For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Isaac Newton's third law of motion
Richard Loncraine is as responsible as anyone else for the
widespread deployment of Newton’s Cradles in offices, having spotted the
opportunity to manufacture these kinetic art toys for a UK market deprived of
their intellectual ambience. In the late sixties, he was specialising in
sculpture and designed
a chrome model for the Carnaby Street store Gear which was clearly fab.
Studying at Central St Martins, he opted for the film studies course and soon
was directing at the BBC with an Alan Wicker documentary followed by work for
Tomorrow’s World and he then moved onto fiction and from there to film.
His subsequent
achievements include his first film, Slade in Flame
(1975), an award-winning Richard III (1995) with Ian McKellen and
Robert Downey Jnr and his Emmy Award winning work on Band of Brothers.
Then we have this film, Full Circle: The Haunting of Julia which
sank with little trace at the time of release and which has previously only
enjoyed a short afterlife on VHS. Not everyone forgot it though and one man,
writer and cinema historian Simon Fitzjohn, has campaigned for Full Circle
for many years and has helped put this splendid BFI Flipside release together
so that we can all see what should not have been forgotten.
What we
have is a very interesting film, which is part horror/part psychological
thriller, and which illustrates the Newtonian principle above with a story
focused on the human reaction to the massive force of tragedy and dark deeds. Loncraine
sees flaws but still thinks overall it’s a good end product, praising his cast
and crew with the enthusiasm of experience, and confessed that both he and his
star, Mia Farrow, both felt they were working on a psychodrama whilst the
producers definitely wanted another horror in the vein of The Exorcist
and, more specifically, Rosemary’s Baby.
This looks to have had an impact on the film’s enticing
narrative ambivalence, horrific things do happen but they are never lingered
on, the plot gathering an eerie momentum and the camera focused on Mia who excels at the catatonically
unsettling, underscoring dialogue and action with an uncanny intensity that
bubbles just under the surface to devastating effect. In his interview for this
set, Loncraine explains how at one critical moment – as Farrow’s
character attempts a tracheotomy to save her choking child – his producer
decided to throw fake blood over Farrow’s hands which convinced her that she
had hurt the young actress (Sophie Ward no less) – she screamed and ran away
for hours. The film doesn’t need such cheap shots, all you need is shown on
Mia’s face and features that reflect her mother, Maureen O’Sullivan’s delicate
beauty.
Mia Farrow plays Julia Lofting, a young mother with a
large trust fund, married to city financier Magnus (Keir Dullea) who, as the
film opens, are sharing the odd snipe as they prepare for the day with their
daughter Kate (Ward). Suddenly Kate starts choking on an apple and the couple
fly into a panic quickly reaching the point at which cutting her throat open
might be the only way to save her. It’s a very difficult scene to watch, far
more horrifying than any supernatural event a graphic depiction of everyday
nightmare.
Some months later, her daughter dead, we find Julia in
hospital recovering from the event but when Magnus arrives, she leaves and,
soon makes it clear that she no longer wants him or their marriage which had
been failing long before the accident. She impulsively buys a large townhouse
in Holland Park, number 3 Holland Park as Simon Fitzjohn informs us in one of
the extras, and now worth multiple millions. All of her wealth can’t protect
Julia from the guilt and the nagging horror she still feels and she begins to
sense things in her new home, a radiator that won’t stay turned off,
atmospheres in certain rooms and the feeling of another presence.
Out walking she glimpses a girl who looks like Kate only
for the vision to disappear, she watches children playing in the park, and sees
Kate again only to discover a dismembered pet tortoise… Is this all in Kate’s
mind or is this a genuine haunting? Either way her friend Mark (Tom Conti, who
was also in Slade in Flame fact fans!) won’t believe it and provides the common-sense
rationality and good humour that offsets our expectations. Meanwhile Magnus is
determined to bully his wife into submission, an all too real threat to her
wellbeing not that she needs anything more than the looming dread of a house
she is strangely committed to staying at.
Convinced that there’s something otherworldly about the
house, Julia brings expert help in the form of Rosa Flood (the excellent Anna
Wing) who hosts a séance with the help of some fellow sensitives. Mark jokes
and keeps our expectations light until Mrs Flood is suddenly overcome with a
malevolent spirit and has to leave in terror. Julia is convinced that the
spirit is that of her daughter but revisiting Rosa, she learns it was a young
boy she saw being murdered in the park by children during the war.
Julia begins to investigate the story and tracks down the
story in the British Library and from there finds the dead boy’s mother who
reveals the full horror of his death leading her to seek out the last surviving
members of the group who were involved in his murder. We’ve come a long way
from a story of grief and into a whole other haunting but is any of this real
or has Julia just not recovered her sanity?
The films manages to saddle both possibilities pretty
well… and we’re going to have to figure this one out for ourselves. I can well
understand the fascination this continues to exert on Simon and I’m sure there
will now be many more after this release.
There’s an uncanny score from Colin Towns which was
instrumental in persuading Mia Farrow to undertake the project with the
exquisite main theme conveying just the air of sad confusion that helps this
film transcend any limitations of the “horror” genre. Mr Towns is well-travelled
composer and musician who I once saw playing keyboards with his pal Ian Gillan
in 1982, they played Child in Time which is close yet so far away from
the mood he sets in this film. There’s a lot of lovely piano lines as well as
synthesised moments that could only be from this era yet are always used to
good effect. Not surprisingly he now has some 139 composing credits on IMDB and
counting.
The special features as particularly fine on this
release:
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision
(HDR10 compatible) or High-Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Audio commentary by director Richard Loncraine and film historian Simon Fitzjohn
A Holland Park Haunting (2023, 24 mins): director Richard Loncraine reflects upon his artistic career and the making of Full Circle
Park Life (2023, 16 mins): Simon Fitzjohn revisits the film’s London locations.
What’s That Noise? (2023, 25 mins): soundtrack composer Colin Towns on one of his earliest film works.
Coming Full Circle (2023, 11 mins): Tom Conti recalls his time on the film.
The Fear of Growing Up (2023, 10 mins): Samantha Gates looks back on the production.
Joining the Circle (2023, 7 mins): producer Hugh Harlow recalls making the film
A Haunting Retrospective (2023, 25 mins): film critic Kim Newman revisits Full Circle
Images of a Haunting (2023, 13 mins): Full Circle aficionado Simon Fitzjohn talks us through his extensive collection of memorabilia.
Rare stills and transparencies from the BFI National Archive’s collections
First pressing only - illustrated booklet with a new
Director’s Statement, an essay by film historian Simon Fitzjohn, a biography of
Richard Loncraine by Dr Josephine Bottting, credits and notes on the special
features
Full Circle is available on BFI 4K UHD and
Blu-ray dual format, as well as iTunes and Amazon Prime from 24 April 2023, you can and should order the physical product direct from the BFI online shop.
It’s another lovely release from the BFI Flipside series,
collect the set and be assured of happiness but not without some emotional after effects.
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