INFORMATION - Filmography - Film Works - Bright Young Things

Character: Simon Balcairn Release Date: October 3, 2003 Director: Stephen Fry Written By: Stephen Fry (screenplay) and Evelyn Waugh (novel) Tagline: Sex... Scandal... Celebrity... Some things never change. Genre: Comedy / Drama MPAA Rating: R More Cast Emily Mortimer ... Nina Blount Stephen Campbell Moore ... Adam Fenwick-Symes Michael Sheen ... Miles David Tennant ... Ginger Littlejohn Fenella Woolgar ... Agatha Dan Aykroyd ... Lord Monomark James's Character James plays Simon Balcairn, a writer who had committed suicide because his manuscript was confiscated when he enters Scotland. He has a very small part in this movie. Plot Actor Stephen Fry makes an impressive splash as a director with Bright Young Things, based on the Evelyn Waugh novel, Vile Bodies. The story centers on some struggling "bright young things" during the years before England entered World War II. Adam (Stephen Campbell Moore) and Nina (Emily Mortimer) play sometime-engaged young things at the center of a disparate group of eccentrics. They seem addicted to the London "social whirl" as well as cocaine. He's a struggling writer, and she needs a rich husband. He gets roped into taking a job as a gossip columnist because the former writer (James McAvoy) commits suicide and because his manuscript is confiscated when he enters Scotland. So the young things go to every party and write up tons of scandalous gossip for the rag, keep getting drunk and stoned, and keep pursuing money. Typical acid commentary from Waugh, and Fry does a good job balancing all the characters and sub-plots. Impressive cast as well with Peter O'Toole (very funny), Dan Aykroyd, Stockard Channing (hilariously named Mrs. Melrose Ape), Harriet Walter, Imelda Staunton, Simon Callow, Jim Broadbent, Julia McKemzie, John Mills, Jim Carter, Angela Thorne, Bill Paterson, Richard E. Grant, and Margaret Tyzack recognizable. Fry appears as a chauffeur. Pictures There are no pictures available for this movie yet. Keep checking back! Quotes Simon Balcairn: [Telling his fake news story] The most shocking orgy since the days of Sodom and Gomorrah rocked society last night. Typist: Hold the presses, get down to compositing. Now. Simon Balcairn: The vulgar evangelist, Mrs. Melrose Ape, proudly revealed that her angels were no more than underage adornments on sale to the highest bidder. Meanwhile, tears coursing down her face, the honorable Agatha... , whose repulsive liason with the Prime Minister shocked the nation this week, bewailed her, quote: "Ruined, bogus, vapid, bogus, and worthless life," unquote. [pause] Simon Balcairn: Yes, two boguses. Lady Maitland, shrieking of her terrible dependence upon cocaine powder, threw off her Schiaparelli ball gown and stood naked upon the dance floor, an example quickly followed by old and young alike until only the servants remained clothed. And grotesquely hairy Archie Schwert, swinging naked from the chandelier, screamed that all his money derived from prostitution and the opium trade. Lady Maitland's son Miles howled and howled and confessed to an intimate beastliness involving five guardsmen of the royal household, two marines, and a brick layer from Hattersfield. Nina Blount... Nina Blount grasped her stomach, screamed she was a whore, and misquoted several lines of Lady MacBeth whilst Adam Fenwick-Symes cried on heaven to bear witness to his talentless penury and hopeless illiteracy. Simon Balcairn: [Telling his fake news story] Never, never, never have such scenes been witnessed in high society, that uneasy alliance between Bright Young Things and old survivors. Perhaps this was the defining moment of our epoch of speed and syncopation. This so-called 20th century of angst, neurosis and panic. Reader be glad that you have nothing to do with this world. Its glamour is a delusion, its speed a snare, its music a scream of fear. Faster and faster they swirl, sickening themselves with every turn. The faster the ride, the greater the nausea, the terror, and the shame. [pause] Simon Balcairn: Stop. Yes, that's it. Good night. Trivia "Bright Young Things" was the working title of "Vile Bodies", the book upon which the film is based. The film is produced by "Doubting Hall Productions", reflecting Colonel Blount's (resident of Doubting Hall) foray into film-making in Evelyn Waugh's "Vile Bodies", the book which on which the film is based. Director 'Stephen Fry' commissioned two contemporary songs from The Pet Shop Boys for the movie - a cover version of Noel Coward's "The Party's Over Now" and a Pet Shop Boys-penned title track. These songs were written and recorded, but were edited out in the last minute because the director decided to stick to period music. The last feature film of Sir John Mills > imdb