[HN Gopher] Withnail and I (2001)
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Withnail and I (2001)
Author : dcminter
Score : 124 points
Date : 2025-05-17 16:59 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.criterion.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.criterion.com)
| bilekas wrote:
| One of my favourite movies. While being hysterical it has the
| melancholic undertone too. Surprised to see it listed on the
| front page here though.
| pivic wrote:
| Agreed, it's a wonderful film, filled with fun, craziness, and
| melancholy.
|
| Just a week ago, Criterion re-released Withnail & I in 4K:
| https://awardswatch.com/criterion-collection-may-2025-brings...
| rwmj wrote:
| I have the Criterion Bluray from a few years back (which I
| guess without bothering to look is HD) and I thought it made
| it feel more like a TV movie. This may be a film that works
| better in standard def. Or it could just be what I'm used to.
| Citizen_Lame wrote:
| Maybe check TV settings. If you have smooth frame or fake
| interpolation on, it automaticity switches films to 60fps,
| which creates this made for TV look.
| polyvisual wrote:
| What an interesting read.
|
| I have a friend who is just like Vivian. I'm sure that in an
| alternative universe their wasted talents of observational wit
| and caustic retorts would have made them a world class comic
| playwright.
|
| "Here hair here". What a great film, also.
| jt2190 wrote:
| > "Here hair here"
|
| Here _hare_ here. (The hunter, leaving them a rabbit.)
| pengaru wrote:
| Silly movie, but had its moments: > I don't
| advise a haircut, man. > All hairdressers are in the
| employment of the government. > Hair are your aerials.
| > They pick up signals from the cosmos and transmit them directly
| into the brain. > This is the reason bald-headed men are
| uptight.
| bilekas wrote:
| > We've gone on holiday by mistake.
| MattPalmer1086 wrote:
| Don't threaten me with a dead fish!
| Lio wrote:
| Monty you terrible cunt!
| BLKNSLVR wrote:
| I need to rewatch it now that I've got a bit more context as to
| what it's about.
|
| I didn't "get it" the first go round.
|
| It's seems to be a "slice of life" type movie, in that it depicts
| a particularly interesting and eventful time in the characters
| lives, as opposed to having any kind of narrative or story.
|
| My favourite movies in that category is Fear and Loathing in Las
| Vegas. Just fucking madness bounded by opening a closing credits.
|
| Just a bunch of stuff that happened.
| zabil wrote:
| > I didn't "get it" the first go round.
|
| Same here--I missed it the first time around and found it
| pretty weird when I finally watched it.
|
| But on a recent trip to the Lake District, we ended up visiting
| a bunch of the filming spots, including the infamous telephone
| box in Bampton (still around and in good condition).
|
| That kind of changed how I saw the movie--it started to feel
| more like a bunch of odd little vignettes, each with its own
| strange charm. My partner and her family are big fans and talk
| about it all the time, so it's slowly grown on me. Definitely
| not a "one sitting" kind of film.
| gilleain wrote:
| The film is set (but not actually entirely filmed) in my home
| town of Camden. It still is a bit like that here - there's a guy
| I see occasionally walking around in a suit with a cat lying
| across his shoulders. Walking past, for example, the Dublin
| Castle which does feel like the type of place where someone might
| call you a 'perfumed ponce'. Also the final scene where they sit
| on a bench in the Regents Park is just by the old -lion- (edit
| wolf!) enclosure.
|
| "Throw yourself into the road, darling, you haven't got a
| chance!"
| zeristor wrote:
| I think it was the wolf enclosure, along the north south path
| in the NE part of Regent's Park.
|
| The Zoo has been rejigged since then, I attended the Danish
| Summer Fair just nearby every year, and used to pop out to say
| Hi to the wolves ('Hi hi ulve!') but they're now deeper in the
| zoo.
