After reading about Geoffrey Rush’s epic portrayal of Lionel Logue in The Kings Speech I watched it and then was on a mission to explore more of his films. I don’t watch a lot of films, usually too busy watching the football and yet when I saw this film, as a big Pink Panther fan, not just the films but the Henri Mancini score too, I could not believe I missed The Life and Death of Peter Sellers 2004.
It is possibly one of the best films I have ever seen. It has to be one of the most creative, complex and revealing non-documentary movies ever made about an actual person, living or dead, and the inspired casting of Geoffrey Rush shows his immense talent as an actor to take this on - he is truly magnificent in all the various and sundry Sellers guises, especially the ones from Dr. Strangelove.
The film explores his complex relationship with his parents Peggy and Bill (Miriam Margoyles and the late Peter Vaughan) and his 1st wife Anne (Emily Watson) and Second wife Britt Ekland, Charlize Theron.
Everywhere you look there’s another titan of acting talent, Stanley Tucci as director Stanley Kubrick, John Lithgow as Pink Panther Director Blake Edwards.
It a beautifully crafted biographical film about Peter Sellers' turbulent rise from popular BBC radio performer to one of the world's most gifted comedic actors. Propelled by an overly possessive mother, Sellers struggled to reconcile his relationship with women, his celebrity status and his many selves and this is the expressed on screen by director Stephen Hopkins and writers Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely.
The screenplay was adapted from a book by Roger Lewis of the same title and the film took 9 Emmys including best actor for Rush, Best Director and Best Writing category dominating the movie mini series category in 2005 for HBO who produced the film in association with the BBC.
If you haven’t seen this film watch it immediately. Even if you don’t like Peter Sellers, if that’s possible, it’s action packed from beginning to end, full of massive acting talent and although many remember Geoffrey Rush’s stand out Oscar winning performance in Shine U really don’t think there’s an actor alive who could have done what he did, or achieved what he managed to achieve in this role.
He must have been completely exhausted at the end of filming this for sure. I was exhausted watching.
There are too many brilliant, poignant, touching, clever, hilarious scenes in this film to mention individually. I’ll be watching again soon because it’s that type of movie, so good you miss bits and find something new and exciting every time you watch. But one scene in particular showed the depth of emotion, story telling and exploration into Sellers talent and troubled many personas which never seem to quite align. Peg turns up on set when Peter is filming Dr. Strange love and has lunch with her in character, famously plagued by "alien hand syndrome," where his gloved hand intermittently tries to strangle him or give a Nazi salute.
It’s a strange, strained meeting between the two, mad, funny, yet not, deeply phoney, painful yet exposing of the relationship. A love that could never be. When Peg leaves in a chauffeur driven rolls Royce and her driver asks how was your lunch with your son, she reply’s “He wasn’t there.”
It wasn’t until 1979 Sellers starred in “Being There” a significant commercial and critical success for him, providing a major hit after a string of failed films outside the Pink Panther series. This film was hailed as his finest work since the 1960s, earning him a Best Actor Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win.
The greatest tragedy in the story of possibly the world greatest comedic talent, Peter Sellers died just 7 months after Being There was released in the US. He left no finalised will. His estimated £4.5 million fortune (approx. £30m today) went to his fourth wife, Lynne Frederick, from whom he was already separated and his three children, Mikey and Sarah with Anne and Victoria with Britt each received £2000. Sadly despite last-minute efforts to change his will on the day of his last heart attack, new documents were not legally filed before his death.
The best film I’ve actually seen in years.
https://youtu.be/m9pBWtZHV1o?