On Tuesday 15 October 2024, MIDAS MAN was screened at the Ciné Utopia in Luxembourg-Limpertsberg as an Avant-Premier screening under the BIFFL Presents... banner, linked with the British & Irish Film Festival Luxembourg 2024 Autumn Edition.
Directed by Joe Stephenson (Doctor Jekyll (2023); Chicken (2015)) and starring Jacob Fortune-Lloyd (Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019); Crooked House (2017); See How They Run (2022); The Queen's Gambit (TV series, 2020), Eddie Marsan (The World's End (2013); Snow White and the Huntsman (2012); Back to Black (2024); Mission: Impossible III (2006)), Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves (1996); Red Dragon (2002); Gosford Park (2001)), Eddie Izzard (Ocean's Thirteen (2007); Six Minutes to Midnight (2020); Castles in the Sky (2014)) and Ed Speleers (Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016); Downton Abbey (TV series, 2012-14); Star Trek: Picard (TV series, 2023)).
Docudrama; 140 mins; 12+
Told over a six-year period, from when Brian Epstein (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) was starting off in business until his untimely death six years later at the age of 32 years. It portrayed him as coming from a strong Jewish family in Liverpool who entered the family's retail business and carved out a niche in popular music; he found it difficult to please his father, Harry Epstein (Eddie Marsan), with his more understanding mother Malka Epstein (Emily Watson), yet he forged a path for himself.
His parents had sent him to public school where he had developed a posh accent, something that set him apart from others; another thing was his sexuality which he tried to hide...
He had heard of The Beatles, a local band, performing after returning from Hamburg in Germany; once he had heard them play, he established that Alan Williams (Eddie Izzard) did not have a written contract with the group, and convinced them to hire him as their manager. He promised to bring them to America, which he did, after making it in the UK; but first he had to get them a record deal, which he eventually did with George Martin of Parlaphone, part of the EMI group.
Interestingly, he also signed Gerry and the Pacemakers, Cilla Black and others. The film portrayed him as a workaholic, of having a good relationship with the band members, and of always doing his best for them. But it also showed the darker side of his life, including his increased dependence on barbiturates; and, in America, he met up with Tex Ellington (Ed Speleers), with whom he had a relationship, until that turned sour.
At times he spoke directly to the camera, with some original footage clips also making an appearance, resulting in a fascinating insight into the man who was Brian Epstein, the "man with the midas touch" who predicted that The Beatles would be "bigger than Elvis" and who believed in them.
As no date has yet been announced for this film to go on general release in Luxembourg, it is unclear whether this was the only public screening in the Grand Duchy.
