Benefactors (1989)

Benefactors è un film per la TV del 1989
Il poco materiale che ho trovato è tutto in Inglese, sarà felice Betta sempre che non sia scappata a gambe levate e potrei perfettamente capirla!

BENEFACTORS

1989
Written by Michael Fayn

Reviewed by Georgiana, September, 1999

Overall Rating: 5 hands
Rickmaniac Rating: 5 hands<5>


Synopsis: Two neighboring couples change as London changes
Benefactors is a 1989 made-for-the-BBC movie about two couples who live across the street from one another, and what transpires amongst them pursuant to 'urban renewal' in London. They are David ("Enchanted April's" Michael Kitchen) and Jane (Barbara Flynn) Kitsinger on the one side, and Colin (Rickman) and Sheila (Harriet Walter) Montagu on the other (and their respective five children, never either seen nor heard).

David is an architect just embarked on a new "scheme," a "great slum clearance job, changing the face of London" of a 'twilight area' called "Basuto Road" in South London. He has known Colin since Colin was a distracted senior 'classical whats-it' at Eaton, remembering the flower in his lapel but not his shoes and socks. Colin, the darkest and most unhappy of the four, has not quite lived up to his academic promise, writing for a women's magazine but editing (single-handedly) a 'happy families' encyclopaedia: foreplay, femininity, fallopian tubes, fun -- "I'll do fun," says Colin. He and Sheila, we learn, had a lovely three months by a lake in Switzerland, and one month back in London, then found she was pregnant, and married -- not without some hesitation on Colin's part. David found them the house across the street from their own-and the latter is the location in which nearly the entire film takes place.

David's plans for Basuto Road are hampered by site and political constraints. "I'm not going to build towers. Nobody wants to live in a tower." Colin: "I do." David knows the most popular housing ever devised is the 'detached semi'-which would not meet his unit goals. Jane, who trained in anthropology and would really like to study people, is David's helpmate, providing social work and canvassing services. She doesn't want to help people, however: she wants to study them! Sheila is ever dropping over to Jane's. Then, "Oh dear, I haven't done a thing about the children's tea /about Colin's dinner! Oh dear, we seem to live over here." Although a trained nurse, she is terribly insecure in her relationship with Colin and confides this to Jane. Jane, weary of always assisting David, proposes that Sheila be hired to assist David. Sheila, who used to be terrified of Jane, now confides she is terrified of David. But she is intrigued. And Colin agrees: "I shall expect you to come home each day with a wonderful fund of David and Jane stories."

Sheila proves much more successful at organizing the Kitsingers than at her own life. Colin becomes less evident at Jane's house, and Sheila less attentive to him. Colin: "I must say that was a triumph. Even with the crust beginning to char, the center was still frozen. Steak and kidney Alaska". Sheila: "I'm not going to give it up. I'm not. I'll fight you."

In the most riveting scene in the film, Jane finds Colin in her dining room, having been called to pick up daughter Lizzy, forgotten at school by Sheila, who was out on one of her frequent walks with David. Jane, irritated with his attitude, confides she has never liked him. She describes Sheila's insecurity. "Did she tell you I was going to leave her? I see that she did." Colin and Sheila have been through "all this business" before, with the neighbors at the flat they occupied before moving across the street. "Last time it was a couple of music teachers. She started with Mrs. Mrs. taught singing." So Sheila took up singing. "Have you heard Sheila singing?" Mr. taught oboe, so she was going to take up the oboe. "She would have." Only Colin put a stop to it, had a talk with the Mrs. Jane: "So are you going to leave her?" Colin: "She used to be frightened of me, of course. She used to be in love with me. I've got to have one stick left in the rack."

David eventually conceives of a scheme: 150 low rise walk-ups, and 600 units in two great 50 story skyscrapers. He tells Sheila they will be "a hazard to aircraft. Half of South London will be in their rain shadow." On later hearing the tale, Colin breaks out the Christmas whiskey to laughingly toast "all low flying aircraft in the vicinity of SE-15." This shortly appears as controversy in the press, and Sheila trundles the kids (still unseen) across the street -- she has left Colin for releasing of the plans to the press. Colin then cannot be found, becomes a squatter at Basuto Road, and leader of the political opposition to David's plans. Colin finds his classical education useful: writing Greek hexameters has prepared him for the art of the political slogan. He finds it liberating, his actions unconstrained: "We had nothing; we could do anything." Jane first finds him in her canvassing, brings him clothes, and his children for visitation. Colin is sure he appeals to Jane's 'dark side.' There is question of her support for David, and whether the agency she now works for is backing Colin's efforts. Feeling challenged, she does not show up with the children as promised. So Colin comes to their house. His presence creates a tiff between David and Jane. She feels Davis is using up his life on a scheme that was never going to be build, that the towers are twin coffins. Sheila arrives and enters the fray: "Blame him," indicating Colin. David defends Sheila. Jane responds, "It's all her fault." Colin finally speaks to tell David, "She's in love with you." Sheila becomes so angry, she flings a pot of stew at him, and Colin is rushed out to hospital. David, "But Sheila, his face"

The headlines are "Ban the Towers Colin in Mystery Attack." Colin believes his surgical dressing have helped him get votes: in the end, he gets 173. He did accomplish one thing, though. He recommended Jane for the job she subsequently turned into a career. David never built his Basuto Rd. skyscrapers, but did go on to build one office tower. It won an award. In the end, he is supporting Jane's career. As to Basuto Road, in the end, Colin tells us, "they didn't pull it down; they did it up." And the first improvement was to evict Colin. Jane got him a job writing about rehabilitation schemes. He lives in a 'rehab." In the end, Colin feels like he'd like to "demolish the lot and put up skyscrapers."

In the end, it is the macrocosm of the politics of big city housing, and the microcosm of the peculiar relationships affected between these two couples. In Colin, there is complexity, diversity, honesty and contradiction-intellect, laughter, mischief, sarcasm, and a touch of cruelty (and lovely use of hands) -- that makes him quite one of Rickman most intriguing characters. The film is punctuated by separate narrative (at some 12 years remove) from Jane and Sheila, Colin and David, constituting a mature commentary on it all. In the end, a lovely piece!

Su You Tube ho trovato il full movie in 12 parti, l'immagine è quel che è però ci accontentiamo.

























Edited by Ida59 - 1/4/2021, 12:24