|
| The Tigers are along by the Gibbons and the camels, on the
| boundary of the East - West path. Occasionally walking across
| Regent's Park you'll hear a loud roar.
|
| I guess the US Ambassador who's residence is next door hears
| that a fair bit.
|
| Back on topic.
|
| Uncle Monty with his potted vegetables was bonkers. 'Flowers
| are tarts!'
| gilleain wrote:
| You're totally right, it was the wolves. I misremembered.
|
| Monty was great - "Are you a sponge or a stone? Do you soak
| up new experiences?"
| Kaijo wrote:
| I find it impossible to reconcile Monty's character with
| the fact Richard Griffiths was only forty years old when he
| played him. Yes, forty. I'm 46 now but however old I get,
| Uncle Monty will forever remain the archetypal "batty older
| queen" in my head.
| gilleain wrote:
| That is wild, yes - he's one of those actors that always
| seems about that age. He was 57 or so when the first
| Harry Potter was filmed.
|
| In fact, I would like a Potter/Withnail mashup, with
| Harry looking confused and distraught while Withnail
| shouts "Have you been at the controls!!? I demand some
| booze!" at him.
| herbturbo wrote:
| "I voted Conservative"
| fennecbutt wrote:
| I love that you still call Camden a town, he he.
| helsinkiandrew wrote:
| Although it's not a town it is "Camden Town"
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden_Town
| zeristor wrote:
| Battersea Power Station Station
|
| I think they started referring to stations as Underground
| stations to avoid this:
|
| https://tfl.gov.uk/tube/stop/940GZZBPSUST/battersea-power-
| st...
| herbturbo wrote:
| Bruce Robinson wrote most of Withnail in the Spread Eagle at
| the end of Albert St.
| gilleain wrote:
| Nice. That's an excellent pub that is still there (not quite
| the same as it was I suppose)
| herbturbo wrote:
| Yeah I used to drink in there about 25 years ago - and then
| go and have curry and chips at George & Niki's over the
| road on Parkway.
| uint8_t wrote:
| There is a scene near the end where their
| dealer/friend/squatter rolls an enormous, conical joint, which
| he calls a "Camberwell Carrot."
|
| I'm not from the UK and have been dying to know if there's more
| cultural nuance to that slang than name dropping a
| neighborhood.
| Joeboy wrote:
| I don't think there's any more to it than Danny's explanation
| in the film.
|
| > I invented it in Camberwell and it looks like a carrot
| piltdownman wrote:
| The drunk roaring about 'perfumed ponces' is none other than
| Daragh O'Malley, the fantastic second-fiddle to Sean Bean in
| the 'Sharpe' TV series, and voices the lawyer in Grim Fandango
| amongst other roles!
|
| The family overall are well worth reading up on - his father
| was the Minister for Education who introduced free secondary
| education to Ireland, and his Mother was a muse of Patrick
| Kavanaghs and the subject of the famous ballad "On Raglan
| Road". His father Donogh, was even originally engaged to
| Richard Harris's sister, Audrey (who died during their
| engagement of leuekemia aged 21).
| Joeboy wrote:
| Odd that the photo is Ralph Brown as Danny.
|
| Although, if you look at this brief and rare Viv MacKerrell
| snippet[0], his performance is a lot more Danny than Withnail.
|
| [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc5vCZTkY7g&t=1283s
| initramfs wrote:
| I recognized Ralph Brown's face from Wayne's World 2:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E62a_RCtX4
|
| It's a funny scene.
| fennecbutt wrote:
| I love this movie. After I'd moved to the UK it was one of the
| first movies I watched with friends who are a gay couple and
| often reference how they are literally Withnail and Marwood.
| Joeboy wrote:
| Fun(?) fact - An actor that was supposed to play Marwood
| dropped out because they thought the film was homophobic.
|
| Robinson originally wanted Paul McGann, but he insisted on
| using his own accent, resulting in Robinson firing him and
| getting somebody else in. Then the somebody else dropped out,
| and McGann came back with a new Home Counties accent.
