The Editor’s decision is final and binding on the entrants. No correspondence will be entered into. Brian and Charles': How the Brit Comedy's (Extremely) Low-Budget, 7-Foot, Cabbage-Eating Robot Was Brought to Life". The Hollywood Reporter. 21 January 2022. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022 . Retrieved 18 June 2022. Brian and Charles is a 2022 comedy drama film directed by Jim Archer, in his feature debut, from a screenplay by David Earl and Chris Hayward, who also star in the film. No. Brian’s isolation, and as we see it is not total, stems from being a bit of an oddball of no fixed occupation in rural England. The itinerant handyman takes to his shed to invent stuff. Like a pinecone bag. That being a regular tote bag with a bunch of pinecones affixed to it. Or an egg belt—a leather belt featuring a few pouches in which one puts eggs. Not invented by Brian as such but pointed out by the character to the invisible person operating the camera is his “cabbage bin,” which is a trash bin exclusively for cabbages. Used or new, he doesn’t say.

This is Charles (Chris Hayward), a latterday Tin Man with wildly mismatched body parts and a glitchy Max Headroom voice who wouldn’t seem out of place in a Wallace and Gromit animation. “I am your friend,” declares Charles, whose twitchy feet are made for dancing and whose wonder at the world around him (“How far does the ‘outside’ go? Does it stop at the tree?”) weirdly recalls that of the young survivor from Room. Brian thinks its best to keep Charles (who grandly adopts the surname “Petrescu”) a secret from the locals, and so the pair spend their days playing darts, cooking cabbages, riding bikes, having pillow fights and watching TV travel shows that give Charles a wanderlust to visit places like “Hono-loop-loop”. It’s an idyllic existence, ecstatically captured in a montage played out to the Turtles’ Happy Together. Yet all too soon, electronic adolescence dawns and Charles starts to resemble a stroppy teenager, albeit one whose tiny head looks more like that of an eccentric professor and whose wayward manner will strike a chord with anyone who has experienced older relatives succumbing to the strange infantilisation of Alzheimer’s. The Peoples Movies takes no responsibility for delayed, lost, stolen prizes as 99% won’t be coming from us but directly from the promoter. One of those callers was his producer Rupert Majendie (now head of development at Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow production company), but, too nervous to talk himself, he would use a robotic voice simulator software to type in what he wanted to say. The best of the various voices used was a somewhat serious, stern British accent that at the time they introduced as “the professor.”

When we did it live, we always had this idea of having a girlfriend onstage, but at the time I said I couldn’t face building another puppet monster,” says Hayward. “So Charles could come home with his new love … I’d like to see him make love to another robot.” Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. At the Sundance Film Festival: London 2022, which Jim Archer attended, the film won the Audience Favourite award. [ citation needed]

While Archer says it all depends on whether the “world likes the film,” he admits he has been playing with another text-to-speech voice that could lend some inspiration: a female robot. But this is no high-tech, super realistic humanoid creation. Brian’s lanky android — who almost immediately settles on the name Charles Petrescu (because of course) — is built from a washing machine (and visibly so) and the head of a bespectacled, gray-haired mannequin missing an eye, and speaks in a comically crude robotic voice. A feature-length adaptation of the trio's 2017 short film of the same name, Brian and Charles premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. [2] The film was released in the United States on 17 June 2022 and in the United Kingdom on 8 July 2022. The following morning, Brian discovers that the robot has learned the English language by reading a dictionary, and it gives itself the name Charles Petrescu. Brian begins spending time playing with Charles and showing him around his property. The childlike Charles becomes more curious and eager to explore more of the world, but Brian instructs him to stay nearby at all times. Hayward wanted to bring the professor to life, so began dreaming up what he might look like for a stage show. Charles Petrescu was born.After several years on the circuit, the next obvious leap for the pair was a short film, with Archer — who they’d known for a while and had already made several comedy sketches — recruited to direct. It is clear director Jim Archer and the writers' Earl and Hayward, who play the main roles, invested seriously in the film so that you are effectively charmed and not alienated by it being utterly daft which to an extent it is. Then to top it off just to add some more charm, maybe even ladle some on, adding into the mix Hazel, sweet and socially awkward like Brian, played with some skill by Louise Brearly. Film4 Productions boarded the feature-length adaptation of Archer, Earl, and Hayward's short film in early 2019, followed by the BFI. Principal photography took place on location in rural North Wales, including Cwm Penmachno and Llyn Gwynant, during the COVID-19 pandemic. [3] [4] Release [ edit ] Film, Guardian (19 January 2023). "Baftas 2023: the full list of nominations". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 January 2023 . Retrieved 22 January 2023.

A film like this works so well due to its dry nature that slowly warms the heart over time. I’ll be honest Brian and Charles's chemistry felt too simplistic at first. After some time, however, you get to know and love these people who only have the best intentions and ultimately want some love in their life. There’s something so perfect about the imperfect design of Charles in this regard. The design of Charles makes him look more like someone’s failed attempt to build a Jim Broadbent android. He wobbles, has no expression, and speaks in a monotone computer voice, making it sometimes difficult to gauge his emotions. And yet he becomes a loveable character for being such a simplistic design restricted from specific displays of affection. Introducing Charles Petrescu, the star of Sundance-bowing Brit comedy Brian and Charles and undoubtedly the most ridiculous — not to mention low-budget — automaton ever to grace the big screen.The film is neither taxing on your emotions or going to cause you to cry with laughter but making you gently smile for the majority of its runtime at the silly shenanigans framed amongst some stunning and inventive shots of remote Welsh countryside means, to be frank, it is a hard heart that sets against Brian and Charles. Brian & Charles is the little sci-fi comedy that triumphs with so little. It’s a cute and heartwarming tale about what it means to be human, treating hefty topics of humanity with a light air of simplicity. Think about how charming it is to have a film where a lonely inventor crafts a sentient robot and merely wants to bring joy to the world. This is an adorable little picture if you’re willing to go along for the ride.