''Letter to Brezhnev'' is a 1985 British

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typic ...

film about working-class life in

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

, written by Frank Clarke and directed by

Chris Bernard Chris Bernard (born 20 October 1955) is an English film director. He has directed eight films since 1985. He was born in Liverpool, England and started his professional career in the theatre. In 1977 he developed an old warehouse, in Matthew S ...

. It starred Alexandra Pigg,

Margi Clarke Margi Clarke (born 25 May 1954) is an English actress and radio and television presenter. She had a leading role in the film ''Letter to Brezhnev'' (1985), a low-budget film which had an international release. Later, Clarke played Jackie Dobbs ...

Alfred Molina Alfred Molina (born Alfredo Molina; 24 May 1953) is a British-American actor known for his work on the stage and screen. He first rose to prominence in the West End, earning a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Pla ...

Peter Firth Peter Macintosh Firth (born 27 October 1953) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC One programme '' Spooks''; he is the only actor to have appeared in every episode of the programme's ten-series lif ...

and

Tracy Marshak-Nash Tracy, Tracey, or Tracie may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tracy (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname, also encompassing spelling variations Places United States * Tracy, C ...

(credited as Tracy Lea). ''Letter to Brezhnev'' presents

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

's high-unemployment Liverpool as a depressed and tough city fallen on hard times.

Plot and themes

Two young women from Kirkby, a rough suburb of Liverpool, Teresa and Elaine, meet two Russian sailors, Sergei and Peter, and hook up for a night of fun and frolics. Teresa is looking for sex and a smile, Elaine wants love, romance and the dream of a life far away from the grime of Liverpool. Amongst other themes, it reflects the constraints on

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

women's dreams. It also shows that many people do not get the chance to aspire to anything other than the humdrum lives they find before them as they walk away from school. Some of the characters worked in what they called "the chicken factory", a slaughterhouse. It also reflects hope and ambition as despite awful odds, the protagonists pursue their dreams.

Cast

* Alexandra Pigg – Elaine *

– Teresa *

– Peter *

– Sergei * Tracy Lea – Tracy * Iggy Navarro – President of Soviet Union *

Ken Campbell Kenneth Victor Campbell (10 December 1941 – 31 August 2008) was an English actor, writer and director known for his work in experimental theatre. He has been called "a one-man dynamo of British theatre". Campbell achieved notoriety in the ...

– Newspaper reporter * Angela Clarke – Josie (Elaine's sister) * Ted Wood – Mick * Sharon Power – Charlie's Girl

Production

The film was shot in three weeks on a small budget with fees deferred to those involved. Scenes were filmed in the State Nightclub, a prominent Liverpool venue in the 1980s. It assisted Liverpool in becoming the second most filmed city in the UK after London. For the soundtrack,

Sandie Shaw Sandie may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Sandie Clair (born 1988), French professional racing cyclist * Sandie Fitzgibbon, Irish former camogie player * Sandie Jones (1950/1951–2019), Irish singer * Sandie Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker (187 ...

re-recorded the song "

Always Something There to Remind Me "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" is a song written in the 1960s by songwriting team Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Originally recorded as a demo (music), demo by Dionne Warwick in 1963, "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me ...

", and

Bronski Beat Bronski Beat were a British synthpop trio which achieved success in the mid-1980s, particularly with the 1984 chart hit "Smalltown Boy", from their debut album '' The Age of Consent''. "Smalltown Boy" was their only US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 s ...

's "

Hit That Perfect Beat "Hit That Perfect Beat" is a song by British synthpop trio Bronski Beat from their second album, '' Truthdare Doubledare'' (1986). It reached number three on the UK Singles Chart in January 1986 and entered the top 10 in several European countr ...

" was also used.

Reception

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' critic Kevin Thomas described ''Letter to Brezhnev'' as "a winner, ndfurther evidence of the enduring renewal of the British film industry". Walter Goodman of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote: "The zesty script by Frank Clarke is at once shamelessly romantic ("You look to the star and think of me") and unromantically streetwise ("Talk about Russian hands and roamin' fingers")."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

'' concluded:

''Letter to Brezhnev'' is strong because it is simple. It is not really about romance at all. It is about how idealism can be a way of escaping from the rat race. It is about a young woman with the courage to try something dramatic to break out of the trap she's in. It is also about a brave new tradition in British filmmaking, in which the heroes are ordinary people, seen with love.

Kate Muir, writing for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' in 2017, said the film "creaks a little with age and its crew of young actors sometimes seems stagey. Yet it has ebullient energy". The reviewer for the BFI's

Screenonline Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lo ...

website described it as having "done more than perhaps any other film before or since in putting Liverpool on the cinematic map". The film opened at the top of the UK box office where it remained for two weeks.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 89477 1985 films 1985 romantic comedy films British romantic comedy films Cold War films Social realism in film Films set in Liverpool Cultural depictions of Leonid Brezhnev 1980s English-language films 1980s British films