The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

The film is a study of a person who, due to his upbringing and success in life, dissolves his personality in his film roles, to which he escapes. It is excellent and provocative, but many viewers will consider the film a true biography of Peter Sellers, and in this respect the film is misleading. It's not that many motifs did not appear in his biography, but it is negatively one-dimensional, so Sellers appears more as a talented sociopath, which is not accurate. He was an excellent artist and talented author who did a tremendous amount of work in radio and was at the forefront of the process later completed by Monty Python. As a television film, it is a precise work with a decent budget and, above all, an outstanding performance by Geoffrey Rush in the lead role. Given the subject, a comparison with Forman's Man on the Moon is reasonable, though Forman had an easier position precisely because Andy Kaufman was a much less known figure, allowing the screenwriter and director to fabricate freely. Living with Andy Kaufman must have been difficult in many ways, even unbearable, but because the creators did not focus on the negative side of his personality, a playful and poetic film with a sympathetic protagonist was created. After watching this film, an uninformed viewer would likely condemn Peter Sellers to hell. Overall impression: 80%. (08.01.2010)

Peter Sellers was definitely a film personality, one of the most unique actors who ever lived. Most people remember him as Inspector Clouseau from the "Pink Panther" series. But he was a much more versatile actor, yet also a peculiar personality, a person with whom it wasn't difficult to get along. One scene from the movie "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" completely blew me away, which fairly clearly defines what kind of person he was, although not in his entirety, of course. He met Sophia Loren, with whom he was supposed to film a movie. At first sight, it's clear that he immediately fell in love with her. However, Sophia had her lifelong love - Carlo Ponti. As their fear deepens, at least from Sellers' side, she makes it clear to him that he should go back to his family and stop fooling around. He really does go back to his family. He tells his wife that he loves Sophia. His little daughter comes up to him and asks, "Daddy, does that mean you don't love us anymore?" And daddy replies, "Of course I love you. Just not as much as Sophia Loren." What would you do if you were the wife of such a man who would say this to his child? It's a killjoy. Peter Sellers actually left his family and truly admitted that he loved Sophia Loren like no other woman. However, he was only a troubadour, and his love remained platonic. Perhaps because of this unfulfilled relationship, he never found true family happiness, perhaps that is why he went through life as a man who actually doesn't know who he really is. The film presents a great escalation of realizing one's own emptiness. Stanley Kubrick (played by Stanley Tucci) offered Sellers four roles in the film "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," but he could only portray three. At that time, at least according to the film and the book on which the movie "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" was based, he realized how empty he actually was and that he couldn't find himself among all those diverse characters. A strong message, but it is wrapped in a strange form created by HBO. In my opinion, the strange narrative interludes do not benefit the film but rather bother, the only thing they show is Sellers' true inner conflict, which Geoffrey Rush portrayed perfectly, he is truly the only one who could play Sellers. Both of them are exceptional. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2012/11/prada-tlumocnice-sveraci-kazajka.html (02.03.2013)