“A gently original and beautifully realised film” (Sight and Sound) and “one of the great lost British masterpieces of the 1970s" (Paul Dale, The List), Private Road, Platts-Mills follow-up to Bronco Bullfrog, follows a fetching Bruce Robinson as Peter, a struggling bohemian writer eloping from London to the wild northern hills of Scotland with Ann, played by Susan Penhaligon (A Touch of Frost, Verhoeven’s Soldier of Orange). The couple must choose between a boho lifestyle exemplified by Peter’s friend Stephen (Michael Feast in a splendid performance) or domesticity, navigating Susan’s concerned parents, played by Robert Brown (James Bond’s “M”), and Kathleen Byron (Powell & Pressburger’s Black Narcissus and A Matter of Life and Death).
An inspiration to Robinson’s Withnail & I, Private Road is a total discovery and upon its release, the press called Platts-Mills “an authentic original” (Penelope Houston, Sight & Sound) and “far and away the most interesting new talent among the youngest generation of British filmmakers” (John Russell Taylor, The Times).
Directed by Barney Platts-Mills
Screenplay by Barney Platts-Mills
Photographed by Adam Barker-Mill
Produced by Andrew St. John
Edited by Jonathan Gili
Starring Bruce Robinson, Susan Penhaligon, Michael Feast, George Fenton, Robert Brown, Kathleen Byron, Patricia Cutts
United Kingdom • 1971
89 minutes • Color • 1.85:1
“ONE OF THE GREAT FORGOTTEN HEROES OF BRITISH CINEMA.”
—Matthew Sweet, BBC Radio 4
“A very moving evocation of the happiness of growing apart.”
—Roger Greenspun, The New York Times
“The sort of movie that looks you so straight in the eye that you can’t dislike it.”
—Derek Malcolm, The Guardian
“The direction has a kind of authority; it doesn't merely promise, it performs.”
—Dilys Powell, The Sunday Times
“English cinema has acquired an authentic original.”
—Penelope Houston, Sight & Sound
“ONE OF THE GREAT LOST BRITISH MASTERPIECES OF THE 1970s… This wistful, willful and strange film now looks like a template for the new British realist cinema of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. It’s an ABSOLUTE PEACH RIPE FOR DISCOVERY.”
—Paul Dale, The List
“Confirms first impressions that Barney Platts-Mills is far and away the most interesting new talent among the youngest generation of British filmmakers.”
—John Russell Taylor, The Times (London)
“Undeniably a considerable talent.”
—Margaret Hinxman, The Sunday Telegraph
“A gently original and beautifully realised film, very much of its time… But well worth watching in ours.”
—KS, Sight & Sound
“Quietly and sympathetically observant."
—Tom Milne, Time Out
“A film of wry charm.”
—Philip French, The Observer