BILLY BOYS

Spotlight

The success of the British movie Billy Elliot may be proof of the encouraging but also unnerving theory that every human being is blessed with a brief moment when all his potential is realized. In the life of Jamie Bell, the young actor who took the title role in Billy Elliot, this moment seems to have occurred at the point when the British theater director Stephen Daldry—another film novice—began shooting the story of the miner's son with a gift for dance. The magic of Bell's dancing and acting and the freshness of Daldry's handling of the script are not qualities necessarily guaranteed by a large budget. As it was, the realization of Lee Hall's script, which is set against the harrowing defeat of the British miners' strike in the mid-80s, was a low-budget affair. Three production companies—BBC Films, Tiger Aspect Pictures, and Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner's Working Title—shouldered the risk of almost $5 million. It's certain that no one connected with the film predicted the brief collision of talent, innocence, and candor which occurred on set—nor the resulting alchemy. What they would have foreseen was good storytelling, solid acting— especially from Julie Walters, who takes the part of Billy's dance coach—and a certain bleak glamour in the backdrop of post-industrial Northern England. Perhaps it was the 14-yearold's perfect moment, or maybe this is the start for him. At any rate, this minor has struck.

FOR DETAILS, SEE CREDITS PAGE

HENRY PORTER