45-503: Calendar Girls is a 2003 British comedy film directed by Nigel Cole . Produced by Touchstone Pictures , it features a screenplay by Tim Firth and Juliette Towhidi, based on a true story of a group of middle-aged Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research (subsequently Blood Cancer UK) under the auspices of the Women's Institutes in April 1999 after
90-713: A camp sensibility lay behind the successful Carry On films , while in America subversive independent film-maker John Waters made camp films for college audiences with his drag queen friends that eventually found a mainstream audience. The success of the American television show Saturday Night Live drove decades of cinema with racier content allowed on television drawing on the program's stars and characters, with bigger successes including Wayne's World , Mean Girls , Ghostbusters and Animal House . Parody and joke-based films continue to find audiences. While comedic films are among
135-459: A "dash in"—character who shared similarities with Stewart but was actually not based on her real persona. Anne Reid was also offered a major role in Calendar Girls , but choose to do Roger Michell 's The Mother (2003) instead. With Calendar Girls being rare for a film to focus on middle-aged women, while not just portraying them as mothers or aunts, Cole experienced difficulties with casting
180-562: A consistent comic tone, pic builds into an engaging, light character comedy, played somewhere between the Ealing tradition and contempo regional comedy." In The Guardian , Peter Bradshaw rated the film three out of a possible five stars and added, "This genial comedy, directed by Nigel Cole, with an excellent, tightly constructed script by Tim Firth and Juliette Towhidi, accentuates the positive. There's lots of wit and pluck and not much heartbreak," and Mark Kermode of The Observer said, "When
225-421: A recipe calendar for 2008 with their favourite Yorkshire recipes on the back of each month. Ten years on, they launched a 2010 calendar with a new set of full colour images and the aim of raising £2 million for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research . In addition, they have released a range of merchandise in aid of the charity throughout the years. Six of the eleven women who were pictured in the original calendar sold
270-411: A result, she was heavily involved in the modification of several scenes. Mirren was initially hesitant to sign on to the project because she considered it "too English" and disliked the idea of a "poor woman's Full Monty ." Upon learning that Walters and other colleagues had signed on, however, she rethought her original decision and accepted the offer. Modelled after Stewart, Mirren has described Chris as
315-473: A scandalous story about her in a gossip rag by a paparazzi-journalist causes her to follow them to L.A. The publicity surrounding the calendar eventually takes a toll on their personal lives and, during a photo shoot, tension boils over, Chris and Annie angrily clash. Annie accuses Chris of ignoring her husband and son and the demands of the family business in favour of newfound celebrity; Chris believes Annie revels in her Mother Teresa -like status of catering to
360-498: A separate genre, but rather, provides a better understanding of the film. Georgie Glen Georgie Glen (born 20 April 1956) is a Scottish actress, best known for her roles as Miss Higgins in the BBC One period drama series Call The Midwife from 2018 onwards, and as history teacher Audrey McFall in the BBC One school-based drama series Waterloo Road from 2012 to 2015. Glen
405-654: Is "A charming movie [that] should appeal to fans of The Full Monty and Waking Ned Devine – and not just because they also featured nudity that made you smile instead of smirk. The films share a wonderfully British wry humor. They're not laugh-out-loud funny, but there's quite a bit to amuse you when thinking about the scenes later." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said, "It's the kind of sweet, good-humored comedy that used to star Margaret Rutherford , although Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, its daring top-liners, would have curled Dame Margaret's eyebrows [...] That
450-594: Is diagnosed with terminal leukaemia , Chris regularly visits them at the hospital. Chris complains about the uncomfortable couch in the waiting room. After noticing a "girlie" calendar in a local mechanic's shop, she hits upon an idea to raise funds to buy a new sofa. She proposes producing a calendar featuring members of the Knapely branch of the Women's Institute discreetly posing nude while engaged in traditional WI activities, such as baking and knitting. Chris's proposal initially
495-598: Is from Helensburgh in Argyll and Bute , Scotland, and graduated from Glasgow School of Art with a degree in graphic design. She worked at Thames and Hudson publishers as an assistant book designer for five years before studying at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for two years. After graduating she worked for a year at Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich , England. She has featured in the BBC One drama series, Call
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#1732908983530540-420: Is met with skepticism, but she eventually convinces nine additional women to participate in the project with her and Annie. They enlist Lawrence, a hospital worker and amateur photographer, to help with the project. The women are all quite shy, but they support each other, overcoming their fears. The head of the local Women's Institute branch refuses to sanction the calendar, so Chris and Annie plead their case to
