Close My Eyes (film)
Encyclopedia
Close My Eyes is a 1991 film written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff
and starring Alan Rickman
, Clive Owen
and Saskia Reeves
as well as Lesley Sharp
and Karl Johnson
. Music was by Michael Gibbs
(who also did the music for Poliakoff's next film Century
) and the film was produced for Beambright and Film Four International by Therese Pickard.
The film won the Evening Standard film award
for best picture in 1991.
) walks through a scene of tower-blocks en-route to visit his older sister Natalie (Saskia Reeves
), whom he is not very close to since they each grew up with a different parent after their parents divorced. Natalie has recently bought a fairly noisy apartment with her lover only to have him leave her within two months. She is also unhappy in her job as a buyer. On Richard's insistence, they go for a late-night walk and Natalie seems to cheer up, but on waking in the middle of the night, due to loud music from the neighboring apartment, Richard finds Natalie still awake and still extremely depressed. Richard's attempts to lighten the mood are ended when Natalie pulls him into a somewhat passionate embrace, although she immediately apologizes and makes the excuse she just wanted someone to hug. Richard does not seem to have a reaction.
The film checks in on the two in 1987 and 1990. During this time, Richard becomes an extremely successful town planner and something of a lothario while Natalie's career stagnates in a succession of low-level administrative jobs she hates.
The next time they meet is 1991. Richard, committed to the environment and sustainable town planning, is interviewed for a job with the magazine Urban Alert, formed to put pressure on the planners of Docklands to consider the needs of the local residents. The editor, Colin (Karl Johnson
), is somewhat skeptical of Richard's intentions but takes him on anyway to work with his deputy, Jessica (Lesley Sharp
). Meanwhile, Natalie applies for a job as secretary to a very powerful and rich stock analyst named Sinclair Bryant (Alan Rickman
). She does not get the job but later marries Sinclair.
Richard, who does not go to the wedding, finally visits Natalie in her palatial home in Petersham
and is surprised by her changed, more "posh" mannerisms. He is introduced to Sinclair and the two get along extremely well as they are both highly intelligent and seem to have similar interests in literature (Marcel Proust
) and a similar outlook on life.
However, Natalie is not fully happy with her life because she feels insignificant compared to Sinclair. Shortly after Richard's visit to her home, she visits his apartment. While attempting to prevent their attraction for each other from spilling over, they end up naked on the floor. Natalie tries to make Richard stop her from making love. He stops her and wanders to the other side of the room. Eventually, they succumb to their desires and have sex.
Afterwards, they try to avoid each other; this proves difficult as Sinclair invites Richard round to a social gathering and the two, still attracted to each other, agree to meet again to sort things through. Meanwhile, at work, which Richard has proven to be good at, Colin has developed AIDS
and informs the office. After this revelation, Richard and Colin find it hard to interact with each other because they are both pretending nothing is wrong.
Natalie and Richard meet again in Sinclair's parents' apartment and have sex, although afterwards, Natalie is quite firm that their relationship must end because, after all, they are brother and sister. In the course of the weekend, Sinclair infers Natalie is having an affair because she was not in Nuneaton
where she claimed to be (he tries to call her when the dishwasher floods the kitchen), but she still claims that this was where she was on her return.
At Richard's job, Colin is dying but Richard takes him out of hospital one last time to confront an unpleasant city planner with facts they intend to publish in their magazine. The two of them grill him and Colin eats half a sandwich, offering the other half to Richard (who takes a bite without issue) and then offering it to the city planner who is terrified to even touch it because of Colin's illness.
Things then go from bad to worse as Richard becomes obsessed with Natalie and when he turns up unexpectedly at their house he finds only Sinclair, who promptly whisks him off on a boat trip he had planned for himself and grills him on the subject of Natalie's affair. Sinclair does not yet suspect Richard but will not believe that Richard doesn't know who it is, but respects his decision not to reveal the person.
On hearing that (because of the recession) Sinclair and Natalie plan to move to America, Richard loses his self-control completely, harasses Natalie in public at a hotel and then attempts suicide
by taking sleeping pills, unsuccessfully, as Natalie arrives unexpectedly at his apartment. Richard is invited to their going-away party on the condition that he behaves. Richard attends with Jessica (now the editor as Colin has died) but abandons her quickly after arriving to go on a hunt for Natalie. When he finds her, he announces he wants to kill her and pulls her off the site and into the countryside. The two fight in the middle of a road, with Richard accusing Natalie of using him, but he then pulls her to safety when they are both nearly run over by a police car. Natalie then apologizes for using him and says that she and Sinclair aren't leaving the country after all but wanted to have the party anyway. They return dishevelled and the guests quickly leave. Sinclair appears and, though he doesn't wish to hear their confession, he makes it quite clear that he knows what has happened, and that he forgives them.
