Being aware of (but having not seen any) of his films for years,I was excited to learn that the HOME cinema in Manchester were presenting Peter Strickland's latest work.
Ordering,and watching The Duke of Burgundy and In Fabric (both also reviewed),I excitedly got ready to discover what Strickland has cooked up.
View on the film:
Discussing during the Q&A that he had actually gotten the idea for this film before In Fabric was made, (and that he did not write the script in mind as a expansion of that earlier movie) writer/ directing auteur Peter Strickland (an extremely classy guy,who hung round chatting to fans after the screening, making sure everyone got what they wanted signed, which included signing a poster for me) decides in his screenplay to go towards the more abstract, surrealist direction which In Fabric had started drifting towards.
Strickland serves up tantalizing comedic, absurdist dining set-pieces inside a remote artistic institution, which slice into the vindictive power struggles behind the facade of the discreet charms of the bourgeoisie.
Filmed in just 14 days, and revealed during the Q&A being inspired by The Sonic Catering Band (of which he is a member of) director Strickland & cinematographer Tim Sidell (who was second unit cinematographer on Berberian Sound Studio-also reviewed) continue to wonderfully expand on Strickland's textured motif, with gliding panning shots over cooking table, (with the residences in the institution including to sweet performances from Gwendoline Christie and Fatma Mohamed, both regular collaborators of Strickland) that get chopped into deep, bursting with colour grotesque close-ups of guests partaking in the finger food grilled on music, as they eat up the flux gourmet.
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