It's All Gone Pete Tong

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It's All Gone Pete Tong
Directed by Michael Dowse
Produced by James Richardson
Allan Niblo
Written by Michael Dowse
Starring Paul Kaye
Beatriz Batarda
Kate Magowan
Mike Wilmot
Distributed by Matson Films
Release date(s) April 15, 2005
Running time 90 min.
Language English
IMDb profile

It's All Gone Pete Tong is a 2004 fictional independent biopic about Frankie Wilde (Paul Kaye), a DJ who goes completely deaf. The title is Cockney rhyming slang for "it's all gone wrong".

Several famous DJs appear in the film as "talking heads", giving the film a false sense of authenticity. Carl Cox, Tiësto, Sarah Main, Barry Ashworth, Paul van Dyk, Lol Hammond, and Pete Tong appear in the film.

Canadian comedian Mike Wilmot also appears in the film, as Frankie's agent. He won a 2005 Canadian Comedy Award for the role.

The film was released on April 15, 2005. The DVD was released on September 20, 2005. In 2005, it won two awards at the US Comedy Arts Festival for Best Feature and Best Actor (Paul Kaye) and swept the Gen Art Film Festival awards (Grand Jury and Audience). It was filmed on location in Ibiza and shot entirely in HD.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film begins showing a dirty, hermit-like man living in a very dirty padded room. The film then cuts back to one year earlier, showing DJ Frankie Wilde at the height of his fame on the party island of Ibiza. With a record contract in hand, he lives an opulent life performing at the hottest nightclubs and living in a gorgeous villa with his trophy wife Sonya. Sonya is a model that starred in his first music video (Rise Again), and they have a son King (product of an affair by another man). Frankie's career is guided by egotistical super-agent Max Haggar.

Contemporary DJs validate Frankie's mastery of the turntable. Paul van Dyk states, "Frankie was definitely one of the best. He had his very sort-of own style, his very own momentum with the crowd. I don’t think that anyone else did it his way." With fame, we also see him partaking in the traditional rock star lifestyle, complete with alcohol, drugs, and women. Frankie's drug addiction manifests itself, to Frankie, as a giant "Coke Badger".

Frankie begins noticing troubles with his hearing while watching a soccer match. Frankie is working on his next album, which appears to be greatly delayed. Helping him are his "two Austrian mates" Alfonse and Horst, who seem more suited for a metal band. Frankie continues working on his album and playing gigs at clubs, but his hearing begins to degrade rapidly. After a disastrous set of gigs, it's apparent to everyone, except Frankie, that he's going deaf. After playing another terrible set at a club one night, Max confronts Frankie. Frankie agrees to see a doctor, who tells him he's lost hearing in one ear and will lose hearing in the other, unless Frankie stops exposure to everything he loves dearly: loud music and drugs.

During a recording session with his Austrian mates, a guitar is smashed into an amplifier whose volume Frankie has maximized. Trying to listen to the speaker, the feedback knocks Frankie unconscious. The damage has left him permanently deaf. Without his hearing and without completion of the album, Frankie is abandoned by Max and Sonya. In a desperate attempt to regain his hearing, Frankie locks himself up in his house, which he "soundproofs", and ingests only fast food and drugs.

Frankie attempts suicide (by tying roman candles to his head), only to realize that he wants to live. Frankie meets lip-reading instructor Penelope and learns to read lips. As his ability increases, so does the closeness of their relationship. Over time, Frankie discovers that he can understand music and sounds through sight (viewing digital waveforms) and vibrations (tying speakers to his feet). Frankie mixes an album (Hear No Evil) and delivers it to Max, who, after listening to it, is ecstatic. His joy is only increased by the newly found knowledge that Frankie is completely deaf.

