Ronan Vibert, Vibertology, Empire State, Martin Landau


	*~ Empire State* *UK Movie 1987: Ronan content: approx 1% (98 mins)* *Character: Businessman Number 3: wholesome-looking YUPPIE* Cast:Martin Landau, Ray McAnally, Cathryn Harrison Dir: Ron Peck Availablity: mercifully long-deleted. Possible to find NTSC copies on Amazon Z-shops, etc. for around $4.99


	Plot/Comments: To mangle a quote from The Third Man, under the Borgias, Italy got Michaelangelo and the Renaissance; under Thatcher, Britain got Empire State and the Thompson Twins... *This simply excretal film is sadly symptomatic of the state of much of the British film industry in the 80s.* There are some potentially interesting themes: property speculation and the investor invasion of working class areas; YUPPIES vs 'original' Londoners; flash 80s Thatcherite wide-boy gangsters compared with traditional East-End Kray-types; and different classes determined to make it in Thatcher's Britain (the none too subtle comparison here is that everyone gets screwed doing this: figuratively or literally). Even these stalwart themes of late 80s independent Brit films (see also *Sammy & Rosie*) are wasted on a film which is draw-dropping in its abysmal script and acting: the cast largely seems to be reciting their lines in a such a stilted way that you wonder if they are foreign actors reciting their lines phonetically.


	Martin Landau and Ray McAnally (Cal)are brought in to add a veneer of class to the film: the former is a bi-tourist businessman who decides not to commit to the 'urban rejuvination' of the East End slums, the latter looks bored and lost as a journalist who uncovers some facts that the local gangsters would like kept quiet. Unfortunately Landau, who is by far the best thing in the film, leaves the plot around halfway through the story, having never really been much involved in the first place.


	The only other points of interest are the comparitively watchable *** as Johnny, the catalystic rent boy, a walk-on by a young Sadie Frost, the sheer implausibility of 80s fashion, and the Bronski Beat/Communards musical content.


	*Next Sammy and Rosie Get Laid* *Next On the Black Hill* *VIBERTOGRAPHY*

Ronan content:
Businessman Number 3 (Ronan's first movie part) is probably classed as either a walk-on or a featured extra, with two lines (both spoken off-camera). Still, he gets a fair amount of screen time while his character is there.
He looks very young , innocent, and even wholesome, with short hair and an expensive grey suit (thankfully no shameful wide-lapel, big-shoulder, V-style 80s monstrosity like much of the cast).

When first walking through the club, he strolls confidently past the scowling locals and school-aged rent boys. In the later scenes, among the group of risk-taking YUPPIES slumming it for the night with their Thatcherite gangster/co-investor, he looks more eager, polite, and 'nice' -- like the new guy at the company wanting the approval of his co-workers (especially the female one).

This film makes the horror that is Talos look like a Scorsese movie.
And unlike Talos , where you can watch Ronan do his prize-winning swaggering Flashman schtick before dying by Bad Special Effects after the first 8 minutes, Empire State will numb your brain for 58 minutes before seeing him silently keep his dignity while surrounded by actors who would have failed auditions for the cardboard soap Crossroads.

To be avoided at all costs, unless you are a completist or studying the evolution of the Brit Gangster Flick.


	Trivia: Ronan's first ever film appearance afer leaving RADA. n. Not based on the Colin Bateman novel of the same name.


	Ronan Character Quotes: "I thought you had this all sown up!" "Stop it!"