The first feature film to be directed by Tony Scott, "Loving Memory" (1971) revolves around an elderly couple who are involved in the accidental death of a bicycle rider. They bring the body home and tend to it, at which point time-lines begin to blur and allusions are made to the Second World War.
Filmed in black and white, and comprised of many elaborate sequences, "Loving Memory's" aesthetic is mostly kitsch, Scott pandering to what he thinks people think "deep" and "moving" art really is. Scott's brother, Ridley Scott, would become a wholesale purveyor of ornate kitsch – dumb films dressed up in classy finery - whilst Tony would increasingly take the opposite approach, making shamelessly trashy films. In embracing sleaziness, those films have a certain energy and authenticity. "Loving Memory", in contrast, feels like something one would come to associate with Tony's big brother. It's suffocating and stiff, like a embalmed artifact that wants desperately to be loved.
The film's cinematography is by Chris Menges, who shot "The War Game" and Ken Loach's "Kes". Tonnally, the film resembles Bill Douglas' famed Trilogy. It sports a narrative structure that is very ambitious for a first film, and a number of sequences which point to Scott's future genius.
6/10 – Bad taste dressed up as exclusivity.
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