces him to marry her, a young man must adjust to his new life and contend with his domineering mother-in-law. Director: John Schlesinger Based on the Profumo Scandal of 1963, an affair between an exotic dancer and the Minister of War shakes up the British government. Director: Michael Caton-Jones A naive aristocrat in search of a career becomes caught up in the struggles between his profit-minded uncle and an aggressive labour union. Director: John Boulting Edit Storyline 1947 in a small town in England. The war has been won two years ago, but there's still rationing of meat. When princess Elizabeth is going to marry, a group of businessmen wants to impress (or probably bribe) the local government by giving a big party. They want to slaughter an illegally raised pig for this event. Unfortunately someone steals the pig. Written by Anonymous 1 March 1985 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Did You Know?

Trivia Second of two star teamings of actress Maggie Smith and actor Michael Palin . The first was The Missionary (1982) around two years earlier. Actor Denholm Elliott appeared in both movies as well, as did another, Charles McKeown . See more » Quotes P.C. Penny : [upon spotting a single, solitary banana] Mrs Medcalf, are you wanting that banana? Mrs. Dorcus Medcalf : I am, love; I'm planning a trifle. (Tunbridge Wells, England) – See all my reviews To celebrate my 1,400th review for IMDb I turn to another of my favourite films. One might have thought that the Ealing comedies of the forties and fifties represented a quite different style of humour from that of the Monty Python team of the seventies, and yet the Pythons had a high regard for Ealing and several of them paid tribute to the studio in their post-Python careers. "A Fish Called Wanda", starring John Cleese and Michael Palin, was made by the veteran Ealing director Charles Crichton.

The plot of "Splitting Heirs", which starred Eric Idle and Cleese, paid quite deliberate tribute to Robert Hamer's "Kind Hearts and Coronets". And "A Private Function" has close thematic links with "Passport to Pimlico". Like the earlier film, this one is set against the background of the post-war food rationing system of the late forties. Early on we see a fatuous cinema newsreel from the period, assuring its viewers that the British people, unlike their French neighbours who blatantly bought and sold food on the black market, were happy to accept rationing in the interests of Fair Shares For All. In reality, the system, accepted as a necessity in wartime, had become deeply unpopular in peacetime and the black market flourished in Britain just as much as in France. It is notable that Morris Wormold, the food inspector charged with enforcing the system, is referred to by the other characters as the "Gestapo". The film is set in a small Yorkshire town in 1947, at the time of the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth (as she then was) to Prince Philip.

A group of local businessmen and prominent citizens want to hold a formal dinner to celebrate the occasion, but the food rationing system makes it impossible to obtain enough food legally. They therefore decide to bribe a local farmer to raise an "unlicensed" pig- at this period every pig in the country had to be officially registered to prevent black-marketeering- so that they can feast on roast pork on the great day. Unfortunately for them, word of their scheme reaches the ears of a third party- not Wormold but Gilbert Chilvers, the town's chiropodist. Although he is an established local tradesman, Gilbert has not been invited to the dinner, largely because Charles Swaby, the local doctor and one of the organisers of the dinner, has taken a dislike to him. Gilbert is a mild-mannered little man who, left to himself, would not really resent this snub, but his snobbish, social-climbing wife Joyce takes it as a personal insult. Goaded on by Joyce, Gilbert comes up with a plan to steal the pig and thereby hold Swaby and his associates to ransom.

The script was written by Alan Bennett, that great observer of English (especially Northern English) lower-middle-class life, who provided some brilliant opportunities for some of the best-known British actors of the period. Michael Palin is today perhaps best-known for his travel documentaries for British television, but in the eighties, after "Monty Python" had come to an end, he was re-inventing himself as a comic actor, and his portrayal of Gilbert, the archetypal "little man", forever put-upon both by a domineering wife and by those who consider themselves his social betters, is one of his finest efforts in this vein, perhaps only equalled by his performance in "The Missionary". Maggie Smith also excels as Joyce, one of Bennett's finest characters. Joyce is, on the surface, a monstrous bully and snob, but underneath that surface it is clear that her snobbery arises from a sense of insecurity. She is the sort of person whose sense of self-worth is almost entirely defined by what she perceives to be her social standing, and her husband's social standing, in the eyes of society, and who has a massive inferiority complex about her social origins.

