Privilege (film)

Privilege
Directed by	Peter Watkins
Produced by	John Heyman
Written by	Norman Bogner
Starring	Paul Jones Jean Shrimpton Mark London Jeremy Child
Music by	Mike Leander
Cinematography	Peter Suschitzky
Edited by	John Trumper
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	1967 (1967)
Running time	103 mins
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$700,000[1]

Privilege is a British film directed by Peter Watkins. It was released in 1967 being produced by John Heyman. Johnny Speight wrote the story, and Norman Bogner wrote the script. Some of it was filmed on location in Birmingham, England, partly at Birmingham City F.C.'s St Andrew's stadium and at Birmingham Town Hall.

Plot summary

The story is set in a near-future 1970s and concerns a disillusioned pop singer, played by Paul Jones, who is manipulated by the church and state, to turn him into a messianic leader.

Influences

The film was greatly influenced by the award-winning 1962 Wolf Koenig/Roman Kroitor National Film Board of Canada documentary Lonely Boy, which in cinema verité style follows the growing hysteria surrounding then teen idol Paul Anka, with some scenes (notably that showing Steven Shorter at a table with a venue owner named “Uncle Julie” in both) being almost one-to-one reproductions of the earlier work. However, Lonely Boy has a different theme, that of a popular singer being merchandised by the music industry.^[2] The director of Privilege, Peter Watkins, had made a study of this earlier documentary film to prepare himself for filming Privilege. A DVD release of Privilege included Lonely Boy as well as an excerpt of an essay on that film as extra features.^[3][4][5]

Watkins also believes that a scene from Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange was taken from Privilege.^[5]

Cast

• Paul Jones as Steven Shorter
• Jean Shrimpton as Vanessa Ritchie
• Mark London as Alvin Kirsch
• William Job as Andrew Butler
• Max Bacon as Julie Jordan
• Jeremy Child as Martin Crossley
• James Cossins as Professor Tatham
• Frederick Danner as Marcus Hooper
• Victor Henry as Freddie K
• Arthur Pentelow as Leo Stanley
• Steve Kirby as Squit
• Malcolm Rogers as the Reverend Jeremy Tate
• Doreen Mantle as Miss Crawford
• Michael Graham as Timothy Arbutt
• Michael Barrington as the Bishop of Essex

Note: Gary Glitter auditioned for the lead role that eventually went to Paul Jones. Glitter's career later took off in collaboration with Mike Leander, responsible for the film's music.

Musical score

The film featured Jones' 1967 number five hit record "I've Been a Bad, Bad Boy", and a soundtrack album was released in the US and UK the same year.

In 1978, the Patti Smith Group recorded one of the film's songs, "Set Me Free" (as "Privilege (Set Me Free)") on their album Easter. The recording reached number 72 on the UK singles chart and number 13 on the singles chart in Ireland.

Home video release

Privilege was released on DVD in the UK on the BFI's Flipside imprint. The disc included two of Peter Watkins's short films: The Forgotten Faces (1961) and The Diary of an Unknown Soldier (1959), as well as the original Privilege trailer.

A Blu-ray Disc version has also been released after problems due to "an issue with materials" were resolved.^[6]

References

External links

• Notes on Privilege from Peter Watkin's website
• Privilege at the Internet Movie Database
• Article in Bright Lights Film Journal
• Feature at Britmovie