Ronan Vibert: Queen of Hearts, Ronan, Vibert

n. Queen of Hearts
Movie (UK) released 1989
Ronan Vibert Content: approx 1%/ >1% visual   (112 min film)
Character: Man in Pig Scene/Drunk Toff
Cast: Anita Zagaria Rosa, Joseph Long Danilo, Eileen Way Grandmother, Vittorio Duse Nonno, Vittorio Amandola Barbariccia, Ian Hawkes EddyDir: Jon Amiel
Availablity: PAL deleted, impossible to find/NTSC deleted, occasionally found on 
Ebay  etc. @ $1.50-$8.50
Plot/Comments:
A 'Waffer'-thin, yet highly unusual and original, romantic comedy/drama about an immigrant Italian family in London, very much in the Moonstruck vein, but seen largely through the eyes of Eddie, the bright youngest child of the family. 
       The plot basically deals with how the father of the family gets a lucky blessing (from a talking pig's head in a restaurant visited by Drunk Toff [TM] customer, Ronan Vibert), which will enable him to win any card game until he sees a particular trump card, when all will be lost. Being a sensible family chap, he wins enough to set up his own business and then vows never to play again, until decades later his wife's original fiance from Italy arrives with a grudge to settle and an offer to make...
Charming in a strange mixed-timeline way (you think it's set in the 20s, then  it seems to be 50s London, but suddenly there's a late 70s car and kids dressed as Jam-era Mods). Flashbacks to Italy are done in a very romanticised OTT method, with big orchestral score and sweeping cameras, to get over the somewhat exaggerated, mythical feel of a great family story seen through the eyes of a child, which is a nice touch. 
        However, about halfway through, the tone changes to tragedy/drama, and then back again at the end. While this is probably intended to reflect the ever changing dramatic/funny/OTT character of the family, the transition of these different genres onto film doesn't quite work, and the ending feels very much like a quick-fix on the tragedy of the past 30 minutes. 
Back Rowing with the Wind
Next Amongst Barbarians
Next Traffik
VIBERTOGRAPHY
                   Ronan content: 

Very limited: 1minute, 24 
seconds of the film; much of which gives you the head of a talking pig in the shot with his voiceover. Ronan gets the part of Hugh, aka  'Man in Pig Scene' in the credits; a slightly obnoxious Drunk Toff, trying to get a glum Italian waiter to smile for him in 
return for five quid, thereby impressing his girlfriend. 
Typical Ronan Character Quote:
"Let's see those pearly-wearly little teeth…"
 
 

Trainspotter comments and Queries:

  • Importance in Vibertology as the first appearance of the Drunk Toff [TM] speciality
  • Vittorio Duse won the Montreal Best Supporting Actor.
  • Jon Amiel (of the BBC's superb Singing Detective) won the  Montreal First Film Prize -- what happened next?
  • Filmed in Rotherhithe (UK), and San Gimignano, Tuscany (Italy)
Looking very different (and therefore more typical to his own looks) to the character in Rowing with the Wind, which was shot a year earlier, Ronan at least gets a lot of full face and extreme close-ups (shot from left side of the face).