The Life and Death of Peter Sellers Film Review

A mournful ultimately tragic bio of Peter Sellers. It was made for TV by BBC and as best as I can tell is fairly truthful to the real Peter Sellers. Sellers would ask, who is the real Peter Sellers - he felt like he didn't know - that he was whatever character he was playing both on the screen and in life. He was always playing a character. Clearly a very complicated man filled with insecurities and a need to be loved. But at the same time unable to return it - he was at times very nasty to his four wives, his children, his friends, his directors - he seemed only to care for his mother but even with her he was too busy to go to the hospital as she lay dying. He was a comic genius and at times a fine dramatic actor but never felt appreciated and unable to be happy. Or at least this film focuses on those times. But it seems clear that over time he became more and more erratic and difficult to deal with and his health also failed. After his first heart attack while making Kiss, Me Stupid, director Billy Wilder said, "How could a man with no heart have a heart attack".

The film begins with his early days in the legendary Goon Show that became an enormously popular radio program. About fifteen minutes into the film, the cracks begin to show as he gets angry at his little son and destroys his toys. Then he is bedazzled by Sophia Loren in The Millionairess - and desperately chases after her and tells his wife and children that he loves her more than them. Whether it became more than an infatuation and friendship is up for debate - she was married to Carlo Ponti at the time - but after the film was finished the two of them made a music album together. This touches on a number of his films - The Pink Panther, Dr. Strangelove, Bobo, After the Fox, Casino Royale and Being There - recreating moments from those films. Also goes into his marriage to Britt Ekland and how rough that was, his up and down relationship with Blake Edwards. He is basically a shit but at the same time, you feel a lot of sympathy towards him - something was wrong inside him and he could not control his outbursts.

He is played brilliantly by Geoffrey Rush, capturing all sides of his personality. At times the film tries to get clever by having him playing his mother, wife and other characters. I am not sure it works but it is very Sellers. There are a few fantasy scenes - one in which he is recovering from his heart attack and all his characters from his films surround him is terrific. It tries its best not to be just a straight bio-pic but to give it some imagination. The cast is first rate - Emily Watson as his first wife, Charlize Theron as Ekland, John Lithgow as Blake Edwards, Stanley Tucci as Kubrick, Stephen Fry as his fortune teller and medium and it is directed by Stephen Hopkins. I have watched a number of Sellers films over the past six months and laughed at most of them - though if you give a close look at his filmography, it is filled with a lot of dreck - films he had to make for the money. They often say comedian are the saddest people. True of him. But - he could have been a better person. He was about to divorce his fourth wife Lynne Frederick (in The Prisoner of Zenda) and cut her out of his will on the die he died from a fatal heart attack - his children were left 2,000 pounds and the rest went to her. She refused to give any to the children and retired from films.