At the end of the film the three of them walk, together, into an autumn sunset by the river.
, although the film also covers the chaos (as the film sees it) that was the initial stages of the London Docklands development, the late 1980s recession
and attitudes towards AIDS
(then still a relatively new and much feared illness). Though the incest metaphor is a little mumbled, a parallel thread running through the movie is the rapacious replacement of the classical by the modern, represented visually by old and new buildings.
as Sinclair, a very wealthy, intellectual, and slightly eccentric stock broker/financial analyst who marries Natalie after meeting her when she applies for a job working for him.
Clive Owen
as Richard, Natalie's brother and (when first encountered in 1985) a student town planner, who becomes very successful in this career, but in 1991 gives it up to work for Urban Alert - a magazine dedicated to highlighting the inadequacies and injustices of the London Docklands development.
Saskia Reeves
as Natalie, Richard's beautiful elder sister. She has worked through a series of low-level administrative jobs she hated before meeting Sinclair. While married to him she becomes a partner in a recruitment agency. She and Richard were never close as children because they each lived with a different parent when their parents split up.
Karl Johnson
as Colin, Richard's boss and the editor of Urban Alert.
Lesley Sharp
as Jessica, Richard's co-worker whom he tries (but fails) to seduce.
Kate Garside as Paula, a girl who works in the restaurant that Urban Alert staff usually order food from, and whom Richard has a brief relationship with.
Niall Buggy
as Geof, a somewhat smarmy city planner of London Docklands who is the bête noire
of Urban Alert.
and, specifically, London Docklands with Sinclair and Natalie's house being in Marlow. The grand party that is the stage for the film's climax was shot at Polesden Lacey
in Bookham
, Surrey
. The final scenes along the river are at Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire.
and is now available on DVD in the UK and the US on the Cinemaclub label. The film has an 18 certificate
in the UK and an R Certificate in the US.
Stephen Poliakoff
Stephen Poliakoff, CBE, FRSL is an acclaimed British playwright, director and scriptwriter, widely judged amongst Britain's foremost television dramatists.-Early life and career:...
and starring Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
, Clive Owen
Clive Owen
Clive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991...
and Saskia Reeves
Saskia Reeves
Saskia Reeves is a British actress perhaps best known for her roles in the films Close My Eyes and ID , and the 2000 miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune....
as well as Lesley Sharp
Lesley Sharp
Lesley Sharp is an English stage, film and television actress, particularly well known for her variety of British television roles including Clocking Off, Bob & Rose and afterlife.-Early life:...
and Karl Johnson
Karl Johnson
Karl Johnson is a Welsh actor, notable for acting on stage, film and television. He is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University. His most notable role to date was the title role in Derek Jarman's 1993 film Wittgenstein...
. Music was by Michael Gibbs
Michael Gibbs
Michael Gibbs is the name of:* Michael Gibbs , Newfoundland lawyer and politician* Michael Gibbs aka Mike Gibbs, jazz composer and arranger* Michael Gibbs , Dean of Cape Town and Dean of Chester...
(who also did the music for Poliakoff's next film Century
Century (1993 film)
Century is a 1993 British film, written and directed by playwright Stephen Poliakoff.Clive Owen stars as a 19th century Jewish doctor who, while studying at a research institute, discovers that the authoritative Doctor is sterilizing innocent women, in order to prevent them from...
) and the film was produced for Beambright and Film Four International by Therese Pickard.
The film won the Evening Standard film award
Evening Standard British Film Awards
The Evening Standard British Film Awards were established in 1973 by the British London area evening newspaper Evening Standard. The Standard Awards is the only ceremony "dedicated to British and Irish talent," judged by a panel of "top UK critics." Each ceremony honours films from the previous...
for best picture in 1991.
Synopsis
The film opens in 1985. Town planning student Richard Gillespie (Clive OwenClive Owen
Clive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991...
) walks through a scene of tower-blocks en-route to visit his older sister Natalie (Saskia Reeves
Saskia Reeves
Saskia Reeves is a British actress perhaps best known for her roles in the films Close My Eyes and ID , and the 2000 miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune....