There is a nice contrast between Joyce and Denholm Elliott's Dr Swaby. Swaby is just as snobbish as Joyce, but his snobbery arises not from an inferiority complex but rather from an equally massive superiority complex. The other fine performances come from Richard Griffiths as the accountant Henry Allardyce, who develops a strange affection for the pig, Bill Paterson as the officious, humourless functionary Wormold, Pete Postlethwaite as the butcher charged with butchering the pig and Maggie's unrelated namesake Liz Smith as Joyce's half-mad, senile old mother. To say nothing of Betty the pig (or rather pigs, because six different individuals alternated in this role). Maggie (Best Actress) and Liz (Best Supporting Actress) both won acting BAFTAs, as did Elliott for Best Supporting Actor. It is, however, perhaps fortunate for Maggie Smith that BAFTAs are restricted to humans, otherwise Betty might have beaten her to her award. Predictably, the Academy ignored the film altogether; if they ever saw it the Yorkshire accents probably made them wonder why a foreign- language film was being screened without subtitles.

It is, however, a first-rate comedy and one of the best British films of the eighties. Bennett's powers of social observation are very sharp and his script is characterised by great wit and humour. (I recall my girlfriend almost rolling on the ground with laughter when we first saw it together, especially at the antics of the pig). If the Academy had taken it seriously it might even have challenged Milos Forman's wonderful "Amadeus" for "Best Picture". It seems a pity that its director Malcolm Mowbray has not made more feature films; about the only other one I have seen was "The Revengers' Comedies". 10/10 1 of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Betty Blue Eyes – review | Stage | The Guardian Betty Blue Eyes – review 4 / 5 stars Novello, London Reece Shearsmith (Gilbert Chilvers) and Jack Edwards (Henry Allardyce) with the animatronic pig in Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello, London.

Photograph: Tristram Kenton Wednesday 13 April 2011 18.00 EDT First published on Wednesday 13 April 2011 18.00 EDT Share on Messenger Close Musicals these days are constantly being based on movies. But this witty and delightful adaptation of the 1984 film A Private Function strikes me as better than the original. It would be unfair to say that a silk purse has been made out of a sow's ear but the show's creators preserve the satire on small-town snobbery, greed and racism from the Alan Bennett-Malcolm Mowbray movie script while sharpening the storyline and using music genuinely to enhance character. Much of the credit belongs to the show's American book writers, Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman. They stick with the basic idea of a chiropodist and his wife purloining a pig being illegally reared for a royal wedding banquet in 1947. But they remind us how the vaunted egalitarianism of Attlee's Britain was undermined by ferocious status-seeking.

They also make the foot-doctor, Gilbert, less of a sexless chump, turn his socially ambitious wife, Joyce, into a West Riding Lady Macbeth, and even heighten the fears of her insatiably greedy mother: one tiny moment in the film, in which the mother thinks Gilbert and Joyce are planning to kill her rather than the pig, here becomes a superbly sustained piece of comedy. Having previously written a show about an ugly duckling, George Stiles (music) and Anthony Drewe (lyrics) also have no problem with one about a pig: after Honk!, you might say, comes Oink. But the success of this show relies on the fact that the songs grow out of, and are always proportionate to, the situation. The opening chorus of Fair Shares For All instantly establishes the fragile optimism of austerity Britain. A seductive number, Magic Fingers, is a tribute to Gilbert's secret erotic power and a sly comment on the sexual frustration of many women in the 1940s. Best of all is the way the hidden aspirations of the Gestapo-like meat inspector are released in a song in which he reveals himself as a frustrated Picasso.

My only quibble would be with the idea that inside Gilbert's vengeful wife there is a showbiz chanteuse longing to escape. But this is a rare show in several ways. It is a genuine "musical comedy" rather than a through-composed pseudo-opera. Richard Eyre's meticulous direction also confronts us with a group of people who are plausibly real rather than simply vehicles for wheeling on the next production number. Reece Shearsmith is immensely touching as the chiropodist, not least because he takes his craft seriously and finally rebels against endless humiliation by the town's bigwigs: as he sings, "these are rash times so we need to think rasher". And, even if Sarah Lancashire (left) can't entirely escape Maggie Smith inflections as the social-climbing Joyce, she makes the character darker and more ruthless than in the movie: in her determination to triumph over the town's established grandees, there is even a strong hint of an incipient Mrs Thatcher.

