1971 film
Private Road is a 1971 British drama film directed by Barney Platts-Mills and starring Susan Penhaligon and Bruce Robinson. It was Platts-Mills second feature, following his debut with Bronco Bullfrog.
Plot
Peter Morrisey (Bruce Robinson) is an author who has just published his first novel. He meets receptionist Ann Halpern (Susan Penhaligon) and falls in love. They spend some time in a cottage in Scotland living an idyllic pastoral life, then return to London.
Peter gets a job at an advertising agency as a copywriter. Ann becomes pregnant and Peter asks her to marry him but she refuses. To Peter's shock, Ann decides to have an abortion without talking to him about it first. After a spell in hospital Ann returns home and her father gives her a house. Peter returns to his flat alone, still thinking that he will marry Ann.
With his friend Stephen, Peter breaks into an office block and steals a typewriter so he can resume his writing career.
Production
Development
Platts-Mills got the idea for the script from an F. Scott Fitzgerald story.
Shooting
Shooting mostly took place in Notting Hill and Westbourne Grove. Filming was completed by October 1970.[2]
Production notes
- Robinson had been in a number of movies including Romeo and Juliet and The Music Lovers. Penhaglion was best known for starring in Romeo and Juliet on television.[3]
- According to the BFI, the movie "was a conscious effort to fit with the more mainstream, commercial filmmaking model than Bronco was" and the filmmakers determined to release it themselves.[1]
Release
The film had its debut in a Notting Hill cinema on 30 September 1971.[3]
Reception
Variety said Platts-Mills "shows a greater maturity and depth for a film that should get youthful and adult audience interest with careful placement."[4]
Alexander Walker reviewing the film at Cannes called it "lovely, unsentimental, well observed... someone in London show it quickly."[5] The movie screened at the 1971 Edinburgh Film Festival where the Daily Telegraph praised its "honesty".[6] Sight and Sound gave the film a two-page (positive) review.[7]
Awards
The film won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival.[8]
Home media
After several years out of print it was reissued on Blu-ray and DVD by the BFI in 2011 as part of their Flipside reissue program.
