Semi-documentary thriller by independent filmmaker James Scott set in the world of industrial espionage. A detached stockbroker is employed by a mysterious organisation to spy on another company, thereby becoming embroiled in London’s underworld.
Scott’s first feature film Adult Fun alternates between grimy urban thriller, outright fantasy and pseudo-documentary interviews. The balancing act between the various styles and the finely attuned soundtrack invite comparison to Godard’s films, while the action-driven plot is reminiscent of Hitchcock. Graham Greene’s seedy milieu is also never far away.
A large proportion of the cast are not professionals and many dialogues were improvised. After his films about the artists David Hockney (Love’s Presentation), Richard Hamilton and Claes Oldenburg (The Great Ice Cream Robbery), James Scott used his feature-film debut to search for a new language within the framework of the old one. In this metaphysical thriller he therefore does not reject the classic feature-film structure, but uses it, giving it his own, unique, odd twist.
Film details
Country of production
UK
Year
1972
Festival edition
IFFR 1973
Length
100"
Medium/Format
Digital
Language
English
Premiere status
None
Director
James Scott
Producer
James Scott
Sales / World rights holder
James Scott
Screenplay
James Scott
Editing
James Scott, Adam Barker-Mill, Jon Saunders
Cinematography
Adam Barker-Mill
Music
Simon Standage
Principal cast
Peter Marinker, Deborah Norton, Judy Liebert, Anne Foster, Roger Booth