Suite 16 (1994): Ain’t That Peachy Keen

Dave dusts down a misunderstood favourite of his that features Pete Postlethwaite, Charlie Higson, and voyeurism aplenty.

“It’s a film about power and domination, although if we’re not careful, it could become semi-pornographic” – Pete Postlethwaite [1]

“You want me to be your dick?” – Chris

Stardom knocked late for the Warrington-born Pete Postlethwaite. A veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Postlethwaite’s film career took off following an Academy Award nomination for his stunning turn in In the Name of the Father (1993). Despite attracting the attention of directors like Steven Spielberg (“He’s the best actor in the world,” opined the Jaws (1975) helmer), Postlethwaite was always keen to dovetail small-scale, homegrown projects like Crimetime (1996) and Among Giants (1998) between the likes of The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Amistad (1997).

SUITE 16 (1994) certainly fits such a mould, though it also boasts the distinction of being shepherded by a bit of a European film darling.

Belgian director Dominique Deruddere announced himself with his lauded debut, Crazy Love (1987). Catching the eye of Francis Ford Coppola, the Apocalypse Now (1979) auteur’s American Zoetrope backed Deruddere’s sophomore feature, Wait Until Spring, Bandini (1989), and brought him over to America to shoot it. Critically acclaimed but failing to lure an audience, the film did little to kick-start Deruddere’s Hollywood career. In fact, it would be another five years before he’d shoot another movie – which brings us to Suite 16.

“I came to be involved with it through the Belgian producer, Paul Breuls, who showed me the script, written by Charlie Higson and Lise Mayer,” recalls Deruddere. “I liked it and accepted to direct the film. It was as simple as that! We shot the film in the Victorina Studios in Nice. My most intense recollection of it all is that I got to meet and work with Pete, who was a great guy and a wonderful actor. I think of him very often.”

Postlethwaite plays Glover: a once handsome playboy, now confined to a wheelchair in the luxurious, metaphorical prison of the titular hotel suite, and tormented by the memory of the man he used to be. Chris (Antonie Kamerling), meanwhile, is an irresistible young hustler with a sideline in casual violence. On the lam, he stumbles into Glover’s suite to take refuge. Soon, however, both men realise that each has something to offer, albeit with a shift in the initial balance of power as Glover manipulates Chris into acting out his fantasies, becoming his sexual and emotional surrogate.

“I’ve always held the belief that no film project is so bad that it can’t find the money to get made,” wrote the Evening Standard’s film critic ahead of Suite 16‘s brief U.K. theatrical run in August 1995. “Suite 16, among the year’s worst, proves it.”

Blasted upon its British release, and sneaking straight-to-tape in America just over a year later (courtesy of A-Pix), Suite 16 failed to enhance the majority of its participants’ careers. Deruddere, for instance, didn’t direct another English language for another twenty years (the Jamie Dornan-led romance Racing Hearts (2014)). Nevertheless, three decades on, this endearingly odd probing of sex and morality feels misunderstood.

Unsurprisingly, Postlethwaite excels in the role of Glover, spouting Mayer and Fast Show stalwart Higson’s flowery dialogue with gusto (“claret is the liquor for boys, port is for men, but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy”) as he absorbs his new companion’s sexual Olympics by osmosis.

Speaking to The Independent, Postlethwaite admitted that Glover was a tough role to get a handle on, largely due to the lack of physicality:

“It’s difficult because you can’t fall back on the normal little tricks ingrained in you. You can’t even use body language and gestures you instinctively use. It’s like somebody saying you’ve only got so many colours to paint with. We’re playing ciphers in an extraordinary ritual haiku.” [2]

A chamber piece at its core, the play-like nature of Suite 16 means that Postlethwaite’s performance is largely reliant on the actor he’s sparring with. Antonie Kamerling found infamy in a popular Dutch soap opera Goede tijden, slechte tijden at the start of the ‘90s and transitioned to features with relative ease. He’s perfectly cast here, exhibiting the fragile narcissism that the character of Chris demands. There might be a swagger to the way he cavorts around the set in his underwear, his long blonde locks and rippled torso designed to mesmerise even the most casual viewer, but there’s a subtle, layered complexity to him as well. Kamerling seemingly carried these dark and tragic traits in real life too:

He committed suicide at the age of forty-four in autumn 2010, three months before his co-star Postlethwaite succumbed to cancer.