This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2017) |
Confetti | |
---|---|
![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Debbie Isitt |
Written by | Debbie Isitt |
Produced by | Ian Benson Ian Flooks |
Starring | Jimmy Carr Felicity Montagu Jessica Stevenson Martin Freeman Olivia Colman Meredith MacNeill Stephen Mangan Robert Webb |
Cinematography | Dewald Aukema |
Edited by | Nicky Ager |
Music by | Paul Englishby |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Fox Searchlight Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 100 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Box office | $4,903,131 |
Confetti is a 2006 British mockumentary romantic comedy film released on 5 May 2006. It was conceived and directed by Debbie Isitt and stars many acclaimed British comedians, including Jessica Stevenson, Jimmy Carr, Martin Freeman, Mark Heap, Julia Davis, Robert Webb and Olivia Colman. It follows a bridal magazine competition for the most original wedding, the ultimate prize being a house, and the three couples who are chosen to compete. The film follows the contestants in a fly-on-the-wall documentary style, akin to The Office . The script was entirely improvised. The film was a box office success, grossing $4.9 million on a budget of $2 million.
The prestigious bridal magazine Confetti , owned by the arrogant, suave Antoni Clarke (Jimmy Carr) and managed by the long-suffering, uptight chief editor Vivienne (Felicity Montagu), is holding a competition to see who can hold the most original wedding, with the winners being presented with a new house and a cover shoot for the magazine. Three couples and their proposals are selected to participate: Sam and Matt (Jessica Stevenson and Martin Freeman), a middle class couple of old-fashioned romantics who have elected to hold their wedding in the style of Busby Berkeley musicals of the 1930s and 1940s, despite the fact that Sam can barely hold a tune; Isabelle and Josef (Meredith MacNeill and Stephen Mangan), a pair of hyper-competitive professional tennis players holding a tennis-themed wedding; and Joanna and Michael (Olivia Colman and Robert Webb), a naturist couple who intend to hold their wedding entirely naked. All three weddings are planned using the services of Gregory and Archie (Vincent Franklin and Jason Watkins), wedding planners and partners in both business and love.
The film follows their planning, and the various crises that each couple faces over the three-month planning period. As well as learning to sing and dance, Sam and Matt must contend with Sam's dominating mother (Alison Steadman) and attention-seeking sister (Sarah Hadland), who appear intent on hijacking the proceedings and constantly browbeat and undermine the shy and easily cowed Sam such as preventing her from inviting her beloved but estranged Sam's father (Ron Cook), much to Matt's growing irritation. The couple must also deal with Matt's oldest friend and best man Snoopy (Marc Wootton), a musician who nurses a bitter resentment towards Sam for coming between him and Matt that he expresses in not-so-subtle lyrics that he intends to sing at the wedding. Despite the constant support and encouragement the couple receive from Archie and Gregory, the gradual tension eventually builds to a bitter argument between Matt and Sam's mother and sister which sees him kicked out of the house where he is staying with them; this prompts Sam, however, to finally stand up for herself and put her mother and sister in place.
Isabelle and Josef, meanwhile, are intensely determined to win, owing to unexplained financial difficulties. Suspicious and competitive, they become increasingly paranoid that the competition is being 'fixed' against them in favour of Matt and Sam, eventually resorting to the extreme measure of having Isabelle's nose – and her extremely large nostrils – altered by plastic surgery (with the result being that the nose she ends up with is much longer than her original one). In the process, however, they find themselves combating their own anxieties; Josef, in particular, finds himself confronting his jealousy over Isabelle's friendship with their tennis coach, Jesus (Jesús de Miguel), and insecurity over his largely finished tennis career and that he will not be able to be a worthy husband to Isabelle. Joanna and Michael, however, find their plans challenged at every turn by Vivienne, who has no intention of putting a naked couple on the front of the magazine should they win. Michael, an experienced naturist, angrily resists Vivienne's efforts to make him dress up for the wedding, but Joanna, a recent convert and still insecure about revealing her body to strangers, finds herself of mixed minds about the issue. The pressure of the magazine and the tension between the two becomes so great that it briefly looks like the marriage will not even take place at all.
The big day finally arrives, amid much jitters and anxiety on all sides. All three weddings go off largely without a hitch, although Michael and Joanna raise eyebrows when, in defiance of Vivienne's rulings, they bare all (literally) in their wedding service. The winners are soon decided – Matt and Sam, which prompts a display of sour grapes from both Josef and Isabelle. The movie then briefly glimpses at the three couples a few months later, all of whom are adjusting to married life relatively happily.
One of the three couples whose story is followed opts for a naturist wedding. Spielplatz in Hertfordshire was used as the location for the naturist village Summerland.
Both Robert Webb and Olivia Colman publicly criticized the film, with Webb saying, "I had a miserable time making it and I think the finished film is an underwhelming mess." [1] Colman claimed she had been misinformed about the amount of nudity involved in the film. [2] Webb claimed, on The Graham Norton Show , that the director had informed him that his genitals would all be pixelated in the final film and was not aware until the screening that this was not the case. [3] [4] In an interview with The Guardian , Colman described the film as "a fucking turkey", "horrible" and the "worst experience of my life". She relays how she felt "betrayed" by the film-makers who had misled her about how much of her body would be seen in the final edit and has since found it hard to trust people, saying: "I now know there are some people who are just bad." Colman and Webb started legal proceedings against the film-makers, but these were eventually abandoned when the actors concluded it was too late and the lengthy process would prevent them from "pretending it didn't happen". [5]
The bonus features on the DVD include three alternative endings: one ending for each of the "losing" couples as well as an extra ending for Matt and Sam.
