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	{{short description\|1982 British film by Lindsay Anderson}}		{{short description\|1982 British film by Lindsay Anderson}}
	~~{{Use dmy dates\|date=October 2014}}~~
	~~{{Use British English\|date=October 2014}}~~
	{{Infobox film		{{Infobox film
	\| name = Britannia Hospital		\| name = Britannia Hospital
	\| image = Brittania Hospital.jpg		\| image = Brittania Hospital.jpg
	\| caption = ~~Theatrical release poster~~		\| caption =
	\| director = [[Lindsay Anderson]]		\| director = [[Lindsay Anderson]]
	\| producer = Clive Parsons<br />Davina Belling		\| producer = Clive Parsons<br />Davina Belling
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	* {{Rotten Tomatoes\|britannia_hospital}}		* {{Rotten Tomatoes\|britannia_hospital}}
	* {{Allmovie title\|7148}}		* {{Allmovie title\|7148}}
	* ~~[http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/~~492297~~/index.html BFI Screenonline article]~~		* {{Screenonline title\|492297\|Britannia Hospital}}
	* [http://www.leonardrossiter.com/Britannia.html Production notes & photos]		* [http://www.leonardrossiter.com/Britannia.html Production notes & photos]

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External links

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:34, 29 December 2022
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	==External links==		==External links==
	~~{{wikiquote}}~~
	* {{IMDb title\|0083694}}		* {{IMDb title\|0083694}}
	* {{Rotten Tomatoes\|britannia_hospital}}		* {{Rotten Tomatoes\|britannia_hospital}}
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	* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/492297/index.html BFI Screenonline article]		* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/492297/index.html BFI Screenonline article]
	* [http://www.leonardrossiter.com/Britannia.html Production notes & photos]		* [http://www.leonardrossiter.com/Britannia.html Production notes & photos]

	~~{{Mick Travis}}~~
	~~{{Lindsay Anderson}}~~

	[[Category:1982 films]]		[[Category:1982 films]]

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98.235.34.177 at 06:17, 24 October 2022

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{{short description|1982 British film by Lindsay Anderson}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2014}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Britannia Hospital
| image = Brittania Hospital.jpg
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = [[Lindsay Anderson]]
| producer = Clive Parsons Davina Belling
| writer = David Sherwin
| starring = [[Leonard Rossiter]] [[Graham Crowden]] [[Joan Plowright]] [[Jill Bennett (British actress)|Jill Bennett]] [[Marsha Hunt (actress, born 1946)|Marsha Hunt]] [[Malcolm McDowell]]
| music = [[Alan Price]]
| cinematography = Mike Fash
| editing = Michael Ellis
| studio = [[EMI Films]] [[British Lion Films]]
| distributor = [[Columbia Pictures|Columbia]]-EMI-[[Warner Bros. Pictures|Warner Distributors]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Britannia Hospital (1982)|website=[[BBFC]]|access-date=26 December 2021|url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/britannia-hospital-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zmtaxmju}}</ref>
| released = {{Film date|df=y|1982|5|27}}
| runtime = 116 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| budget = $2.5 million<ref name="walker">{{cite book|first=Alexander|last=Walker|title=National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties|publisher=Harrap|date=1985|page=213}}</ref> or $4 million<ref name="bedlam"/><ref>BRITISH FILM: KUDOS AND QUESTION MARKS Welles, Merida. ''The New York Times'' 6 June 1982: A.20.</ref> or £2.5 million<ref>BRITISH PRODUCTION 1981
Moses, Antoinette. ''Sight & Sound''; London Vol. 51, Iss. 4, (Autumn 1982): 258.</ref>
| gross = $375,713<ref>{{cite web|url=https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=britanniahospital.htm |title=Britannia Hospital (1983) |publisher=[[Box Office Mojo]] |accessdate=2013-07-14}}</ref>
}}
'''''Britannia Hospital''''' is a 1982 [[Cinema of the United Kingdom|British]] [[black comedy]] film, directed by [[Lindsay Anderson]], which targets the [[National Health Service]] and contemporary British society. It was entered into the [[1982 Cannes Film Festival]] and [[Fantasporto]].<ref name="festival-cannes.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/1575/year/1982.html |title=Festival de Cannes: Britannia Hospital |accessdate=June 8, 2009|work=festival-cannes.com}}</ref>

