MOG

Award-winning indie movie gets long overdue DVD release in the UK

On the eve of the mass outbreak of Beatlemania in 1963, John Lennon embarked on a short holiday to Barcelona with his manager Brian Epstein. Christopher Munch's thoughtful and provocative film speculates on what might have happened between the two on that brief escape from the spotlight, an intriguing portrait of an often awkward relationship, handled with a subtlety rarely seen in standard biopic fare.

Framed in evocative monochrome and with a running time of under an hour, it's almost a chamber piece; heavy on dialogue and debate, the central theme of Epstein's unrequited love for his charge (touched upon in various Fabs books over the years) is more nuanced than nudge-nudge. David Angus presents the manager as a scholarly, self-conscious and troubled gay man, pitiful rather than predatory, while Ian Hart's Lennon is, at turns, tender, aggressive, mocking and prone to mood swings. His treatment of his travel companion veers from respect to ridicule and back again in seconds, as does his behaviour toward a dolly bird air hostess and his wife Cynthia when she phones from England.

Hart is utterly convincing, the voice and mannerisms near perfect, and his second portrayal of Lennon not long after this 1991 release was arguably the only praiseworthy thing in the disappointing Hamburg-set Backbeat. But Munch's study of homosexual uncertainty would still have worked had it not focused on a pair of celebrities, and his deft handling of the material coupled with a keen eye for detail reaped rewards when the movie walked off with prizes at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals.