Wow, this is a REALLY bad movie!

Who payed the critics

What makes it different from others?

Expected more

Sometimes in 1947 Britain it was hard to grasp that we had "won the war" as we used to say in those days with scant regard for the efforts of our Russian and American allies.Everything was "On the ration",the shops were half - empty,British Industry was struggling with the burden of "Export or Die" and returning servicemen were finding that their jobs had been taken by non - combatants in their absence.Germany,on the other hand,was being rebuilt by the Yanks at astronomical expense whilst we were the recipients of the occasional "food parcel"Were we bitter?I should say so.Hence any chance to hit back at "them"(the government,authority in general,those seen as untouched by years of hardship) was seized with alacrity. Thus the Black Market thrived.If a butcher(Mr P Postlethwaite,say)had kept back one of his pigs from the men from the Ministry of Agriculture to keep for his own use it would be seen as a perfectly acceptable gesture particularly if we were to be beneficiaries from the crime through his shop. In "A Private Function" that master of the extraordinary ordinary Mr Alan Bennett has captured that era of spivs with cardboard suitcases alighting from black Morris Eights,dodgy nylons,blue - painted horse meat and large crispy fivers as if preserved in amber. He well knows the social aspirations of lower middle class Brits and the lengths they would(would? - still will..)go to in order to "improve" their perceived standing in the community.Miss M.Smith's ambitions in this area know no bounds.Her unfortunate husband(Mr M.Palin - mercifully a Python - Free performance for once) is completely in her thrall. He steals Mr Postlethwaite's pig and keeps it for use at the eponymous Private Function to celebrate the wedding of Princess Elizabeth,hoping to ensure favourable reaction to his application to open a shop and also to further his wife's social hopes. Almost parochially British in content,"Private Function" may be a curate's egg for those to whom our manners and mores are a bit of a mystery,but those looking for a successor to the old Alec Guinness - Stanley Holloway school of comedies need look no further.

I am clearly missing this great comedy that all the other reviewers have seen. I was quite looking forward to this movie and normally enjoy the quirky British comedies but this is a huge disappointment. The basic idea of a movie about the food rationing times in the period after World War 2 is good but it is steeply downhill from thereon. The movie has no real story going for it and it is simply not funny at all. The performances all round are pretty average. The only bright side I can think of about this movie is the mother in law. She is a brilliant character and very well played. But that doesn't make up for one of the most boring and pointless movies I have seen for a long time. How could this be nominated for a BAFTA for best movie??

One day some clever movie club organizer will realize that he could make a very enjoyable evening of two films dealing with an event from 1947. They are ROYAL WEDDING and A PRIVATE FUNCTION. Both deal with events tied to the marriage of Philip Mountbatten (today Prince Philip) and Princess Elizabeth Windsor (today Queen Elizabeth II). The 1951 film musical (with Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford, Sarah Churchill, and Keenan Wynn) has a dignified, picture postcard view of the actual events in Westminster Abbey the day the future Queen and her future consort married. This was to be expected on both sides of the Atlantic in 1951, as Sarah Churchill's father (who probably gave the film his blessing and cooperation) was Sir Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of England in World War II and now again Prime Minister until 1955. Leave it to the British to undercut the respect an American based production on the royal marriage created. For 33 years after ROYAL WEDDING, along came A PRIVATE FUNCTION. Unlike ROYAL WEDDING it does not deal with events in the British capital, and it does not not have characters with some type of fictional prestige (Astaire and Powell are a brother and sister performing act like Fred and Adele Astaire years before, and Powell is being romanced by Lawford - a member of the aristocracy). No, A PRIVATE FUNCTION was about how a small coterie of local snobs in a midland city of England decided to properly celebrate the first "return of glamor" to Britain after World War II.In this midland city the nobs (Denholm Elliott, Richard Griffiths, John Normington) are planning a massive celebration for only those with proper social credentials (no working class types, except for a butcher, no dark skinned types, no Jews). The central key to their plans is an illegal pig. A what? Well, it is still a period of rationing in Post-War England, and the black market of meat is very strong. A special pig has been housed and bred by the butcher (Pete Posthlewaite) illegally at a farmer's secret shed (the farmer, by the way, is invited too). Posthlewaite has been improving his own business by tipping off the local meat inspector (Bill Paterson) about black market acts by competitors, but Paterson is aware that no butcher is above suspicion, and he is also aware of rumors concerning a super feast with illegal pork being planned.Into this mix comes a chiropodist (Michael Palin), his socially starved and pretentious wife (Maggie Smith) and her mother (Liz Smith). Palin is trying to get his position in town set by renting a store front, but one of the nobs is Elliott who resents competition from Palin. So Palin finds the going tough (the deal for the store front falls through, and his car and traveling chiropractic shed are purposely wrecked by Elliott). But in repairing his car Palin is near the farm the pig is hidden at. Subsequently, after another argument with Smith about their precarious position in the town, Palin steals the pig. And all hell breaks lose.The social nobs and the butcher and farmer are trying to find the missing porker. Without it their plans are in ruin. The meat inspector is aware of a possible illegal pig and starts prying into all kinds of places. His lack of a sense of smell due to a war injury prevents his inquiries from going the full way. Palin and Smith struggle to hide the pig in their home - and discover how filthy pigs really are. As for poor Liz Smith, she is repeatedly told that she is imagining the foul odors and pig refuse around the house - that it is proof she is going senile. She ends up frightened, repeating "No pig, no pig!!" as reassurance that she is not mad.Eventually things do right themselves out - though not totally the way all the players hope or wanted. Denholm Elliott was always a fine actor, and here plays possibly his most obnoxious character - a snob, a racist, a malicious competitor, and one who sees nothing wrong with farting while having lunch in a friend's house. Maggie Smith makes an art of pretension, ever since her finest role as Jean Brodie, but here it is undercut by the economic realities presented by Palin. Michael Palin is a basically good person married to an unrealistic woman, and fighting a coterie of really nasty types. His kidnapping of the pig happens to be a long term disaster, but one cheers his short term victory. Of the others in the film, my favorite is Richard Griffiths, who turns out to be a decent person too - and one who finds a new common purpose with a better friend than Elliott.When it came out in 1984 A PRIVATE FUNCTION was considered one of several films that seem to revive the great Ealing Comedies of the 1950s. It certainly deserves comparison to those classics, and I urge you to try to see it some time...with or without a pet pig.

Why do I love this movie sooooo much. Because it is one of the most delightful movies ever made. From the opening shots of Dame Maggie Smith and her aged mother (Liz Smith) jostling for space on the Wurlitzer seat to the closing shots of Michael Palin and Richard Griffiths looking sadly at Betty on the platter this is a movie where every scene has something new. The contents of Michael Palin's lunch box, Richard Griffiths popping his little trotter over the edge of the chair to get a chocolate for Betty, Liz Smith checking her nightgown for malodorous fumes, Bill Paterson and his wonderful artistry with green paint ( don't miss this line its great), Michael Palin's overt Pythonesque chiropodist sign, and Liz Smiths startled look watching him clean it, these are just a taste of the subtle visual and aural moments that make this movie magic (moments that obviously went completely over the head of a previous reviewer). Alan Bennetts plot is original and actually believable, as snobbery of all kinds can be found alive and well in any nation in the world at any time, and Denholm Elliot and Dame Maggie Smith would have to be crowned the King and Queen of snobbery for their efforts in this. Many people read some books over and over This is a movie I watch over and over. I have this movie on Video and I shall definitely be buying it on DVD as well