''Britannia Hospital'' is the final part of Anderson's trilogy of films, written by [[David Sherwin]], that follow the adventures of [[Mick Travis]] (portrayed by [[Malcolm McDowell]]) as he travels through a strange and sometimes surreal Britain. From his days at boarding school in ''[[if....]]'' (1968) to his journey from coffee salesman to film star in ''[[O Lucky Man!]]'' (1973), Travis's adventures finally come to an end in ''Britannia Hospital'', which sees him as a [[muckraking]] reporter investigating the bizarre activities of Professor Millar, played by [[Graham Crowden]], whom he had had a run-in with in ''O Lucky Man''. All three films have characters in common. Some of the characters from ''if....'' that did not turn up in ''O Lucky Man!'' return for ''Britannia Hospital''. The film also features [[Leonard Rossiter]], [[Joan Plowright]], [[Jill Bennett (British actress)|Jill Bennett]], [[Marsha Hunt (actress, born 1946)|Marsha Hunt]], [[Fulton Mackay]], [[Vivian Pickles]], [[Richard Griffiths]], [[Arthur Lowe]], and [[Mark Hamill]].

{{blockquote|text=The absurdities of human behaviour as we move into the twenty-first century are too extreme—and too dangerous—to permit us the luxury of sentimentalism or tears. But by looking at humanity objectively and without indulgence, we may hope to save it. Laughter can help.|sign=Lindsay Anderson}}

==Plot==
A new wing at Britannia Hospital is to be opened, and the Queen, (presumably Queen Elizabeth, but only ever referred to as H.R.H.) is due to arrive. The administrator of the hospital, Potter ([[Leonard Rossiter]]), is confronted with demonstrators protesting against an African dictator who is a VIP patient, striking ancillary workers (opposed to the exotic gastronomic demands of the hospital's private patients) and a less-than-cooperative Professor Millar ([[Graham Crowden]]), the head of the new wing. Rather than cancel the royal visit, Potter decides to go out and reason with the protestors. He strikes a deal with the protest leader—the private patients of Britannia Hospital are to be ejected and, in return, the protestors allow a number of ambulances into the hospital. However, unbeknown to the protestors, these ambulances actually contain the Queen Mother and her entourage.

[[Mick Travis]] ([[Malcolm McDowell]]) is a reporter who is shooting a clandestine [[Documentary film|documentary]] about the hospital and its dubious practices. He manages to get inside with the help of a sympathetic nurse ([[Marsha Hunt (actress, born 1946)|Marsha Hunt]]) and starts to investigate Millar's sinister scientific experimentation, including the murder of a patient, Macready ([[Alan Bates]]). As mayhem ensues outside, Travis is also murdered and his head used as part of a grim [[Frankenstein]]-like experiment which goes hideously wrong.

Eventually, the protestors break into the hospital and attempt to disrupt Millar's presentation of his Genesis Project, in which he claims he has perfected mankind. In front of the assembled audience of Royalty and commoners, Genesis is revealed—a brain wired to machinery. Genesis is given a chance to speak and, in a robotic voice, utters the "[[What a piece of work is a man]]" speech from ''[[Hamlet]]'', until it continuously repeats the line "How like a God".

