brexit satire draws big laughs at berlin fest
Last Updated : GMT 05:17:37
Emiratesvoice, emirates voice
Emiratesvoice, emirates voice
Last Updated : GMT 05:17:37
Emiratesvoice, emirates voice

Brexit satire draws big laughs at Berlin fest

Emiratesvoice, emirates voice

Emiratesvoice, emirates voice Brexit satire draws big laughs at Berlin fest

British actress Kristin Scott Thomas
Berlin - AFP

An uproarious British satire shot during the Brexit referendum drew big laughs at the Berlin film festival Monday, with Sally Potter using a stellar cast for "a light and loving look" at a "broken England".

In "The Party", shot entirely in black and white, Kristin Scott Thomas plays Janet, a British MP who has just become health minister and throws an intimate soiree with her husband (Timothy Spall) and closest friends to celebrate.

Her clique is a well-heeled international set including April, an acerbic American (Patricia Clarkson) living in London who declares parliamentary politics to be "finished" but nevertheless believes the new minister can "save our country from profiteering butchery". 

Her German lover (Bruno Ganz) is a "life coach and healer" who dismisses Western medicine as "voodoo".

Another friend of the family is an agitated City "wanker banker" from Ireland (Cillian Murphy) who slips away to the toilet as soon as he arrives to snort cocaine and fiddle with the handgun he has hidden in his jacket.

Finally a lesbian couple, separated in age by two decades, arrives with the younger partner (Emily Mortimer) announcing that she is pregnant with male triplets.

In the course of a little more than a whirlwind hour, secrets and lies are exposed, marriages and lives shattered and careers left teetering on the brink. 

Potter told reporters after a press preview that drew warm applause that she had started writing the screenplay during the 2015 British general election but didn't shoot it until the week before and after the Brexit vote.

"Things have become polarised since I first started writing but what was central to it was the feeling that people were losing faith in political life, losing the ability to even know what the truth was," she said.

"That's why truth-telling is so central to the politics in this story, all kinds of truth-telling in personal life and in political life."

- 'Change your hair' -

Asked about the cosmopolitan cast and crew, Potter said it was clear that the themes of disaffection and a loss of faith in public officials resonated far beyond Britain. 

"I wanted a feeling on both sides of the camera of internatio

nalism -- the opposite of the dynamic of Brexit, by the way," she said. "And Trump," Clarkson added.

Janet, as an ambitious, highly competent middle-aged blonde politician with trouble connecting with voters and a cheating husband named Bill, seems tragically, comically doomed. 

April advises her during one scene: "If you're going to lead this country, and you must," she says, "you're going to have to change your hair."

Potter is best known for films such as "Orlando" and "Ginger & Rosa" as well as being a sought-after opera director. 

She said that while she was pessimistic about the impact of Brexit, despair wasn't the answer. 

"Sometimes the most positive thing to do is to look bad stuff in the face and laugh about it," she said.

"The Party" is one of 18 movies vying for the festival's Golden Bear top prize, to be awarded Saturday.

Potter is one of four female directors in the competition.

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

brexit satire draws big laughs at berlin fest brexit satire draws big laughs at berlin fest

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

brexit satire draws big laughs at berlin fest brexit satire draws big laughs at berlin fest

 



GMT 11:03 2018 Tuesday ,23 January

No end to eyesores at Taj Mahal

GMT 10:18 2018 Thursday ,30 August

Iran incapable of closing Hormuz, Bab Al Mandeb

GMT 10:31 2014 Tuesday ,23 December

Mirages of failure: Lebanon cannot wait

GMT 04:53 2016 Monday ,16 May

English Premier League results

GMT 05:06 2024 Tuesday ,06 February

New hunt for flight MH370 gets under way

GMT 06:15 2018 Tuesday ,23 January

Volkswagen clinches record sales

GMT 13:13 2016 Wednesday ,14 December

Unarmed old man killed by police in California

GMT 15:00 2017 Wednesday ,08 March

1 killed, 2 missing due to Avalanche in French Alps

GMT 12:07 2017 Saturday ,25 February

Renault’s R.S.17 features Infiniti co-built ERS

GMT 12:52 2017 Saturday ,04 November

Belgium 'to study' Spain's EU warrant for Catalan leader

GMT 08:40 2017 Wednesday ,01 November

Miss Morocco launch her first charity program

GMT 16:26 2016 Friday ,04 November

All Black brothers in arms ready for rare double

GMT 08:21 2017 Saturday ,30 September

Al Sayed underlines economic improvement

GMT 10:27 2017 Wednesday ,13 December

Strikes kill 12 in rebel-run Yemen prison camp

GMT 10:52 2017 Saturday ,14 October

NGOs slam UN aviation agency plan

GMT 07:05 2017 Thursday ,28 September

Repeal of women driving ban tests

GMT 10:49 2016 Saturday ,15 October

Sign “MOU” on Cooperation & Development

GMT 17:37 2013 Friday ,07 June

2 French radio journalists missing in Syria

GMT 12:46 2011 Tuesday ,07 June

Haifa Wahbi preparing for a busy summer

GMT 15:59 2012 Monday ,24 September

Hope mounts for deal in Sudan, South Sudan summit

GMT 03:50 2015 Monday ,10 August

19 killed in traffic accident in northern Sudan

GMT 22:10 2016 Thursday ,11 August

MTV Video Music Awards

GMT 14:52 2016 Wednesday ,05 October

UK to opt out of rights laws to protect troops
Emiratesvoice, emirates voice
 
 Emirates Voice Facebook,emirates voice facebook  Emirates Voice Twitter,emirates voice twitter Emirates Voice Rss,emirates voice rss  Emirates Voice Youtube,emirates voice youtube  Emirates Voice Youtube,emirates voice youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

emiratesvoieen emiratesvoiceen emiratesvoiceen emiratesvoiceen
emiratesvoice emiratesvoice emiratesvoice
emiratesvoice
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
emiratesvoice, Emiratesvoice, Emiratesvoice