Bella, a secretary, becomes a victim of Tim, a voyeur who harasses her. After the police provide no assistance, Bella consults an Iranian clairvoyant, Nimrod, who encourages her to take matters into her own hands. She kills Tim and goes on a murder spree, ultimately evading capture.
Synopsis
In the coastal town of Brighton, Bella is a mild-mannered secretary who works from home in a basement flat. Soon, she finds herself the victim of Tim, a voyeur who watches her through her windows and plagues her with obscene phone calls in which he threatens to assault and rape her. After the police refuse to offer any assistance, Bella visits Nimrod, an Iranian clairvoyant who suggests that she take matters into her own hands.
That night, Bella breaks into Tim's flat while he is sleeping and batters him to death with a claw hammer. Empowered, Bella embarks on a spree in which she slaughters six more men by a variety of methods. Ultimately, she evades capture by the authorities and prepares to carry on her murderous rampage in the large, faceless city of London.
Filming took place in the Notting Hill and Kensington areas of London and also in Brighton. The Internet Movie Database lists other locations. The gun shop scenes were filmed at Park Street Guns near St Albans; the country pub (now demolished) was the Grenville Lodge, East Burnham (Burnham Beeches), Buckinghamshire; and the dentist scenes were shot at a real dental practice in Twickenham, Greater London.[citation needed]
Theft of equipment was a problem during filming.[4] While filming in Brighton, all the catering equipment was stolen and in Notting Hill Gate, a mobile kitchen with generator was stolen.
Release
The film was banned from video release for two years by the BBFC for its violent and sexual content.[citation needed]
Reception
Halliwell's Film Guide described Dirty Weekend as "a sleazy little tale of a female vigilante, directed and acted in a perfunctory, over-emphatic manner".[5]
In The Independent Sheila Johnston wrote: "no window-dressing can hide the fact that an aura of indelible naffness hangs over the movie... the screenplay is hewn out from Helen Zahavi's over-written novel with no concessions to the way people actually speak". Johnston argued Dirty Weekend was inferior to other female revenge films such as Ms. 45 and Lipstick, and criticised the making up of the white actor Richardson with "brownface" to portray a Middle Easterner.[6]
The Observer review said Dirty Weekend has "a certain factitious topicality", but went on to state "a work so bad in every way, and mostly risibly so, cannot be the focus of serious controversy".[7]
Brian Case, reviewing the film for Time Out, dismissed Dirty Weekend as "pretty rotten", and criticised Winner's direction, stating it resembled "out-takes from local cinema advertising, which distances the audience from the material and indeed from wakefulness itself".[8]
In Variety, Derek Elley wrote: "Michael Winner aims low and half-misses with Dirty Weekend... Winner plays up the unreality with off-center framing and careful use of lenses, recalling Polanski’s efforts to give a heightened, jet-lag feel to Frantic, although flat lighting and grubby color give the whole thing a bargain-basement look."[9]
Ian Nathan in Empire gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "Justly vilified on release as a piece of asinine exploitation trumped up as a feminist tract, this is an ugly movie indeed."[10]
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