Max convinces Frankie to play live at Pacha as a comeback for the spurned DJ. Frankie agrees, reluctantly. Frankie proves he can still mix and he's better than ever. After the show, Frankie and Penelope disappear. As the film ends, we see Frankie and Penelope, with baby, walking down a street, unrecognized.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Primary

Frankie, DJ god, descends from the heavens of an Ibiza mega club.
Enlarge
Frankie, DJ god, descends from the heavens of an Ibiza mega club.
  • Frankie Wilde (Paul Kaye) is the king of DJs, slowly losing his hearing, and soon to lose everything he thinks is important to him: his job, his fame and his trophy wife.
  • Penelope (Beatriz Batarda) is the deaf lip-reading instructor who gives Frankie the tough love he never had and always needed.
  • Sonya (Kate Magowan) is the supermodel turned wife of Frankie Wilde. Her days are filled with deciding on what theme is more appropriate for their garden: Japanese or Spanish?
  • Max Haggar (Mike Wilmot) is Frankie's suger-agent. Fat, balding, and brash, Max is all about money and his cell phone is his lifeline.
  • Jack Stoddart (Neil Maskell) is the ruthless CEO of Motor Records who has no sympathy for Frankie. He says, "I didn’t want a deaf DJ on the label. I didn’t want the company to be touched with the deaf stamp. Well, business is tough and sometimes you have to make awkward decisions and I’ve made harder decisions than dropping the deaf DJ."

[edit] Secondary

  • Eric Banning (Dan Antopolsk) is the whimsical author of several biographies on Frankie Wilde.
  • Alfonse (Paul Spence) is one of Frankie's "Austrian mates", half of the metal group Ladderhause.
  • Horst (David Lawrence) is one of Frankie's "Austrian mates", half of the metal group Ladderhause.
  • Dr. Lim (Doctor S.C. Lim) is the doctor who diagnoses Frankie's deafness.
  • DJ Blink (Steve Oram) is Frankie's friend who runs off with Sonya.
  • King (Sterling Williams) is Frankie and Sonya's son (from a different father).
  • Coke Badger (Gideon Gold) is Frankie's personification of his drug addiction.
  • Pete Tong (As Himself)
  • Carl Cox (As Himself)
  • Paul Van Dyk (As Himself)
  • Sarah Main (As Herself)
  • Tiësto (As Himself)
  • Barry Ashworth (As Himself)
  • Lol Hammond (As Himself)
  • Charlie Chester (As Himself)
  • Danny Whittle (As Himself)

[edit] Music

[edit] Soundtrack

[edit] 2-Disc CD

[edit] CD 1

[edit] CD 2

[edit] DVD Extras

The U.S. version of the DVD includes 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles, and includes several extras that were part of the online/Web marketing campaign: Frankie Wilde: The Rise, Frankie Wilde: The Fall, and Frankie Wilde: The Redemption.

[edit] Trivia

  • The Coke Badger is a nod, not just to the rabbit in Donnie Darko but to the fairy godmother in Wild at Heart.
  • One of the line producers disappeared, presumably on a drug binge, during the shoot in Ibiza.
  • The film was shot 1.77 on HD.
  • The baby in the closing scenes is Paul Kaye's real baby.
  • Frankie's doctor is the director Michael Dowse's real-life doctor S. C. Lim, playing the part of himself; this character/ doctor also appears in Dowse's film Fubar.

[edit] Quotes

  • Frankie Wilde: Flip flop is to me perfection.
  • Frankie Wilde: I can confidently say Ibiza is dot dot dot.
  • Frankie Wilde: Maybe I should write a book. That might take years though, perhaps a pamphlet or brochure.
  • Frankie Wilde: We're bending the sounds. I've been forging it. We've a lyrical smelter.
  • Max Haggar: I think what he's trying to say is even though he feels that he has nothing to prove to you, he'd be happy to prove anything you want, to you.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Won

[edit] Nominated

  • Best Actor, Best Feature - Method Fest
  • Best Achievement in Production - BIFA
  • 8 Genie Awards

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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