Death by Scottish Dancing

The Film Awards for 1994 featured some notable heavyweights produced by a well funded and supported industry based in America.

It was expected that the main honours would be shared around the main contenders of Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction and Schindler's List. These three, amongst a prolific Stateside output of movies, emphasised the dominance of Hollywood in all things on the big screen.

There was however competition from an unlikely source, a British film made in 6 weeks and for a paltry budget of under £3 million.

The opening dialogue established the character of the film with the use of the 'F' word at least thirteen times (although the subject of a long running debate) and various other lesser but equally offensive profanities. It was the delivery of the foul language that made the difference with great humour and fantastic timing which formed the backbone of "Four Weddings and a Funeral".

Single handedly the film revived confidence and viability in a home grown industry that had shown great promise with the world wide success of Chariots of Fire in 1982 but had failed under meagre budgets and as a consequence of  strait-jacket bureaucracy and regulation.

There was a rearguard action by the productions by Merchant Ivory in a very English style but nothing to really fill the Multiplex cinemas on a global basis and with those bums on seats needed to generate the revenues to make a determined challenge.

Four Weddings was unusual in that it had only one established star in the lead female character with the remainder being lesser known Brits amongst them a floppy haired 33 year old, Hugh Grant. The budget paid out £35,000 for his services which was double the standard cast rate but such was the calibre of his performance that for his next role in 9 months he was paid $7 million. The production process took two years before filming started in the summer of 1993 at a number of locations in the South of England and a cameo of the Scottish Highlands filmed in Guildford, Surrey.

There were initial concerns that the storyline was either i) just too English or ii) a stereotypical view of the English that Americans wanted to see , revolving around a group of upper class friends and their attendance at various functions.

The main characters included a bumbling and socially inept member of the landed gentry, his dignified but frustrated sister, a promiscuous American woman, the pioneering appearance of a Gay couple and of course Hugh Grant who finds himself increasingly in the spotlight and under pressure to the climax of the storyline.

The film was first released not in the UK but in the United States because of the nervousness over the style and themes . A main worry was that the film would be seen more as a TV Film rather than a serious mainstream movie but quickly became a box-office success.

This was inspite of  attempts by Polygram, the films backers, to consider changing the title as they felt that it's appeal was limited based on their view that "only girls liked weddings and no-one likes funerals". An alternative "The Best Man" was proposed but discarded as it had already been used in a 1964 film starring Henry Fonda.

The promotional trailers in the US were intentionally low budget and amateurish to arouse interest and curiosity amongst cinema-goers. It worked and by the fifth week of release Four Weddings reached number one for gross receipts. In its first 12 months revenues were a quarter of a billion dollars. The all important Critics received the film well with Barry Norman of Film 94 placing it in his Top 10 on the grounds of it being delightfully romantic. In Australia it was awarded Best Foreign Film and the Sundance Festival picked it out for a merit. The BAFTA accolade ahead of such illustrious competition was an indicator of the impact of the film.

The dialogue, swearing apart, was celebrated for its charm and honesty made possible by the writing skills of Richard Curtis and a highly regarded directing and production team. The film has over the last 20 years proven its pedigree and remains a popular watch on the multi-channels and on DVD. The cast have gone onto greater things many becoming global stars.

There have been many attempts on film to emulate Four Weddings in style under the Rom-Com label but none have achieved that essential characteristic of portraying friendship, humour, tragedy involving a rare death from Scottish Dancing and an eventual happy ending. (oops- spoiler alert).