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Screenwriter Bruce Robinson made his directorial debut with this British comedy which portrays the last throes of an eccentric friendship during the final days of the sixties. Withnail and “I” (or Marwood) are both unsuccessful and unemployed actors. Bound together by poverty and dreams of stardom, they share a flat of indescribable squalor and live on a diet of alcohol, pills and pot. Withnail is fast becoming a burned-out relic of the sixties, while Marwood is trying to reassimilate into society. The two decide to spend a soul-cleansing week in the country in a primitive cottage borrowed from Withnail’s eccentric uncle Monty, but things go from worse to even worse and their dreams of an idyllic retreat rapidly degenerate into an hilarious nightmare. Cast includes Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann, Richard Griffiths, Ralph Brown and Michael Elphick.
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Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
311292
Language
English
Audience classification
MA
Subject categories
Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Shared housing
Feature films → Feature films - Great Britain
Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Shared housing
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)