Tell Me Lies
Tell Me Lies is a 1968 British drama film directed and produced by Peter Brook. Based on a play by Denis Cannan called US, it stars Mark Jones, Pauline Munro, Eric Allan, and Robert Langdon Lloyd. The film was shot in London in the summer of 1967 and starred actors under contract to the Royal Shakespeare Company.[1] The film is based on the American involvement in the Vietnam War and was highly controversial at the time of its release.
Tell Me Lies premièred on 14 February 1968 in New York, and on 15 February 1968 in London. It was originally intended to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1968, but was not, due to it being declared inappropriate in the political context of the time. At the Venice Film Festival, it received a special mention from the Jury and was awarded the Luis Buñuel prize.[2]
Plot
A young couple, Bob Lloyd and Pauline Munro see a photo in a magazine of a baby mutilated by napalm and it changes their lives. They ask is London aware, is London concerned?[3]
Songs
- Tell Me Lies
- Road Number One
- Make and Break
- Barry Bondhus
- God is Flame
- Escalation
- The Leeches
- Rose of Saigon
- Any Complaints
- Icarus
Cast
The majority of the cast play "guests":
- Mark Jones: Mark
- Pauline Munro: Pauline
- Eric Allan: Guest
- Robert Langdon Lloyd: Bob (as Robert Lloyd)
- Mary Allen
- Ian Hogg: Guest
- Glenda Jackson: Guest
- Joanne Lindsay: Guest
- Hugh Sullivan: Guest
- Kingsley Amis: Guest
- Peggy Ashcroft
- James Cameron: Guest
- Stokely Carmichael: Guest
- Tom Driberg: Guest
- Paul Scofield
- Patrick Wymark: Guest
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
- Jeremy Anthony: Guest
- Hugh Armstrong: Guest
- Noel Collins: Guest
- John Hussey: Guest
- Marjie Lawrence: Guest
- Leon Lissek: Guest
- Ursula Mohan: Guest
- Reginald Paget: Guest
- Jacqueline Porcher: Guest
- Ivor Richards: Guest
- Clifford Rose: Guest
- Hilary Rose: Guest
- Steven Rose: Guest
- William Morgan Sheppard: Guest
- Barry Stanton: Guest
- Michael Williams: Guest
- Ian Wilson
- Henry Woolf: Guest
- Peregrine Worsthorne: Guest
The restoration, 2010-2012
In 2010, Peter Brook decided to track down his film – of which he had only a very damaged and incomplete 35mm copy. Through the intermediary of Jean-Claude Carrière, he made contact with the two foundations who had restored the complete film works of Pierre Etaix, co-written by Jean-Claude Carrière. Archives were searched across Britain and Ireland with film elements and a missing scene eventually found at the British Film institute.[2] These elements consisted of 15 separateA and B reels, comprising the film's 118 minute run time.
In December 2011, restoration began directed by Severine Wemaere, Director of the Technicolor Foundation foe Cinema Heritage and Giles Duval, Director of the Groupama Gan Foundation. The exact look Peter Brook had created for the film in 1968 was reproduced with absolute accuracy in the 2012 digital version.[3]
See also
References
- Trewin, John Courtenay (1971). Peter Brook: a biography. Macdonald and Co. p. 161.
- http://www.technicolorfilmfoundation.org/en/home/programs/the-restoration-of-tell-me-lies-by-peter-brook.html
- ISBN 978-2-918040-52-1