Review #16: 'Privilege' (1967)

Made on the cusp of 'swinging' London/Britain, this rather prescient story of the states use of popular culture as a form of mass control (in this instance, pop music), and the abuse of a single human in place of controlling everyone else of the same age group, is a bizarrely forgotten piece of British cinema. Even the presence of two well-known figures of the time, did not seem to help this piece; these being Paul Jones (famous as front man for pop group Manfred Mann), and Jean Shrimpton, who is said to have been the world's first supermodel.

Steven Shorter (Paul Jones), is "the most dangerously loved entertainer in the world". Arriving back to the UK, after a successful tour of America, it is decided, by the collection of his entourage, that they need to change Steven's image from anguished rebel (who in the opening song, is beaten by prison guards, locked in a cage, and pleading to his hysterical fans to set him free), to a born-again Christian. That is to repent all of his sins to his adoring fans, changing their attitudes, making them fit for society. This culminates in a Riefenstahl-like rally.

Shorter walks through the film in a child-like way, petulantly giving short answers, and looking to the floor. In public and in photo shoots, he visibly winces, screwing his face up, as if in severe distress or pain. He is utterly and helplessly controlled. A puppet used by the state; by the Christian church. Vanessa Ritchie (Shrimpton), is commissioned to paint a portrait of Steven. So begins a dialogue between the characters, as Vanessa attempts to break through the closed Steven, and to teach him that there is more to the world, he doesn't have to be a prisoner. The portrait we see later (we are unaware if the piece is completed) is haunting. Like Jones' character it is not complete, the surface of the canvas marked but not whole.

Directed by British filmmaker Peter Watkins, it was a progression of his experiments mixing documentary and drama. Whilst working for the BBC, Watkins made such a realistically, and horrific 'docudrama' about a possible nuclear attack on Britain, and the visceral effects of this, that The War Game (1965) was immediately deemed too dangerous and horrible a programme that it was not shown until 1985. Later, in 1971, Watkins released the American-set Punishment Park, which again plays with the conventions of both dramatic and documentary cinema, to tell of a not-too-distant dystopian future, where subversives are rounded up in detention camps, and made to either surrender or to undergo major physical and mental forms of torture in the heat of the desert. Watkins is quite often (particularly his earlier films) prescient in the political landscape of the western world. Punishment Park, could be seen to mirror recent events in our history, Guantanamo Bay 'detention centre' springs to mind. Many would have to make this similar decision.

Watkins has subsequently blurred line of drama and documentary further. His film La Commune (1999), about a collective of radicals during the Franco-Prussian war, Watkins has the film crew interviewing the 'character's'. Whilst Privilege is not a perfect movie, it certainly has it's charms. The film is also very funny at moments. This is provided by the eccentric cast of the pop-machine entourage. British cinema was receiving a lot of international attention, as the beginning of the 'summer of love' made the UK a focal point for fashion and popular culture. Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up (1966), and Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (also 1966), only perpetuated the 'Cool-Britannia' philosophy of the time. I believe Privilege should have its place along with these, and other British/European films of the time, and remembered for being a wildly interesting, and important British film - both sociologically and politically.


Directed by: Peter Watkins
Starring: Paul Jones, Jean Shrimpton, Mark London
Country: UK

Rating: ****

Marc Ivamy