585-401: The 2000 Alternative WI Calendar, as it was named, were taken by Terry Logan, a former professional photographer who was married to one of the models. It was released on 12 April 1999 and became a runaway success, selling out in the first week. 10,000 additional copies were printed, all of which were sold within three weeks. Nine months after its launch, the calendar had sold 88,000 copies. It then
630-794: The Dinard Festival of British Cinema in France, the Warsaw Film Festival , the Tokyo International Film Festival and the UK Film Festival in Hong Kong. It garnered generally positive reactions by film critics, who compared it with another British comedy film The Full Monty (1997). At a budget of $ 10 million it also became a major commercial success, eventually grossing $ 93.4 million worldwide following its theatrical release in
675-692: The Midwife , Waterloo Road , Les Misérables , as Mother Abbess; in 2012, she had appeared in Les Misérables the film, as Madame Baptistine. Additional period performances include Hannah More in the 2006 film, Amazing Grace , John Ruskin 's mother in the drama, Desperate Romantics about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood , as well as lady-in-waiting to Judi Dench in both Shakespeare in Love and Mrs. Brown . Since 2018, she has been cast in
720-541: The U.S. In addition, the picture was awarded the British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Film, and received ALFS Award , Empire Award and Satellite Award nominations for Mirren and Walters, and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Mirren. Annie Clarke and Chris Harper live in the Yorkshire village of Knapely, where they spend much time at the local Women's Institute and with each other. When Annie's husband, John,
765-460: The WI calendar backstory. Based on Baker, Walters was Cole's first choice to play the "more quiet and sensitive" role of Annie. Known for her comedic roles, Walters initially thought Cole had accidentally offered her the wrong part, and although pleased to have been cast against stereotype, she considered the role "a difficult path to trap" while striking a balance between Annie's grief and humorous moments. As
810-587: The West End, opening at the Phoenix Theatre in February 2017. Comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor . These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending , with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the oldest genres in film, and it is derived from classical comedy in theatre . Some of
855-427: The Women's Institute and experienced the supportive atmosphere that had got them all through the embarrassment of taking their clothes off to make a calendar. That same spirit started to show on set, with the cast becoming determined to be nude, even when it was not requested for filming, including face shots. It was suggested that Phillip Glennister's character says to Celia Imrie's character "You look beautiful Celia" he
900-474: The age of 54 in 1998. During his illness, Baker's friends began to raise money, initially with the aim of purchasing a sofa for the visitors' lounge in the hospital where John was treated. Nothing could have prepared them for the way their original calendar took off. To date, they have raised over £3 million for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research (now Blood Cancer UK), the UK's leading blood cancer charity. The photos for
945-668: The beach in Santa Monica , USA . The penultimate shot of lead characters Chris and Annie walking down a street was filmed in Turville . Interiors were filmed in the Shepperton Studios in Surrey . The pictures in the film-version calendar were taken by professional stills photographer Jaap Buitendijk. Filming of the nude scenes took a week. According to Cole, the actors were struck by group spirit when they met their real-life counterparts from
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#1732908983530990-732: The biggest compliment you can pay a picture is that it is professional and not smug, there's a little something missing, like invention." Manohla Dargis of the Los Angeles Times said the film "is closer in texture and consistency to individually wrapped American cheese than good, tangy English Cheddar . But even humble plastic-wrapped cheese has its virtues and so does this film [...] Chief among those graces are Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, two well-matched and criminally underused actresses [...] Although they have little to do but grin and bare it, Mirren and Walters are delightful company." In Entertainment Weekly , Lisa Schwarzbaum, who graded
1035-658: The earliest silent films were slapstick comedies , which often relied on visual depictions, such as sight gags and pratfalls, so they could be enjoyed without requiring sound. To provide drama and excitement to silent movies, live music was played in sync with the action on the screen, on pianos, organs, and other instruments. When sound films became more prevalent during the 1920s, comedy films grew in popularity, as laughter could result from both burlesque situations but also from humorous dialogue . Comedy, compared with other film genres , places more focus on individual star actors, with many former stand-up comics transitioning to
