The Life and Death of Peter Sellers: intriguing!

Author's Rating:

Pros: excellent acting all the way around.

Cons: Seems to focus on the negative sides of Seller's personality.

The Bottom Line: 
Fascinating look into one of the comic genius' of our time.

Author's Review
I finally got a chance to rent the HBO movie from 2005 called, "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers". I had caught a few minutes of it when I was in a hotel room somewhere and had been very curious about what this entire movie was about ever since.

I was definitely not disappointed. This story was a real eye-opener to me. I thought that some of what was shown could have been exaggerated, but to see what Peter Sellers may have really been like in his real life (not as Inspector Clouseau) came as a bit of a shock, even if it was somewhat exaggerated for the movie. Hate to say this but this talented man really came across, most of the time in the movie, as a complete jerk. Apparently, the author of the book by the same name, Roger Lewis, had interviewed many people close to Sellers, backing up the claims of negative behavior.

The talented actor playing the part of Peter Sellers, Geoffrey Rush, was Excellent, with a capital "E". I felt like I was watching the real Peter Sellers, he was so convincing. Of course, Geoffrey Rush is best known for his recent role of Captain Barbosa of "Pirates of the Caribbean" fame. (Interesting to note that there is one brief scene in this movie featuring the co-star of Rush from the 'Pirates' movie, MacKenzie Crook.)

Even the opening of this movie was like the opening of a "Pink Panther" film. An animated version of Peter Sellers dances about onscreen as the cartoon Pink Panther had done (all this while Tom Jones sings"What's New Pussycat?". (Sellers starred in "What's New Pussycat" The movie in 1965). We first meet Peter during his popular radio show days and quickly learn that he aspires to be in movies. His mother, Peg, (veteran actress Miriam Margolyes) is the hard-driving force behind him. They almost seem to have a relationship which is too close, definitely overshadowing Peter's father (Peter Vaughan, "The Mother"), William. Peg refuses to allow Peter to give up even when he is turned down after several auditions. Young Peter Sellers was turned down flat when trying to get an audition to play the part of a 60-year old man. But "Peter", later dressed up as an elderly gent, auditioned for that same part and was quite convincing. Peg even goes too far, in my opinion, when Peter's father has just passed away in the hospital. Instead of grieving with her son, she just tells him to prepare a statement to give to the reporters.

There was a very disturbing scene in which Seller's and his young son, Michael, discover a small scratch on his prized car. Upset, Sellers runs into the house to call the car dealership, while the young lad takes it upon himself to cover up the scratch with his own version of a 'racing stripe'. When he proudly shows off his work to his Dad, Peter flips out and begins smashing all of his son's toys. When Sellers wife, Anne (wonderful actress, Emily Watson) confronts him on his behavior, he responds by being silly, which seems to be some sort of 'coping mechanism' for him.

Troubling too, was Peter's "love affair" with Sophia Loren (beautiful, Sonia Aquino), with whom he acted in a movie from 1960 called, "The Millionairess". If this movie was correct, the love affair was completely in the mind of Sellers. Loren obviously had no interest in Sellers or in pursuing any relationship beyond their working relationship. But he even goes so far as to tell his wife and children (all at once) that he wants a divorce. It was heartbreaking to see his little daughter's reaction, "Don't you love us anymore, daddy?" Sellers hugs his young daughter and says, "Of course, I do, just not as much as I love Sophia Loren."

The styles were very "mod" when scenes of the 1960s were shown. Some attempts were made also to make short parts of the film look "vintage", as if viewing an old home movie. It was fun to view them, especially with scenes of Charlize Theron, who played Seller's second wife, Britt Ekland. Theron did an outstanding job also portraying the beautiful model trying to make her doomed marriage to the emotionally unpredictable Sellers work.

Interesting asides were added to this film, in which Rush would portray the main people in his life. There he is dressed as his mother, his father, his wife, and even Kubrick. He is dressed as them, wigs and all, and narrates as them, as he would have liked to explain Peter Sellers behavior as them. These short asides are woven into the movie and provide another angle at Seller's wild reactions to those in his life.

Stanley Tucci plays the part of Stanley Kubrick. Sellers acted in this movie, directed by Kubrick, "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"(1964), in which Sellers played three parts.

Stephen Frye plays the card reader/wheeler dealer, Maurice Woodruff who tells Peter that green is a color of bad luck, while Peter is wearing a green sweater. The next time we see Maurice, he is wearing green!

John Lithgow plays the flamboyant, Blake Edwards, director of the Pink Panther films. It sure looked to me like Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers had a love/hate relationship. Sellers appears to have had a volatile relationship with just about everyone, except his mother perhaps. I guess you could say he was one of those creative genius' that everyone had to tolerate because he is so talented. He also had a ton of anxiety about his work. The movie closes near the end of Seller's life, just after the making of "Being There", a movie he desperately wanted to make (and finally got his wish).

Whether you choose to believe the claims in this book or not, I had to admire Rush's portrayal of the late comedian.

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I wrote another review of a Peter Seller's film called: The Magic Christian. (1969)
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