The Party

 

The Party 2017

• Director: Sally Potter
• Seen by this director: Ginger & Rosa, The Man Who Cried, Orlando
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall, Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Cillian Murphy, Emily Mortimer
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Kristin Scott Thomas – My Old Lady, The Invisible Woman, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Contre toi, Elle s’apellait Sarah, Nowhere Boy, The Other Boleyn Girl, Il y’a longtemps que je t’aime, Keeping Mum, Man to Man, Gosford Park, The English Patient, Richard III, Angels and Insects, A Handful of Dust
• Timothy Spall – Mr Turner, The Love Punch, Ginger & Rosa, Harry Potter, The King’s Speech, From Time to Time, Sweeney Todd, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Topsy Turvy, Still Crazy, Our Mutual Friend, Hamlet, Secrets and Lies, Life Is Sweet, Gothic, Quadrophenia
• Patricia Clarkson – Maze Runner, The Bookshop, Shutter Island, Lars and the Real Girl, Good Night and Good Luck, Six Feet Under, Dogville, The Station Agent, Far from Heaven, The Green Mile
• Bruno Ganz – The Reader, Bread and Tulips,
• Cherry Jones – The Village, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, The Perfect Storm, Erin Brockovich, Cradle Will Rock, Light of Day
• Emily Mortimer – The Bookshop, Hugo, Shutter Island, Lars and the Real Girl, Paris je t’aime, Dear Frankie, Bright Young Things, Young Adam, The Kid, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Notting Hill, Elizabeth
• Cillian Murphy – Dunkirk, Transcendence, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, The Dark Knight, Sunshine, Batman Begins, Cold Mountain, Girl with the Pearl Earring, 28 Days Later
• Why? The cast
• Seen: 27 December 2020      

       Janet (Scott Thomas) has been appointed Minister of Health and is preparing a little party to celebrate while her husband Bill (Spall) broods. One of the guests (Clarkson) is cynically snide and constantly irritated with her aphorism-spouting New Age husband (Ganz). Another (Murphy) snorts cocaine in the loo and has a gun. Another (Mortimer) announces that she’s expecting triplets and her wife (Jones) doesn’t know what to think.

       Then Bill drops a bombshell. Or two.

       I was expecting something like Bright Young Things but this party makes Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ look like a quiet civilised dinner dinner.

       On second thought, it is rather funny.

       Oh yes, it’s in black and white, which is most always a plus. Brilliant cast. 

 4* of 5