Peter Sellers: A State of Comic Ecstasy

That should be the title of this documentary. Despite the richness of archival material and actual movie clips this documentary falls into the trap of focusing on Sellers troubled personal life and not celebrating the artist. 40 years out of limelight is a two generation gap and a huge blow on any artist presence on the collective mind. Instead, we have an antagonistic portrait and a final blow to a man who only existed in the movies.

Starts with the grandson walking around in the garden lamenting that he never knew him. Who cares?

Sellers was a comedic genius who could walk the line into drama. The parts that feature Sellers in interview clips are really good. The interviews with the family members who clearly have no education and got no money in Sellers hefty will are not so good because frankly they had no relationship with him.

The key to Sellers is listening to him and the people who worked with him, nt the "family."

Good doc however.

Disguised as being a documentary about Peter Sellers, this turns out to be nothing more than lots of gossip and backstabbing about the many affairs and wives Peter Sellers has had. In between the many reports about the several marriages, there is unfortunately only very little footage of his films to be seen.

I am a bit dissapointed by this rather gossipy report about Peter Seller's several marriages. I guess the producers of this reportage didnt have the copyrights to show many more of his movies and what impact they have had. The Pink Panther wasnt even discussed, only mentioned briefly on a side note.

Concluding: better look elsewhere for a more balanced view of Peter Seller's filmography and the impact his work has had.

Another documentary looking back at the life and career of Sellers and indeed one of the better ones. This one tends to focus on his many marriages and relationships, some of which, if this documentary is correct, were in his mind - Sophia Loren. You do come away from this understanding why he is thought of as a sometime comic genius because he did do some great stuff - The Goons, Inspector Clouseau, Dr Stranglove, Wrong Arm of the Law, I'm All Right, Jack and Being There as examples. However given his dislike of mediocrity as he puts it, he did manage to make / star in an awful lot of mediocre and down right awful rubbish.

The sadness here is that as Britt Ekland explained, he was Bi-Polar - clearly - and no-one really helped him. He was so powerful and worshipped that everyone tiptoed around him, praising him for everything. Partly as a result he made many bad career choices, scuppered films when his ego was being dented or things weren't going the way he wanted and seemed entirely unclear what he wanted from the many women in his life - which in turn made him so depressed and lonely. A fascinating documentary about a deeply flawed talent and man, that is well worth catching.

No surprise in the making of this documentary, a mixture of movie clips, chat show appearances, talking heads and most interestingly, clips from home movies. Sellers was a comic genius, there is no doubt in that, but rather than focus on the brilliance, this piece is all about his loves, his health ands flaws. A shame in many ways, how can you put together a film of a man's life and not really touch on The Pink Panther. He comes across as complex and tormented, yet in a way, aren't we all. The only section that really shocked me is when his last will and testament was explained. Very sad! I was fascinated by this, but walked away preferring to remember Sellers for his comic genius.

My favourite line - "We know nothing about him, he had no 'Own personality', there was no Peter Sellers as a human being.