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IF... you Missed Brussels

Befriedigend Furchtbar | 15.12.2001 14:59

console yourself with one of the best films of the 1960s tonight, BBC 2, 00:30.

Anderson's 'IF...', 1968, starring Malcolm McDowell, is one of those films which seems to be more relevant as time elapses, and like a select few others, catches the mood of the times perfectly. Forget the anachronistic and inexplicably popular 'Withnail': if you want an evocation of the 60s Zeitgeist, try Powell's 'Peeping Tom', Polanski's 'Repulsion', Antonioni's 'Blow-Up' and this one. How it should suddenly pop up on the schedules now is probably a random occurence, and unfortunately it'll clash with an episode of 'Twin Peaks'. O, the difficult decisions facing we armchair revolutionaries..!

Befriedigend Furchtbar

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The man in the golden suit

15.12.2001 19:56

Anderson continues to explore the ideas in IF.... in his "sequel", "O Lucky Man" which is also brilliant. the last scene is amazing and makes you want to cry. Anderson sets out the whole way things work in this grim world in the form of a black comedy. The third part, "Britannia Hospital" is interesting and more up to date but tends to slip into farce. The character "Mick Travers" is my suggestion for the next multiple personality a la Luther & Daniel!

Mick Travers

not 'If', but 'When'

16.12.2001 18:51

Yes good film that, and worth missing an episode of 'Peaks'. Can you imagine anything similar being done now ?
I dont agree with you that 'Withnail & I' is complete rubbish. It's entertaining and has produced at least one classic line: 'I demand to have some booze'. But, no, it doesnt have a 'point' like the others you mention, and the issues it tries to raise simply didnt exist in the '60s ! Unemployment and gay rights were hardly at the top of the agenda, and excessive alcohol (its other enduring feature) was rather frowned on by the hippy brigade.

L. A.