Girl Stripping Off Their Clothes
Girl Stripping Off Their Clothes
Calendar Girls is a 2003 British comedy film, directed by Nigel Cole. Produced by Buena Vista International and Touchstone Pictures, it features a screenplay by Tim Firth and Juliette Towhidi based on the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes in April 1999.
Starring an ensemble cast headed by Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, with Linda Bassett, Annette Crosbie, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, and Geraldine James playing key supporting roles, the film garnered generally positive reactions by film critics and at a budget of $10 million it became a major success, eventually grossing $96,000,000 worldwide following its theatrical release in the United States. In addition, the picture was awarded by the British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Film, and spawned ALFS Award Empire Award, Satellite Award and Golden Globe nominations for Mirren and Walters respectively.
In 2008, the film was adapted into a stage play.
Plot
When Annie Clarke's husband John dies from leukaemia at an early age, her close friend Chris Harper, anxious to purchase a comfortable sofa for the visitors lounge in the hospital where he was treated, hits upon the idea of printing a calendar featuring some of the members of the Knapely chapter of the Women's Institute discreetly posing nude while engaged in everyday activities, such as baking and knitting, in order to raise funds. Her proposal initially is met with great scepticism, but she eventually convinces ten women to participate in the project with her. They enlist one of the hospital workers, an amateur photographer named Lawrence, to help them with the concept.
The head of the local Women's Institute chapter refuses to sanction the calendar, and Chris and Annie go to a national congress in London to plead their case. They are told the final decision rests with the local leader, who grudgingly agrees to the calendar's sale. The initial printing quickly sells out, and before long the tiny village is bombarded with members of the international media anxious to report the feel-good story.
The women are invited to appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Los Angeles. While there, tensions arise between Chris and Annie. All the publicity surrounding the calendar has taken a toll on their personal lives, and they lash out at each other in angry frustration. Annie accuses Chris of ignoring her husband and son and the demands of the family business in favour of her newfound celebrity, while Chris believes Annie welcomes the Mother Teresa-like status to which she's been elevated that allows her to cater to the ill and bereaved who have bombarded her with fan mail. All is resolved eventually, and the women return home to resume life as it was before they removed their clothing.
Cast
- Helen Mirren as Chris Harper, the driving force behind the idea of stripping off for the local Women's Institute calendar. Modeled after real-life "calendar girl" Tricia Stewart, Mirren has described Chris as a "dash in"—character who shared similarities with Stewart but was actually not based on her real persona. The actress was initially resistent to joining the project, at first dismissing it as another middling British picture with a "middle-of-the-road, middle-class, middle-aged"—-themed background. Upon learning that Walters and other colleagues had signed on, however, Mirren rethought her original decision and accepted the offer.
- Julie Walters as Annie Clarke, Chris' best friend. Her husband John's leukaemia death serves as the basis for her friend's idea to purchase a sofa for hospital visitors in remembrance of him. Based on Angela Baker whose husband died from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1998, Walters was Cole's first choice to play the "more quiet and sensitive" role of Annie. Known for her comedic roles, Walters initially thought Cole had accidentally offered her the wrong part, and although pleased to have been cast against stereotype, she considered the role "a difficult path to trap" while striking a balance between Annie's grief and humorous moments. As a result, she was heavily involved in the modification of several scenes.
- Linda Bassett as Cora, a shop owner and divorced single mother. She is the official organist of the Knapely WI.
- Annette Crosbie as Jessie, a retired teacher.
- Celia Imrie as Celia, a mayor's wife.
- Penelope Wilton as Ruth Reynoldson, a carpet dealer's housewife. Wilton initially rejected the offer to join the project as she refused to be filmed semi-naked.
- Geraldine James as Marie, chairwoman of the Knapely WI group.
- Philip Glenister as Lawrence Sertain, John Clarke's nurse and photographer of the calendar, based on photographer Terry Logan.
- Ciarán Hinds as Rod Harper, Chris' husband, a florist.
- John Alderton as John Clarke, Annie's husband, who dies from leukaemia.
- George Costigan as Eddie Reynoldson, Ruth's husband.
- John-Paul Macleod as Jem Harper, Chris and Rod's only son.