|
| Source: Some interview with Paul McGann I watched. No idea who
| the other actor was.
| macleginn wrote:
| Now that I think about it, "Withnail & I" is to "The Young Ones"
| what "Fawlty Towers" was to "Monty Python": a more structured,
| less madcap, sadder, and more philosophical take, which is still
| hysterically funny.
| emmelaich wrote:
| Full movie at https://archive.org/details/withnail-
| and-i-1987-720p-2102811... and
| https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4o5ema
| hounddogX wrote:
| If you liked Withnail & I, try "Naked" for the hard-edge &
| existential experience... you'll never forget "Naked" - it stays
| with you, for better or worse.
| squiffy wrote:
| I still think about some scenes in Naked having only seen it
| once. It's brutal and uncomfortable at many points, and a
| brilliant film.
|
| I was visiting Dalston, London and thought I recognised a
| certain house and sure enough it was the (at least exterior)
| filming location for "the" house in the film. It was
| characteristic enough to recognise even after one viewing.
| hardlianotion wrote:
| The film is a wonderful tribute to his friend, and it has given
| me so much pleasure.
| ubermonkey wrote:
| I LOVE that film -- which, by the way, was made in 1987, not
| 2001.
|
| The only time I've ever stood in line for an autograph photo at a
| con was for Paul McGann. My best friend's birthday was the
| following week, and while he's not a Doctor Who person, he IS the
| person who introduced me to _Withnail_. McGann was quite happy to
| inscribe a photo of himself as the Doctor with a line of his from
| the film ( "We've gone on holiday by mistake!").
| happymellon wrote:
| > was made in 1987, not 2001
|
| I think it's the article that was published on Criterion in
| 2001, rather than when it was originally written.
| dcminter wrote:
| Exactly - and the article was _written_ as the foreword of an
| edition of the screenplay in the 90s prior to being
| republished here.
| BLKNSLVR wrote:
| I'm a fan of Paul McGann, but for his role in the much maligned
| Alien 3. There's just something that vibes with me about Alien
| 3.
| cccybernetic wrote:
| An incredibly written film that's infinitely quotable.
|
| "Balls. We want the finest wines available to humanity. We want
| them here, and we want them now!"
|
| "Here Hare Here"
|
| "I feel like a pig shat in my head."
|
| "I don't advise a haircut, man. All hairdressers are in the
| employment of the government. Hair are your aerials. They pick up
| signals from the cosmos and transmit them directly into the
| brain. This is the reason bald-headed men are uptight."
| piltdownman wrote:
| While most would focus on Withnail and Danny's more on-the-nose
| moments, it's really Uncle Monty who steals every scene he
| features in.
|
| In my opinion he is simply one of the most beautifully realised
| characters in all of comedy, his pompous and lugubrious
| Oxbridge eccentricities representing the last vestiges of a
| more genteel era that Withnail had just missed out on being a
| beneficiary of (Free to those who can afford it, very expensive
| to those who can't).
|
| I can't dispute that, in his impeccable introduction his most
| quotable moments (and delivery) arise, with the vainglorious
| delivery of his Hamlet monologue one of the most succinct and
| hilarious summations of a character in Cinema:
|
| 'It is the most shattering experience of a young man's life
| when one morning he awakes and quite reasonably says to
| himself, "I will never play the Dane."'
|
| Ditto the magnificent upper-class eccentricity of his
| agrarian/sexual aspirations:
|
| "I think the carrot infinitely more fascinating than the
| geranium. The carrot has mystery. Flowers are essentially
| tarts. Prostitutes for the bees. There is a certain je ne sais
| quoi - oh, so very special - about a firm, young
| carrot...Excuse me..."
|
| However it is in his more maudlin moments where his dialogue -
| and the writing - truly shines, mourning the fin de siecle in
| his own way, with macabre little monologues hinting at his deep
| reserves of loss and despair.