), whom he is not very close to since they each grew up with a different parent after their parents divorced. Natalie has recently bought a fairly noisy apartment with her lover only to have him leave her within two months. She is also unhappy in her job as a buyer. On Richard's insistence, they go for a late-night walk and Natalie seems to cheer up, but on waking in the middle of the night, due to loud music from the neighboring apartment, Richard finds Natalie still awake and still extremely depressed. Richard's attempts to lighten the mood are ended when Natalie pulls him into a somewhat passionate embrace, although she immediately apologizes and makes the excuse she just wanted someone to hug. Richard does not seem to have a reaction.
The film checks in on the two in 1987 and 1990. During this time, Richard becomes an extremely successful town planner and something of a lothario while Natalie's career stagnates in a succession of low-level administrative jobs she hates.
The next time they meet is 1991. Richard, committed to the environment and sustainable town planning, is interviewed for a job with the magazine Urban Alert, formed to put pressure on the planners of Docklands to consider the needs of the local residents. The editor, Colin (Karl Johnson
Karl Johnson
Karl Johnson is a Welsh actor, notable for acting on stage, film and television. He is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University. His most notable role to date was the title role in Derek Jarman's 1993 film Wittgenstein...
), is somewhat skeptical of Richard's intentions but takes him on anyway to work with his deputy, Jessica (Lesley Sharp
Lesley Sharp
Lesley Sharp is an English stage, film and television actress, particularly well known for her variety of British television roles including Clocking Off, Bob & Rose and afterlife.-Early life:...
). Meanwhile, Natalie applies for a job as secretary to a very powerful and rich stock analyst named Sinclair Bryant (Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
). She does not get the job but later marries Sinclair.
Richard, who does not go to the wedding, finally visits Natalie in her palatial home in Petersham
Petersham
Petersham is a place in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the east of the bend in the River Thames south of Richmond, which it shares with neighbouring Ham. It provides the foreground of the scenic view from Richmond Hill across Petersham Meadows, with Ham House further along the River...
and is surprised by her changed, more "posh" mannerisms. He is introduced to Sinclair and the two get along extremely well as they are both highly intelligent and seem to have similar interests in literature (Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
) and a similar outlook on life.
However, Natalie is not fully happy with her life because she feels insignificant compared to Sinclair. Shortly after Richard's visit to her home, she visits his apartment. While attempting to prevent their attraction for each other from spilling over, they end up naked on the floor. Natalie tries to make Richard stop her from making love. He stops her and wanders to the other side of the room. Eventually, they succumb to their desires and have sex.
Afterwards, they try to avoid each other; this proves difficult as Sinclair invites Richard round to a social gathering and the two, still attracted to each other, agree to meet again to sort things through. Meanwhile, at work, which Richard has proven to be good at, Colin has developed AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
and informs the office. After this revelation, Richard and Colin find it hard to interact with each other because they are both pretending nothing is wrong.
Natalie and Richard meet again in Sinclair's parents' apartment and have sex, although afterwards, Natalie is quite firm that their relationship must end because, after all, they are brother and sister. In the course of the weekend, Sinclair infers Natalie is having an affair because she was not in Nuneaton
Nuneaton
Nuneaton is the largest town in the Borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth and in the English county of Warwickshire.Nuneaton is most famous for its associations with the 19th century author George Eliot, who was born on a farm on the Arbury Estate just outside Nuneaton in 1819 and lived in the town for...
where she claimed to be (he tries to call her when the dishwasher floods the kitchen), but she still claims that this was where she was on her return.
At Richard's job, Colin is dying but Richard takes him out of hospital one last time to confront an unpleasant city planner with facts they intend to publish in their magazine. The two of them grill him and Colin eats half a sandwich, offering the other half to Richard (who takes a bite without issue) and then offering it to the city planner who is terrified to even touch it because of Colin's illness.
Things then go from bad to worse as Richard becomes obsessed with Natalie and when he turns up unexpectedly at their house he finds only Sinclair, who promptly whisks him off on a boat trip he had planned for himself and grills him on the subject of Natalie's affair. Sinclair does not yet suspect Richard but will not believe that Richard doesn't know who it is, but respects his decision not to reveal the person.
On hearing that (because of the recession) Sinclair and Natalie plan to move to America, Richard loses his self-control completely, harasses Natalie in public at a hotel and then attempts suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by taking sleeping pills, unsuccessfully, as Natalie arrives unexpectedly at his apartment. Richard is invited to their going-away party on the condition that he behaves. Richard attends with Jessica (now the editor as Colin has died) but abandons her quickly after arriving to go on a hunt for Natalie. When he finds her, he announces he wants to kill her and pulls her off the site and into the countryside. The two fight in the middle of a road, with Richard accusing Natalie of using him, but he then pulls her to safety when they are both nearly run over by a police car. Natalie then apologizes for using him and says that she and Sinclair aren't leaving the country after all but wanted to have the party anyway. They return dishevelled and the guests quickly leave. Sinclair appears and, though he doesn't wish to hear their confession, he makes it quite clear that he knows what has happened, and that he forgives them.
