GENRE EG3 Withnail and I (Paul Heller and HandMade Films, 1987)

Poster

Withnail and I is a 1980's British black comedy/social realist cult film. Set in the 60's, very effectively, with the actor portraying the protagonist having stated "Its provenance is from a different era. None of the production values, none of the iconography, none of the style remotely has it down as an 80's picture". the plot follows two unemployed and unemployable actors, Withnail and "I" (played by Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann, respectively) who share a flat in Camden Town in 1969. Deciding to take a holiday, they visit Withnail's uncle Monty for a key to his house in the countryside, but plagued by alcoholism, drug abuse and constant rain, their 'break' is far from relaxing. (Wikipedia)

OUR INFLUENCES

• The use of somber incidental music to set the tone and signify an older target audience (also conventional of indie)
• Use of set dressing for character exposition (though not to show poverty or lack of up-keep)
• shown through panning shots as music plays
• White serif font of the titles to signify social realist
• low-key lighting (showing both the low budget and realism)
• Morally ambiguous characters that do not fit neatly into a single Proppian archetype (the protagonist of our story is both the hero and an antagonist/villain)

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PRODUCTION CONTEXT/HISTORY

Budget: £1.1m
Box office: UK £600k; US $1.5m
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
BBFC: 18

The author of the unpublished novel was paid by an oil heir, Moderick Schreiber, to turn the manuscript into a screenplay, and on its completion Paul Heller (producer) convinced Schieber to direct it after he had found funding for half of the film.
George Harrison (of The Beatles) then agreed to fund the rest of it through his company HandMade Films.
The film was nearly shut down 3 days into filming by Denis O'Brien who was overseeing the film on behalf of HandMade Films, as the film had no "discernible jokes".
In total the film cost £1.1m, although £30k was invested by the author to film scenes which the company refused to fund which he was never reimbursed for.
This film is a good example of the amount of artistic freedom indie productions have in contrast to studio films, as they have diverse and complex representations which were not so commercially viable in the 80's, and still are not today - although this film received no government funding through the BFI/UKFC, grants or TV station funding, theses are all very typical for indie productions as they exist to ensure wider representations.

• This indie/low budget is reflected in the film
• mostly shot on site, although none of the filming was done in Penrith, they were locations near Shap and Bampton
• there is no CGI or SFX used
• the image quality is often grainy, unlike how it would be for a Big Six production - this is probably because of the cheap digital transfer which is more typical of indie films, contrasting completely with studio productions of the same period such as Star Wars, with multi-million dollar upratings overseen by George Lukas

  

  The limited information given on BoxOfficeMojo

• On BoxofficeMojo and The Numbers there is very little information about domestic and international gross (number of territories, US, China), though the film did get theatrical release in the UK
• the film isn't extremely popular outside of the UK - mostly because it is too "English" and International audiences are unable to identify with many aspects of it, but also because it's success wasn't expected
• It is also more common that indies do not have non-domestic release, though auteurs such as Ken Loach, Mike Leigh and sometimes Shane Meadows are exceptions form this as their names are more marketable
• Daniel Day-Lewis (who was in My Beautiful Laundrette) was considered fro the role of Withnail, but it was ultimately given to an unknown actor (also reflective of indie)
• The trailer, similar to My Beautiful Laundrette, aims to portray the film as more of a comedy than a depressing social realist (although the film is a dark comedy)

• in 1999 the BFI voted the film as the 29th greatest British film of all time, and in 2017 Time Out magazine ranked it as 15th best ever
• Re-issues and re-masterings have been released since the film came out, continually making money
• Editionalising - commercial movies are often re-released in box sets, special editions, genre boxsets - even Shane Meadows has boxsets

  

  Withnail and I 20th anniversary 3 disc special edition on Amazon

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TITLES

• the simple white serif font is typical of the social realist genre, similar to '71 and Tyrannosaur
• There aren't many extra words like "starring" "with" "introducing"
• 3 minutes ling
• a total of 17

Withnail and i credits from harriet Barlow

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  Withnail and I

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SOUND; GENRE SIGNIFICATION

• The film begins with slow jazz music playing
• sets the mood - depressing, mellow - completely contrast with something you might expect to find in a horror film (e.g. the drums and high pitched strings in Bride of Chucky - this clearly reflects the genre), this is more like the incidental acoustic music of Tyrannosaur 
• also signifies the target audience (not teen, older - also reflected in BBFC rating of 18)
• Ambient sound of the kettle and walking is heard as the song comes to an end
• some of the sound mixing is very poor - as actors walk towards the camera their voices become a lot louder, and are difficult to hear when far away
• this is representative of the budget/technology available at the time

