An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1982)
Country: GB
Technical: col/1.33:1 94m
Director: Christopher Petit
Cast: Pippa Guard, Billie Whitelaw, Paul Freeman, Dominic Guard
Synopsis:
The day her boss commits suicide in his office, a private investigator assumes the case of a property developer's son: he has been found hanged and his father wants to know why.
Review:
Such was the state of serious British film-making at the beginning of the 80s, before receiving its shot in the arm from Goldcrest, Channel Four Films, the BFI and British Screen, a consortium headed by Simon Relph, son of Michael, one of this film's producers. Timorously shot in televisual format, it is like Stephen Frears' Gumshoe a homage to film noir, via Italian giallo, though it could have done with some of the former's knowing cheerfulness or Dario Argento's flamboyant excess. Even the title now seems outmoded, inappropriate given the plot's key player is a woman (Whitelaw); Guard is a callow presence, the dialogue wooden. The cinematography isn't bad but it is underlit, and nothing in the story remotely convinces. All the more surprising, then, how it was upheld by Sight&Sound as a beacon of hope for the national film industry. How far we have come.
Country: GB
Technical: col/1.33:1 94m
Director: Christopher Petit
Cast: Pippa Guard, Billie Whitelaw, Paul Freeman, Dominic Guard
Synopsis:
The day her boss commits suicide in his office, a private investigator assumes the case of a property developer's son: he has been found hanged and his father wants to know why.
Review:
Such was the state of serious British film-making at the beginning of the 80s, before receiving its shot in the arm from Goldcrest, Channel Four Films, the BFI and British Screen, a consortium headed by Simon Relph, son of Michael, one of this film's producers. Timorously shot in televisual format, it is like Stephen Frears' Gumshoe a homage to film noir, via Italian giallo, though it could have done with some of the former's knowing cheerfulness or Dario Argento's flamboyant excess. Even the title now seems outmoded, inappropriate given the plot's key player is a woman (Whitelaw); Guard is a callow presence, the dialogue wooden. The cinematography isn't bad but it is underlit, and nothing in the story remotely convinces. All the more surprising, then, how it was upheld by Sight&Sound as a beacon of hope for the national film industry. How far we have come.
Country: GB
Technical: col/1.33:1 94m
Director: Christopher Petit
Cast: Pippa Guard, Billie Whitelaw, Paul Freeman, Dominic Guard
Synopsis:
The day her boss commits suicide in his office, a private investigator assumes the case of a property developer's son: he has been found hanged and his father wants to know why.
Review:
Such was the state of serious British film-making at the beginning of the 80s, before receiving its shot in the arm from Goldcrest, Channel Four Films, the BFI and British Screen, a consortium headed by Simon Relph, son of Michael, one of this film's producers. Timorously shot in televisual format, it is like Stephen Frears' Gumshoe a homage to film noir, via Italian giallo, though it could have done with some of the former's knowing cheerfulness or Dario Argento's flamboyant excess. Even the title now seems outmoded, inappropriate given the plot's key player is a woman (Whitelaw); Guard is a callow presence, the dialogue wooden. The cinematography isn't bad but it is underlit, and nothing in the story remotely convinces. All the more surprising, then, how it was upheld by Sight&Sound as a beacon of hope for the national film industry. How far we have come.