Adrian Scarborough, striding through the action in a gauleiter's fascist mac, is also wickedly funny as the obsessed meat-inspector and Jack Edwards (above) captures the dewy-eyed soppiness of the accountant who falls in love with the porcine heroine. That's not altogether surprising when the animatronic pig is such a determined eye-flutterer (voiced in the finale by Kylie Minogue). But that is the only mechanical element in a show that, by focusing single-mindedly on story and character, successfully brings home the bacon. Until 22 October. Box office: 0870 950 0935 Patrick Kingsley: A rasher of porcine metaphors breaks out among the critics as a ham-imatronic animal makes a pig of herself in the West End. No porkies Published: 15 Apr 2011 Betty Blue Eyes at The Novello Theatre – visitlondon.com blog Pin It Please note this blog is no longer active. This post was last updated 5 years, 8 months ago and may contain out of date prices, opening times, links and information. Go to for the lastest visitor information for London.

Betty Blue Eyes is set in a Yorkshire town and is based around a plot to “pignap” an animal illegally raised by businessmen who hope to serve her up at a special party to celebrate the marriage of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip. It is a witty adaptation of 1984 film A Private Function, a bizarre and unlikely subject for a musical, but one that works surprisingly well. Thanks to talented writers, Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman, the original story is kept intact with some hilarious additions. It is no secret that I appreciate an enthusiastic feel-good production, but even I am a little tired of dreamworld musicals that envelop you in absurd utopian escapism. Betty Blue Eyes delights through a more realistic narrative; an ordinary couple and the struggles of frugal 1940s Britain, amidst ration hell. The characters are endearing and here we see an impressively strong cast. The lead couple are both naturally brilliant on stage; Sarah Lancashire as social climbing Joyce Chilvers has a superbly strong voice and charming presence; her kind-hearted husband Gilbert is played by Reece Shearsmith , who pulls at the heartstrings with his optimism and has fantastic comic timing.

The villainous meat inspector was a caricature who reminded me of dastardly baddies from children’s literature. He is a strange character who has a penchant for painting; every confiscated piece of meat is passionately brushed with bright green paint. Though Adrian Scarborough was suitably vile, I found the role a little odd in comparison with the rest of the cast, and it occasionally broke my belief in the situation. The adorable pig, Betty, is cooed at on every entrance. Shipped from Australia specially, and with three understudies, she is quite the diva, flashing beautiful blue eyes and fluttering her eyelashes at every opportunity. Kylie Minogue ‘s voice has a fleeting role at the curtain call, though apparently it is not Miss Minogue that provides the creature’s funny farting and burping noises! It is not often a new musical succeeds; shows like Wicked are certainly in the minority… but with our own royal wedding just around the corner hopefully the British public will go and see Betty Blue Eyes even if just for the sake of a happy coincidence. Tales From the Golden Age | Film review | Film | The Guardian Tales From the Golden Age Humour amid strife in Tales From the Golden Age.

Saturday 31 October 2009 20.10 EDT First published on Saturday 31 October 2009 20.10 EDT Share on Messenger Close Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d'Or at Cannes two years ago for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, his deeply depressing, utterly truthful film about Romania under the Ceausescu regime. He returns to the same subject with this portmanteau movie, co-directed with three contemporaries, but the tone is rather different. Inspired by urban legends circulating by word of mouth in Romania during Ceausescu's horrendous last 15 years (officially known as the Golden Age) and collected in books since his fall, these five darkly humorous tales are concerned with the pettiness, cruelty and vindictive stupidity of an authoritarian government that forced its people to beg, borrow, steal and cheat to remain alive. In "The Legend of the Party Photographer", the editorial staff of an official national newspaper readjust a photograph to make Ceausescu taller than Giscard d'Estaing and put a hat on his head so he doesn't appear to be kowtowing to capitalism.

Others tell of a lorry driver jailed for taking eggs laid by chickens in transit – the prerogative, it seems, of party officials – and of students pretending to be scientific bureaucrats collecting samples of polluted tap water just to steal returnable bottles from disgruntled citizens. The best tale, "The Legend of the Greedy Policeman", is about a copper who takes delivery of a pig as an illegal Christmas present from a country cousin and sets about clandestinely killing it for Christmas in his sixth-floor flat. Interestingly, this is almost exactly the same story Alan Bennett tells in his original screenplay for the 1984 film A Private Function. The difference is that Bennett's film is set in austerity Britain of 1947 and the other takes place in the semi-starving Romania of 1987. This is a low-key, deadpan movie and the jokes creep up on you.

Question: Which animal is the subject of the 1984 film ‘A Private Function’?
Answer: Pig