This is what they should reserve the word drama for. Very powerful and real performances all around. Alan Bates gives a rousing portrayal as the older brother Andy, who constantly berates and somewhat belittles everyone of his family members. He is the star apparently, but little known Brian Cox also shines as the younger brother Steven. He is pretty young in this one, but his acting has and always will be phenomenal in almost anything he does. The movie itself is a bit lagging in terms of pace and story. All the brothers come home and tension ensures, not much more I can give away than that. It's worth checking out for Brian Cox fans, such as myself. I really enjoyed this film and it's more emotional fare than I'm used to. As real to life as any drama can get.
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jsargent0430 April 2006
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petermoconnor30 January 2013This is old school acting so redolent of the British stage during its 'angry young man' heyday. Bolam simmers throughout and does more with a body posture than other modern actors do with a facial expression; Cox ruminates throughout, a beautiful portrayal of a soul in torment; and Bates gesticulates, explodes and with sheer energy of purpose drives this drama. This is acting of the highest order. Yes it's stagey - it was written for the stage! But Anderson takes us up close and personal mirroring the claustrophobia of the subject matter - a family crippled by the past and barely able to cover the cracks. The director makes us feel like we are part of the room and it is uncomfortable but compulsive viewing.
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I'm not sure this is really a film, more a piece of theatre, preserved. However, the combination of David Storey as writer with Lindsay Anderson as director is certainly intriguing.
Bill Owen and Constance Chapman have been married for forty years, and are waiting for their three sons to join them to celebrate. Andrew, the eldest (Alan Bates), has given up his job as a solicitor to become an artist. Colin (James Bolam) is an executive with a nice car and a lonely life of bachelorhood. And Steven, the baby (Brian Cox), has four children, but is troubled by memories and fancies of the past.
Over all their lives lies the spectre of a dead firstborn, Jamie, talented, and the favourite of his parents, as well as the one to be blamed for a forced alliance with a baby on the way. The celebration day comes to the boil and then fizzes away again with things said and unsaid.
In many ways, not much happens, but when it does, you listen. The performances are superb from all the cast (plus Gabrielle Daye as the nosey next door neighbour). The play leaves you laughing one minute and then shocked and moved the next.
Not entirely successful, then, as cinema - but a valuable record of an intriguing play. -
carol_robinson13 December 2001As one of the American Film Theatre movies, "In Celebration" is difficult to find on tape, but this story of an English family gathering for the parents' anniversary deserves a wider audience. Three grown sons argue over their individual problems while Mum bustles about cluelessly and Da waits uneasily for whichever crisis might erupt first. As the angry brother with some unresolved issues, Alan Bates makes the strongest impression, but the other actors are excellent as well.
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runamokprods15 September 2016The great Lindsay Anderson adapts another play for film.
Quite interesting, well acted (a then quite young Alan Bates, Brian Cox, Bill Owen among others) study of dysfunctional working class English family where the three sons have become educated and moved up in the world, but are still stuck in the wounds of their childhood.
The production still feels very stagy, and some of the writing is too theatrical for film, but much of the play is moving and nicely complex; finding ways to combine the personal and the political.
It does feel a bit dated -- from a time when breaking away from living the life your parents expected was still a more radical idea. -
TheLittleSongbird14 February 2022'In Celebration' is not my favourite of the plays adapted on film for the American Film Theatre series. Do prefer the ones with more complex characterisation and the ones with more of an emotional core, such as 'The Iceman Cometh' and 'Three Sisters'. As a play, 'In Celebration' is still very good and very interesting. It is hard to resist such great actors, such as Alan Bates, James Bolam and Brian Cox, and a fine director in Lindsay Anderson.
As far as the American Film Theatre films go, 'In Celebration' is not one of the best. It's not 'The Iceman Cometh', 'The Homecoming' and 'Butley'. It is still in the better half in a film series where most were in the middling category, and something of a relief after being very underwhelmed by 'Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris' shortly beforehand. It's not perfect, but it is still incredibly well acted (a common strength in the series) and intelligently staged.
Shall get the not so good things out of the way. Nothing is done terribly but some things work better than others. Like most other films in the American Film Theatre series, the stage origins are obvious and not a lot is done opening the action up in such an intimate setting and while much of the stage direction is very intelligent with the character dynamics it's a little on the safe side.
The ending, and this is true of the play itself actually, is abrupt and it also feels incomplete. It at times drags in the talkier sections and the suspense could have been more.
Like pretty much all the American Film Theatre films, the best component of 'In Celebration' is the acting. Bates' hard hitting performance is justifiably lauded, but Bolam and particularly Cox are also splendid and should not be overlooked. Anderson directs with a lot of intelligence and stays loyal to the spirit and details of the play beautifully on the whole. The film is nicely shot and the intimate setting doesn't always come over as over-confined.
Furthermore, the drama is more often than not very harrowing and moving, especially when the already richly drawn characters are more troubled. The script is wry and thoughtful and captures beautifully and the characters' complexities (namely the most troubled Steven). Christopher Gunning's score is unobtrusive and subtle enough, allowing the atmosphere created by the performances to speak.
Overall, not perfect but there is a lot to be impressed by and celebrate. 7/10. -
funkyfry26 December 2006I saw this movie because I'm a fan of the director, Lindsay Anderson. I think Anderson and the other artists, as well as the actors, all did a good job but the film is somewhat hampered in that it does not even attempt to be cinematic -- it's very much a filmed play. Almost all the action takes place in one room, and there is no attempt by the film-makers to "expand" the action into the outdoors. I respect the film-makers' audacity, but I think it made this 2+ hour long film a bit more of a chore than it should have been.
