Broad Street (film)

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Movie
German title Broad Street
Original title Give My Regards to Broad Street
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1984
length 108 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Peter Webb
script Paul McCartney
production Andros Epaminondas
for MPL Communications,
20th Century Fox
music Paul McCartney
camera Ian McMillan
cut Peter Beston
occupation

Broad Street , Alternate title Paul McCartney's Broad Street , is a British musical film by Peter Webb from the year 1984 . The script was written by Paul McCartney , who also played the leading role.

action

Paul McCartney has almost finished work on his new album. On the way to the studio he is stuck in traffic due to construction work, it is raining and Good Day Sunshine is being played on the radio .

The next day the sun is shining and Paul is on the road with his car when he suddenly receives a call: The master tapes for the new album have not yet arrived at the record company. Paul's employee Harry Torrington had received it the day before to take it to the company, but has since been swallowed by the earth. Manager Steve panics immediately, Harry is a criminal who Paul has given a chance. He now believes Harry took the ribbons off to sell them to the highest bidder. However, Paul believes in Harry's innocence. The situation is made more difficult because Paul's record company is facing ruin and has put all cards on the new album. Now the magnate William Rath of Rathburn Industries suddenly speaks up, who lent the company a large sum of money last year. If the tapes are not found by midnight, the record company will pass into Rath's possession.

It is 10 a.m. when Paul leaves the record company. He has a day full of appointments that he cannot cancel because otherwise the public would become aware of the disappearance of the tapes. He first goes to the studio, where he meets Ringo . He doesn't feel like having to record the album again if necessary. With George Martin at the mixer, Paul and Ringo play the songs Yesterday , Here, There and Everywhere and Wanderlust . Paul's schedule for the day continues. He goes to Elstree Studios , where video recordings are planned. Ringo meets a journalist who wants to write an article about the recordings. He's flirting with her. This is followed by a video shoot for the song Ballroom Dancing , which ends with a staged brawl. During the lunch break, Harry's friend Sandra appears in the canteen and is in tears. Harry didn't come home at night and she fears the worst. After the break, the band around Paul records a video for the song Silly Love Songs . It is already 3 p.m. when everyone leaves the studio.

Paul drives with his band to a rehearsal room, where he meets again with Ringo and the journalist. The band rehearses Not Such a Bad Boy , So Bad and No Values . During the rehearsals, the squat Big Bob appears in the room, but Paul cannot give him any clues about Harry's whereabouts. The news that the pre-orders for the new album are over 5 million copies also increases the pressure to find the tapes as quickly as possible. Paul goes on to the BBC , where he gives an interview on the new record and then plays Eleanor Rigby live . In his imagination, he sees himself transported back to Victorian times and is part of a criminal act in which Harry takes the tapes, flees, but is caught and beaten up by Big Bob and caught and stabbed by William Rath. Harry dies at Paul's feet.

Back in the present, Eleanor Rigby's live recording is complete. It is already 10 p.m. when Paul rushes out of the BBC studio. He visits the Old Justice pub and hopes that the owner, his father Jim, can tell him more about Harry's whereabouts. However, he only knows that Harry was there the night before and had the tapes with him. It is 11.30 p.m. when Paul drives aimlessly through town. While those in charge of the record company have already come to terms with the forced takeover and William Rath appears, Paul suddenly sees the British Rail Broad Street sign . He remembers Harry singing Give My Regards to Broad Street for fun the day before and gets out. However, the platform is empty and Paul resignedly sits down on a bench. The tapes are on the next bench - they are complete and undamaged. Paul is relieved and suddenly hears noises from an abandoned station building. Paul kicks open the door and faces Harry. He had waited a long time for the train the previous evening and wanted to go out. The cottage turned out to be the wrong choice, but he was locked in the building and tried in vain to attract attention. Paul reports to Steve a minute before midnight that he has found the tapes and Harry. William Rath, who was about to sign the takeover papers, has lost and is leaving. Paul's friends toast his success.

Paul wakes up in the car. His chauffeur has finally taken him through the traffic jam to the record company, where Steve is already waiting for him. Paul admits to daydreaming. He asks Steve where Harry is. He's already in the house with the tapes.

production

West Wycombe Park with the Temple of Music, a location for the Eleanor Rigby sequence
The Broad Street Station in London, a location of the film

Paul McCartney had been planning to make a new feature film since the Beatles' days, even if the last Beatles comedy film Magical Mystery Tour was a failure with critics and audiences. The end of the 1970s told him music producer Chris Thomas , that an employee of the record company Virgin Records the master tapes of what he produced the album Never Mind the Bollocks of Sex Pistols had forgotten at a platform. These could only be found after a long search. McCartney took up the idea for a feature film. Initially, he wrote down notes about a mercenary story that was rejected by various directors. David Puttnam referred McCartney to Peter Webb , who showed interest in the story, but wanted to see the plot developed by a scriptwriter. McCartney then resorted to the Sex Pistols episode and developed a completely new plot, for which he also wrote the script. He now also planned to take on the lead role in the film.

