The Final Programme [DVD] [2013]

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The low budget is disguised well, but the film needed a bit more for effects, relying on a lot of color tinting, sound effects, and old style inflatable "sculptures", to fill the screen. Studio Canal’s release as part of the ‘Cult Classics’ line contains a gorgeous transfer that beautifully represents the whimsical and varied cinematography on display. Extras accompanying the feature include the aforementioned short documentary by Kim Newman, ‘A Feast of Fuest’ – where the film critic and horror author explains his affection for The Final Programme and Robert Fuest’s other works, from The Avengers to The Devil’s Rain), an interview with Jenny Runacre, an alternate version of the opening sequence taken from the film’s Italian release, and a selection of trailers from both the UK and US (where the film was re-edited and retitled as The Last Days of Man on Earth) cinema releases, with the US trailer largely spoiling the film’s ending. Mrs Brunner, played by Jenny Runacre, leads a group of scientists who want the programme, for their super advanced computer, that looks rather like a copying machine. Sterling Hayden is also on board. How do we know the film is tongue in cheek ?,

How does one write about a film that’s mindbogglingly bizarre and outlandish without making it sounds as if it’s best left well alone? On 7 January 2020, Shout! Factory released the film on Blu-ray in the U.S. The aspect ratio of this release is 1.85:1. Special features include an audio commentary with director Robert Fuest and actress Jenny Runacre moderated by author/film historian Jonathan Sothcott, the U.S. theatrical trailer, and a U.S. TV spot, all carried over from the old Anchor Bay DVD. This is not a coincidence; both books are part of the Champion Eternal cycle... a series of interconnected series about the Champion Eternal, who exists in every time and every universe, condemned always to fight -- and never know why he is fighting. He goes by many names -- Elric of Melnibone, Jerry Cornelius, Count Urlik, Prince Corum, each with his own series. In some incarnations he knows who he is, in others he thinks he's a normal man (occasionally, a particular incarnation is female). Sometimes two (or even three) incarnations meet each other. I saw the ads for "The Last Days Of Man On Earth" well before I could watch "R" films, but I was always wanting to see it. It dropped into a bit of obscurity stateside, and it was years before I found a copy. Shortly after I saw it, Anchor Bay issued the uncut original in limited quantities, and I managed to grab one. As a computer programmer, I took it as a nice joke that the computer is depicted as a realistically nondescript box, rather than the usual sci-fi flashing-light monstrosity.

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Jon Finch seems like a lost member of Led Zeppelin, charismatic, offhand and saturnine. Jenny Runacre plays the imperious Miss Brunner (a nod to SF writer John Brunner?) with a lot of relish. I have no idea what American audiences thought when confronted by the Robert Fuest directed and written The Final Programme, released here as The Last Days of Man on Earth. On its DVD release in the UK in 2013, The Guardian wrote: "Director Robert Fuest was responsible for the pop-surrealism of The Avengers and the twisted art deco of Vincent Price's Dr Phibes movies, and here he makes sure every frame looks stunning, throwing so much in to please and confuse the eye, often at the cost of narrative coherence. But who cares when the movie is full of cryptic, sly humour and endlessly inventive imagery, such as an amusement arcade where nuns play fruit machines as the world ends." [3] Cast [ edit ] I haven’t come up with an answer yet, so I shall just plough on and hope for the best… “Formidable”

