Sunday, September 21, 2008

Film — The Lark

[Departing -- the odo read 27500.]

I chose this low budget Cornish film on the basis of its set -- a derelict factory/office complex like a Gormenghast of 1950s industrial -- which was really the star of the show.

It starts off with the semblance of a 1970s post-apocalypse, with, Niamh and her children taking refuge in this labyrinth; but very soon things start not making any sort of internally coherent sense, and when intruders break into this sealed world, the feeling of who is in danger from whom soon flips around, and the heavy stench of metaphor rises all around.

The film didn't quite seem to hang together as being entirely internal, nor as projection onto a saner world (one prominent character not quite fitting in either interpretation); and the final sequence of Niamh marching though her world could have benefited from severely editing down.

And then emerging just after midnight into the real world -- only a short film, despite how long it felt and despite the late and delayed start -- into Cambridge Saturday night with a large number of police vehicles outside, and clearly some disturbance having been quelled at the Regal.

No comments :