THE LOOK OF LOVE - QUEERGURU

The surprising element of Michael Winterbottom’s new bio-pic on the life of Paul Raymond the self styled ‘King of Soho’ in London in the swinging sixties, is that he has chosen to present him as a lovable rogue who deserves our sympathy as ‘sex’ made him very rich but extremely unhappy. After all Raymond was a self-made man who made his money from a soft-porn industry and ended up owning most of the property in the neighborhood, and being declared as the richest man in the UK in 1992 just a month after Debbie his daughter died of a drug overdose.

The movie begins at the end of the story after Debbie’s funeral and in a series of flashbacks tells how a young Mr Raymond started out working with his choreographer wife in presenting rather tame nude reviews in his first Club/Bar. Soon after this the publicity hungry showman that he was, opened London’s first Private Members club where he could bypass the UK’s rather Dickensian laws and have the girls both naked and moving. Something considered very shocking at the time. It was a sensational success and led him next to buying theatres to produce ‘legitimate’ musical shows/plays to showcase more naked girls which the critics unanimously slated but the public could not get enough of.

Now wealthy and living rather grandly, Raymond’s wife turned a blind eye to his nightly dalliances with a whole coterie of different women as long as he came home afterwards. One night he failed to do even that having fallen for his latest leading lady who he eventually made his next wife and a star columnist in the ‘Men Only ‘magazine that he had just acquired. Soon one a night was no longer enough for Mr Raymond, and he and Fiona started having threesomes and even foursomes in their penthouse apartment.

At the same time Debbie his teenage daughter got expelled from her posh private school and declared that she wanted to be an actress/singer and so Raymond built a whole Show around her to make her a Star. Sadly her ambition was larger than her talent and the show bombed, and when her father closed it, Debbie took refuge in drugs. Her marriage was doomed right from her wedding day, but it did produce two children who may have ended up with an indifferent mother, but they at least had a doting grandfather. Raymond and his daughter had a complicated relationship : he seemed to indulge all her excesses to compensate for his absence when she was growing up. One of the most revealing scenes is when Debbie is in hospital and about to give birth and demands that her father gives her a line of coke …. and he actually does.

The ex wife popped up again briefly, and now in her mid 40’s offered to pose naked for the magazine, not to try to win Raymond back, but to show his how other men still found her desirable. And Raymond had two sons too. Howard was something of a mummy’s boy and loathed his father who he rarely saw. Derry, his grown up illegitimate son, turned up on his doorstep one day and got short shift from his father … a quick lunch and a hasty goodbye, and never to be seen again

When Debbie’s habit killed her, she was just 36 years old. Raymond never recovered and became something of a recluse until he died in 2008.

The film was the idea of its star, Steve Coogan, and it is a larger than life role that suits him to a tee. He simply shines as Raymond and imbues him with a droll sense of humour that he uses for his constant self-promoting but also to cover his desperate loneliness and his bouts of self-pity. His leading ladies are all quite excellent too. Anna Friel as his wife, Tamsin Egerton as Fiona Richmond and Imogen Poots as Debbie.

The script that Matt Greenhalgh (‘Nowhere Boy’ & ‘Control’) is written is no mean expose of the man who was often described as ‘the sleaze king’ and whilst there is excessive explicit nudity, its all rather clean and wholesome. Even Raymond’s many entanglements with the law …… only a few of which are mentioned …. come out with Raymond smelling sweet even when he has lost. Greenhalgh has written a wonderful period piece that does evoke Soho at its best in the swinging 60’s without even a hint of the criminals that were inevitably involved in the ‘sex scene’ then (and always?).

It’s by no means Michael Winterbottom’s finest movie, but it is a delightful romp and very entertaining. But then I am probably a tad biased as I am not only a Brit, but one who was growing up in London at that time. Would the story have any relevance to a US audience? Well, if you liked Mr Winterbottom’s ’24 Party People’ , also starring Steve Coogan, then you’ll love this. If however your idea of a good Brit period piece is ‘Downtown Abbey’, then this is not for you!Available on Amazon

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