Withnail & I 20th Anniversary, South Bank

Hard to believe it’s been two decades since the infamous alcoholics demanded ‘more booze’ but here we are. The NFT (Sorry, since the re-branding I should say ‘South Bank’) hosted a retrospective screening of a digital print of the movie, followed with a live recording for a new season of the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Reunions‘ with the actors Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann, Ralph Brown and director Bruce Robinson.

First of all, the movie. I actually hadn’t seen it in many years, yet like any sad ex-student pub bore could happily mouth along with some of the more memorable and quotable lines (‘We’ve gone on holiday by mistake…’, ‘It’s closing time so we’ll have to move fast, ‘I demand more Booze’) etc… etc… If you have never seen the film, it concerns the antics and misfortunes of a duo of unemployed alcoholic Camden based actors who are enduring the comedown of the 1960’s. In many ways it’s an inversion of the more traditional ‘swinging’ London of the 60’s – more ‘Bicycle Thieves‘ than ‘Blow Up‘  -‘Withnail’ is all squalid squats and miserable rain, hangovers and insecure failure as opposed to psychedelics and rainbows, free love, hippies and moonbeams. It really is a uniquely British cult classic which if anything has matured with age. The final scene retains its quiet power, and works in sharp contrast to the humour and unrequited fun of the prior 110 minutes.

The radio programme recording afterward was a bit weird, (being told when to clap, re-recording sections the technician’s hadn’t captured) but just like any other South Bank event it gave the film-makers a chance to deliver some anecdotes and stories from the production. The camaraderie and bond between the gang was explicit – this was the debut film for all concerned and it pretty much kick-started all of their careers.

Robinson came up with the best story I’ve heard for some time. The film is essentially autobiographical as Robinson spent the late 60’s in a alcoholic haze as a struggling actor. During the period he was at some sort of auction in Manchester and approached the bar for a glass of wine. The attendant told him that unfortunately he could only sell him a full bottle of wine of ‘this horrible stuff we got in some police recovery programme’. Robinson asked to see what they had in stock and was taken down to the cellar to peruse the 200 bottles they had available. Yes, you guessed it, this was evidently the stock of a real connoisseur as it contained bottles of Chateau DuCru 1953, several bottles of Petrus which at the time were worth £200 – £300  and other examples of the ‘finest wines known to humanity‘. They bought the lot for £200 – a pound a bottle – and shipped it back to London with the express intention of auctioning the lot off at Sotheby’s.

 He drank the lot in two weeks.

October 9, 2007 | Categories: Film | 3 Comments