Bernard and the Genie
| Bernard and the Genie | |
|---|---|
Title card featuring the lamp
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| Genre | |
| Written by | Richard Curtis |
| Directed by | Paul Weiland |
| Starring |
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| Theme music composer | Howard Goodall |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 1 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
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| Cinematography | Roger Pratt |
| Editor(s) | Ian Weil |
| Running time | 67 minutes |
| Distributor | BBC |
| Release | |
| Original release | 23 November 1991 |
Bernard and the Genie is a 1991 British fantasy comedy-drama television film directed by Paul Weiland and written by Richard Curtis. Co-produced by Attaboy and Talkback for BBC Television, the film was first shown on BBC1 on 23 November 1991. A comic fantasy that takes its inspiration from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, it follows Alan Cumming as an art dealer who is not having a good day.
The film begins in an ancient location where a man is cornered by a sorcerer after a knife-throwing accident. The sorcerer transforms the man into a genie and traps him in a lamp as punishment.
Two thousand years later, Bernard Bottle, an art dealer for a prestigious firm in London, scores a huge sale and earns his company fifty million pounds. His boss, Charles Pinkworth, congratulates him on the sale, but when Bernard reveals that he gave half of the money back to the original owners of the paintings, Pinkworth fires him. Bernard returns dejectedly to his flat and seeks comfort, but discovers that his girlfriend has been sleeping with his best friend. She then clears Bernard's flat of nearly everything, leaving behind only a small amount of furniture and an ornate antique lamp. He attempts to clean the lamp, causing an explosion that sends him to the hospital.
When Bernard returns to his flat, he encounters a man who tries to kill him. During the fight, Bernard wishes that the man could speak English, at which point he does. When the man states "Your wish is my command", Bernard wishes for the fight to stop, which it does. Bernard learns that the man, named Josephus, is a genie who had been trapped inside the lamp for two thousand years, and that he can grant almost any wish. The two forge a friendship in which Bernard introduces Josephus to modern food, music and entertainment, as well as using wishes to furnish his flat with expensive furniture and even the authentic Mona Lisa, which is subsequently reported missing from the Louvre.
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