Projects matching: David A Stewart

Synopsis

Set amidst the Carnaby Street, 'happenings' and hippie atmosphere of swinging 60s in London, Honest follows the escapades of three gun-toting, thieving sisters on a collision course with the world of peace, love and happiness. The Chase sisters Gerry (Nicole Appleton), Mandy (Natalie Appleton) and Jo (Melanie Blatt) are a tight knit team: East End girls with an attitude and aura of energy and liberation. Unbeknownst to anyone, they've begun to burgle and thieve, masquerading behind iconic masks to conceal their feminine beauty. These disguised bandits not only challenge the law, but they threaten the 'old boy' code of the underworld gangs in East London. A world inhabited by their father, Tommy (James Cosmo), whose spirit has been crippled by a past tragedy.

Synopsis

When it world-premiered out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival this year, Honest was the centre of a frenzy of tabloid gossip and media spin. The reason? Its stars Nicole and Natalie Appleton and Melanie Blatt, are perhaps better known as three of the winsome quartet that make up the award-winning girl band All Saints. That the film also marked the directing debut of Eurythmics frontman Dave Stewart, here preferring to go under the moniker David A Stewart, further fuelled the hype. Written by the duo responsible for a string of hits including Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads, Porridge and The Commitments, Honest is an edgy black comedy set in late 1960s swinging London. The All Saints girls play streetwise sisters from the East End who have a lucrative sideline in armed robbery which they carry out dressed as men. Moving between the grime and gloom of their home turf, the neon lights of swinging Carnaby Street and the drug-fuelled sleaze of the decadent aristocracy, the sisters soon find themselves on the run when their latest heist brings them up against a local underworld boss (Corin Redgrave). The cynical film world, hardnosed critics in particular, were ready to dismiss the film as a vanity project for all concerned, but its breezy energy and charismatic performances from its three lead newcomers laid such prejudices to rest. If there was one thing working against the film when it was released in the UK in May, it was its 18 certificate, which prevented the bulk of the singers' pre-teen fans from seeing it.