Naked (1993 film)  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Johnny : Has nobody not told you, Brian, that you've got this kind of gleeful preoccupation with the future? I wouldn't even mind, but you don't even have a fuckin' future, I don't have a future. Nobody has a future. The party's over. Take a look around you man, it's all breaking up. Are you not familiar with the book of Revelations of St. John, the final book of the Bible prophesying the apocalypse?... He forced everyone to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead so that no one shall be able to buy or sell unless he has the mark, which is the name of the beast, or the number of his name, and the number of the beast is 6-6-6... What can such a specific prophecy mean? What is the mark? Well the mark, Brian, is the barcode, the ubiquitous barcode that you'll find on every bog roll and packet of johnnies and every poxy pork pie, and every fuckin' barcode is divided into two parts by three markers, and those three markers are always represented by the number 6. 6-6-6! Now what does it say? No one shall be able to buy or sell without that mark. And now what they're planning to do in order to eradicate all credit card fraud and in order to precipitate a totally cashless society, what they're planning to do, what they've already tested on the American troops, they're going to subcutaneously laser tattoo that mark onto your right hand, or onto your forehead. They're going to replace plastic with flesh. Fact! In the same book of Revelations when the seven seals are broken open on the day of judgment and the seven angels blow the trumpets, when the third angel blows her bugle, wormwood will fall from the sky, wormwood will poison a third part of all the waters and a third part of all the land and many many many people will die! Now do you know what the Russian translation for wormwood is?... Chernobyl! Fact. On August the 18th, 1999, the planets of our solar system are gonna line up into the shape of a cross... They're gonna line up in the signs of Aquarius, Leo, Taurus, and Scorpio, which just happen to correspond to the four beasts of the apocalypse, as mentioned in the book of Daniel, another fuckin' fact! Do you want me to go on? The end of the world is nigh, Brian, the game is up!

Brian : I don't believe that. Life can't just come to a stop.

Johnny : All right, I'm not saying that life will end or the world will end, or the universe will cease to exist. But man will cease to exist! Just like the dinosaurs passed into extinction, the same thing will happen to us! We're not fuckin' important! We're just a crap idea!

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop


Featured:

Naked is a 1993 British tragicomedy written and directed by Mike Leigh and starring David Thewlis as Johnny, a loquacious intellectual and conspiracy theorist. The film won several awards, including best director and best actor at Cannes. Naked marked a new career high for Leigh as a director and made the then-unknown Thewlis an internationally recognised star.

The music is by Andrew Dickson.

Plot

In an alleyway of the UK city of Manchester, Johnny Fletcher has rough sex with a woman. At the end of which, she begins to resist and Johnny runs away. He then steals a car and flees for Dalston, a "scrawny, unpretentious area" in the east of London. He seeks refuge at the home of his former Manchester girlfriend Louise. Louise is not happy to see her ex. She works as a file clerk and shares a rental house with two flatmates, Sophie, a young unemployed woman, and primary tenant Sandra, a nurse who's away on holiday.

Johnny immediately seduces Sophie, but soon tires of her and walks around Central London. During his walk, Johnny expounds his world-view at length to anyone who will listen, whether Archie, a young Scottish man yelling "Maggie!" at the top of his voice he comes across in Brewer Street, or Brian, a security guard planning for his future amidst acres of empty space, whom Johnny marks down as having, "the most tedious job in England".

After pursuing and then rejecting a drunken woman after noticing a black skull and crossbones tattoo on her shoulder, Johnny is tossed out of a sublet by a young cafe worker he's followed home. He hitches a ride with a man who's hanging posters around town. The poster man, exasperated by Johnny's non-stop haranguing, kicks him several times, driving off with Johnny's duffel bag containing his clothes and books. Johnny wanders the streets and, with no provocation, is severely beaten by thugs.

He manages to return to Louise's home, where he encounters Sophie and their landlord Jeremy (aka Sebastian). Jeremy has let himself in. Sophie is desperate to get Jeremy out of the house after having been raped by him. She and Louise try to keep Johnny quiet but Jeremy awakens to find Johnny, injured and having a fit.

Sandra returns from her trip to Zimbabwe and tends to Johnny's injuries. Louise rids the house of Jeremy. She and Johnny have a reconciliation. Feeling desolate and rejected, Sophie flees the house with her few possessions. Louise leaves for work, promising to return and go back to Manchester with Johnny. But Johnny steals cash that Sebastian had left in the house and hobbles out into the streets.

Cast




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Naked (1993 film)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Personal tools