Murrain (Cooper, 1975) + Whistle And I'll Come to You (Miller, 1968):
BFI Southbank, NFT2, 6.20pm
Two unnerving television dramas dealing with spiritual undercurrents in country life make up this double-bill as part of the 'Roots, Rituals and Phantasmagoria' season at BFI Southbank curated by Daniel Kokotajlo, director of the forthcoming film Starve Acre. The screening will be introduced by novelist Andrew Michael Hurley.
Kokotajlo's introduction to Murrain:
A no-nonsense vet is forced to join a local witch-hunt after a virus
attacks the local pigs. A starting point for many discussions I had on
Starve Acre, Murrain unashamedly captures the strangeness of rural
England. The combination of Nigel Kneale’s script and John Cooper’s
direction results in an intoxicating mix of off-kilter acting, strange
framing and oblique storytelling. The landscape is dirty grey – it was
sourly shot with typical TV cameras. I connect with its melancholic tone
and the way it honours the dignity of the bullied witch.
and... Whistle And I'll Come to You:
Jonathan Miller masters the transformation of the intelligentsia into
thumb-sucking infants in less than an hour. Micheal Hordern stars as an
academic who, while rambling along the coast of East Anglia, finds a
strange and enchanted whistle. On paper, Whistle and I’ll Come to You is
very simple, but on screen it’s masterfully executed and a joy to
watch.
Here (and above) is an extract from the latter drama.
No comments:
Post a Comment