The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)

Réalisateur:

Stephen Hopkins

Scénaristes (WGA):

Roger Lewis (book)
Christopher Markus (teleplay) ...

Date de sortie:

26 août 2004 (Australia)

Genre:

Biographie | Drame

Accroche:

Never judge a man by his cover.

Intrigue:

The feature adaptation of Roger Lewis' book about the actor best remembered as Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies.

Plot Keywords:

Actor | Clouseau | Show Business | Personality | Bumbling

Récompenses:

Won 2 Golden Globes. Another 17 wins & 23 nominations

Avis des utilisateurs:

Life imitating art imitating life imitating art imitating life

Ensemble

Geoffrey Rush	...	Peter Sellers
Charlize Theron	...	Britt Ekland
Emily Watson	...	Anne Sellers
John Lithgow	...	Blake Edwards
Miriam Margolyes	...	Peg Sellers
Peter Vaughan	...	Bill Sellers
Sonia Aquino	...	Sophia Loren
Stanley Tucci	...	Stanley Kubrick
Stephen Fry	...	Maurice Woodruff
Henry Goodman	...	Dennis Selinger
Alison Steadman	...	Casting Agent
Peter Gevisser	...	Ted Levy
David Robb	...	Dr. Lyle Wexler
Edward Tudor-Pole	...	Spike Milligan (as Edward Tudor Pole)
Steve Pemberton	...	Harry Secombe

Durée:

122 min

Pays:

USA | UK

Langue:

Anglais

Couleur:

Couleur

Rapport de forme:

1,85 : 1

Son:

Dolby Digital

Classification:

Argentina:13 | Germany:12 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Zurich) | Iceland:L | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13 | Australia:M | Canada:14A | Czech Republic:12 | Finland:K-11 | Netherlands:12 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | Singapore:M18

Lieux de tournage:

Biltmore Estate - 1 Approach Road, Asheville, North Carolina, USA

Société:

HD Vision Studios

Anecdotes:

Michael Sellers had a turbulent relationship with his father, but he always tried to defend his legacy. When the film was released, Michael scolded director Stephen Hopkins. He didn't enjoy the way his father was portrayed as clinically insane in the book the film is based upon. He described the book as "400 pages of rubbish." This forced Hopkins to go to Cannes in an attempt to appease Michael.

Goofs:

Erreurs factuelles: A cinema marquee advertises Ghost in the Noonday Sun (1973) despite the fact that this film was shelved until after Sellers' death and never received a theatrical release.

Guillemet:

Peter Sellers: Oh God, I haven't felt leather like this on my thighs since the Third Reich.

Connexions De Film:

Références Casino Royale (1967)

Bande son:

Goodness Gracious Me

Life imitating art imitating life imitating art imitating life

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers has to be one of the most creative, complex and revealing non-documentary movies ever made about an actual person, living or dead, and the inspired casting of Geoffrey Rush is spot on - he's magnificent in all the various and sundry Sellers guises, especially the ones from Dr. Strangelove and The Pink Panther's bumbling inspector. The rest of the casting is excellent too, particularly Charlize Theron as the second "B.E." in Seller's life, Britt Ekland.

The thing I liked most about this movie was how the script let us see how Sellers created his characters - how he was constantly "in character" or inbetween characters. He admits in the movie to being an empty vessel, with no personality of his own; this is what allowed him to be such an insufferably cruel bastard to all the people who were closest to him: he used his immersive, endlessly obsessive artistic process as a weapon and, ultimately, as a substitute for being human.

It's always brutally hard as an artist to find the balance - you have to be true to your work, naturally, and as an actor especially you're constantly redefining your inner reality, but you can't do it at the expense of the people who love you and whom you profess to love; there has to be emotional and mental discipline otherwise you become psychotically self-indulgent, as this film showed Sellers to be. The most poignant scene in the movie for me was when Sellers, in his typically childish and deranged state, tells his little daughter, "I'm an empty shell, there's nobody inside," words to that effect, and she answers, with a sad wisdom that no child should have to learn to possess, "Yes, daddy."