Eighteen (film)
Encyclopedia
Eighteen is a Canadian
2005
dramatic feature film written and directed by Richard Bell
.
Pip is a streetkid who turns eighteen as the story begins. His tortured spirit simmers beneath his punky and sarcastic surface.
Jason Anders is a wide-eyed, eighteen-year-old Coldstream Guard soldier who has been dropped in the middle of the battle. He is conflicted between his duty and his natural impulse to run away.
Clark is a gay hustler who, between keeping a regular clientele to go-go dancing to selling videos of himself “jerkin’”, has created a comfortable life for himself. A life that is thrown upside down when he meets Pip.
Jenny is a sensitive, selfless young spirit who is an aspiring social worker. When it comes to dating troubled men, she has no qualms about rushing in where angels fear to tread.
Macauley is a medic who’s seen so much blood and war he’s developed a secret and deadly coping method. He spends the entire story with a bullet in his gut.
Jeff is an affable gas station attendant who is spectacularly in love with Clark.
Hannah is beautiful and breathless WWII entertainer. She smokes, sings, and delights in giving private encores to lucky privates.
Father Chris is a priest who chooses to pound the pavement rather than preach at a pulpit. A kindred spirit, he feeds and befriends the troubled souls of the street.
and performed by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
. Tovey was nominated, in tandem with lyricist Richard Bell, for the Best Original Song Genie Award
for "In a Heartbeat", which appears in the WWII thread of the film.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
2005
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
dramatic feature film written and directed by Richard Bell
Richard Bell (director)
Richard Bell is the writer and director of the short feature Two Brothers and the feature Eighteen. The latter starred Brendan Fletcher, Carly Pope, Mark Hildreth, Thea Gill, and Alan Cumming. The film was narrated by Ian McKellen, with music composed by Bramwell Tovey and performed by the...
.
Plot
The film follows Pip, a street kid who's meeting life head-on in the big city. On his eighteenth birthday he receives his grandfather's Second World War memoirs on audio cassette, a gift that awakens the ghost of the long lost world. His grandfather relates the story of the day he turned eighteen, fleeing German forces through the woods of France with a dying comrade hanging on for life. In Pip's own and contemporary way, he begins to live the parallel life of his grandfather, both lost in their environments and generations. Along Pip's path he stumbles into an unlikely alliance with Clark, a gay street hustler on the make, and Jenny, an aspiring social worker who tempts Pip with feelings of love and domesticity. He also forges a small but important relationship with a local priest, in whom he confides his deepest secret: the death of his brother and the heinous act his father committed against him before his passing.Cast and characters
- Paul Anthony as Pip Anders
Pip is a streetkid who turns eighteen as the story begins. His tortured spirit simmers beneath his punky and sarcastic surface.
- Brendan FletcherBrendan FletcherBrendan Fletcher is a Canadian actor.-Life and career:Fletcher was born in Comox Valley, British Columbia and went to junior high school at Lake Trail in Courtenay, British Columbia....
as Private Jason Anders
Jason Anders is a wide-eyed, eighteen-year-old Coldstream Guard soldier who has been dropped in the middle of the battle. He is conflicted between his duty and his natural impulse to run away.
- Clarence Sponagle as Clark
Clark is a gay hustler who, between keeping a regular clientele to go-go dancing to selling videos of himself “jerkin’”, has created a comfortable life for himself. A life that is thrown upside down when he meets Pip.
- Carly PopeCarly Pope-Early life:Pope was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, with an older brother, Kris, also an actor, and a younger brother, Alexander. She began acting during her high school years in Vancouver where she appeared in stage classics such as The Odd Couple, playing Mickey, and A Midsummer...
as Jenny
Jenny is a sensitive, selfless young spirit who is an aspiring social worker. When it comes to dating troubled men, she has no qualms about rushing in where angels fear to tread.
- Mark HildrethMark Hildreth (actor)Mark Hildreth is a Canadian actor and musician, based in the U.S. He has appeared in many movie and television roles. A graduate of The National Theater School of Canada, Mark Hildreth's theater credits include Hamlet , Bertram in All's well that Ends well , Richard of Gloucester in Richard III and...
as Corporal Phillip Macauley
Macauley is a medic who’s seen so much blood and war he’s developed a secret and deadly coping method. He spends the entire story with a bullet in his gut.
- David Beazely as Jeff
Jeff is an affable gas station attendant who is spectacularly in love with Clark.
- Thea GillThea GillThea Louise Gill is a Canadian actress best known for her starring role as Lindsay Peterson in the Showtime television series Queer as Folk.-Early life:...
as Hannah, a WWII chanteuse
Hannah is beautiful and breathless WWII entertainer. She smokes, sings, and delights in giving private encores to lucky privates.
- Alan CummingAlan CummingAlan Cumming, OBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy...
as Father Chris
Father Chris is a priest who chooses to pound the pavement rather than preach at a pulpit. A kindred spirit, he feeds and befriends the troubled souls of the street.
- Ian McKellenIan McKellenSir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...
as the elderly Jason Anders (in voice)
Music
The soundtrack was written by British-born, Canadian composer Bramwell ToveyBramwell Tovey
Bramwell Tovey, OM is an English-born Grammy Award winning conductor and composer. His musical roots are in The Salvation Army. He was educated at Ilford County High School, the Royal Academy of Music and the University of London. His formal music education was as a pianist and composer...
and performed by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is a Canadian orchestra performing in Vancouver, British Columbia. Over 240,000 people attend its live performances each year. It was founded in 1930 and plays in 12 venues. Its home is the Orpheum theatre. With an annual operating budget of $9.5 million, it is the...
. Tovey was nominated, in tandem with lyricist Richard Bell, for the Best Original Song Genie Award
Genie Award
Genie Awards are given out to recognize the best of Canadian cinema by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. From 1949-1979, the awards were named the Canadian Film Awards...
for "In a Heartbeat", which appears in the WWII thread of the film.
Release
Because it featured both straight and gay characters, Eighteen appeared at numerous mainstream and gay film festivals. It premiered on June 16, 2006 in Vancouver, where it had a brief theatrical run; it was released that same month on DVD in the U.S. Eighteen is broadcast on Movie Central, The Movie Network, City TV, and Bravo in Canada, and on Here TV in the United States. In September 2010, it became available on iTunes in the United States; in October, it came to iTunes Canada.External links
- Eighteen Official Website
- Telefilm: Eighteen
- Bell's Eighteen with McKellen Voice-Over Gary Kramer, San Francisco Bay Times