Hunter, I.Q. (1999), British Science Fiction Cinema (British Popular Cinema), Routledge, p.210, ISBN 0415168686 This is purely a visual treat, slight in a believable plot and bizarrely convoluted yet a lot of fun if you can tolerate the ridiculous elements of it all. Jon Finch is the hero, although I'd hardly describe him as a desireable one, dealing with the seductive Jenny Runacre, not someone you can define well as far as characterization she plays. The Final Programme was released on DVD and VHS formats in the US in 2001 by Anchor Bay Entertainment. The DVD featured a remastered print of the film, which could be played with an audio commentary featuring director Fuest and star Runacre. Other special features included the American theatrical trailer and TV spot, and an insert replica of the British poster. The scientists put the Final Programme into operation; the process requires that Miss Brunner be combined with another person to form a hermaphroditic being. Brunner chooses Jerry over the scientists' intended subject, Dmitri, and she traps Dmitri in a lethal steambath. Dmitri escapes Brunner's trap and fights Jerry, who is severely wounded. Brunner intervenes at the last moment, shooting Dmitri but not killing him. The scientists, working against time, scramble to re-calibrate their experiment for Jerry, who is placed inside a large chamber with Brunner. As the process reaches its climax, the two subjects are bathed by solar radiation and blur into each other. The barely controlled process heats the equipment outside to destruction and the scientists are left either dead or insensible. A single being emerges from the chamber. Dmitri confronts the creature. Unseen at first, the being speaks with Jerry's voice. The creature does not know if it is a Messiah but is sure that its creation means the end of an age. When seen from the onlookers' perspective, the being is Jerry Cornelius, his body now altered to appear as a hunched, pre-modern hominid. The creature leaves Brunner's hidden base and observes that it is "a very tasty world".

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Very stylish tongue-in-cheek sci-fi. I don't recall it being a midnight movie in the 70s or 80s, though it should have been a cult classic here in the U.S. a b Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 357. Income is distributor's receipts, combined domestic and international, as at 31 Dec 1978. Contrary to the apparent chaos of the later Cornelius novels, The Final Programme is quite structured, being an alternative retelling of major episodes of the saga of Elric of Melniboné, with the various characters each taking roles similar to those of the earlier stories: Jerry as Elric, Catherine as Cymoril, and Miss Brunner as Stormbringer.

In the new featurette ‘A Feast of Fuest’, Kim Newman proposes that if Robert Fuest had a more successful career, he would’ve possibly become a serious rival to Ken Russell. This is a view that I harboured for most of the time I spent watching The Final Programme. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Russell’s The Devils with its similarly erratic visuals and abstract storytelling, so much so that I was beginning to wonder if Russell ghost-directed some of it. In particular, the mysterious opening scene is slathered with religious imagery. People in cultish robes standing around the funeral pyre of our main character’s not-long-deceased father. Then the credit ‘Designed, Written & Directed by Robert Fuest’ appears. The film maintains such a unique visual style that it becomes obvious that Fuest had so much control. It is obviously set in the near future, yet still trapped in a 1970s aesthetic. Complete with sex, nudity, action, and a bit of globe-trotting, "The Final Programme" also benefits from the striking visual approach by production designer / screenwriter / director Robert Fuest, whose other 70s feature films include the "Dr. Phibes" movies, "And Soon the Darkness", and "The Devils' Rain". Bizarre and stylish, it can get goofy at times, but it's definitely not boring. Sounds bonkers? Well, that’s because it is. But it’s also hugely entertaining, fast-paced, dazzling and enthralling. It helps that Finch makes an intriguing hero; his performance is matched all the way by that of Jenny Runacre as Miss Brunner who may or may not have Cornelius’s best interests at heart.Hardy, Phil (1995), The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction, The Overlook Press, p.310-311, ISBN 0879516267 The movie The Final Programme (a.k.a. The Last Days of Man On Earth) does an incredible job of capturing the Jerry Cornelius character, much better than I would have expected. But the ending is changed from that of the book, and not for the better. Still definitely worth a rental. My introduction to the film came some time ago on a decent DVD release, but it looks startlingly impressive on this new Blu-ray transfer. While it might not be particularly important for some productions from the same era to appear crisp and sharp (sometimes a bit of dirt and grime adds something to them), for this one, it’s vital. Jon Finch, a now largely forgotten yet hugely charismatic and skilful actor, plays Cornelius, looking all the world as if he’s preparing to take over from Jon Pertwee in Doctor Who. Following the death of his father, Cornelius is approached by a trio of his colleagues to help them complete his most recent project, to create a self-replicating, immortal hermaphrodite. Hochscherf, Tobias & Leggott, James (2011), British Science Fiction Film and Television: Critical Essays, McFarland & Company, Inc., p.60-72, ISBN 9780786484836