Intimate Relations (1996 film)
| Intimate Relations | |
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| Directed by | Philip Goodhew |
| Produced by | Angela Hart Lisa Hope Jon Slann |
| Written by | Philip Goodhew |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Lawrence Shragge |
| Cinematography | Andres Garreton |
| Edited by | Pia Di Ciaula |
| Distributed by | Fox Searchlight |
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Release date
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10 September 1996 (Toronto F.F.) 6 June 1997 (US) 20 June 1997 (UK) 11 September 1997 (Aus) |
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Running time
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105 minutes |
| Country | Canada United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Intimate Relations is a 1996 Canadian-British film, the first movie by writer and director Philip Goodhew. It stars Rupert Graves, Julie Walters and a fifteen-year-old Laura Sadler, the only feature film in her short career. The film is a drama and black comedy about a young man who has an affair with the middle-aged housewife he is lodging with. Matters are soon complicated when the housewife's teenage daughter gets involved after developing a crush on the young lodger.
The film takes place in the 1950s in the suburbs of London. The film depicts the hypocritically prudish residents of a seemingly respectable household who, behind closed doors, indulge in the sort of sordid goings on they would publicly sneer at.
Marjorie Beaslie (Walters) is a housewife in her forties who takes in a lodger named Harold Guppey (Graves), who has just stumbled into town to look up his long-lost brother (played by Les Dennis). Although seemingly prudish (she no longer sleeps in the same bed as her husband, for "medical reasons"), Marjorie takes a liking to Harold despite him being a good twenty years her junior. They begin to have a clandestine affair, sneaking into bed together at night. Ever since taking in her lodger, Marjorie insists that Harold refer to her as "mum", giving more than a little oedipal slant to their subsequent lustful antics.
Marjorie's youngest daughter is fourteen-year-old Joyce (Sadler), a precocious, Lolita-like girl who alternates between trying to act grown up by putting on make up and smoking cigarettes, and acting childish by grossing people out with tales of medieval punishments and giggling at rude words.
Joyce is fascinated by Harold and with her teasing behaviour she cunningly turns him from being apathetic towards her to being intrigued by her. At one point, she catches Harold in bed with her mum, but seemingly does not realise what they are up to and merely thinks they're having an innocent "bunk up". She talks her way into getting them to let her climb into the bed, both Harold and Marjorie continue their intimate relations whilst Joyce is asleep, or rather, pretending to be and steadily realising what is actually going on. A few days later, Joyce blackmails Harold into taking her to a hotel for the night, where he turns the tables on her with every intent and purpose but actually diverts his attention by doing much the opposite as he seduces her before spurning her.
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