Oct 4th 

Bright Young Things**                      

(GB 2003)
Icon/Revolution Films/Doubting Hall/The Film Consortium/UK Film Council/Visionview. 106m. ws

Various friends in aristocratic circles spend most of their lives in the 1920's as a succession of parties.
Fry's adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies is a typically boldly stylised first stab at directing, with lots of glitzy style and allowing for several of his friends to appear in scene-stealing (and often over the top) character cameos, whilst the serious side to the plot seems a little mawkish when everybody is clearly otherwise just having a lot of fun. The bittersweet wartime prologue softens some of the bleakness of the original's ending.

Written and Directed by: Stephen Fry, based on the novel "Vile Bodies" by Evelyn Waugh.
Producers: Gina Carter, Miranda Davis.
Starring: Stephen Campbell Moore, Emily Mortimer, Dan Aykroyd, Jim Broadbent, Stockard Channing, James McAvoy, Michael Sheen, David Tennant, Fenella Woolgar, Peter O'Toole, Julia McKenzie, Simon Callow, Imelda Staunton, Bill Paterson, Richard E. Grant, John Mills, Harriet Walter.
Photography: Henry Braham.
Music: Anne Dudley.
Production Design: Michael Howells.
Editing: Alex Mackie.

BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS. Not the best adaptation of Evelyn Waugh, but an excellent showcase for the bright young things of British cinema.