The BED-SITTING ROOM

   Film (1969). Oscar Lewenstein/United Artists. Dir Richard Lester, starring Rita Tushingham, Mona Washbourne, Arthur Lowe, Ralph Richardson, Spike MILLIGAN, Michael Hordern, Roy Kinnear, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore. Screenplay John Antrobus from the play by Antrobus Milligan. 91 mins. Colour.

   BSR is a FABULATION, a black comedy set in England after WWIII, where dazed survivors wander about pretending that nothing has happened, even when some of them mutate into wardrobes, bed-sitting rooms and parrots. The original play was a much-improvised piece of slapstick, and what remains of it clashes awkwardly with chillingly bleak settings showing the realistic aftermath of an atomic war: the shattered dome of St Paul's Cathedral protruding from a swamp, a line of wrecked cars along a disembodied length of motorway, a grim landscape dominated by great piles of sludge and heaps of discarded boots, broken plates and false teeth. The film effectively has no plot, and its disjointedness, while pleasantly surreal, gives it an inconsequential air.

   JB/PN