Details

Release year: 1986

Storyline

In London in 1958, a young photographer seeks media stardom to keep the love of a beautiful, aspiring fashion designer.

Top credits

Directors

Julien Temple

Writers

Cast

Patsy Kensit — Suzette
Eddie O'Connell — Colin
David Bowie — Vendice Partners
James Fox — Henley of Mayfair

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Did you know

• The character of "Harry Charms" was based on a real-life British manager and impresario of the period, Larry Parnes, who was famous for hiring unknown singers and giving them extravagant stage names (his most famous client was Billy Fury). In 1960 he hired an unknown Liverpool band called The Beatles to accompany one of his lesser stars, Johnny Gentle, on a tour of Scotland, but he decided not to take the Beatles on as clients because he was only interested in handling solo singers, not groups.

• "That's Inspiration" ends with a close-up of a giant record of the song credited to a band called "The Hidden Persuaders." This is an in-joke reference to Vance Packard's book "The Hidden Persuaders," a late-1950's best-seller explaining how advertisers were hiring psychologists as consultants to make their pitches irresistibly appealing to basic human natures.

• Julien Temple asked David Bowie to write music for the film. After reading the book and then the script, Bowie agreed to Temple's offer if he could also play the part of Vendice Partners.