Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.Stan
Director: Jon Sen
United Kingdom 2006
59 min
Stan is a film based on Neil Brand's radio play (broadcasted 2004) with the same name.
The TV film deals with the last time Stan Laurel (played by Jim Norton and Nik Howden) meets his life long friend and partner Oliver "Babe" Hardy (Trevor Cooper and Mike Goodenough), who lies paralyzed in bed and unable to talk after suffering a massive stroke.
Stan is obviously uncomfortable dealing with situations he can't control, which also is shown in several glimpses of his life in retrospect.
The plot jumps between scenes in Babe's bedroom and scenes in their past. We see how they meet, how their careers are built, rising and decaying, but above all how their friendship is built and only grows stronger over the years.
Stan is a lovely little piece of art, both moving and amusing. The director has been innovative, he doesn't seem to have run out of new and different ways to change the scene, connecting the past and the present and besides that experimenting with the pictorial language.
I strongly recommend this sweet little tale, though it seems to be a little difficult to get a hold of. But it sure is worth it.
4 comments:
This sounds like a good movie, but I think it would have me in tears! I don't know if I could watch it!
Elizabeth:
You're talking to the most emotional woman ever when watching a movie, crying being a rule! Do cry, and do dare to see it!
I really want to see this film. I went to Netflix to add to my queue but they don't have it!
Ben-I've only just come across the film 'Stan' today (in 2012). I've always been a devoted fan of Laurel and Hardy's films and their off screen persona. The film is worth watching however, it does have historical inaccuracies and uses quite a bit of dramatic license-(Stan Laurel seems to come across as a bit too arrogant in parts) However the actor's likeness to the duo (The older Stan and Ollie) is uncanny. There's a link here where someone else has written a review: http://laurelandhardycentral.com/stanbbc.html I can't seem to find any material copy of the film in any shops but I'm quite sure you'd find it on Youtube if you tried. :)
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