Love Actually is a 2003 romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. The Christmas holiday film features an ensemble cast, composed predominantly of British actors, many of whom had worked with Curtis in previous projects. An international co-production between the U.K., U.S., and France, it was mostly filmed on-location in London, England. The movie delves into different aspects of love as shown through 10 separate stories involving a variety of individuals, many of whom are interlinked as the plot progresses. The story begins five weeks before Christmas and is played out in a weekly countdown until the holiday, followed by an epilogue that takes place in the New Year.
Peep Show is a British television sitcom starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. It was written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, with additional material by Mitchell and Webb, among others. It was broadcast on Channel 4 from 19 September 2003 to 16 December 2015. In 2010, it became the longest-running comedy in Channel 4 history in terms of years on air.
Sarah Caroline Sinclair, known professionally as Olivia Colman, is an English actress. She has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, two Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.
That Mitchell and Webb Sound is a comedy sketch show on BBC Radio 4 which started on 28 August 2003. A second series was broadcast in 2005 with a third starting on 24 May 2007. The series became adapted for television as That Mitchell and Webb Look in 2006. The series is seen in some ways as a follow-up to The Mitchell and Webb Situation, a sketch show shown on Play UK in 2001. That Mitchell and Webb Sound returned to BBC Radio 4 for a fourth series in 2009, the first episode broadcasting on 25 August 2009. A fifth series was announced in September 2013, and began transmission on 26 November 2013.
Alison Steadman is an English actress. She received the 1977 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for Abigail's Party, the 1991 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for the Mike Leigh film Life Is Sweet and the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role as Mari in the original production of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. In a 2007 Channel 4 poll, the ‘50 Greatest Actors’ voted for by other actors, she was ranked 42.
Bruiser is a TV comedy sketch show that was produced for BBC Two. It premiered on 28 February 2000 and ran for six episodes, ending on 15 March 2000. The principal writers were David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Additional writers included Richard Ayoade and Ricky Gervais.
Lisa Olivia Munn is an American actress. After an internship at a news station in Tulsa, she moved to Los Angeles where she began her professional career as a television host for the gaming network G4, primarily on the series Attack of the Show! from 2006 until 2010. Munn appeared as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 2010 to 2011. She is known for her three-season-long portrayal of Sloan Sabbith in Aaron Sorkin's HBO political drama series The Newsroom (2012–2014).
Marc James Wootton is an English actor, comedian and writer, best known for his role as Mr Poppy in the Nativity! film series. He also starred in the TV series High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman, La La Land, Nighty Night and voiced Max in Counterfeit Cat.
Debbie Isitt is an English comic writer, film director, composer and performer.
Sarah Catherine E Hadland is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Stevie Sutton in the BBC One BAFTA-nominated comedy television series Miranda (2009–2015) and Trish in The Job Lot (2013–2015).
Revenge of the Bridesmaids is a 2010 ABC Family Original Movie that premiered on July 18, 2010. It stars Raven-Symoné as Abigail and Joanna García as Parker, undercover bridesmaids with a mission to break up a wedding. In addition, the film's cast also features Virginia Williams, Beth Broderick, Chryssie Whitehead, David Clayton Rogers, Lyle Brocato and Brittany Ishibashi.
The Wedding Video is a 2012 British comedy film directed by Nigel Cole and written by Tim Firth. Presented in the "found footage" style, the film stars Rufus Hound, Lucy Punch and Robert Webb. It follows an engaged couple's best man as he creates a video documentary of their wedding.
Last Vegas is a 2013 American comedy film directed by Jon Turteltaub, written by Dan Fogelman and starring Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline and Mary Steenburgen. Three retirees travel to Las Vegas to have a bachelor party for their last remaining single friend.
James Fraser is a fictional character from the Australian Channel Seven soap opera Home and Away. The character debuted on-screen on 1 July 1997. Sam Meikle played the character for one episode. When Richard Grieve quit his role as James' brother Lachlan Fraser; producers cast Michael Piccilliri to play James. They had invested time in Lachlan's relationship with Chloe Richards and wanted to replace the character. James soon begins a relationship with Chloe. Producers were pleased with his performance and invited him to join the show's regular cast.
The Thirteenth Tale is a British drama television film that first broadcast on BBC Two on 30 December 2013. It is an adaptation of Diane Setterfield's 2006 gothic novel The Thirteenth Tale.
The fourth season of The Crown, which follows the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, was released by Netflix on 15 November 2020.
The Lost Daughter is a 2021 psychological drama film written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Elena Ferrante. The film stars Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Dagmara Domińczyk, Jack Farthing, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Peter Sarsgaard, and Ed Harris. Colman also served as an executive producer.
Empire of Light is a 2022 British romantic drama film directed, written, and co-produced by Sam Mendes. Set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s, the film is about the power of human connection during turbulent times. It stars Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward, Monica Dolan, Tom Brooke, Tanya Moodie, Hannah Onslow, Crystal Clarke, Toby Jones and Colin Firth.
Wicked Little Letters is a 2023 British black comedy mystery film directed by Thea Sharrock, written by Jonny Sweet, and starring Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Anjana Vasan, Joanna Scanlan, Gemma Jones, Malachi Kirby, Lolly Adefope, Eileen Atkins, and Timothy Spall. Based on a true scandal, it follows an investigation into the anonymous author of numerous crudely insulting letters sent to the residents of seaside town Littlehampton.