Absolute Beginners Plot

Absolute Beginners is a 1986 slick mod-stylish rock musical movie adapted from Colin MacInnes book Absolute Beginners about life in late 1950s London. The film was directed by Julien Temple and features roles by David Bowie and Sade. Also a breakout role for Patsy Kensit, later known for her marriage to Liam Gallagher.

At the time Absolute Beginners was released, it received immense coverage in the British media. At the time, the British film industry was perceived as being on the point of collapse (with the recent failure of the film Revolution).

Absolute Beginners was panned by critics and became a box office flop. Some of the criticisms included stylistic anachronisms, such as the mini-skirt and decidedly 1980s music from the likes of the Style Council and Sade, the bowdlerisation of Kensit's character (Crepe Suzette had been depicted as a promiscuous negrophile in the book), and the casting of Bowie, who made it a condition of his musical contribution.

It has subsequently gained status as a cult movie, in part due to its soundtrack. Some people compare the movie as the British equivalent of Streets of Fire, a 1984 American movie that was a retro-stylized rock movie with a notable soundtrack, also a commercial failure.

The commercial failure of Absolute Beginners and The Mission led to the collapse of Goldcrest, a major British film studio.

It's 1958 and pop culture is transforming from 1950s jazz and early rock to a new generation on the verge of the 1960s. London is post-World War II, but pre-Beatles and the Stones. The storyline incorporates elements of 1958 London racial riots.

Young hip photographer Colin falls in love with aspiring fashion designer Crepe Suzette, but she's only interested in her career. Colin tries to win her affections by taking a crack at the big time himself; meanwhile racial tensions heat up in Colin's neighbourhood of London.