Bright Young Things

Bright Young Things

Bright Young Things
List Price: $27.98
Our Price: $24.99
You Save: $2.99 (11%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $0.99 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases


(Click here)
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada

DVD Cover Information

Actor: Dan Aykroyd, Jim Broadbent, Jim Carter, Simon Callow, Stephen Campbell Moore
Brand: Warner Brothers
Primary Contributor: Dan Aykroyd
Primary Contributor: Stephen Campbell Moore
Primary Contributor: Mortimer, Emily
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-02-08
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: New Line Home Video

Movie Reviews of Bright Young Things

Movie Review: A Snappy,Jazzy look at "The Lost Generation"
Summary: 5 Stars

Between the two World Wars, a group of young idealists,Bohemian in attitude and coming from either the artist/poet/musician throngs or from the idle sensationally bored upper class , needed to occupy their time with parties,fashion,drugs,booze,reckless living and the new way of thought,all to find some kind of meaning to life.They were known as "The Lost Generation".These were the days of Hemingway,Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein.Lots of them tragic figures,brilliant beyond belief,but many brought to despair and suicide.

Actor Stephen Fry has adapted with great pizzazz Evelyn Waugh's satirical 1930 novel "Vile (Decaying) Bodies" in a rip roaring,carefree and "care-less" depiction of this group of Bohemian Richie-Riches known as "Bright Young Things".The film is fast paced and bawdy.The characters are feckless and obnoxious.They are living on the edge of disaster and the world flocks to read about them in the London Tabloids.In fact, they garner more attention than "The Royals".(Face it, has celebrity goings on ever changed? Britney beat out Obama in the headlines yesterday! C'mon?)These young people had no interest in politics,they treated money like water,and excess was the name of the game!They lived for the moment knowing that somehow it would end....but who cared?

I have always admired the generosity and sensitivity of Stephen Fry (BLACK ADDER,WILDE,PETER'S FRIENDS) as an actor these past 20+ years,and as a director I admire him even more.The cast assembled for this look at "The Lost Generation" is a veritable UK Who's-Who: Jim Broadbent,Imelda Staunton,James MacAvoy (currently in ATONEMENT),Emily Mortimer (currently in LARS AND THE REAL GIRL),Julia McKenzie and Stephen Campbell Moore as well as Americans staples Dan Aykroyd and Stockard Channing....and Fry lets them sizzle to a fizzle as these "bright young things" burn their candles at both ends and in the middle until some of them snuff out completely,lost in oblivion.Society dances on the edge in this film,and not since WILD PARTY or CHICAGO has a film so captured the reckless abandon of a generation.This is not a stodgey English Period Piece all corsetted and prim like Waugh's other famous "Brideshead Revisited" and "A Handful of Dust" (Both made into rather dreary films IMO).BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS is a brilliantly acted, all stops pulled out, nonsensical romp through the 1930's leading up to the Blitz.

The DVD extras are wonderfully informative including a small featurette filmed by "the runners" who worked on the film,giving the casual filmgoer a day to day look at the behind the scenes work and workers on films.The other featurette is a look at Fry and also includes a superb commentary.WORTH IT from a marvelous actor in his directorial debut.

Other films dedicated to "The Lost Generation" are WAITING FOR THE MOON,THE MODERNS,NORA,TOM AND VIV,SCOTT AND ZELDA,THE GREAT GATSBY, A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY and the Broadway play THE VIOLET HOUR.

Summary of Bright Young Things

"Some time in the past when things were much as they are now, only more so..." A satirical comedy as well as a love story, Bright Youngs Things marks the the directoral debut of actor Stephen Fry. "Bright Young Things," says Fry, "is a period film shot with modern pace and cinematography. It deals with fame, sexual scandal, greed, night-clubbing, and the frantic glamour of youth."

While the central plot of Bright Young Things is a romance, it is also a highly topical social comedy that shows a conservative older generation failing to understand the club culture, music, dance, and frenetic pace of its children, modern society at its most decadent and most colorful is fully on display as is the popular media fueled by gossip columnists and paparazzi who dominate a tabloid press propelled by rumor and scandal.

Art House & International DVD Video

DVD Video
Movies most talked about in British Period Dramas A-C
Cyrano de Bergerac ImageCyrano de Bergerac
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2009-01-06; DVD
Best price: $15.49
Price in other shops: $24.99
Crusoe: The Complete Series ImageCrusoe: The Complete Series
UNI DIST CORP. (MCA); Release date: 2009-05-05; DVD
Best price: $19.99
Price in other shops: $29.98
The Count of Monte Cristo ImageThe Count of Monte Cristo
BUENA VISTA HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2002-09-10; DVD
Best price: $4.81
Price in other shops: $14.99
Copying Beethoven ImageCopying Beethoven
Release date: 2007-04-03; DVD
Best price: $7.76
Price in other shops: $19.98
Clarissa ImageClarissa
Acorn; Release date: 2005-08-09; DVD
Best price: $21.98
Price in other shops: $39.99
City of Vice ImageCity of Vice
Koch International; Release date: 2008-06-10; DVD
Best price: $15.13
Price in other shops: $29.98
The Children of Huang Shi ImageThe Children of Huang Shi
SONY PICTURES HOME ENT; Release date: 2009-01-20; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops: $28.96
Casanova (Masterpiece Theater) ImageCasanova (Masterpiece Theater)
WGBH BOSTON VIDEO; Release date: 2006-10-17; DVD
Best price: $13.35
Price in other shops: $24.95
Casanova ImageCasanova
BUENA VISTA HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2006-04-25; DVD
Best price: $3.85
Price in other shops: $14.99
Masterpiece Theatre: Carrie's War ImageMasterpiece Theatre: Carrie's War
WGBH BOSTON VIDEO; Release date: 2006-06-27; DVD
Best price: $8.90
Price in other shops: $19.95
Similar DVD Movies
Vile Bodies ImageVile Bodies
by Evelyn Waugh
Back Bay Books; Published: 1999-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops: $14.99
The Last September ImageThe Last September
Release date: 2000-09-12; DVD
Best price: $8.64
Price in other shops: $14.98
The Last King of Scotland (Widescreen Edition) ImageThe Last King of Scotland (Widescreen Edition)
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2007-04-17; DVD
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops: $14.98
Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (Sci-Fi TV Miniseries) (Two-Disc DVD Set) ImageFrank Herbert's Children of Dune (Sci-Fi TV Miniseries) (Two-Disc DVD Set)
LIONS GATE ENTERTAINMENT; Release date: 2003-05-20; DVD
Best price: $7.37
Price in other shops: $14.98
Shakespeare Retold ImageShakespeare Retold
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-07-24; DVD
Best price: $21.49
Price in other shops: $34.98
Shameless - The Complete First Season ImageShameless - The Complete First Season
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-04-24; DVD
Best price: $23.45
Price in other shops: $34.98
State of Play (BBC Miniseries) ImageState of Play (BBC Miniseries)
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-02-26; DVD
Best price: $20.98
Price in other shops: $34.98
Bollywood Queen ImageBollywood Queen
Release date: 2004-11-09; DVD
Best price: $5.89
Price in other shops: $14.98
Rory O'Shea Was Here ImageRory O'Shea Was Here
Universal; Release date: 2005-06-14; DVD
Best price: $2.44
Price in other shops: $29.98
Starter for 10 ImageStarter for 10
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-07-31; DVD
Best price: $5.36
Price in other shops: $14.98
Compare prices and read customer reviews for more than one million DVD titles.
Oscar 2005 Winners