1080-499: The film "delivers very likable, if sometimes dramatically wobbly, results". He found that "though the film is never dull, and playing by the cast is spirited, it's actually a surprisingly gentle movie [...] The humor has a typically British, offhanded flavor, and the essentially simple story plays more as a multi-character rondo on a single idea. For every laugh-out-loud moment, or eccentric touch, there are equal moments of reflection and pause [...] Despite an uncertain start in establishing
1125-576: The film B+, compared Calendar Girls with other British comedy films such as Billy Elliot and Saving Grace . She commented that "[It] is the first export from the light-comedy-steamroller division of the British film industry that avoids, for the most part, the kind of queasy class condescension such hell-bent charmers have relied on since unemployed steel-mill workers shook their groove thangs in The Full Monty ." Variety critic Derek Elley wrote that
1170-516: The film a positive rating, based on 126 reviews, with an average score of 6.5/10. Its consensus states "A charming, but clichéd comedy reminiscent of The Full Monty ." On Metacritic , the film has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on reviews from 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on scale of A to F. Ruthe Stein, writing for The San Francisco Chronicle , said it
1215-551: The film during the ladies' visit to California; they also encounter the American heavy metal band Anthrax while relaxing by the pool. The fundraising phenomenon of the Calendar Girls was inspired by the death of Angela Baker's husband John Richard Baker, an Assistant National Park Officer for the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, who died from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma , a form of blood cancer at
1260-515: The film industry due to their popularity. In The Screenwriters Taxonomy (2017), Eric R. Williams contends that film genres are fundamentally based upon a film's atmosphere, character, and story, and therefore, the labels "drama" and "comedy" are too broad to be considered a genre. Instead, his taxonomy argues that comedy is a type of film that contains at least a dozen different sub-types. A number of hybrid genres have emerged, such as action comedy and romantic comedy . The first comedy film
1305-402: The film succeeds, as it does magnificently in the first two-thirds, one can only marvel at the miracle of a world in which such plotlines could literally land on a producer's doorstep with the morning papers. When it fails, it is the film's acknowledgment of its own big-screen inevitability that is to blame. The result is half a great British screen comedy, twice as much as one usually expects from
1350-583: The genre nowadays ... Ultimately, however, this remains an immensely likeable and often impressive romp." Calendar Girls is a 2008 stage play based on the film that was part of the Chichester Theatre Festival. It subsequently transferred to the West End . The Girls is a 2015 musical based on the story of the film, written by Tim Firth and Gary Barlow . It premiered in Leeds and then transferred to
1395-463: The husband of one of their members dies from cancer. The film stars an ensemble cast headed by Helen Mirren and Julie Walters , with Linda Bassett , Annette Crosbie , Celia Imrie , Penelope Wilton , Geraldine James , Harriet Thorpe and Philip Glenister playing key supporting roles. Calendar Girls premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and was later shown at Filmfest Hamburg ,
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1440-1118: The ill and bereaved who have bombarded her with fan mail. All is resolved eventually, and the women resume their normal, pre-calendar lives. Before the credits, it is shown that they made over half a million pounds with the calendars, and with the proceeds built a special leukemia wing on their local hospital. The film's fellow calendar girls include Georgie Glen , Angela Curran , Rosalind March , Lesley Staples and Janet Howd as Kathy, May, Truday, Julia and Jenny respectively. Calendar Girls also cast Graham Crowden as Jessie's husband Richard, Belinda Everett as Cora's daughter Maya, Marc Pickering as Jem Harper's friend Gaz and Harriet Thorpe as WI president Brenda Mooney. Gillian Wright appears as Eddie Reynoldson's lover, while John Sharian plays an American commercial director named Danny. In addition actors and actresses Richard Braine , Ted Robbins , Alison Pargeter , Angus Barnett , John Sparkes , Elizabeth Bennett , Christa Ackroyd , Matt Malloy , Patton Oswalt and John Fortune appear in short roles. American television host Jay Leno appears as himself in
1485-693: The male roles: "several actors disliked the idea of being subsidiary to women." Filming took place in the summer of 2002. Whereas the actual Calendar Girls were members of the Rylstone Women's Institute, much of the film was shot in and around the village of Kettlewell in North Yorkshire , some ten miles away, which stood in for the fictional village of Knapely. Additional locations include Buckden , Burnsall , Conistone , Ilkley , Settle , Linton , Malham , Skipton , Westminster and Ealing in London, and
