Charlie Bubbles

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Charlie Bubbles
Film Poster
Directed byAlbert Finney
Written byShelagh Delaney
Produced byMichael Medwin
StarringAlbert Finney
Billie Whitelaw
Liza Minnelli
Colin Blakely
CinematographyPeter Suschitzky
Edited byFergus McDonell
Music byMisha Donat
Production
companies
Universal Pictures
Memorial Enterprises
Distributed byRank Film Distributors
Release dates
  • 11 February 1968 (1968-02-11) (US)
  • 19 September 1968 (1968-09-19) (UK)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1 million[1] or £318,483[2][3]

Charlie Bubbles is a 1968 British comedy-drama film directed by Albert Finney (in his feature directorial debut) and starring Finney, Billie Whitelaw and Liza Minnelli.[4] The screenplay was by Shelagh Delaney.

A writer returns to his home city after achieving success in London.

Plot[edit]

Successful writer Charlie Bubbles glides around in a gold Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III convertible – CB 1E. Reminded by a phone call from his ex-wife Lottie that he has promised to take their son Jack to a football match, Bubbles sets off from London with his secretary Eliza to drive to Manchester. The next day he drives to Lottie's farm, and it becomes obvious that visits are few and far between.

Father and son go to a football match and eat hotdogs from their private box at Old Trafford. An old school friend turned newspaper reporter enters the box and they chat awkwardly for a few moments. The film then sharply cuts to scenes outside the stadium where Bubbles is desperately looking for Jack, who has gone missing. Bubbles returns in panic to the farm without the boy, driving the Rolls erratically and stopping to vomit on the way, only to find Jack has made his own way home. Next morning Bubbles awakes to find a large red balloon moored near the farm. He climbs into the basket and drifts away.

Cast[edit]

Release[edit]

It was screened at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival on the 11th, just before the festival was called off due to the events of May 1968 in France.

Critical response[edit]

Although the film received critical acclaim, it was not a commercial success in Britain.[citation needed] Finney blamed this on what he regarded as a mishandled and much-delayed release by Rank Film Distributors.[5]

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Everything is in a continuous present, without perspective; and despite the actual journey, the film is more a journey of inner discovery, the motorway a mysterious tunnel, the locations like vivid dream pictures. In this setting, the film explores a series of relationships – some casual, some transient, one deep. And as in a comparable study of a circle of relationships, Le Feu Follet, each character just eludes the central figure. But Charlie Bubbles avoids diagnosis; and its integrity is clearest in the treatment of the relationship between Charlie and Lottie. Here everything possible has long been said, yet the brief, flat exchanges emerge charged with recollection and irony ... Despite occasional lapses with enigma and stylisation for its own sake, as in the motorway café sequence, Albert Finney has made a promising debut as a director."[6]

In The New York Times review, critic Renata Adler praised the film, which she called "a becalmed Blow-Up" and "a completely honest and original thing." She also added: "The ending, a low key absurdist touch, is as quiet, beautifully made and carefully thought out as the rest."[7]

Leslie Halliwell said: "A little arid and slow in the early stages, and with a rather lame end ... this is nevertheless a fascinating chracter study with a host of wry comedy touches and nimbly sketched characters; in its unassuming way it indicts many of the symbols people lived by in the sixties."[8]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "Rich in resonances of the era."[9]

Alexander Walker wrote: "The trouble with Charlie Bubbles is that the character is an extremely passive type. All the other people in the film are seen or felt by him."[10]

Home media[edit]

The film was released on DVD in September 2008, and on Blu-ray in November 2018.

Accolades[edit]

Whitelaw won a 1969 BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in Charlie Bubbles and Twisted Nerve.[11]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Alexander Walker, Hollywood, England, Stein and Day, 1974, p. 345
  2. ^ Chapman, L. (2021). “They wanted a bigger, more ambitious film”: Film Finances and the American “Runaways” That Ran Away. Journal of British Cinema and Television, 18(2), 176–197 p 189. https://doi.org/10.3366/jbctv.2021.0565
  3. ^ Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 361
  4. ^ "Charlie Bubbles". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  5. ^ Murphy p.193
  6. ^ "Charlie Bubbles". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 35 (408): 147. 1 January 1968 – via ProQuest.
  7. ^ Adler, Renata (12 February 1968). "Screen: The Quietly Desperate World of 'Charlie Bubbles,' Famous Writer". The New York Times. p. 47.
  8. ^ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 190. ISBN 0586088946.
  9. ^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 168. ISBN 9780992936440.
  10. ^ Walker, Alexander (1974). Hollywood England (2nd ed.). Orion Books. p. 352. ISBN 0752857061.
  11. ^ "Film | Supporting Actress in 1969". BAFTA. Retrieved 13 May 2024.

External links[edit]

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