Tag: Kate Dickie

Tell It To The Bees

Posted on by Jeremy Clarke

In 1952, Jean Markham (Anna Paquin) returns to the small Scottish town where she grew up to take over her father’s medical practice as the local doctor. She left in her teenage years under scandalous circumstances which, we’ll learn later, involved falling in love with another girl in an age when such things were frowned upon. When young Charlie Weekes (Gregor Selkirk) turns up at her surgery with a minor injury, recognising he may be going through something of a hard time she takes him back to her house to show him the bee hives she keeps in her garden. She tells him you can share any secret with the bees and they’ll understand.

Charlie’s mum Lydia (Holliday Grainger) isn’t having an easy time of it either. Her husband Robbie (Emun Elliot) became a changed man during the war and their relationship is over. He has to all intents and purposes moved out of the family home. Lydia holds down a factory floor position at the mill where her less than sympathetic sister in law Pam (Kate Dickie) works, but is behind on the rent and eviction is not far off on the horizon. Lydia’s fury at the new doctor taking her son to his house is mitigated when she meets Jean and discovers the latter is a woman, not a man.

Once Lydia and Charlie are evicted, Jean gives them lodging. When Lydia is laid off, Jean gives her a job as housekeeper. On news of her eviction, Lydia – a keen dancer – heads to a local pub, hits the drink and is all over the first man to join her on the dance floor. Charlie spots her through the window and feels betrayed. If you’ve seen the trailer or publicity stills which accurately pitch the film as a lesbian romance you’ve got a pretty good idea where this is going – although the narrative has a few surprises in store towards the end.

Henrietta and Jessica Ashworth’s adaptation of Fiona Shaw’s novel proves effective for the most part, capturing the feel of a small town where everybody knows everybody else and no secrets stay hidden for long. In passing, it delivers believable portraits of bailiffs working for landlords and the harsh, shop floor working conditions of (mostly female) mill workers. Doctors working within the newly founded NHS find that patients can’t quite get used to the idea that medical treatment is free and consequently are slower in seeking advice or treatment than they might be today (at least, while we still have an NHS free to all at the point of need). Finally, in an unexpectedly harrowing subplot, a backstreet abortion goes wrong threatening to kill off a minor character.

Beyond the young Charlie, the few other male characters are deftly sketched if mostly on the fringes of the narrative. Lydia’s husband Robbie is a brute given to occasional bouts of violence, unable to relate to his wife yet still tragically in love with her. He contrasts sharply with Jean’s kindly solicitor friend Jim (Stephen Robertson) who proposes to her then remains genuinely interested in her well-being even after his advances have been rejected. Elsewhere the boy with whom Charlie plays in the woods talks to him about “a dirty dyke”, the only words on offer to describe Jean’s sexual preferences.

All the performances are top notch (why doesn’t Kate Dickie get more decent roles?). A mention should also go to the decision to shoot with real bees rather than special effects: the bee wrangling and cinematography yield spectacular results.

The one place the film trips up follows a scene in which the outraged Robbie plunges his fist through one of Jean’s hives. If you kept bees and discovered someone had done this, you’d most definitely have a reaction. But, inexplicably, Jean doesn’t ever appear to notice this has happened. (It may not be a script error – it’s possible this material was there and either not shot or cut out after shooting to bring down the running length.) It’s an irritating plot hole that knocks the film down at least a star on our rating. Which is a shame because, that sole misstep aside, the whole thing works as a serviceable, small town, post-war, lesbian, romantic drama. With a young boy’s perspective thrown in alongside those of the two women for good measure.

Tell It To The Bees is out in the UK on Friday, July 19th. On VoD on Monday, November 11th.

Prevenge

Posted on by victorfraga

The female experience of pregnancy in film is something not known for its jovial depictions. Simply viewing Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968) one can see that child bearing is a painful endeavour, regardless of whether it’s the Devil’s child or not. Akin to Polanski’s film, Alice Lowe’s directorial and writing debut uses the horror genre as a vice to explore femininity and isolation. Unlike numerous egotistical star driven directorial debuts, Prevenge is a strange concoction of the slasher horror and comedy – making for a truly original recipe of British independent filmmaking.

Notably Lowe’s breakout performance came in Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers (2012) and her comic chops are again discovered in her debut. Yet, behind this comedic veneer, the film revels in its sadistic presentations of gore. Although not overt in its comedic tone, the film and Lowe’s performance are highly deadpan. Comparable to the films of Wheatley, Lowe’s debut is chilling and ruthless in its execution (no pun intended).

Opening in a reptile shop filled with spiders, lizards and centipedes, the diegetic sounds of animals reflect the twisted mind of the protagonist Ruth, alongside her womb’s cries for blood. Requested by her omnipotent womb, she mercilessly kills the pervy shop owner Mr. Zabek.

Continuing her spree at a 1970s disco, Ruth, like a black widow, seduces the misogynist DJ – ultimately leading to his glorious and hilarious emasculating death. As the kill list mounts and Ruth seeks further targets, its becomes clear that her unborn child’s calls for blood are related to an incident involving her partner. Spliced between these murders, Ruth regularly visits her midwife who instructs her that nature has taken over her body and she is powerless to the powers of the baby. Unbeknownst to this figure of governance, the faetus has polluted the mind of its mother.

Alongside the stunningly grotesque murders, the electronic score elevates the visceral and mesmeric quality of the film’s atmosphere. Pablo Clements, James Griffith and Toydrum’s synth based score adds a nuanced layer to the psychopathic tendencies of Ruth and her malevolent womb. Clearly referencing the music of the Goblins and their association with giallo auteur Dario Argento, the dark and melodic sounds, as any well-constructed horror genre piece should, are a vital competent to the film’s success. Audiences who share an interest with electronic music as myself will see similarities between this score and the melancholic sounds of techno Berlin based DJs as Ame, Steffi and DVS1.

Lowe’s straight-faced performance is all the more impressive when considering the actor was seven months pregnant when filming the role. Her ability to create awkwardness in a scene lends itself well to her script-writing. Though some critics could see the film as a series of killings, without any emotion or character, this would ignore the nuanced portrayal of a women isolated from society and clearly suffering from severe grief and depression.

Drawing out the best from her fellow actors also benefits Lowe’s material. Blending comedic and dramatic actors together creates clear divisions in their characters. In the example of the misogynist 1970s DJ, portrayed by Tom Davis, his comic background in television lends itself well to his and Lowe’s on screen interaction.

On the reverse side of the coin, casting Kate Dickie, known for Andrea Arnold’s Red Road (2006) and Robert Eggers’ The Witch (2015) as a lonely company executive emphasises Ruth’s sinister vengeance. In this sequence, cinematographer Ryan Eddleston uses a longshot to frame their conversation, depicting the isolating that pregnant women are given from big commercial business.

Surprisingly filmed over a tight 11-day schedule, Prevenge does not fail on its innovative title and narrative. Its focus on femininity and pregnancy’s isolation are relatively untested waters when it comes British cinema. Like her colleague Ben Wheatley constantly produces, Alice Lowe has orchestrated an original and inventive piece of film behind and in front of the camera. With recent releases as The Falling (Carol Morley, 2014) and The Levelling (Hope Dickson Leach, 2017) written and directed by female British directors, Alice Lowe’s directorial debut is a welcomed edition to this new wave of British independent cinema.

Prevenge was out in cinemas in March, and it has now been made available on DVD and Blu-ray.