1530-696: The most popular with audiences at the box office, there is an 'historical bias against a close and serious consideration of comedy' when it comes to critical reception and conferring of awards, such as at the Academy Awards . Film writer Cailian Savage observes "Comedies have won Oscars, although they’ve usually been comedy-dramas, involved very depressing scenes, or appealed to stone-hearted drama lovers in some other way, such as Shakespeare in Love ." According to Williams' taxonomy , all film descriptions should contain their type (comedy or drama) combined with one (or more) sub-genres. This combination does not create
1575-516: The movie works, and it does, is mostly because of the charm of Mirren and Walters, who show their characters having so much fun that it becomes infectious." In his review for The New York Times , Elvis Mitchell called "minty-cool" Helen Mirren and "deft" Julie Walters "a graceful pair of troupers" and "a sunny, amusing team." He described the film as "yet another professionally acted and staged wry-crisp comedy about British modesty [...] that gets its laughs, but seems increasingly out of date [...] When
1620-565: The national congress of the Women's Institute in London . They are told the final decision rests with the local leader, who grudgingly agrees to the calendar's sale. The initial printing of 500 quickly sells out and gains national and international media attention. The women are invited, all expenses paid, to appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Los Angeles . Initially Chris is convinced to not go, to watch after her troubled teen by Annie, but
1665-437: The perfect project. They travelled up to Yorkshire together to meet the women, and were able to secure life story rights in the face of fierce competition, including from Hollywood. Towhidi then worked on multiple drafts of the screenplay, getting to know the women and developing the script over several years. In this time the film's working title switched from 'Calendar Girls' to 'Jam and Jerusalem' and back again. A first director
1710-461: The rights to their stories, including Angela Baker, Tricia Stewart, Beryl Bamforth, Lynda Logan, Christine Clancy and Ros Fawcett. Screenwriter Juliette Towhidi first came across the story when she was shown an article in The Guardian , and she straight away took the idea to producer Suzanne Mackie. The two of them had been discussing ideas for a female-driven film for a while, and this struck them as
1755-737: The role of Millicent Higgins, a GP receptionist, in Call the Midwife . Other notable performances include a recurring role in Heartbeat , as Sgt Jennifer Noakes and one of the eponymous Calendar Girls . Glen has also portrayed various characters in comedies including Little Britain and Harry Enfield and Chums , as well as a guest role in The Thick of It and one episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures . She appeared in Series Four of Netflix drama, The Crown , in 2020 playing Ruth Roche, Lady Fermoy ,
1800-508: The use of comedy film to make social statements by building their narratives around sensitive cultural, political or social issues. Such films include Dr Strangelove, or How I Learned to Love the Bomb , Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? and The Graduate . In America, the sexual revolution drove an appetite for comedies that celebrated and parodied changing social morals, including Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Fanny Hill . In Britain,
1845-414: Was L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895), directed and produced by film pioneer Louis Lumière . Less than a minute long, it shows a boy playing a prank on a gardener. The most notable comedy actors of the silent film era (1895–1927) were Charlie Chaplin , Harold Lloyd , and Buster Keaton , though they were able to make the transition into “ talkies ” after the 1920s. Film-makers in the 1960s skillfully employed
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1890-465: Was adapted for a US version covering June 2000 – December 2001. The ladies were invited to appear with Jay Leno and Rosie O'Donnell on their respective talk shows. That year the calendar sold 202,000 copies, with its proceeds being used to fund lymphoma and leukaemia research in new laboratories at the University of Leeds . Since 2000, the Calendar Girls have produced calendars for 2004, 2005, 2007 and
1935-451: Was aiming it at Celia Imrie herself as support. While Cole and his team placed vegetables strategically for shooting, bits kept showing through and they had to reshoot several scenes. However, a young man from digital remastering had to spend four weeks removing all the private parts in post-production. The actors were very supportive of each other, with a bottle of champagne waiting whenever anyone finished their nude scene. Hollywood Records
1980-626: Was announced as the distributor of the soundtrack album for Calendar Girls which featured sixteen songs, including "You Upset Me Baby" performed by B.B. King , " Sloop John B " by the Beach Boys , "The Way You Do the Things You Do" by The Temptations , and "Comin' Home Baby" by Roland Kirk and Quincy Jones . It was released on 9 December 2003 in the United Kingdom. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 74% of critics gave
2025-416: Was attached, but when he dropped out, so Nigel Cole , known for his screen debut Saving Grace starring Brenda Blethyn , was brought on board, quickly followed by screenwriter Tim Firth , who took over writing duties from Towhidi and worked on rewrites of the script up until production. Cole approached Julie Walters and Helen Mirren to play the lead roles in the film. Both actresses had been aware of
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