After being enchanted by Wonderland (1999),I took a close look at the credits of auteur film maker Michael Winterbottom. Going straight to his early credits, I was disappointed to not find his first movie on DVD,or even video. Trying to find info online about the title,I got very lucky and stumbled on it,which led to me placing my (simple!) mind-set for a viewing.
View on the film:
Made as a TV Movie for ITV after he had done an ep of Dramarama and TV doc Ingmar Bergman: The Magic Lantern, directing auteur Michael Winterbottom impressively displays future reoccurring motifs that would span across his work. Largely filmed on location behind the Berlin Wall on the streets of East Germany and Hungary, Winterbottom scores Bunny and Broke's drive to the Simple Minds concert with prime British Pop,from the opening march to Happy Xmas (War Is Over) and the explosive riffs of The Buzzcocks, to exchanges on The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses. Running The Trip the duo makes for love and music, Winterbottom uses rough and ready fluid camera and the natural lights of the locations to tune a catchy, lo-fi fish out of water atmosphere.
Joining Winterbottom in making his film debut after writing eps of Brookside and The Real Eddy English, the screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce gives a taste of what was to come in their collaborations with Broke and Bunny's friendship running on the youthful camaraderie which would fuel the bands of 24 Hour Party People (2002), and the ending having a peculiar bitter-sweet final note, as Broke, Bunny and Czilla, (played by the wonderfully free-wheeling Ewen Bremner, Brian McCardie and Zsuzsanna Várkonyi) discover what they can't forget.
View on the film:
Made as a TV Movie for ITV after he had done an ep of Dramarama and TV doc Ingmar Bergman: The Magic Lantern, directing auteur Michael Winterbottom impressively displays future reoccurring motifs that would span across his work. Largely filmed on location behind the Berlin Wall on the streets of East Germany and Hungary, Winterbottom scores Bunny and Broke's drive to the Simple Minds concert with prime British Pop,from the opening march to Happy Xmas (War Is Over) and the explosive riffs of The Buzzcocks, to exchanges on The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses. Running The Trip the duo makes for love and music, Winterbottom uses rough and ready fluid camera and the natural lights of the locations to tune a catchy, lo-fi fish out of water atmosphere.
Joining Winterbottom in making his film debut after writing eps of Brookside and The Real Eddy English, the screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce gives a taste of what was to come in their collaborations with Broke and Bunny's friendship running on the youthful camaraderie which would fuel the bands of 24 Hour Party People (2002), and the ending having a peculiar bitter-sweet final note, as Broke, Bunny and Czilla, (played by the wonderfully free-wheeling Ewen Bremner, Brian McCardie and Zsuzsanna Várkonyi) discover what they can't forget.