Decadence

According to Joan Collins, Decadence was Steven Berkoff's debut as a director and film maker. And it is very apparent in this film. Collins, in her book Second Act, describes her work on the film in a chapter entitled 'The Ego has landed' and she writes of Berkoff that not only was he the director of the picture but also "the writer and the egomaniac and the control freak". And I have to tell you, its awfully obvious when watching this silly piece of wildly unrestrained self-indulgence.

Now I don't usually have a problem with self-indulgence. A lot of people criticise the work of Fellini as self-indulgent. However Fellini carries of his work with a dazzling visual style and a flair unmatched by most film makers. Decadence really is just what its title claims: decadent with money, decadent with a film crew and decadent with talent. Berkoff's performance and his direction (including the way he directed Joan Collins) is so far off the mark it is not funny. The whole thing from script to acting to design to direction is so grossly exaggerated that this film becomes a real pain in the....well, just a pain in every part of the body.

'Why though?' I hear you ask - well obviously, and according to Joan, there was no one there to control Steven or pull him in a bit. Everything is over the top to the point of stupidity. There is nothing with which to contrast his manic performances. And delivering a whole film in rhyme also gets on one's nerves. And I would not like to be the person who came up with that criminal music score. Maybe it was Steven as well...

At the end of the day, this isn't a very good film. Basically it's an ego trip for Steven. He spends the majority of the film showing off, and grossly showing off. Maybe one is supposed to be dazzled by how clever he is, and how talented he is and how wonderfully absurd he is and how funny he is. I wasn't. In fact probably a 12 year old boy could do a better job.

Absurd or Avant-Garde films, I think, are great. Decadence is not. It just goes to show not everyone can make an avant-garde film. It does actually require some talent and ability.

I think this might be Joan Collins best motion picture, at least according to my taste. I've seen nearly all of her movies. Altough Stephen Berkoff used most of the screen time, I think it is just to keep up with Joan's awesome presence. The photography is excellent. The tone hilarious. I wish I could find it on DVD, as I'm sure digital quality would only make it even more pleasureable. Simple as it is, it probably is one most memorable movie, one of my top 10 favourite, for sure. Joan's Midwinter's Tale wouldn't be far behind. Or The Stud, and The Bitch, for that matter.

A rich couple and a poor couple -- both played by Joan Collins and Steven Berkoff -- prattle to the camera (and between themselves) about their lives and experiences.

This is the pits of the pits. Bad. Bad. Bad. Staring the biggest -- most talentless -- show offs that ever went before the camera. Talk about camera mugging. Berkoff makes Jerry Lewis look restrained.

Basically Berkoff points the camera at himself and then overacts for England, village hall style. Collins -- who looks at least a 100 years old (despite six tons of make up) looks as bored as you will be if you start watching this pile of old tosh.

This has to be one of the worst movies ever made and without any doubt the worst script ever filmed.

Steven Berkoff ? You remember him use to play one of the interceptor pilots on Gerry Anderson's UFO from 1970 which was probably Berkoff's level . For some strange reason unknown to everyone outside the film industry he became relatively well known in the 1980s after trying to kill James Bond , John Rambo and Axel Foley . After playing a series of communist villains in Hollywood movies Berkoff moved back to Britain and reinvented himself as .... Berkoff , a violent psychotic thespian maniac who when not suing Julie Burchill inflicted murder upon every film scene he appeared in whilst mutilating the senses of everyone unfortunate to have seen his performances . With the 1994 film DECADENCE we get a double whammy as Berkoff not only performs but directs too

It's obvious Berkoff's roots are in theater because this is not a cinematic film - it's a filmed play with all the production values of a school play . The director tries to compensate for this with passion , you see passion according to Berkoff involves putting on silly voices and casting Joan Collins in multi-pivotal roles along with himself . Let me see now a film starring Steven Berkoff and Joan Collins will have people rushing out to the video stores ? No doubt they did because people would be renting videos of Hollywood blockbusters involving explosions , car chases and aliens

DECADENCE supposedly shows the class conflict of British society . You'd think someone who made a career out of playing communist villains might have had a bit of insight in to Marxist concepts like historical determinism , of the differences between social structures , etc but no this is about Berkoff the thespian luvvie who feels the need to school the audience on ... well Berkoff , nothing more and nothing less . You want to know what's wrong with the proles ? Berkoff will show you . You want to know what's wrong with the bourgeoisie ? Berkoff will show . You want to know why British film started moving to a more commercial trans -Atlantic market ? Believe me Berkoff will show you with DECADENCE one of the most hideous narcissistic vanity projects of the 1990s and whatever he's trying to do he's failed . If you're thinking of watching it due to Joan Collins talking dirty she's already done that with THE STUD which was GONE WITH THE WIND compared to this and if you're wanting to watch this as a deconstruction of Marxist class theory Uncle Joe Stalin beat Berkoff to it and despite mass murder , purges and famine I doubt if Stalin was guilty of inflicting so much cruel torture on cinema audiences as Berroff has here

The play features two actors playing four characters.

Helen and Steve (played by Steven Berkoff and Joan Collins)are rich, having an affair, and speak in "strangulated, upper class accents". Working class Sybil and Les, played by the same two actors, are Steve's wife and a private detective hired to follow her husband.

The theme of the play is that the upper classes subjugate the working classes not by brute force, but by a willing adherence by both to the British class system.

The play's monologues satirize mainly "the ruling classes or upper classes so called by virtue of strangulated vowel tones rather than any real achievement", but it also makes fun of the vices of the working classes.

Just another masterpiece by the British actor/director/writer Steven Berkoff. Not to be missed.