It Couldn't Happen Here

source: It Couldn't Happen Here

Moviecut—It Couldn't Happen Here

On the back of releasing their album 'Actually', which plays like a greatest hits and includes the iconic "It's a Sin", PSBs decided to release this musical, feature length music video, depending how you'd like to look at it. As a film, it is disjointed, pretentious, with some fairly dreadful dialogue, delivered mostly in Neil Tennant's dull monotone. As a music video, it's perfect, full of odd and surreal goings on, with a few hand fulls of sexual innuendo, interspersed with catholic imagery, nuns in suspenders, a killer priest, Barbara Winsor, an appallingly over the top used car salesman and Clacton acting as the backdrop, the not so proverbial coastal town that they forgot to close down. We all know the landscape, and the songs, fast forward the bad bits by all means, but It Couldn't Happen Here, It's a Sin, Heart, Suberbia and One More Chance will each leave you encapsulated and wondering why more bands don't give this a try. Flawed yes, but Neil and Chris, thank you for give us this.

The BFI recently released this on Blu-ray and DVD. Someone on Facebook recommended it, so I thought I would pick it up. From the reviews on IMDB, I gather the film is meant to be surreal and the plot a bit all over the place, but sadly I think it was too much for me. I do like weird films, that break the "formula" and experiment, but I just ended up confused near the end. Everything felt kind of pointless when there is no storyline throughout - it felt like a few music videos loosely glued together (which is what it appears to actually be). Perhaps with more thought and planning, this could have made a more coherent narrative.

This film starts with arty images and Neil Tennant riding a bicycle on the path near the seashore and the title tune playing. The music is very good in the film with many hit songs such as Always on my Mind, Rent and It's a Sin featured. I've been a fan of the Pet Shop Boys since they arrived on the scene in the mid-eighties and like their oddness and style. This film is a surreal trip the Boys take somewhere in Southern England. They seem to have a fascination with Scunthorpe. Most of the actors play multiple characters, including respected Joss Ackland as a priest and an insane murderer who utters about Salvador Dali and tarot cards; former New Avenger and coffee ad-man Gareth Hunt as a practical joker, a morose postcard-seller and a wig-wearing ventriloquist whose philosophical dummy talks on its own; and current Eastender and Carry On veteran Barbara Windsor in two brief roles. There are some striking images on show, such as a man walking down the street on fire, men who look like zebras and cows on railway station platforms. It's sort of a Greenaway-wannabe type film, but with the star music duo's songs added. But it's still an interesting and amiable journey to experience.

This film is pure art. I love the film and its nuances. It is full of symbolism, witty one-liners, longing, irony, and melancholy. The subtle anti-Thatcherite attitude of the 1980s is superbly woven into the PSB film - and into the hypnotic PSB music. The music ties the film together wonderfully. Trivia: "Being Boring", "It Could't Happen Here" and "Your Funny Uncle" Neil Tennant wrote about a friend who died of AIDS. Recommended.

I love this film...its so odd. Filmed in part at Clacton By The Sea...a coastal town north east of London. A place i used to summer at when i was a child and living in Colchester. The movie is full of strange and funny ramblings...hilarious one liners...theatrical delivery of "classic" Pet Shop Boys songs. This movie reminds me of other artists such as Laurie Anderson or Mikel Rouse. The (vague) plot is somewhat hard to follow (as it is intentionally designed being a surrealistic (pop) "art" peace). Characters are amusing and the dance numbers...right out of the mid 80's mtv craze...reminds one of the elaborate videos of Micheal Jackson or Madonna. If you like the pet shop boys....if you remember fondly (and perhaps with some embarrassment) the 80's. This is great! As far as i know this film is long out of print... however one can easily find it as a rather small torrent file on the web for immediate download. Seek it out if you like the odd and the unusual...and 80's disco pop!! -k

Wonderfully eccentric mix of influences - catholicism, run-down seaside towns, naughty nuns, greasy spoon caffs - this has got the lot. Obviously, not as much fun for people that don't like the Pet Shop Boys - but even they might find some amusements here.

A real gem of an indie film. British, with great production value, lots of strange dollying shots and some fisheye shots too. The look of it is like a sparce and cheaply-made Terry Gilliam film, with a minimal and very absurdist plot filled with odd references to the Pet Shop Boys songbook, their childhoods, and their love for surrealist art, kitsch gay, biker, slapstick, and Derek Jarman films, as well as touches of Steven Wright jokery and some nice colors. I've got this on tape, and yes, you can't find it anywhere! The Pet Shop Boys are brilliant! Now, if they did it again, they should come up with a real script, and have someone like Baz Luhrmann or better yet David Cronenberg make it. Horrific, asexual, glamorous, poppy, tripped-out, and often quite, quite funny. Neato!

Makes as much sense as Twin Peaks: The Return. I love it.