A great many of the movies that came from George Harrison’s Handmade Films were less than memorable—or even memorably bad (Shanghai Surprise, anyone?). But the two movies Handmade produced utilizing the peculiar vision of actor-turned-filmmaker Bruce Robinson—Withnail & I and How to Get Ahead in Advertising—were something else again. The former is the better known (and the most cult-driven), but this stylish, black—even bleak—comedy fantasy about advertising is actually, I think, the better film. Richard E. Grant (who’d played Withnail in the earlier movie) stars as cynical advertising genius Denis Dimbleby Bagley, a man who prides himself on being able to sell anything by making it appealing (“I’m the man who’s taken the stench out of everything but shit”). When he gets stuck on trying to come up with a campaign for “a particularly boring pimple cream,” he suffers a breakdown and decides to get out of advertising. But before he can, a boil shows up on his neck. But this is no ordinary boil—at least, depending on where you think reality ends and fantasy begins. It has a face and it talks—embodying everything Bagley hates about himself—and soon controls his life. Worse, when the thing is about to be surgically removed, it becomes a full-sized head—and the wrong head survives the operation. And that’s just the mid-way point. Hysterically funny, bitter and more than a little disturbing—with brilliant use of Camille Saint-Saens “Organ” Symphony and “Jupiter” from Gustav Holst’s The Planets. One of the best—and certainly most unusual—films of the 1980s.
The Asheville Film Society will screen How to Get Ahead in Advertising on Tuesday, April 3, at 8 p.m. in the Cinema Lounge of The Carolina Asheville, and will be hosted by Xpress movie critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther. Hanke is the artistic director of the A.F.S.
I think the only place to see this besides Asheville is on Youtube.
And Youtube is no way to see a movie. I do believe it’s available on DVD still.
Well, if me lives in Asheville I know of two video stores that stock it. Probably three actually.
You doesn’t know if you lives in Ashevile?
Well, if me lives in Asheville I know of two video stores that stock it. Probably three actually.
Do you have the most recent one from Image? That’s the only one that’s anamorphic.
You doesn’t know if you lives in Ashevile?
Confusing, isn’t it?
Marc has turned into the Cookie Monster.
I know its not on Netflix or any of the other rental places.
You have unearthed the inadequacy of Netflix.
Why is the dancing billionaire so coy about where these rumored video stores might be?
I loved this movie, btw. Why doesn’t Cronenburg do a remake of it?
If someone cannot put two and two together…
To quote the poet:
“No.”
To quote the poet:
“No.”
Why is the dancing billionaire so coy about where these rumored video stores might be?
The ways of the dancing billionare are shrouded in mystery.
Why doesn’t Cronenburg do a remake of it?
Perhaps Cronenberg realizes this one is not in need of remaking.
You have unearthed the inadequacy of Netflix.
One reason why I’m still open is that people are slowing cluing into the fact that Netflix is not everything that they have promoted themselves to be. Their streaming service in the past year has lost Criterion, Sony, Disney among others. They never had HBO and I suspect Warner Brothers will be leaving them soon.
Do you have the most recent one from Image? That’s the only one that’s anamorphic.
I had no idea that Image put that out, I’m stocking a new copy today. Isn’t the Criterion version the correct ratio?
Marc has turned into the Cookie Monster.
The Cookie Monster is now the Veggie Monster, so, no.
I had no idea that Image put that out, I’m stocking a new copy today. Isn’t the Criterion version the correct ratio?
It’s the correct ratio, but it’s not enhanced to get the good out of a widescreen TV.
Mr. Summers doth seem exceedingly negative. Or maybe it’s the poet.
“If someone cannot put two and two together..”
4!