|
| 'Oh my boys, my boys, we are at the end of an age! We live in a
| land of weather forecasts and breakfasts that set in, shat on
| by Tories, shovelled up by Labour, and here we are, we three;
| perhaps the last island of beauty... in the world'
|
| My favourite however, has to be the little appendix to his
| anecdotes of Oxford and his 'sensitive crimes' in a punt with
| his poetry-reciting lover:
|
| "I sometimes wonder where Norman is now. Probably wintering
| with his mother in Guildford. A cat, rain, Vim under the sink,
| and both bars on. But old now, old. There can be no true beauty
| without decay."
|
| Sheer brilliance, with its fingerprints all over British Comedy
| almost 40 years on - with particular reference to the likes of
| Armando Ianucci, Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, David
| Mitchell/Robert Webb, and Richard Ayoade, covering movies like
| 'Submarine' and TV like 'Peep Show' and 'Spaced' most notably.
| wyclif wrote:
| Well said, piltdownman. Don't forget Harry Enfield, though!
| herbturbo wrote:
| If you're a fan of Withnail then this watch-along with Bruce
| Robinson is worth your time.
|
| https://youtu.be/d4rZDnRXIkg?si=lzEBJwrmYoFXWRjB
| badc0ffee wrote:
| I still think of the Camberwell Carrot.
| postscapes1 wrote:
| Amazing flick that just sticks with you for some reason - I wish
| we had more the these black comedies.
| motohagiography wrote:
| in the era the film was influential I knew a few people who were
| like this Viv character and it seems like it's been long enough
| that the archetype bears some eulogizing. there's no romance in
| that kind of failure anymore.
|
| the movie is the most literal _romance_ of any character in a
| film ever. By any objective criteria, Withnail was a horrible
| person. Richard E. Grant 's ability to be a living cartoon made
| it hilarious and charming and he let you suspend your disbelief
| in Withnail's grandeur and go along for the absurd ride. the
| important idea is that romance is seeing things as greater or
| more significant, (or just generally other) than they are. That's
| what Withnail and I was about.
|
| He was harmless and funny because his manipulations were so low-
| stakes and geared to just getting alcohol for free, but you could
| see he drank and destroyed himself for the same reasons anyone
| does, because he knew all he had were the tools of a monster and
| just didn't know any other way to be.
|
| The archetype is extinct today because the relationships it
| needed to survive are outmoded. someone being from your school or
| neighbourhood doesn't figure in our ideas of identity where you'd
| tolerate a loser with charming delusions because they were a
| fixture in your own story. Nobody's wives or girlfriends would
| tolerate them anyway, and I think we're all too mercenary now.
|
| to me the sadness of the story is that it's a meditation on
| romance itself. it ends where you see Withnail as the volatile
| addicted animal he is, and he (or really, we as the audience) is
| slightly redeemed by his hamlet speech so as to be reminded that
| there was at least some truth to what we believed in about him,
| and that we ("I") weren't just decieved and manipulated. his
| grandeur dignified or at least rendered harmless our abuse. the
| original script doesn't provide that final bit of comfort,
| however.
|
| maybe there's a version of that story for today, but I don't
| think a Withnail character could actually survive long enough
| socially to become interesting enough for anyone to find them
| romantic enough to tolerate.
| vincentpants wrote:
| This movie is absurdly good. And it seemed to leave a lasting
| mark for a while too. I love how the drug dealer in W&I got to
| play the same character and tell the same m&m's story in Wayne's
| World 2. "... and I beat the man with his own shoes..." _chefs
| kiss_
| _rpxpx wrote:
| A truly great film, but always spoiled imho by the fans who won't
| stop quoting lines from it. The lines are funny because of the
| context, and delivery, chaps. As Wittenstein put it: raisins may
| be the best part of a cake, but a cake is much better than a bag
| of raisins...
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