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Dirty Weekend

Michael Winner aims low and half-misses with "Dirty Weekend," a jet-black genre-bender of femme vengeance from the British bestseller by Helen Zahavi. Those expecting a female, Anglo version of Winner's earlier "Death Wish" outings will be disappointed. "Weekend" is more rooted in everyday drama than high-octane thrillers.

Michael Winner aims low and half-misses with “Dirty Weekend,” a jet-black genre-bender of femme vengeance from the British bestseller by Helen Zahavi. Those expecting a female, Anglo version of Winner’s earlier “Death Wish” outings will be disappointed. “Weekend” is more rooted in everyday drama than high-octane thrillers.

Pic has attracted plenty of column inches in Blighty thanks to the original “feminist” novel’s rep and Winner’s own tub-thumping. (Producer-director is also reported to be ponying up his own P&A coin.)

In territories where book and helmer are less well known, “Weekend” will need careful handling, though should tick over nicely on vid marketed as a sexploitationer. Pic also has the seeds of a cult movie down the tracks.

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Setting is Brighton, where the introverted Bella (Lia Williams) has moved after being dumped by a b.f. in London. Renting a small basement apartment, she’s soon prey to an obscene phone-caller (Rufus Sewell) who spies on her from a window opposite.

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After an empowering visit to an Iranian fortuneteller (Ian Richardson), she brains the peeper with a hammer in his bed one night.

High on the experience, she sets out on a weekend killing spree of male porkers. Dressed like a hooker, she asphyxiates a businessmen (Michael Cole) during an S&M sesh. Next day, she runs down a sadistic dentist (David McCallum) after some forced fellatio in an underground parking lot, and later shoots three punks about to incinerate a bag lady. Finale has her coming face to face with a serial killer.

Zahavi’s much-hyped 1991 novel (compared at the time to “American Psycho”) presents major challenges for any screen adaptation, being composed mostly of an interior reverie by the central character. Most of its special qualities stem from obsessive, repetitive play with words and a deliberately unreal, sarcastic tone that can be interpreted in several ways. Ironically, Winner’s version (scripted with Zahavi herself) is most successful when sticking closely to the original.

After an opening caption of the novel’s famous first sentence (“This is the story of Bella, who woke up one morning and realized she’d had enough”), the movie’s first half-hour largely hangs fire with dreary exposition and lackluster dialogue, and would benefit from heavy scissoring.

Thereafter, pic sticks slavishly to the novel, with whole chunks of dialogue and v.o. by Williams that conjure up much of the book’s blackly comic tone and irreverent approach to highly PC, feminist issues.

Winner plays up the unreality with off-center framing and careful use of lenses, recalling Polanski’s efforts to give a heightened, jet-lag feel to “Frantic,” although flat lighting and grubby color give the whole thing a bargain-basement look. Cutting is sharp and unlingering, and David Fanshawe’s melodramatic score pumps up genre elements already present in Zahavi’s original.

As the worm who turns, newcomer Williams tent-poles the movie with a fine perf that catches the work’s bitter-sardonic tone and pulls off some tricky dialogue. (Since making the film in summer ’92, actress has carved a career in TV and legit.) Richardson, McCallum, Cole and Sylvia Syms (the last in a waspish cameo as an employment agency boss) play their stereotypes to the hilt.

Visuals in the sex scenes and bloodletting are discreet by contempo standards , verging more on the cartoony.

LONDON FEST

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Dirty Weekend

(BRITISH)

  • Production: A UIP release (U.K.) of a Scimitar Films production. Produced by Michael Winner, Robert Earl. Executive producer, Jim Beach. Directed by Winner. Screenplay, Winner, Helen Zahavi, based on Zahavi's novel.
  • Crew: Camera (color), Alan Jones; editor, "Arnold Crust" (Winner); executive editor, Chris Barnes; music, David Fanshawe; production design, Crispian Sallis; sound (Dolby), David Brill; associate producer, Ron Purdie; assistant director, Purdie. Reviewed at MGM Oxford Street 2 theater, London, Oct. 29, 1993. Running time: 102 MIN.
  • With: Bella ... Lia Williams Reggie ... David McCallum Nimrod ... Ian Richardson Tim ... Rufus Sewell Charles ... Shaughan Seymour Norman ... Michael Cole Mr. Brown ... Mark Burns Mrs. Crosby ... Sylvia Syms Marion ... Miriam Kelly

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Update: 2024-08-01

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