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N/AMalcolm McDowell pays tribute to the director of If... in Never Apologise: A Personal Visit with Lindsay Anderson. Standing on stage, the actor regales an appreciative audience with colourful stories about the crotchety, eccentric filmmaker. Names are dropped in abundance: Bette Davis, Alan Bates, John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier all feature in anecdotes, making this a decent watch for vintage movie fans. But you'd have to be a fan of both McDowell and Anderson find it anything other than self-indulgent.
McDowell is a reasonable choice for this production: he's a practised raconteur with a clear affection for his subject. He never misses the opportunity to do an impression of his friends, switching into character and bellowing like Anderson at regular intervals. He doesn't shy away from risque material, either, reeling off stories about hash brownies and about his crush on Christine Noonan (the naked scene in If... was McDowell's idea, apparently). McDowell and Anderson worked on five other films over the ensuing decades - including O Lucky Man! And Britannia Hospital - and he's not short of stories about any of them.
"MCDOWELL IS MORE THESPIAN THAN COMEDIAN"
But while there are breaks for archive footage and stills of Anderson and chums, it's very much a one-man show, and becomes a bit monotonous. Numerous punchlines fall flat - McDowell is clearly more thespian than stand-up comedian - and the impressions begin to wear thin. This is a bit like sitting next to a well-connected, self-important person at a dinner party: only entertaining for so long.
Never Apologise: A Personal Visit With Lindsay Anderson is out in the UK on 2nd November 2007.
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