i heart heartless

I went to see 'Heartless' at the BFI, as previously recommended in an older post.

The film was a dark mess of magical suffering, exploring the theme of 'random violence in the 21st century' as the demon of our age.  Jim Sturgess shone as the troubled 25-year-old 'Jamie', a young photographer with a heart-shaped birthmark across his face, who begins to battle with visions of lizardesque hooded demons in the urban labyrinth of East London.   The plot gets more tangled between myth, imagination and reality, as it twists through the slum side-winding streets off Cambridge Heath Road.  The tensions between the psychological and the spiritual are tangible throughout.  There is some captivating night imagery in the film, and this was Ridley's first venture into the world of HD. 

There was one moment where Tia, a love interest of Jamie's, is running down the stairs.  He says 'my father always said you only regret the things you don't do, so don't go away'.  This means if she doesn't go away, she will regret it. I wondered if this was a forgivable script error, or a very clever clue to what is to come.

At points the editing pace is jumpy, particularly in the opening sequences.  Occasionally something doesn't quite ring true in the relationships between the brothers, lines of dialogue feel forced and over-sincere.  At other times, the border between nostalgic and downright cheesy becomes impossibly blurred, but in all this film is a terrifying treasure which rendered me both terrified and teary-eyed on many occasions. Ridley successfully harnesses myth and the absurd to explore the torment and terror of a haunted mind.

The 'demons' in the film were created with CGI, but they were first conceived by Ridley via the old-school method of paper and glue.  In the kitchen of his East-End flat, he went back to basics to communicate what he mask he would make, if he were a teenager in a gang. He made a mask out of papier mache, marking two bullet-hole eyes, and a knife-slashed mouth bearing razor-sharp blade-like teeth. 

Of the creative process, Ridley talks about the concept of ideas as 'an explosion in reverse' and likens himself to a magpie.  If magpies can make films like this, I shall eat my bowler hat!

Jim Sturgess also performs two of the tracks in the film, and is in Tragic Toys with his girlfriend Mickie.  The songs on the soundtrack were written by Philip Ridley and Nick Ingman.

I look forward to Moonfleece, which is the next theatrical offering from Philip Ridley in March/April 2010.