During the glory days of the cassette tapes, you’d sometimes record a record a road tape for a long trip to be played when your favorite radio station would fade out. Now that cars have removed the cassette decks, you just hook up the smart phone to your Bluetooth enabled stereo and listened to a playlist. It’s not the same. Radio On follows a driver who has a cassette tape to guide him on his journey. This black and white road movie through England is an astonishing work from 1979.
The movie opens with a camera roaming around an apartment while David Bowie sings “Heroes” in German and set on a man soaking in the bathtub listing to the radio. Robert (Midsomer Murders‘ David Beames) sits in his car and opens a mailer that has a cassette inside. He pops the tape into his dashboard stereo and hears Kraftwerk “Uranium.” He’s a DJ at a Gillette factory’s radio station. Workers do their jobs on the assembly line as he plays Ian Drury’s “Sweet Jean Vincent.” After he gets home in the morning, he gets a call from his parents. Turns it was his brother in the bathtub. He’s killed himself. Robert drives from the outskirts of London to Bristol to find out what happened to his brother.
Radio On is a film you want to watch when you have time to just chill out and absorb the images. This is not a film for the impatient viewer that craves a slick action-packed film. There are moments where you’re in the backseat looking over Robert’s shoulder at the English Motorway in the windshield. This is a normal highway trip. He stops off for a drink at a roadside pub while Wreckless Eric’s “Whole Wide World” plays on the jukebox. You might remember the song from a travel website a few years ago. Robert is a quiet guy and coping with his brother’s death makes him even quieter. Things gets a bit exciting when he picks up a rider who has a few issues. Will this film go from being the brother’s death to how Robert ended up in a shallow grave? Later he runs into an Eddie Cochran fan who runs a gas station near the site of the crash that claimed the early rock idol’s life in 1960. The fan is Sting from the Police. He even sings Eddie’s “Three Steps to Heaven.”
Robert does explore the mystery of his brother when he gets to Bristol. He discovers that he wasn’t living alone in the apartment. Things get weird when Robert finds a slide projector and sees images that go from holiday snapshots to exposing his sibling as an English version of Robert Mapplethorpe. This was why the film was rated X in England. Cinematographer Martin Schäfer lines up an amazing shot where Robert stands against the projected image on top of himself to stare at his brother. It’s a connection between the two. Schäfer was part of Wim Wenders’ camera crew having worked on Alice In The Cities, Kings of the Road and Paris, Texas. He frames and lights things so that the images are captivating.
There’s another name in the credits that hint at a future star getting their start in the movie. While Paul Hollywood appears in the credits, this is not the teenage version of the judge on The Great British Bake Off. Although the actor and the baker are about the same age. I do wonder if Noel Fielding needles him about the other Paul Hollywood during lunchbreaks from the tent.
I will admit that Radio On is a film that I can easily accept since during the early ’90s, I drove around with cassettes of Bowie, Kraftwerk and The Stiff Records Boxset blasting in my Chevy Cavalier. Staring into the front seat of Robert’s car, I’m a happy space although Robert isn’t quite so happy. Radio On is a masterful chill ride.
The Video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The black and white transfer is from a 4K restoration from its 35mm original camera negative. There’s a richness to the monochromatic imagery. The details of life on the road in 1978 are sharp. You will feel like a passenger. The Audio is DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono. The music feels stereo. The movie has English subtitles.
Before the Explosion of the Image Bank (37:16) is a recent interview with director Chris Petit. He talks about the change in making movies from working in film on Radio On to digital for his recent projects. He talks about being an army brat in West Germany. He didn’t mingle with the locals since they mostly stayed on base. Back in England, he got a job at Time Out magazine that wrote movie reviews. He got into the German New Wave and Roger Corman. He learned from both how to make a film on a limited budget. He gets into how he put the soundtrack together with Kraftwerk, David Bowie and Stiff Records. Mark Knofler said “no” after watching the movie, but then write “Private Investigations” which has the vibe of the film. He talks about his career so far and how he ended up writing novels.
Audio interview with Chris Petit (51:34) has him reflect on how his Time Out magazine experience led to making movies. He was there from ’73 to ’78. He remembers being approached by Martin Scorsese to get a review of Mean Streets since he gave a positive review to Boxcar Bertha. He met Wim Wenders and got him to look at the script for Radio On. This led to Wim being an associate producer. He mentions both Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello did refuse to be on the soundtrack. It’s probably best that Petit didn’t use “Watching the Detectives” since it just seems too obvious.
Audio commentary by film historian and filmmaker Kier-La Janisse is great since she’s been obsessed by the film for a long time. She’s booked it at theaters. She’s interviewed Petit. She brings out so much about the film and how things relate to future Petit’s work. She gives Sting’s great story about taking a date to a midnight screening and the identity of the other two people in the theater.
Archival video interview with Chris Petit and producer Keith Griffiths (42:16) has him talk about quitting movie reviewing and getting into filmmaking. He worked with a Roger Corman alumni. He was inspired by Get Carter to make a journey film in England. He also wanted to make sure there was no party sequence. He also referenced Two Lane Black Top and Performance. He wanted a more Euro than English film. He points out that cinematographer used an early Steadicam in the opening shot. They show Martin Schäfer strapped into the Steadicam harness. Producer Griffith talks about being part of the production board because someone thought he was a former line producer to help get films back on track.
Radio On (remix) (24:16) is a digital video essay that mixes footage from the original film with how the journey from London to Bristol looks in 1998. Chris Petit’s uses text on the screen to narrate what the drive is thinking. Wire’s Bruce Gilbert came up with an inventive sound design.
Image Gallery (4:42) is a montage of production photos, artwork, press photos and posters.
Original Theatrical Trailer (3:14) lets us know that there will be a lot of driving in the film. Besides the acting credits, we’re given the list of songs on the soundtrack while Kraftwerk plays.
Fun City Editions present Radio On. Directed by Christopher Petit. Screenplay by Christopher Petit. Starring David Beames, Lisa Kreuzer, Sandy Ratcliff, Andrew Byatt, Sue Jones-Davies, Sting, Sabina Michael, Katja Kersten & Paul Hollywood. Rating: Unrated. Running Time: 105 minutes. Release Date: January 16, 2024.
