This is a film unlike any you’ve seen and yet, something so
familiar as well, from the grains on the colour film to the period setting,
1973, and Mark Jenkin’s haunting electronic score, this is perhaps the apex of
the scene that haunts itself and has done since the likes of Ghost Box started
released the sound of future passed a decade ago. On that most insubstantial of
channels, BBC Radio 6, Stuart Maconie recently devoted an entire programme to
the sounds of principles of “Hauntology” featuring contributions from the
record labels, musicians and writers who contribute to this loose alliance of
textures and moods.
As someone who grew up in the seventies, I can understand the nostalgic pull of revisiting the then futuristic but artists such as Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan (aka Gordon Chapman Fox), are much younger than me and are attracted to the style and the optimism of a time when we were on an irresistible path of, sometimes mis-judged, progress. Mark Jenkin is of this younger generation and here he not only provides his own electronic score, much in the style of Warrington/Gordon’s stablemates on Castles in Space or Ghost Box artists, another label finding new grooves in the electronica trailblazed by Delia Derbyshire/BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Terry Riley and Stockhausen, then Morton Subotnick, the "Berlin School" of early Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk, as well as Brits like Brian Eno and Francis Monkman.
 |
| The detail is in the detail |
This is but the subtext for his vision which recreates the
feel of early seventies Folk Horror and other experimentations. The BFI have
just released a set of Ghost Stories for Christmas including MR James’ enduringly
creepy, Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968) directed by Jonathan Miller
and featuring a magnificently terrified turn from Michael Hordern. There’s
something of the same existential dread in Enys Men and, as with Whistle, the
ending wrongfoots the viewer in quite startling ways. But, every foot of
Jenkin’s film is full of steps to this moment, each one sampling not just the
sound but also the diverse source imagery of public information films,
children’s horror serials such as The Owl Service, Children of the Stones, as well as the more
psychological folk horrors, The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971), Symptoms (1974),
even later fare such as The Anchoress (1993).
You can have fun guessing inspirations and, realising
exactly what we’re like, the BFI has kindly arranged a season, The Cinematic
DNA of Enys Men, programmed by Mark Jenkin, will run at BFI Southbank and
on BFI Player throughout January 2023. Including features, documentaries, TV
programmes and shorts, the season will give context to Enys Men and the
inspirations behind it, also giving audiences the opportunity to enjoy some
rich and rarely seen content.
As with his previous film, Bait, Jenkin on grainy
16mm film stock and with his trademark post-synched sound, although this time
he uses colour which not only provides more period feel but also illuminates
numerous plot points.
The story is centred on a wildlife volunteer, played
superbly by Mary Woodvine (also in Bait) whose job it is to monitor a rare
flower on an uninhabited island off the coast of Cornwall. Through her
painstaking daily routines Jenkin slowly detaches the narrative from the linear
and the viewer from their expectation of standard progression. On her daily
trips to the cliff-face, near an abandoned tin mine (West Penwith), she checks
the soil temperature, the growth of the plant and as she walks past the old
mine, drops a stone down a shaft to hear is splosh in the deep dark waters. Back
in her cottage she writes down the date and notes anything unusual: everyday is
just the same “no change”.
Every day she starts the oil power generator outside cottage
to provide light and power, closing the gate before switching on the over to
make tea and update her minimalistic log, there’s a two-way radio that crackles
occasionally into life and a medium wave transistor set that plays whatever
signal can reach this lonely place. Our minds may begin to wonder as the
Volunteer’s begins to wander and gradually, we’re presented with faces and
events that may be real, imagined past or present.
Jenkins’ camera is relentless in its focus on minutia, odd-shaped
rocks, an old, rusted rail from the mine, birds and plants, the volunteer’s
walking boots on the crumbling steps… it’s hypnotic and riveting as any or all
may be providing clues. There’s a pace that reminds you of Peter Greenaway (who
made a few public information films in his time) as well as Derek Jarman
certainly around the time of The Garden. This film will not be providing its
audience with any easy answers and I can’t wait to watch it again to see what
else I pick up.
People start to pop up, a young woman (Flo Crowe) who may be
the Volunteer’s daughter or someone else entirely. She’s with her or is she. A
visiting Boatman (Edward Rowe, also in Bait) asks her how it is being so
alone and she replies that she isn’t, a reference by that point not just to the
girl but to an old man/priest (the legend that is John Woodvine!), a collection of lifeboatmen,
drowned in 1897, a group of women in traditional dress and dirt encrusted
miners. All may be or may be not…
Then the landscape itself starts to intrude on the
Volunteer’s thoughts and her physicality… is her solitude getting to her or is
there something entirely more metaphysical at work. Does she burn her hands on
the oven, how widely does the lichen grow, are events even happening in the
right order?
Mary Woodvine is extraordinary and is in almost every scene
of the film, engaging and yet lost in her character’s own world, as she, almost
entirely wordlessly, guides us through the story. There are innumerable
close-ups and, once again you have to think of silent film and technique when
assessing Jenkin’s work. This is bold and absolutely to be seen in cinema where
you can give it your full attention and be completely lost in the details the
director and cast provide.
Enys Men, opens on 13 January 2023 at BFI Southbank
and in cinemas UK-wide and there’s a preview/director Q&A tour with Mark
Jenkin in Cornwall and other key cities from 2 January 2023. Mary Woodvine at
some of the dates.
The Cinematic DNA of Enys Men on BFI Southbank/BFI Player
from 1-31 January 2023.
Further details are on the BFI website, one of the films of
the year and it’s yours to watch in January!
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment