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The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2003)
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The makers of this biopic have set themselves an enormous challenge in fashioning a dramatic feature about one of British cinema's most familiar figures. Many of his movies are classics, readily available for comparison with the attempts to re-create them here; many of the supporting characters are celebrities, who are still very much alive. That the picture is so engaging owes much to an Emmy Award-winning performance by Geoffrey Rush, who plays Peter Sellers as a volatile and selfish man struggling for a personality beyond his comic creations. The film begins with Sellers already at the height of his radio success with The Goons, and it concentrates on his relationship with put-upon first wife Anne (Emily Watson) and his stormy second marriage to Britt Ekland (Charlize Theron). Essentially, it's an old-fashioned, overstuffed (though his two later marriages are jettisoned) biography with inspired touches, such as having Rush as Sellers impersonate other characters when they offer an opinion on the man. BP
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Tell us what you think
Email us at rtfilmcomments@bbc.co.uk to tell us what you think of this film. Your comments may appear in Radio Times magazine.
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Running time
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121min
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Country of origin
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US / UK
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Genre
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Biographical Drama
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Original language
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English
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Screenplay
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Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, from the book by Roger Lewis
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Theatrical distributor
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Icon
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UK cinema certificate
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15
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UK cinema release date
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October 2004
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Film certification logos reproduced by kind permission of BBFC |
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