Review of In Celebration

Introduction

David Storey`s semi-biographical play is a family saga set in a northern mining town and was made in 1975. It focuses on three educated sons who return home for their parent`s 40th anniversary, where they try to make some sense of their working class upbringing by applying their educated values to the various problems. Things turn to a head when discussion comes around to the death of their brother, and they reflect upon their repressed emotions in the wake of a variety of family conflicts.

In Celebration stars the same theatre cast as the Royal Court Theatre production. The sons are: James Bolam, Alan Bates and Brian Cox, and the parents are: Bill Owen and Constance Chapman.

Video

Presented with a 1.85:1 widescreen enhanced video transfer, I was surprised that it would be widescreen at all as this is 70s English drama shot on film and resembles the TV plays I`d watch on BBC2 back in the day. The colours are a little washed out, but it`s not as bad as I was expecting; the contrast has been boosted and this gives a clear picture with only some grain on show. There`s some dirt but no problems with compression that I could see.

Audio

The mono soundtrack works well for what is a dialogue driven film. Everything is clear and there are no problems apart from a little hiss.

Features

Easy to navigate static menus with a few extras:

• Interviews (widescreen enhanced): Alan Bates (40:04), David Storey (Writer) (21:42), and Otto Plaschkes (Exec Producer) (21:46) - The interviews are partly interesting though a little dry and induced sleep in me on more than one occasion. These are worth perservering with if you enjoyed the film though.

• American Film Theatre Trailer Gallery (widescreen enhanced) - Trailers for other AFT releases: A Delicate Balance, The Homecoming, Butley and The Iceman Cometh.

• The AFT Cinebill for In Celebration (text) - David Storey on Lindsay Anderson and Lindsay Anderson on David Storey. Interesting to read pages of text about one on the other.

• Stills Gallery - Four stills taken from the film.

• Poster - Poster art for In Celebration.

• Article: "David Storey and In Celebration" by Michael Feingold. Feingold is chief theatre critic for The Village Voice and here writes about David Storey`s early career and successes.

There are no subtitles.

Conclusion

When I sat to watch this the fact that it was a 70s drama set in a Yorkshire mining town made me sigh in a downhearted way. Was it going to be as depressing as I assumed it might be? Cue a young Brian Cox in his first film role and I took a little more interest. In steps James Bolam, Alan Bates and that bloke who played Compo from Last of the Summer Wine, Bill Owen.

Pretty much all of the production takes place in a living room with the camera moving from time to time to cover different characters as they make their points. It`s very noticeable that we don`t get to see much else, but once you`re settled into this, you tend to concentrate on story. On the surface this play is about family conflicts; there`s rebellion, a long-buried family secret, the lack of love between mother and son and a fair few other issues too. It`s what you might expect in a domestic drama. I did find myself being drawn in despite my initial hesitation and this is partly down to the cast and steady pace of the story; I was impressed and intrigued in equal measure.

I thought In Celebration was interesting if only because of Bates, Cox and Bolam making it so. To me this domesticated story just manages to be a cut above a lot of others merely by the language and performance. Video and sound quality serve the film as well as might be expected and the extras are okay. Worth seeing if you`ve seen the play and are in a `play` mood.