==Cast==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
'''The Administration'''
* [[Leonard Rossiter]] as Vincent Potter
* [[Brian Pettifer]] as Biles
* [[John Moffatt (actor)|John Moffatt]] as Greville Figg
* [[Fulton Mackay]] as Chief Superintendent Johns
* [[Vivian Pickles]] as Matron
* [[Barbara Hicks]] as Miss Tinker
'''Medicos'''
* [[Graham Crowden]] as Professor Millar
* [[Jill Bennett (British actress)|Jill Bennett]] as Dr. MacMillan
* [[Peter Jeffrey]] as Sir Geoffrey
* [[Marsha Hunt (actress, born 1946)|Marsha Hunt]] as Nurse Persil
* [[Mary MacLeod (actress)|Mary MacLeod]] as Casualty Sister
'''The Unions'''
* [[Joan Plowright]] as Phyllis Grimshaw
* [[Robin Askwith]] as Ben Keating
* [[Dave Atkins (actor)|Dave Atkins]] as Sharkey
'''The Media'''
* [[Malcolm McDowell]] as [[Mick Travis]]
* [[Mark Hamill]] as Red
* [[Frank Grimes]] as Sammy / Voice of "Genesis"
'''The Palace'''
*Gladys Crosbie as [[Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother|Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother]]
'''And'''
* [[Richard Griffiths]] as Cheerful Bernie
* [[Arthur Lowe]] as hospital patient
* [[Alan Bates]] as Macready
* [[Dandy Nichols]] as Florrie
* [[Betty Marsden]] as Hermione
* [[Liz Smith (actress)|Liz Smith]] as Maisie
* [[T. P. McKenna]] as Theatre Surgeon
* [[Michael Medwin]] as Theatre Surgeon
* [[Roland Culver]] as General Wetherby
* [[Valentine Dyall]] as Mr Rochester
* [[Tony Haygarth]] as Fraser
* [[John Gordon Sinclair]] as Gregory
* [[Brian Glover]] as Painter
* [[Mike Grady (actor)|Mike Grady]] as Painter
* [[Kevin Lloyd]] as Picket
* [[Robert Pugh]] as Picket
{{div col end}}

[[Robbie Coltrane]], [[Patsy Byrne]] and [[Edward Hibbert]] had bit parts. This was the final film appearance of Arthur Lowe who died shortly after his scenes were filmed.

==Production==
===Development===
Lindsay Anderson says the film had its origins in 1975 with a newspaper story about the "siege of [[Charing Cross Hospital]], when there was a big demonstration against fee-paying private patients led by a union official known as Granny Brookstern. This immediately struck me as absurd. If you stand outside a hospital and stop ambulances going in in the name of humanity you are involved in a wonderfully absurd paradox. The story got even more wild with accusations that Granny Brookstern and the Labour Minister of Health had themselves been private patients; and so I started building up a private scrapbook of newsworthy absurdities."<ref name="new">LINDSAY ANDERSON BREWS SOME CHAOS ''The New York Times'' 17 Jan 1982: A.19.</ref>

Anderson said he was inspired by Amiel's theory that the only true principle of humanity is justice. "The man who would today say that liberty and equality are bad principles is a brave man but perhaps a necessary one since, unless they include justice, they are pernicious and self-destructive. That is at the heart of 'Britannia Hospital,' though I hope it's not a preachy film but a parable. A parable is a heavenly story with a earthly meaning. I hope this is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning."<ref name="new"/>

Anderson did an outline and sent it to [[Lew Grade]] who was not interested. [[20th Century Fox]] under [[Sanford Lieberson|Sandy Lieberson]] signed Anderson to a two-picture deal, of which one was to be ''Britannia Hospital''. (The other was to be ''Dress Grey'' written by [[Gore Vidal]]). Anderson arranged for David Sherwin to write a script.<ref name="bedlam"/>

Sherwin said the film was not "about a hospital about all. It's about everything. It's not even a film that's just about Britain."<ref name="bedlam"/>

Lieberson left Fox and the studio dropped the project. Mamoun Hassan of the National Film Finance Corporation said he thought they were "too shocked by it".<ref name="sight">A MINOR MAJOR
Houston, Penelope. ''Sight & Sound''; London Vol. 50, Iss. 4, (Autumn 1981): 244.</ref>

Then producer Clive Parsons championed the project. He raised $1 million from Britain's National Film Finance Corporation and $3 million from EMI. Hassan says that there was discussion at the NFFC whether they should support a film by Anderson, who had made a number of movies, but ultimately decided he was an "outsider". Hassan attributes the fact that the budget was raised to Parsons's persistence, and the fact the script had been around a number of years so some of the shock had "worn off". Nonetheless, he called it "a risk... a very black comedy."<ref name="sight"/>

