These are three recently released British films that, because of their domestic success, are destined for the international market.
Letter to Brezhnev is an extraordinary triumph, if only because it was produced on a ludicrously low budget. This sometimes shows, and it only makes the film all that much more endearing. The production is also unusual in that the two main roles are played by women. Two Liverpool girls, encounter two Russian sailors on shore leave and team up with them. One couple satisfies their lust, the other finds true love. Their enthusiastic determination to have a good time is impossibly infectious, and the very naiveté of the play's sentimentality makes it even more intoxicating.
The dialogue is real and raw. This is all the more striking coming from female lips. There may well be some political message intended; but the furor of it all leads to the heart and to a profound message: Hold on to your dream, persevere and it will come true.
My Beautiful Laundrette is set in South London where young unemployed whites roam the streets and Pakistani immigrants help each other to affluence through the extended family system. One such Asian, played engagingly by Gordon Warnecke, is given a helping hand by his successful uncle; and with his homosexual lover who was a former member of the National Front (a white racist political movement) he sets about glamorizing a rundown launderette.
The portrayal of the Pakistani nouveau riche in Thatcher's elitist Britain is not to the liking of all, but it is presented with sympathy, compassion, and considerable humor. One will recognize some refugees from Gandhi! Daniel Day Lewis, as the exhooligan lover, exudes a charisma reminiscent of the early Sting, and the editing is often very effective.
Although it is love that enables this couple to overcome the prejudices of racism, it seems a somewhat hollow and tragic victory, since the roots of that love are the perverse attractions of homosexuality.
Two young men are chased by a police car along a country road while the radio news announces that a new crisis in the Middle East is putting the armed forces on special alert. They come abruptly to a dead end. One is caught, the other climbs over a high gate leading to an airfield. The scene shifts to a member of Parliament, and then an East German diplomat, being photographed leaving the same building.
Defence of the Realm is a taut, tough, political thriller that questions the circumstances in which military and political secrets should be concealed, and in which they should be published in the press. Gabriel Bryne bears a passing resemblance to Al Pacino (though he is more chunky). He is smolderingly intense and engagingly humorous (where the script wisely allows) as a reporter who opens a political can of worms. Greta Scacchi plays the girl who becomes his accomplice, and she brings a refreshing wholesomeness to the screen. The story is hammered out with a fine script, excellent supporting acting (Denholm Elliott, Bill Paterson, and Fulton Mackay), and a superbly atmospheric musical score. David Puttnam is the executive producer, and all the films with which he is associated seem to have music that adds to the film in an exceptional
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