Privilege (film)
| Privilege | |
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| Directed by | Peter Watkins |
| Produced by | John Heyman |
| Written by | Norman Bogner |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Mike Leander |
| Cinematography | Peter Suschitzky |
| Edited by | John Trumper |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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103 mins |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $700,000 |
Privilege is a 1967 British film directed by Peter Watkins and 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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
Watkins also believes that a scene from Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange was taken from Privilege.
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