The film's fellow calendar girls include Georgie Glen, Angela Curran, Rosalind March, Lesley Staples, and Janet Howd as Kathy, May, Truday, Julia, and Jenny respectively. Calendar Girls also cast Graham Crowden as Jesse's husband Richard, Belinda Everett as Cora's daughter Maya, Marc Pickering as Jem Haper's friend Gaz, and Harriet Thorpe as WI president Brenda Mooney. Gillian Wright appears as Eddie Reynoldson's lover, while John Sharian plays an American commercial director named Danny. In addition actors and actresses Richard Braine, Ted Robbins, Arthur Kelly, Alison Pargeter, Angus Barnett, John Sparkes, Elizabeth Bennett, Christa Ackroyd, Matt Malloy, Patton Oswalt, and John Fortune appear in short roles.
American television host Jay Leno appears as himself in the film. Anne Reid was offered a major role in Calendar Girls , but choose to do Roger Michell's The Mother (2003) instead.
Production
Six of the eleven women who were pictured in the original calendar sold the rights to their stories. They were Angela Baker, Tricia Stewart, Beryl Bamforth, Lynda Logan, Christine Clancy, and Ros Fawcett. In addition to the calendars, they also posed for a postcard known as "Baker's Half Dozen."
Whereas the actual Calendar Girls were members of the Rylstone Women's Institute, much of the film was shot in and around the village of Kettlewell in North Yorkshire, some ten miles away. Additional locations include Buckden, Burnsall, Coniston, Ilkley, Settle, Linton, Malham, Skipton, Westminster and Ealing in London, and the beach in Santa Monica. The penultimate shot of Chris and Annie walking down a street was filmed in Turville. Interiors were filmed in the Shepperton Studios.
The pictures in the film-version calendar were taken by professional stills photographer Jaap Buitendijk.
The film's soundtrack includes "You Upset Me Baby" performed by B.B. King, "Sloop John B" by The Beach Boys, "The Way You Do the Things You Do" by The Temptations, and "Comin' Home Baby" by Roland Kirk and Quincy Jones.
The film premiered at the Locarno Film Festival. It was later shown at Filmfest Hamburg, the Dinard Festival of British Cinema in France, the Warsaw Film Festival, the Tokyo International Film Festival, and the UK Film Festival in Hong Kong.
Inspiration
The fundraising phenomenon of the Calendar Girls was inspired by the death of Angela Baker's husband John Richard Baker, an Assistant National Park Officer for the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, who died from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at the age of 54 in 1998. During his illness Angela's friends began to raise money, initially with the aim of purchasing a sofa for the visitors lounge in the hospital where John was treated. Nothing could have prepared them for the way their original calendar took off. To date they have raised over £1.3 million for Leukaemia Research, the UK's leading blood cancer charity.
The photos for the 2000 Alternative WI Calendar, as it was named, were taken by Terry Logan, a former professional photographer who was married to one of the models. It was released on April 12, 1999 and became a runaway success, selling out in the first week. 10,000 additional copies were printed, all of which were sold within three weeks. Nine months after its launch, the calendar had sold 88,000 copies. It then was adapted for an American version covering June 2000 - December 2001. The ladies were invited to appear with Jay Leno and Rosie O' Donnell on their respective talk shows. That year the calendar sold 202,000 copies.
Proceeds from the 2000 calendar were used to fund lymphoma and leukaemia research in new laboratories at the University of Leeds. A plaque dedicated to John Baker reads, "The work in this laboratory is dedicated to the memory of John Baker in recognition of the exceptional fundraising achievements of The Calendar Girls of the Rylstone & District Women's Institute."
Since 2000, the Calendar Girls have produced calendars for 2004, 2005, 2007 and a recipe calendar for 2008 with their favourite Yorkshire recipes on the back of each month.
Ten years on, the Calendar Girls have launched a 2010 Calendar with a new set of full colour images and are hoping to raise £2 million for Leukaemia Research.
The Calendar Girls are still strong supporters of Leukaemia Research and have a range of merchandise in aid of the charity including calendars, greetings cards a range of three jams made by Brackenhill Fine Foods York, and chocolates produced by Yorkshire chocolatier Whitaker's, twelve squares with the
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