Intimate Relations, a bizarre black comedy set in 50s England, is an original screenplay based on the true story of a fatal attraction between a mother, her daughter, and a young sailor, written and directed by Philip Goodhew. The film, which marks Goodhew's directorial feature film debut, stars Julie Walters (an Oscar nominee for Educating Rita) and Rupert Graves (The Madness of King George).
Intimate Relations is a fitting new beginning for HandMade Films, following its acquisition by Canada's Paragon Entertainment Corporation in August 1994. HandMade was the UK's most prolific independent film producer of the 80s, with a reputation for eclectic and quirky films with a strong commercial base, including Mona Lisa, Life of Brian, A Private Function and Withnail and I. Intimate Relations, a hit at the AFM in February, where Fox Searchlight picked up several major territories, marks HandMade's welcome return to form and to international prominence.
Set in a small British provincial market town at the end of 1954, Intimate Relations is a barometer of a time, a decade after the end of the Second World War, when the country went through something of an identity crisis. Post-war austerity and the UK's diminution as an imperial power provide a backdrop to the film, where the characters' cheery resilience provides a veil to cover up a number of quite nasty truths.
Goodhew, known in UK as an actor (including a role as the wicked Daniel Freeman, who burnt down the eponymous motel in the top-rating soap Crossroads), had long wanted to write and direct features. Finding a real life case from the 50s, Goodhew had his story, and wrote the screenplay. '99 per cent of the facts are accurate,' he says. 'I changed all the names and combined some of the events, but the language is spot on. The coyness in the newspapers of never mentioning sex is where the title comes from; sex was always termed 'intimate relations'.' Nick Thomas
Prod co: HandMade Films, Boxer Films, Paragon Entertainment Corp
Prods: Angela Hart, Lisa Pope, Jon Slan
Dir/Scr: Philip Goodhew Ph: Andrés Garretón
Prod des: Caroline Greville-Morris
Ed: Pia De Ciaula
Cast: Julie Walters, Rupert Graves, Matthew Walker, Laura Sadler
Running time: 102 mins
Int sales: HandMade
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