Still Crazy
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| Still Crazy | |
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| Directed by | Brian Gibson |
| Produced by | Amanda Marmot |
| Written by | Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais |
| Starring | Stephen Rea, Billy Connolly, Bill Nighy, Timothy Spall, Jimmy Nail, Juliet Aubrey |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures Corporation, Marmot Tandy Productions, The Greenlight Fund |
| Release date(s) | 30 October 1998 |
| Running time | 95 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Still Crazy is a 1998 comedy film about a fictional 70s rock band named "Strange Fruit", who, after being split up for several years, decide to get back together to perform at a reunion of the same concert that they played their last gig at. The film focuses on the personal lives on all of the different members, and their individual experiences with approaching middle-age and the success that eluded them.
It was nominated for two Golden Globes in 1999, but received surprisingly low attention given its cast lineup.
[edit] Synopsis
The film opens with the band performing at the Wisbech Rock Festival in 1977. Hughie (Billy Connolly) is giving a commentary of how that was their last performance. In the middle of their concert, lightning strikes the stage and the members spontaneously split up in frustration.
It then skips ahead 20 years to Tony Costello (Stephen Rea), who is in Majorca. He is recognised as one of the members of Strange Fruit by a stranger at a cafe, whose father happened to be the organiser of the original Wisbech Festival. Tony is persuaded to reunite the band.
He quickly manages to track down Karen (Juliet Aubrey), the band's original manager, who is now unhappily working in P.R.. She is at first reluctant to help with the reunion, but is inspired after finding some memorabilia in her garage.
Gradually, Karen and Tony track down the original members; Les (Jimmy Nail), who is a roofer with a family, David (Timothy Spall), who is working at a nursery and is being tracked down by the Inland Revenue, and Ray (Bill Nighy), who is living in a mansion with his Scandinavian wife, Astrid, and apparently working on a solo album. The final roadie, Hughie (Connolly), turns up unexpectedly while Brian (Bruce Robinson) is presumed to be dead, and is replaced by young Luke Shand.
All the members of the band end up agreeing to the rock festival performance, and the band starts touring Europe after Karen negotiates a tour with a record company executive who owns their original catalogue. Their performances aren't successful, and they are poorly received by the younger generation. Les still resents Ray for having replaced Brian's highly gifted brother (who died of a drug overdose), and their tensions flare. Tony begins to make advances to Karen, but she is reluctant as she had always been deeply attached to Brian. While there, Ray has a nervous breakdown, runs away from a gig, buys drugs from a man on the street (played by Mackenzie Crook) and falls into an icy canal. He is eventually returned, but his relationship with Strange Fruit has been damaged.
The band gradually improves enough to play one successful show, with no onstage breakdowns, and their hopes look a little better. However, after watching an interview on the television, in which Les and David imply that the band was much better before Ray joined it, Ray quits altogether and the tour is cancelled.
Karen and Tony manage to track down Brian, as it transpires that he never died, but that secluded himself to escape the world, with the help and care of Hughie the roadie. His return brings the band back together to play at the reunion of the Wisbech Festival (including Ray).
The supposed Inland Revenue lady ends up finding drummer David at the concert, revealing that all she really wants is "quick violent sex".
As the band begins to play one of their classics, old ghosts return and they begin to break down. However, they are rescued when Tony starts to play a song that meant much to the band (The Flame Still Burns), which was written by Les after Brian's brother's death, but was never played in any concerts due to tensions between himself and Ray. They perform it together, healing the tension, as they now have the measure of each other, and Brian's return is bigger than their disagreements.
[edit] Trivia
- The title is influenced by Paul Simon's song, Still Crazy After All These Years.
- The "Druid Circle" that the band visit is a real-life stone circle in Avebury, frequently referred to as the "Avebury Circle".
The career arc of Strange Fruit referenced career elements of several real-life acts, among whom were:
- Syd Barret's departure from Pink Floyd after his drug-induced nervous breakdown.
- Brian Wilson's withdrawal from the Beach Boys under similar circumstances.
- Ronnie Van Zant's death (along with other members of Lynyrd Skynyrd) in a 1977 plane crash, and subsequent replacement by brother Johnny
- David being tardy for the band's gig is reminiscent of Keith Moon for The Who's performances.
- Ray's character was supposedly inspired by David Coverdale of Whitesnake (more specifically in appearance and his solo album), and a friend of Ian La Frenais.
