Letter to Brezhnev

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox film Letter to Brezhnev is a 1985 British romantic comedy film about working-class life in Liverpool, written by Frank Clarke and directed by Chris Bernard. It stars Alexandra Pigg, Margi Clarke, Alfred Molina, Peter Firth and Tracy Marshak-Nash (credited as Tracy Lea). Letter to Brezhnev presents Margaret Thatcher's high-unemployment Liverpool as a depressed and tough city fallen on hard times.

Plot and themes

Two young women from Kirkby, a rough suburb of Liverpool, Teresa and Elaine, meet two Russian sailors, Sergei and Peter, and hook up for a night of fun and frolics. Teresa is looking for sex and a smile, Elaine wants love, romance and the dream of a life far away from the grime of Liverpool.

Amongst other themes, it reflects the constraints on working class women's dreams. It also shows that many people do not get the chance to aspire to anything other than the humdrum lives they find before them as they walk away from school. Some of the characters work in a chicken factory, a slaughterhouse.<ref name="Times2017">Template:Cite news Template:Subscription required</ref> It also reflects hope and ambition as despite awful odds, the protagonists pursue their dreams.

Cast

• Alexandra Pigg – Elaine
• Margi Clarke – Teresa
• Peter Firth – Peter
• Alfred Molina – Sergei
• Tracy Lea – Tracy
• Iggy Navarro – President of Soviet Union
• Ken Campbell – Newspaper reporter
• Angela Clarke – Josie (Elaine's sister)
• Ted Wood – Mick
• Sharon Power – Charlie's Girl

Production

The film was shot in three weeks on a small budget with fees deferred to those involved.<ref name="BFISO">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Scenes were filmed in the State Nightclub, a prominent Liverpool venue in the 1980s.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It assisted Liverpool in becoming the second most filmed city in the UK after London.<ref name="BFISO" /> For the soundtrack, Sandie Shaw re-recorded the song "Always Something There to Remind Me", and Bronski Beat's "Hit That Perfect Beat" was also used.

Reception

Los Angeles Times critic Kevin Thomas described Letter to Brezhnev as "a winner, [and] further evidence of the enduring renewal of the British film industry".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Walter Goodman of The New York Times wrote: "The zesty script by Frank Clarke is at once shamelessly romantic ('You look to the star and think of me') and unromantically streetwise ('Talk about roamin' hands and Russian fingers')."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times concluded:

Letter to Brezhnev is strong because it is simple. It is not really about romance at all. It is about how idealism can be a way of escaping from the rat race. It is about a young woman with the courage to try something dramatic to break out of the trap she's in. It is also about a brave new tradition in British filmmaking, in which the heroes are ordinary people, seen with love.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Kate Muir, writing for The Times in 2017, said the film "creaks a little with age and its crew of young actors sometimes seems stagey. Yet it has ebullient energy".<ref name="Times2017" /> The reviewer for the BFI's Screenonline website described it as having "done more than perhaps any other film before or since in putting Liverpool on the cinematic map".

The film opened at the top of the UK box office where it remained for two weeks.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Letter to Brezhnev holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on six reviews.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

External links

• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 89477

 | title/{{#if: {{#invoke:ustring|match|1=89477|2=^tt}}
   | Template:Trim/
   | tt0089477/
   }}
 | {{#if: {{#property:P345|from=}}
   | title/Template:First word/
   | find?q=%5B%5B%3ATemplate%3APAGENAMEBASE%5D%5D&s=tt
   }}
 }}{{#ifeq: {{#invoke:If any equal|main|Q618779|Q67325957|Q33999|value=Template:Wikidata}} | yes 
     | {{#switch: Template:Wikidata 
       | Q618779 
       | Q67325957  = awards Awards for
       | Q33999  = fullcredits Full cast and crew of
       }}
   | {{#if: Template:Wikidata 
     | {{#switch: Template:Wikidata
       | Q63032896 
       | Q66763446  = fullcredits Full cast and crew of
       | Q107974527 
       | Q482994  = soundtrack Soundtrack of
       }}
     }}
   }} Template:Trim] at {{#if: | IMDb | IMDb }}Template:EditAtWikidata{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:IMDb title with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|showblankpositional=1| 1 | 2 | 3 | description | id | link_hide | qid | quotes | title }}{{#switch: {{#invoke:String2|matchAny|^tt.........|^tt.......|tt|.........|source=89477|plain=false}}| 1 | 3 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning| 4 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning}}{{#if: 89477 {{#property:P345}} || Template:Preview warningTemplate:Main other }}{{#switch: Template:Wikidata 

| Q21191270 | Q21664088 | Q50062923 | Q50914552 | Q99079902 | Q123186929 | Q55422400 | Q61220733 =Template:Preview warning | Q3464665 =Template:Preview warning }}{{#ifeq: Template:Wikidata | Q21191270 |Template:Preview warning }}{{#if: 89477 | Template:WikidataCheck }}