Brian and Charles [Blu-ray]

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Brian and Hazel return to the bonfire, where Brian saves Charles just in time before he catches fire. Eddie and his family chase Brian, Charles, and Hazel into town where the rest of the town gathers. The citizens confront Eddie on his thieving, and with the help of the inventions Brian made, he and Charles send Eddie and his family away. At the Sundance Film Festival: London 2022, which Jim Archer attended, the film won the Audience Favourite award. [ citation needed] Introducing Charles Petrescu, the star of Sundance-bowing Brit comedy Brian and Charles and undoubtedly the most ridiculous — not to mention low-budget — automaton ever to grace the big screen. Brian & Charles is the little sci-fi comedy that triumphs with so little. It’s a cute and heartwarming tale about what it means to be human, treating hefty topics of humanity with a light air of simplicity. Think about how charming it is to have a film where a lonely inventor crafts a sentient robot and merely wants to bring joy to the world. This is an adorable little picture if you’re willing to go along for the ride.

Hayward wanted to bring the professor to life, so began dreaming up what he might look like for a stage show. Charles Petrescu was born. Director Jim Archer does a good job of letting his star duo stew in their oddness, but fails to give the work aesthetic and narrative consistency. For example, the opening sequence plays as a faux documentary, to the point that the camera operator even asks Brian a question, yet by the middle the camera operator ceases to be a character.The film is neither taxing on your emotions or going to cause you to cry with laughter but making you gently smile for the majority of its runtime at the silly shenanigans framed amongst some stunning and inventive shots of remote Welsh countryside means, to be frank, it is a hard heart that sets against Brian and Charles. See the Box Office tab (Domestic) and International tab (International and Worldwide) for more Cumulative Box Office Records. It just had a really, funny weird intonation,” says Hayward. “And it took Rupert a little while to type the answers, so when he’s talking to David there’s always a little weird, awkward pause.”

This is Charles (Chris Hayward), a latterday Tin Man with wildly mismatched body parts and a glitchy Max Headroom voice who wouldn’t seem out of place in a Wallace and Gromit animation. “I am your friend,” declares Charles, whose twitchy feet are made for dancing and whose wonder at the world around him (“How far does the ‘outside’ go? Does it stop at the tree?”) weirdly recalls that of the young survivor from Room. Brian thinks its best to keep Charles (who grandly adopts the surname “Petrescu”) a secret from the locals, and so the pair spend their days playing darts, cooking cabbages, riding bikes, having pillow fights and watching TV travel shows that give Charles a wanderlust to visit places like “Hono-loop-loop”. The film follows Brian after a particularly harsh winter. Depressed and completely isolated with no one to talk to, Brian does what any sane person would do when faced with such a melancholic situation. He builds a robot. Read our review HERENo. Brian’s isolation, and as we see it is not total, stems from being a bit of an oddball of no fixed occupation in rural England. The itinerant handyman takes to his shed to invent stuff. Like a pinecone bag. That being a regular tote bag with a bunch of pinecones affixed to it. Or an egg belt—a leather belt featuring a few pouches in which one puts eggs. Not invented by Brian as such but pointed out by the character to the invisible person operating the camera is his “cabbage bin,” which is a trash bin exclusively for cabbages. Used or new, he doesn’t say. Brian is a lonely inventor who lives in a remote valley in North Wales, spending his days in his dilapidated workshop constructing bizarre objects nobody wants. Then one day, Brian builds a robot. Made out of an old washing machine and a battered mannequin head, the 7ft tall machine is a walking, talking lifeform with the mannerisms of an inquisitive child, keen to know about its surroundings and how everything works. Initially, Brian and Charles have a great time together, the robot being the perfect antidote to Brian’s loneliness. However, as their relationship develops, things become strained.

It is clear director Jim Archer and the writers' Earl and Hayward, who play the main roles, invested seriously in the film so that you are effectively charmed and not alienated by it being utterly daft which to an extent it is. Then to top it off just to add some more charm, maybe even ladle some on, adding into the mix Hazel, sweet and socially awkward like Brian, played with some skill by Louise Brearly. There is no cash or another alternative to the prize stated and the prize is not transferable and no part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions. One of those callers was his producer Rupert Majendie (now head of development at Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow production company), but, too nervous to talk himself, he would use a robotic voice simulator software to type in what he wanted to say. The best of the various voices used was a somewhat serious, stern British accent that at the time they introduced as “the professor.” I couldn’t really remember where I got the head, so had to scour the internet, and the ones that turned up were slightly more handsome,” says Hayward. “But he’s a movie star now, so that’s fine!”Munday, Rob (20 January 2022). "Sundance Film Festival 2022: Talking 'Brian and Charles' with director Jim Archer". Short of the Week. Archived from the original on 21 January 2022 . Retrieved 29 January 2022. The humble robot has served as a faithful companion in films since the early days of cinema. But very few are 7 feet tall, look like an emotionless old man who has swallowed a washing machine whole, talk like a toddler on a Speak & Spell and enjoy eating cabbages. Brian and Charles is a 2022 comedy drama film directed by Jim Archer, in his feature debut, from a screenplay by David Earl and Chris Hayward, who also star in the film. The Editor’s decision is final and binding on the entrants. No correspondence will be entered into.

Forget the sleek silicon and smooth chrome, we have a new vision of a sentient robot, and it was cobbled together with spare parts that were lying around the house. Charles — who wants you to know his full name, Charles Petrescu — is a 7ft-tall boxy mess with a mannequin head, washing-machine torso and a blue light in his eye that he can’t turn off when he goes to sleep. He may not be an ideal robot in any other way, but he’s the perfect machine for this movie. Charles, it should be noted, is literally just Hayward, barely hidden inside a giant square cardboard box with clothes stretched over the top, moving the mannequin’s mouth when he speaks. The puppet’s height, plus the absence of any eyeholes, meant he had little idea what was going on around him during the shoot.Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. I concede this is a churlish point to make about a film such as this, when all we should take from this is no matter our disagreements, no matter our lifestyles, all are valid and none can override or overshadow true friendship. Being someone’s real friend is as close to choosing your family as you can get. To enter and win Brian And Charles on Blu-ray (runner up DVD), answer the following question… Q. In Brian And Charles, what is Charles? A low budget film with a deliberately Heath Heath Robinson-esque robot cobbled together from a washing machine, a mannequin head and other odds and ends and all worn to no convincing effect by Hayward. The film sees Brian is still lonely, ( it’s never made clear whether he’s divorced or he lived with his now dead parents in the family home) and Charles becomes his friend and something of a bromance develops between the two. Typically and eccentrically British the film was met with acclaim and made a modest amount at the UK box office. After several years on the circuit, the next obvious leap for the pair was a short film, with Archer — who they’d known for a while and had already made several comedy sketches — recruited to direct.