Contrary to initial considerations, after which Broad Street should be implemented as a television film, McCartney manager Steve Shrimpton convinced Peter Webb to make the film for the cinema. Webb, in turn, made it clear to McCartney that among the numerous planned music numbers there must also be pieces already known to the audience. McCartney therefore planned not only his own pieces from his solo career but also songs from the Beatles' times for the soundtrack. At the same time he pushed through his own casting requests, for example ex-Beatle Ringo Starr and his wife Barbara Bach took over parts of the film, although at the beginning there were "no clues for the director as to what function they should have within the script".

Filming, for which Paul McCartney interrupted his work on the album Pipes of Peace , began on November 8, 1982 in West Wycombe Park, not far from the Temple of Music, and ended after seven weeks. Among other things, the Victorian scenes around the title Eleanor Rigby were created during this time . From the beginning of February, 13 weeks of shooting followed, including in the Elstree Studios, which ended in early May. Further filming took place in London in July 1983, for example a scene with a hidden camera at Leicester Square underground station: In it Paul McCartney, dressed as a street musician, plays a fast version of Yesterday . Other locations were Broad Street Station in London. The facade of the Strand Palace Hotel on the beach served as the location for scenes in front of the building of Paul's record company . Filming for Broad Street was officially finished on July 26, 1983. A release of the film and soundtrack was planned for the fall of 1984, as Paul McCartney first brought out his solo album Pipes of Peace in October 1983 . Ralph Richardson, who had taken on the role of Paul's father Jim in the film, died in October 1983.

Broad Street had its world premiere on October 22, 1984 at the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles , opened in New York on October 25, 1984 and was first performed in Liverpool on November 28, 1984. The official UK premiere finally took place on November 29, 1984 in London's Odeon Cinema. The film was panned by the critics. After a German-synchronized test screening in Frankfurt am Main, which failed, the film did not appear in German cinemas, but was released directly on video in December 1985. The soundtrack to the film was released on the day of the film's premiere under the title Give My Regards to Broad Street and reached number 1 in Great Britain, among other places.

criticism

Roger Ebert called the film a step backwards into the time when music films were “simpleminded” and superficial. Broad Street is almost a non-film, with the passages that come close to something film-like being the very worst. The Rolling Stone called the film a “commercial disaster”, while allmusic wrote that there was no legitimation or explanation for the disastrous film, which was an “almost inscrutable farce about stolen tapes, ghosts and funny mustaches”. The film service stated that Broad Street "largely lacks irony and wit" and that the film is only of interest to McCartney fans. His shallow game was another point of criticism: McCartney encountered "even the most incredible events with an expression on his face [...] that was somewhere between amused amazement and vague annoyance," says McCartney biographer Peter Ames Carlin.

Awards

Paul McCartney received a BAFTA nomination in the category Best Original Song and a Golden Globe nomination in the category Best Movie Song for No More Lonely Nights in 1985 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tomas F. Lansky: Paul McCartney . Moewig, Rastatt 1988, p. 100.
  2. ↑ Peter Ames Carlin: Paul McCartney. The biography . Hannibal, Höfen 2010, p. 353.
  3. ^ Judith Philipp, Ralf Simon: Listen to What the Man Said. Paul McCartney and his songs. A complete retrospective of the records, videos & films . Pendragon, Bielefeld 1991, p. 187.
  4. ↑ Quotation from Peter Ames Carlin: Paul McCartney. The biography . Hannibal, Höfen 2010, p. 354.
  5. ^ Judith Philipp, Ralf Simon: Listen to What the Man Said. Paul McCartney and his songs. A complete retrospective of the records, videos & films . Pendragon, Bielefeld 1991, p. 233.
  6. ↑ a b Judith Philipp, Ralf Simon: Listen to What the Man Said. Paul McCartney and his songs. A complete retrospective of the records, videos & films . Pendragon, Bielefeld 1991, p. 188.
  7. ^ " Give My Regards to Broad Street is about as close as you can get to a nonmovie, and the parts that do try something are the worst." Roger Ebert: Give My Regards to Broad Street . Chicago Sun-Times , Jan. 1, 1984.
  8. ↑ "Commercially desastrous" Kurt Loder: Paul McCartney. Give My Regards to Broad Street (Sdtk) . In: Rolling Stone , January 17, 1985 ( online ).
  9. ↑ “There's no justifying, let alone explaining, Macca's disastrous 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street - a nearly impenetrable“ farce ”involving stolen tapes, ghosts, and funny mustaches” Stephen Thomas Erlewine: Paul McCartney: Give My Regards to Broad Street - Review . allmusic.com.
  10. ↑ Broad Street. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  11. ↑ Peter Ames Carlin: Paul McCartney. The biography . Hannibal, Höfen 2010, p. 354.
  12. ↑ See awards on imdb.com