The career of the once successful classical portraitist, Kingdom Swann, has hit bad times. When a leading gallery rejects his work, he seems at the point of giving up. It is only the support of his housekeeper, Violet Askey, that keeps him going and it is she who encourages him to switch to photography. Soon Swann has developed a healthy (and respectable) business with portraits of naked women in classical and exotic settings. However, the nature of Swann's new work is open to misinterpretation and he finds himself at the centre of a scandal involving the misuse of his pictures by a SOHO pornographer, and the focus of a campaign by suffragettes against the expoitation of women. At the same time, he loses the support of the loyal Violet, who leaps to the wrong conclusion about Swann's relationship with one of his models. When Violet then becomes involved in the suffragette and amti-pornography movements, it seems all may be lost for Swann - both professionally...and personally.
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Not having seen Billy Connolly in a leading role before, I must say this was one of the most pleasant surprises, film-wise, I have come across in recent years. Billy Connolly is, to my surprise, a superb actor, as is the supporting actor Douglas Henshall, who was a completely new experience!Not a great TV film, but pretty close.The leading lady, played superbly, by Sarah Lancashire, I have never come across before. Sadly she has not seen on the big screen, while the supporting actress, Katie Blake, has been much more active on TV, and elsewhere! In short, I loved it, but it is not a deep film, not an allegory, but a quite frank description of the world in the age of suffragettes and candid photography!
An amusing semi-comedy. As always Connolly makes a great fist of this role which is part serious and part light comedy. Support actors do a good job. While the script is predictable it is fun and moves at a pace which holds your interest. The subject matter is pornography in the early days of photography which makes for a slightly different movie.Dont go out of your way but if you see this movie in a TV schedule take the opportunity for an hour and half of light entertainment
Okay, fair cop, I confess that with Douglas Henshall in the cast list I would have watched this regardless. But what a way to begin the New Year (it premiered on BBC1 on New Year's Day 2001). It's a charming tale and beautifully presented. The costumes are lush and the setting is just right. Billy Connolly's relationship with Sarah Lancashire is so tenderly played that it captures your heart. She's come a long way since her soap opera days on "Coronation Street".It has a sparkling script and each of the main characters has their own star moments. Why Henshall thinks he's playing Michael Caine is beyond my comprehension, but for all the incongruity of hearing Cockney geezer-speak coming from his Glaswegian born and bred mouth it is still a charming performance. The piece has adult content, but much of the script and performances are pure nostalgia with nudge-wink humour and old-fashioned romance. As someone who mostly loathes slapstick it's a joy to find farce so well presented. Even the minor characters (caricatures) fit the storyline well.If granny has a rather ribald humour you might find that you can take her back in time with such a gentle-humoured drama. It wouldn't win any prizes for radical experimentation or high-quality anything, but it is a light and frothy way to fill any evening.
Gentlemen's Relish is an excellent comedy drama set in Edwardian times.It was first broadcast on British television on New Year's Day 2001. At the beginning of the story we are introduced to artist Kingdom Swann(Billy Connolly)who decides to take up photography when his style of painting goes out of fashion.He is persuaded by his assistant Cromwell Marsh(Douglas Henshall) to take photographs of tasteful nude tableaux.The story develops from there.There are some terrific one liners and very funny situations and the story does explore the question of morality.Billy Connolly is very convincing as the innocent Swann and Douglas Henshall gives a brilliant comedy performance as the cockney rogue Marsh.The film is 90 minutes long and although it went straight to television ,it was good enough for a cinema release.
