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’24 Hour Party People’ is a film about the Manchester music scene, spanning some twenty years from 1976 and including bands like the Sex Pistols, Joy Division and the Happy Mondays. The story is told (literally, to camera) by Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan), a television presenter and music promoter who founded the Factory Club, Factory Records and the infamous Hacienda club.
In 1978 Wilson signs a contract with Joy Division written in his own blood and Shaun Ryder of the Happy Mondays single-handedly manages to financially ruin Factory Records and the Hacienda with his excessive drug-taking and gun-toting antics. The narrative style of the film may take a little getting used to, but Steve Coogan does such an excellent job portraying the intellectually quirky Wilson that I warmed to him immediately and was gladly swept along by the tales of the music business, sex, drugs, new wave, rave and crazy Brits. Apparently Coogan originally modelled his succesful TV personality Alan Partridge on the real Tony Wilson, so he has now come full circle playing Wilson himself.
The cast is peppered with actual characters from the era playing minor roles alongside well-cast professionals playing the bigger roles, making it hard to differentiate between reality and fiction throughout this film, which may have been exactly what director Michael Winterbottom intended. 24HRPP is definitely a treat for those interested in the Manchester music scene of that period, but may be a tad too ‘special interest’ to keep audiences with less prior knowledge entertained throughout.
suzero (90 posts)Suzanna Noort - TV/video director/editor and multimedia something. Amsterdam, Netherlands
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Reisneus has very little prior knowledge and is particularly interested because of that. I didn’t know of the existence of this film. Cool!
Did you rent it from the local videorental Suzero?
Comment by reisneus — Sat July 26, 2003 @ 18:12Rented from Cult videotheek in Amsterdam…. but it’s still just IMPORT at the moment. Version with Dutch subtitles should be out soon I expect. Please let us know how you experienced it as a viewer “without prior knowledge”
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Comment by suzero — Sun July 27, 2003 @ 11:03This is is on my want to see list even though I *HATE* Shaun Ryder and his silly Happy Mondays combo. Loved most of the Manchester stuff tho!
Comment by punkmachine — Tue July 29, 2003 @ 11:01And the funny thing was that after the Mondays things got worse with Black Grape. Who would have thought that that was even remotely possible
Comment by punkmachine — Tue July 29, 2003 @ 15:50Finally caught up with this film last night and have to say I laughed my arse off all the way through it. If you know anythign about the Factory story you should watch this, Coogan’s impression of Tony Wilson is mind bogglingly fantastic.
Comment by Damian — Mon October 6, 2003 @ 14:47You have to take the film with more than a pinch of salt though, as it even admits at one point, “When faced with teh truth or the legend, print the legend” and that’s what they’ve done here.
There’s enough material in the Factory story to make a handfull of movies, which is why the actual narrative seems to be a bit light and surface on certain areas. We see the signing of Joy Division and the death of Ian Curtis, then suddenly we’re hanging about with the Happy Mondays, never mind the best of a decade that ghappened in between, but what does work is the portrayal of Wilson himself. For those of us who’ve had to suffer his inane ramblings in the past the film portrays him to be an egotistical self mad eloser who, despite the fact that he talks a load of drivel, is actually quite entertaining.
This film is by no means a work of genius, but it’s a giggle to be around, and that’s pretty much how Wilson comes across in real life.
I’d recommend this to everyone.
This was one of the finest low budget films to come out in 2002. I liked the way the film progressed, showing the beginnings of the Russell Club, the start of Factory Records, and the the Hacienda, surrounded with OSHA markings. The production design is great. One good chunk of the film I enjoyed the most was the dedication to the history of the band called the Stiff Kittens, who later become Joy Divison, only to fall with the death of founder Ian Curtis (Sean Harris-remarkable job!) …and then regroup as New Order.
Some of the film slightly reminded me of Alex Cox’s “Sid & Nancy” (1986) as far as time period goes; but the Sex Pistols are barely mentioned in the first ten minutes.
“Party People” is well acted, well made, but when the credits rolled I had one last question.
So What?
Comment by Darren Seeley — Mon January 9, 2006 @ 0:01