===Shooting===
Filming started August 1981.<ref name="new"/>

It was filmed at [[Shepperton Studios]], using [[Friern Hospital]] in Barnet as the exterior of the hospital in October 1981.<ref name="bedlam">ANDERSON PRESIDES OVER BEDLAM
Mills, Bart. ''Los Angeles Times'' 25 Oct 1981: l26.</ref> Filming took 12 weeks.<ref>Taking the plunger ''The Guardian'' 29 Aug 1981: 11.</ref>

McDowell said he did the film just for his expenses, and no fee, because there was not enough money in the budget to pay his normal fee and he wanted to work with Anderson again.<ref>McDOWELL: FLYING OVER 'BRITANNIA'
Mann, Roderick. ''Los Angeles Times'' 31 Mar 1983: i1.</ref> Mark Hamill also did the part free plus expenses when original choice [[Treat Williams]] bowed out.<ref name="bedlam"/>

During filming, Anderson needed another $1 million and two extra weeks to finish the film.<ref name="bedlam"/>

Anderson said:<blockquote>The film ends with a question mark, not a solution, and people don't like that. They want to be let off the hook, and this film impales the audience on rather a large hook. I think that if we are going to find solutions, we're not going to get any help from God, or any pre-sold political notions. The big question remains whether we are good enough or intelligent enough to survive.<ref>Potshots at the status quo Lindsay Anderson makes few films, pulls few punches Godfrey, Stephen. ''The Globe and Mail'' 27 Feb 1984: p.15.</ref></blockquote>

==Release==
It was released in the United Kingdom on 27 May 1982.

===Home media===
''Britannia Hospital'' was released in the United Kingdom on [[Blu-ray]] Disc for the first time on 29 June 2020 under Powerhouse Films. Special features include an audio interview with Anderson, separate new interviews with actors Pettifer and Askwith, interview with film editor Michael Ellis and theatrical trailers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Britannia-Hospital-Blu-ray/266888/|title=Britannia Hospital Blu-ray|date=29 June 2020|accessdate=13 May 2020}}</ref>

==Critical reception==
Most British critics lambasted the film on release, although [[Dilys Powell]] reviewed it positively, [[David Robinson (film critic)|David Robinson]] listed it among his top ten for the year, and Geoff Daniel chose it as his film of the year.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.participations.org/Volume%206/Issue%202/special/mackenzie.htm |title=In Search of an Audience: Lindsay Anderson's ''Britannia Hospital'' |volume=6 |issue=2 |journal=Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies |date=November 2009 |accessdate=2013-07-14 |last1=Mackenzie |first1=Kathryn |last2=Magee |first2=Karl}}</ref> Critic Ian Haydn Smith considers ''Britannia Hospital'' the "nadir" of Anderson's career. "Replacing satire with broad comedy, the film fails on every level in its attempt to critique the state of the [[National Health Service]]".<ref>Ian Haydn Smith "Lindsay Anderson", in Yoram Allon, et al (ed) ''Contemporary British and Irish Film Directors'', 2001, Wallflower Press, p7</ref> The film won the "Audience Jury Award" at [[Fantasporto]].

==References==
{{reflist}}
*Sherwin, David. ''Going Mad in Hollywood''. London: Andre Deutsh Ltd. 1996

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb title|0083694}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|britannia_hospital}}
* {{Allmovie title|7148}}
* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/492297/index.html BFI Screenonline article]
* [http://www.leonardrossiter.com/Britannia.html Production notes & photos]

{{Mick Travis}}
{{Lindsay Anderson}}

[[Category:1982 films]]
[[Category:1980s black comedy films]]
[[Category:1982 comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:British black comedy films]]
[[Category:British comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:British satirical films]]
[[Category:British sequel films]]
[[Category:1980s English-language films]]
[[Category:Films about artificial intelligence]]
[[Category:Films directed by Lindsay Anderson]]
[[Category:Films set in London]]
[[Category:Films set in hospitals]]
[[Category:EMI Films films]]
[[Category:1982 comedy films]]
[[Category:1980s British films]]

Britannia Hospital - Revision history

Kurt at 04:41, 30 January 2023

Kurt: /* External links */

Kurt: 1 revision imported

98.235.34.177 at 06:17, 24 October 2022