The story is pretty simple; basically a coal miner and his clueless wife are celebrating their anniversary and all 3 of their sons come home for the occasion. Turns out that there are many unresolved issues between the sons and their parents, as well as each other -- largely these focus on the death of their eldest sibling, possibly due to abuse. There is also the implication that one of the characters is homosexual, though this isn't expored much. Alan Bates provides the film's most resonant and memorable performance as the son who is perhaps closest to the edge of insanity. He and his brother are on other sides of the economic divide as well, and there is an underlying theme of money and self worth that's explored through the conflict between these brothers.
Considering how all the action is focused on those characters and that one room, the film is exceptionally well made. But I just can't see myself taking this one out very often or recommending it to friends. If you're a fan of Anderson or of the original play, it's worth watching, but for most people I would recommend other films by Anderson. -
amosduncan_200019 April 2012If you are looking for some of the wonderful off kilter charm of Lindsey Anderson's other films, you might be disappointed with this. If you are able to respond to great filmed theater along the lines of "Glengarry Glen Ross," "Long Day's Journey Into Night," Olivier's "Othello" and indeed the American Film Theater's great movie "The Homecoming", you may go all the way with this one, which I found a deeply moving experience.
Storey's play has some odd parallels to Pinter's "Homecoming" (a comic horror story of family that is perhaps the best of the brief life of the American Film Theater series) and perhaps primed by that film
I was sort of waiting for something bitter or freakish to occur for about the first half. But it is Storey's purpose to illustrate that even among families of great love and decency, dark secrets and bitter resentments can brew.
The film brings much humor and intensity to the subject. It's a thing of beauty. Critically
the affection Storey has for his characters never slips into sentimentality. This movie was a
big discovery for me. Give it a shot and see what you think. -
sol-7 August 2005The acting here is quite competent, and it is interesting to watch one of Lindsay Anderson's lesser known films, however adapted from a theatre play, it does not disguise its roots very well, and it is quite talkative with little real action. Action is not necessary for all types of film, but in this case having the characters sitting or standing about while talking is not enough for the material to have spice. It is about emotional confrontations, and sure enough, the performers deliver well in some intense scenes. But as a film and not a theatre production, it only ever feels half-baked, and it certainly does not showcase Anderson's directing skills, which proved to be great in his trilogy with Malcolm McDowell.
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Prismark1012 June 2017Lindsay Anderson directs a stage play adapted by writer David Storey.
It is set in a Derbyshire mining town as Mr and Mrs Shaw (Bill Owen and Constance Chapman) celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary and their three sons have come to join in with the celebrations.
Mr Shaw is a miner, he plans to complete his 50th year in the mine pit which is next year and retire. His sons want him to retire now. Mrs Shaw seems to have come from a well to do family, she might had become pregnant by her husband hence she married beneath him yet she does not come across as too bright but seems to have been a dutiful wife and mother.
Tensions emerge once all the sons come around and there seems to be memories of the eldest child who died as a boy which no one is sure of why which seems to be the catalyst.
Andrew (Alan Bates) is the eldest and the most fractious. He is a solicitor who has gone on to become a drifter and a artist off sorts.
Colin (James Bolam) seems to have been left wing rebel now a negotiator for his company, a well off executive with a company car but unmarried. Again Andrew pulls his leg by questioning his sexuality.
Steven (Brian Cox) the youngest is a writer but has stopped writing. He is married with children but seems to be haunted by the past.
Periodically their neighbour Mrs Burnett drops in.
The film is a series of tensions that come on and off the boil interspersed with humour. The trouble is it looks too much of a stage play which has not been opened up. It is nicely acted but some of it was hard to understand as well. It actually does not feel like a feature film but more like a BBC Play for Today. -
avenuesf13 March 2020"In Celebration" has a buildup that is very reminiscent of a Pinter play. Three sons go home to join their parents in Yorkshire for their 40th anniversary, and one of them (Alan Bates, excellent as usual) is an aggressive, angry instigator who isn't afraid to pull skeletons out of the closet. As the family members continue to interact with each other there are bits and pieces of history that are presented like red herrings (the questionable death of a child, another son whose plagued by nightmares of growing up are just two examples) and the film's 131 minute talky and heated running time seems to be building to a major confrontation.
Instead, it doesn't. No secrets are revealed, everyone goes back to playing their roles, says goodbye, and the film is over.
Like most of Anderson's films, I thought "In Celebration" was beautifully performed, but the ending (or lack of) made me seriously wonder what the point was. I grew up watching Anderson's films and consider him to be one of the our finest directors, but this effort was a major disappointment to me. -
malcolmgsw7 March 2022This film reminds me of the Monty Python sketch featuring old Yorkshireman trying to complete as to who had the worst childhood. This film consists of the brothers of the family bickering with each other and their parents. Yawn.
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Fatabelly24 February 2023A very slow and extremely tedious film about a Yorkshire family reuniting up north to celebrate their parents anniversary.
Unfortunately, it's not filmed in Yorkshire, and there's not a real Yorkshire accent to be heard anywhere! Even old 'Compo' couldn't convince anyone he was a Yorkshireman... maybe because he was actually a southerner!
Strangely the classic film "Brassed Off" is a better portrayal of Yorkshire folk in an old mining village, and one of the stars was Scottish!
There are brief moments of good acting from the all star cast, but they are few and far between in this bore of a movie.