Guest House Paradiso — Guest House Paradiso( Blu Ray)
Between the early and mid-1990s British comedians Rik Mayall (The Young Ones, The New Statesman, Drop Dread Fred ) and Adrian Edmondson (The Young Ones, The Supergrass, Jonathan Creek) wrote/ starred in Bottom. The BBC’s crude ‘n’ chaotic comedy series, followed the life of two unemployed flatmates Richard "Richie" Richard (Mayall) and Edward Elizabeth "Eddie" Hitler (Edmondson). It blended smutty & nihilistic humour, with violent slapstick comedy.
The pair went on to several touring shows with the characters, and then at the end of the ’90s, the pair got their feature-length film debut Guest House Paradiso- which saw the uncouth duo running a hotel on the edge of a cliff, next door to a nuclear power plant. Out-of-print in the UK for many years, here from Powerhouse is a Blu-Ray release of the film. Taking in a new 4k scan, a good selection of new interviews, archive making-of & outtakes.
Guest House Paradiso is from 1999, and was directed by Adrian Edmondson, with the pair taking up joint writing credits. It was filmed on location on the Isle Of Wight and on-set in Earling Studio. Edmondson has a total of twelve director credits to his name – these are split between music videos, live shows, and two TV movie credits Mirrorball (2000) which is a spin-off of British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, and Comic Relief: Uptown Downstairs Abbey(2011) which was a parody of period drama Downton Abbey.
The film opens with Richard Twat (Mayall) awaking and banging on his wall to awaken his partner in guest house crime Eddie Elizabeth Ndingombaba(Edmondson)- he’s not there, but Richard believes he is due to a series of pre-set audio recordings, set-off by his knockings. Instead, he’s on a coast road doing the film's most impressive series stunts on a motorcycle- as he gets knocked out, has a pee, loses bits of the bike, and avoids traffic.
As things unfold, we find out Richard & Eddie are ripping off their guest left, right, and centre- stealing, peaking through doors, and all manner of dubious behaviour. Their longest-running guest is the decidedly confused Mrs. Foxfur- played by Fenella Fielding(Carry On Screaming & The Avengers TV show). She has paid numerous times for her stay, and early on the pair attempt to remove her gold teeth.
Also passing through the Guest house doors is had-enough-getting-ready for a fight Mr Johnson(Bill Nighly), a couple of newlyweds who can’t stay out of bed, and a seemingly normal family who just want a cheap ‘n’ cheerful holiday led up by Mr Nice- played by a very young and chubby faced Simon Peg( Shaun Of The Dead, Star Trek, and Mission Impossible series).
The film's plot is decidedly thin, really used as just a set-up for a series of violent slapstick fights, dirty jokes, and sleazy/ chaotic crawling through the guest houses' hidden passageways that run between the rooms. We do get a bit of ‘shape’ of a story when shapely Italian actress Gina Carbonara(Hélène Mahieu) turns up- as she trying to hide out from the press / her violent intended.
I think it’s fair to say, aside from a few exceptions like the two Inbetweener films, most brit comedy shows/ sitcom films are fairly awful. And while Guest House Paradiso isn’t as funny as the Bottom TV show, and at points becomes stupidly ridiculous/ unbelievable. It’s a largely eventful and engaging crude romp of a film, with one or two hilarious moments, watch out for the candle gag, I really couldn't stop cracking up. It's certainly one of the better TV comedy spin-offs.
The Region B disc features a new 4k scan- this looks well-defined, bold, and clean. We get a good selection of new & archive extras. On the new side, we get the following- All the Right Noises (15.39) interview with prolific film and television composer Colin Towns. He talks about how he started doing bits and pieces of music for Ben Elton projects, then Edmondson saw his jazz band play live, so he wanted him to do the score. He talks about working with the pair being a real joy, he was given freedom with no issues. He talks about how he approached writing the score, wanting it to play like semi-improvised madness, but was very much composed. He talks about Edmondson coming down three or four times to his studio to mix the score. He discusses the CD release of the score, and how the music was intercut with the film's dialogue.
Next is Finely Tuned Madness (7.51) Interview with veteran editor Sean Barton. He talks about how chuffed he was to get the role, though was a little concerned as he only worked on darker fare & thrillers. He talks about Edmondson being laid back, but always focused. We find out the script was written & in place, never changing throughout the filming processes. And he talks about his cutting of the fight scenes, the directors & editors cut of the film, and he felt the critics were a little unfair on the film.
Lastly of the new stuff we Squalid Precision (17.06) with production designer Tom Brown. He talks about how he got the role, & the look of the guest house-which was meant to look like a gothic school. He discusses the way the whole building was at odds with itself, and how the grime & dirt was perfectly placed. All in all, a good selection of worthy/ interesting interviews.
On the archive side we get a 2023 interview with Simon Peg( 11.40), and the original making-of from 1999(35.53). As well as nine minutes of outtakes, trailers and an image gallery.
The finished release comes with a forty-page booklet taking in a new essay by Jon Robertson, an archival on-set report, an archival interview with Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits.
I’ll have to admit I was somewhat apprehensive when I approached watching Guest House Paradiso, as I had vague/ not very positive memories of seeing it when it came out to rent. But I was very much pleasantly surprised, and as I mentioned earlier it stands up as one of the better British comedy films, and it’s made me keen to revisit Bottom. Great to have it finally back in print, with the usual amount of care & worthy extras we’ve come to expect from the folks at Powerhouse.