The Unknown Peter Sellers (2000)
English | Avi | Xvid | 640x480 | 00:59:51 | 29.97fps | 1199Kbps | Mp3 128Kbps 44100hz | 574Mb
Genre: Documentary

This is an essential documentary for all who thank heaven for the second greatest comedian of the sound era. As a biography it is pretty negligible, especially compared to BBC's mighty three-part Arena special of a few years back. 'The Unknown Peter Sellers' substitutes for painstaking research, letters, analysis, context etc., a join-the-dots, point-by-point tabloid narrative, fleshed out with clips, platitudes from 'friends' and 'insights' from the 'experts'. Sellers was a man of many parts except his own! Even though he was a comic genius, he always wanted to be a serious actor! He starred in a lot of 'eye-on-the-cheque' dross! Well, did you evah?

In between the cliches - Peter's music-hall parents brought him on stage when he was a month old. He roared. It wouldn't be the last time he'd make an audience laugh etc. - the actual reality of his life is lost. His marriage to Britt Ekland, for example, is dismissed in two lines: they got married; they split up. The documentary begins with a contrived attempt at narrative, drama and tension - why was Peter Sellers, the most famous and highest paid comic actor of the 1960s, box-office poison and physical wreck by the early 70s, reduced to 'humiliating' advertising work? When we actually get to this point, it is glossed over in a couple of lines, and our hero is quickly bouncing back to huge success in the Pink Panther sequels. This IS an American documentary, after all.

The tantalizing clips from Sellers's early career show his flair for physical comedy, one that owes much to silent stars such as Buster Keaton and Stan Laurel, and Monty Python's Michael Palin discusses Sellers's influence on his own 1960s TV series.
Also included are snippets of Sellers teaming with director Richard Lester with the plotless, surreal short The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Movie, which was instrumental in Lester's selection for the Beatles' Hard Day's Night movie.
Despite his phenomenal success as a versatile, inventive comic actor, Sellers's life was fraught with trouble, and The Unknown Peter Sellers doesn't gloss over any of it.
This is essential viewing for fans of Peter Sellers, teasing the audience with glimpses of his early career and the films many may still never see.

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