Rent It Couldn't Happen Here (1988)
3.2 of 5 from 74 ratings
1h 26min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Director Jack Bond (The Blueblack Hussar) originally set out to make an extended pop video based on Pet Shop Boys' 1987 album 'Actually'. What he ended up with was a flamboyantly full-scale feature film that finds Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe embarking on an outstanding musical odyssey from coast to capital, encountering the eccentric likes of screen legends Joss Ackland, Gareth Hunt and Barbara Windsor along the way. Perfect pop surrealism meets road movie to the sound of hits from the duo's fantastic first two studio albums, including all-time classics 'West End Girls', 'It's a Sin' and 'Always on My Mind'. Packed full of iconic tracks, it is a singularly strange, striking and sensational pop musical par excellence. - Actors:
- Neil Tennant, Chris Lowe, Joss Ackland, Dominique Barnes, Neil Dickson, Carmen du Sautoy, Gareth Hunt, Barbara Windsor, Clair Becker, Stephanie Buttle, Lyndsey Cole, Hugh Craig, Heavon Grant, Christopher Hall, Emma Hendry, Lisa Hendry, Lisa Jones, Michelle Nelson, Natalie Roles, Chris Tudor
- Directors:
- Jack Bond
- Producers:
- Jack Bond
- Writers:
- Jack Bond, James Dillon
- Aka:
- Pet Shop Boys: It Couldn't Happen Here / A Hard Day's Shopping
- Studio:
- BFI Video
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Drama, Music & Musicals
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 20/07/2020
- Run Time:
- 86 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Stereo
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.85:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Comprehensive feature commentary by writer and director Jack Bond, art director James Dillon and lighting cameraman Simon Archer (2020)
- West End Boy: Jack Bond (2020, 27 mins): the director discusses his eclectic career as a filmmaker and his enterprising approach to the making of 'It Couldn't Happen Here'
- 'It Can Happen Here': Arlene Phillips (2020, 26 mins): the renowned choreographer reflects upon a life in dance - and the trials and tribulations of working on 'It Couldn't Happen Here'
- Always on My Mind (1987, 5 mins): the full-length promotional video for Pet Shop Boys' acclaimed 'Christmas Number One' hit, featuring Joss Ackland
- Actually: an unfilmed early version of the script for the film, included here in its entirety for the first time anywhere
- As it Happened: image galleries, including the complete final version of the script, the director's shot lists, Pet Shop Boys reference lyric sheets and promotional materials for 'It Couldn't Happen Here'
- Original Theatrical Trailer (digitally reconstructed for this release)
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Reviews (2) of It Couldn't Happen Here
Brilliant - It Couldn't Happen Here review by IW
Didn't even know this film existed. If you like PSB music you'll enjoy it. Quite arty, much, much better than I expected.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Good songs, great imagery, bad acting, no story, originality and madness - It Couldn't Happen Here review by AER
Like a musical version of Derek Jarman's Last of Britain mixed with Terry Gilliam's early films, IT COULDN'T HAPPEN HERE is a true 80s oddity. Stranded in an 80s wasteland between arthouse and pop promo kitsch it's easy to say that the Pet Shop Boys didn't really know what kind of films their legions of fans liked when this was released. I remember a work colleague telling me that people were walking out in droves at the cinema screening she attended and that it was terrible. Taken on it's own terms, it's definitely marching to it's own drum, but when compared to other films that were playing in mainstream cinemas at the time, this was an inaccessible and woeful peace of entertainment to the masses. Nowadays the BFI have seen fit to restore it and reappraise in view of what England and the Pet Shop Boys have become. It's still pretty impenetrable but it's a film from a time and place in British history when British films were few and far between but still had a lot of heart and originality. There's lot of PSB songs and some striking imagery to recommend it like a zebra on a train, a commuter on fire, nuns in suspenders and Gareth Hunt with giant fake ears. However, there's no narrative, the acting is uniformly awful (even by the pros like Barbara Windsor and Joss Ackland) and it only really works as a curio for PSB fans who never got around to seeing it years ago. An oddity but an interesting one all the same.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.