At the end of the film the three of them walk, together, into an autumn sunset by the river.
Themes
The film is largely a grand-scale re-working of Poliakoff's earlier stage play Hitting Town in that the main plot remains one of brother/sister incestIncest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
, although the film also covers the chaos (as the film sees it) that was the initial stages of the London Docklands development, the late 1980s recession
Late 1980s recession
The recession of the early 1990s describes the period of economic downturn affecting much of the world in the late 1980s and early 1990s.-Causes:...
and attitudes towards AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
(then still a relatively new and much feared illness). Though the incest metaphor is a little mumbled, a parallel thread running through the movie is the rapacious replacement of the classical by the modern, represented visually by old and new buildings.
Cast
Alan RickmanAlan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
as Sinclair, a very wealthy, intellectual, and slightly eccentric stock broker/financial analyst who marries Natalie after meeting her when she applies for a job working for him.
Clive Owen
Clive Owen
Clive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991...
as Richard, Natalie's brother and (when first encountered in 1985) a student town planner, who becomes very successful in this career, but in 1991 gives it up to work for Urban Alert - a magazine dedicated to highlighting the inadequacies and injustices of the London Docklands development.
Saskia Reeves
Saskia Reeves
Saskia Reeves is a British actress perhaps best known for her roles in the films Close My Eyes and ID , and the 2000 miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune....
as Natalie, Richard's beautiful elder sister. She has worked through a series of low-level administrative jobs she hated before meeting Sinclair. While married to him she becomes a partner in a recruitment agency. She and Richard were never close as children because they each lived with a different parent when their parents split up.
Karl Johnson
Karl Johnson
Karl Johnson is a Welsh actor, notable for acting on stage, film and television. He is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University. His most notable role to date was the title role in Derek Jarman's 1993 film Wittgenstein...
as Colin, Richard's boss and the editor of Urban Alert.
Lesley Sharp
Lesley Sharp
Lesley Sharp is an English stage, film and television actress, particularly well known for her variety of British television roles including Clocking Off, Bob & Rose and afterlife.-Early life:...
as Jessica, Richard's co-worker whom he tries (but fails) to seduce.
Kate Garside as Paula, a girl who works in the restaurant that Urban Alert staff usually order food from, and whom Richard has a brief relationship with.
Niall Buggy
Niall Buggy
Niall Buggy is an Irish actor who has worked extensively on the stage and screen in Ireland, the UK and the US. Some of his more well known roles include the lead in Brian Friel's, Uncle Vanya, for which he won an Irish Theatre Award and an Olivier Award for Dead Funny...
as Geof, a somewhat smarmy city planner of London Docklands who is the bête noire
Bête noire
Bête noire may refer to:* Bête Noire , an album by British singer Bryan Ferry, released on Virgin Records in November 1987* Bête Noire , a comic anthology* La Bête Noire , a comic book...
of Urban Alert.
Locations
The film was shot mainly in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and, specifically, London Docklands with Sinclair and Natalie's house being in Marlow. The grand party that is the stage for the film's climax was shot at Polesden Lacey
Polesden Lacey
Polesden Lacey is an Edwardian house and estate. It is located on the North Downs at Great Bookham, near Dorking, Surrey, England. It is owned and run by the National Trust and is one of the Trust's most popular properties....
in Bookham
Bookham
Bookham refers to places:in Dorset, England*Bookham, Dorsetin Surrey, England:*Great Bookham*Little Bookham**location of Bookham railway station*Bookham Commonsin Australia*Bookham, New South WalesBookham also refers to a company:...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
. The final scenes along the river are at Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire.
DVD/video releases
The film was originally released on VHS video by Artificial EyeArtificial eye
Artificial eye may refer to:* Visual prosthesis, functioning implant designed to restore sight* Ocular prosthesis, non-functioning cosmetic replacement for a lost eye...
and is now available on DVD in the UK and the US on the Cinemaclub label. The film has an 18 certificate
18 certificate
The 18 certificate is issued by the British Board of Film Classification to state that, in its opinion, a film, video recording, or game should not be seen or purchased by a person under 18 years old....
in the UK and an R Certificate in the US.