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FIRST SHOT

• fade form black, slow zoom, medium shot to close-up, hand-held
• Naturalistic lighting, low-key 
• make it look cramped, dark
• also reflective of the low budget into context
• Dusty dark wooden cupboard and dark brown lamp
• connotes poverty, lack of care
• all the dark colours make it  seem claustrophobic, oppressive, gloomy and depressing 
• Clothing is simple, practical, dull colours
• masculine 
• inexpensive
• representative of target audience (mature), more through identfication than aspiration though
• The film title is seen in the first shot, which isn't extremely conventional of the films we've looked at, and is not distinguishable form the rest of the credits there than the slightly larger font

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PROTAGONIST AND NARRATIVE

"I"

• overgrown 'shaggy' hair and beard
• unkempt 
• lack of upkeep
• does not need to look presentable/professional for an office job
• Glasses and cigarette
• make him look intellectual
• troubled artist look
• 'suffocating' in the apartment
• introverted and bookish look, but also pretentious
• When he goes to the cafe for food there are close-up shots of headlines, unappealing looking food and an ageing woman eating a greasy egg sandwich, the camera cuts to a close-up of the protagonist's eyes
• they are slightly red with massive bags underneath them
  
• he looks tired, depressed
• The voice over is very cynical, but comedic
• is used for exposition 
• his criticism of mundane daily life, but also detachment from it (he "feels sorry" for people because they have to wake up to depressing headlines everyday without marking that he himself does exactly that) creates narrative enigma, but also emphasises the gritty and negative light that the film is shown through (as it is all form this character's point of view)
• Propp:
• The Hero: "I" is signified to be the 'hero' of this film as the camera repeatedly cuts back to show his reactions, and he is the only character we are offered insight into through the voiceover
• The Donor: Withnail's Uncle Monty is definitely the Donor of the story, giving them the key to his house in the Lake District
• The Princess: the princess could be "I" desired career as an actor, or it could be Withnail as there are a lot of homoerotic undertones (in a scene they refer to each other as "lover", and at a bar "I" is threatened by an irishman and called a "poof" - a derogatory term)
• The Villain: Withnail is the villain, as he is one of the obstacles blocking "I" from succeeding in his career, is more active in creating conflict (with both a local farmer, a drug dealer and a policeman), however there is also recognition of "I"s own involvement in a lot of theses situations. 
• The Helper: it's impossible to avoid the fact that the apparent protagonist has no name in this film, and Withnail's narcissistic tendencies clearly show that he perceives himself to be the protagonist of his own life, and he views "I" as his Helper/sidekick. Although "I" is the one who proposes going on holiday
• The Dispatcher: "I" is undoubtedly his own dispatcher, sending himself to the Lake District, but also deciding to leave Withnail to his alcohol and drug addiction to work on his own career at the end of the film
• As there are so few characters in the film there are a lot of overlaps between the propping archetypes, which is also reflective of the realistic and complex representation of the social realist genre

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MISE-EN-SCENE

• the first shot is followed by a panning shot of the apartment, lots of set dressing has been done

• wine bottles, mess, dirty clothes
• everything looks dusty or dirty
• the walls look grimy
• used cups lying around
• a British flag is hung carelessly from a chair  - shows lack of patriotism, and England isn't painted in the best light throughout the film
• As the camera moves into the kitchen the protagonist re-enters the shot to fill up the kettle and you see the real extent of the mess
• the sink is full to the brim, empty and full milk bottles are thrown on top of drying racks loaded with plates and a curtain over the window looks to be on its last leg
• The curtain pattern is good for verisimilitude, as the film is set in the 60's and it is a stereotypical pattern style of the decade
• All the furniture is clearly very fine
• glass cabinets, wooden chairs, a grand dining table, leather sofa
• but all clearly uncared for, maybe even second hand, all mismatching

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OTHER POINTS

• There were some issues that probably wouldn't have happened were the film a high budget studio production
• the author "forced" Grant, the actor playing "I", to binge drink so he could more realistically portray the character, although in real life he was Teetotal and had a health condition which prevented him from being able to process alcohol, so he was violently sick
• The original ending saw Withnail killing himself by pouring wine into a shot gun and firing it whilst drinking form it, but it was deemed 'too dark'
• the film is already too grim to be considered by a conglomerate, and the low(ish) budget does mean that theres is less pressure to make a profit
• the involvement of HandMade Films is what really prevented this
• demonstrates the amount of freedom low-budget index have in contrast to subsidiaries/conglomerates who use the tentpole format

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