The trouble with you is you always want to be someone else, it’s a compulsion you have.
I’ve just watched the new Neil LaBute play* which uses a series of sexual relationships to deftly characterise a modern America in which nothing is as it seems and everything may or may not be transactional and following unseen rules too complex to state out loud. There is something in common with this film, director Peter Medak’s first feature and one that is unsettling, almost hard to watch, before ultimately revealing its true intent.
At its centre is the relationship between antique shop
proprietors Theo (Peter McEnery) and Vivien (Glenda Jackson) which puts us on
edge right for the start. For one thing they role play as the notorious Dr
Crippen and his wife Cora/lover Ethel as the feeling takes them… This is very
much Jackson on home territory, dominating with disdain and a vicious turn of
phrase, leaving us unsure as to whether she is in character or within
character. McEnery for his part is a most indecisive serial killer but clearly
this is the point… when is a murder not a murder? When he is the victim or, and
bear with me, a fighter pilot?
… when it comes to the action, you are a fool just
like Crippen…
Dr and Mrs Crippen enjoy a moment
As Cora, Vivien relentlessly deconstructs her partner’s
masculinity, and as Dr Clare Smith, historic collection curator at the
Metropolitan Police Museum, points out in her interview on the disc about Crippen,
Medak is clearly fascinated by British crime, with Jack the Ripper becoming the
alter ego of Peter O’Toole’s character in The Ruling Class, and his
films on the Krays and Derek Bentley. She provides excellent context on the characters
Theo and Vivien play by detailing the extraordinary tale of the Crippen murder
with the aid of clips of Donald Pleasance and Samantha Eggar in Dr Crippen
(1962). Cora was indeed a dominant force in her marriage and her physically
outmatched husband went to every length to support her ambitions on the stage…
he found solace in the arms of the more diminutive Ethel but only after
poisoning his wife, dismembering her and burying her in his basement.
It's an odd situation to base sex games on but original
author, Peter Everett – who won the Somerset Maughan Prize for his book – who co-adapted
the script with Roger Lowry, clearly knew what he was doing in his original tale
of identity and the worlds we create for ourselves. Here the more defined
personalities are the women and, as Dr Smith says, it is unusual to find a film
of this vintage in which the projection of identity is focused on the male.
Whatever the reasons, nobody seems happy in spite of all their trendy trappings and freedom to love how they like, is this the end of their relationship or the beginning of a darker turn? Like the shop they are surrounded and smothered by the past and cannot move without its direct consideration. If Hell was situated off the Fulham Road, this might well be it… an all the while, Theo’s father (Maurice Denham) lies in hospital dreading what he is convinced will be an operation he won’t survive.
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| "All men are fools and what makes them so is having beauty like what I've got..." E. Wise |
Then, as if the edge couldn’t get any sharper, into
Theo’s life comes a German photographer, Reingard (Diane Cilento, so far away
from The Angel who Pawned Her Harp…), who admits she has been following
the couple for some time… and has a few suggestions to make to liven their
sexual play time. She has her own “negatives” as she discusses meeting her
father for the first time when she was 17 when, after appraising her, he tore
off her dress leaving her naked. She wants to take positives of the couple but
as with Vivien she is projecting a masculine fantasy onto the blank slate that
is Theo, why a timid murderer and why not an heroic figure like Manfred von
Richthofen, the Red Baron who shot down 80 allied planes in the First World
War, honouring his victims with the casting of silver cups.
The battle for Theo’s persona rapidly escalates even
though the two women are almost in alliance, but it’s a whirlwind of a film
which is more about nuanced interpretation than a narrative straight line.
Given their connection via Sparrows (see below) it’s interesting to see Stephen
Lewis – who wrote that film – as a scrap metal dealer who sells Theo a Tiger
Moth which is then planted on their roof terrace and painted in von Richthofen’s
colours. Red… for anger and the mist of toxic masculinity descends on Theo and
there is much to interpret and consider.
All I know is that talking about Crippen, Crippen,
Cri-ppen… upsets you!
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| Mad about the Baron |
Basil Kirchin provides the score including a winsome theme
which is contrapuntal to so much of the human rage and conflict – some deceptively
sweet sauce for the bitter battle especially when it’s used in a diegetic way
as the camera pans up to reveal Glenda Jackson playing it on piano . Barrie
Vince’s editing is whip smart throughout and whilst also providing visual
counterpoints to the emoting, enhances the feelings of confusion and events
moving out of joint with the character’s sense of wellbeing. He and Medak force
the pace for the viewer and that’s something even modern viewers might find
boggling in the cinema!
It's a very challenging debut and one that struggled to
gain a release on completion but which we can now see as the foundation of
Medak’s long career as well as being Glenda Jackson’s first film. She had been
a member of the RSC with McEnery and he continued mainly in theatre and TV after
films in the UK and France. Diane Cilento was well established as a film
actress by this time – Academy Award nominated for Tom Jones (1963) and uses
her experience to add so much sinister here, changing the direction and the
mood with an impressive German accent.
This BFI release uses Severin Films super sharp 4k
restoration and is the first time Negatives has been made available in
any format in the UK and will be of particular interest to those who have
followed Medak’s half century career on both the big and small screen – he
directed episodes of The Wire and Breaking Bad as well as films
such as The Krays (1990), Let Him Have it (1991) and classics such as The
Ruling Class (1972) starring Peter O’Toole, Arthur Lowe and Carolyn Seymour
(his second wife). He even found time to direct concert films for Pink Floyd
and Peter Gabriel.
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| The most talented actor in her family... |
He arrived in Britain from Hungary aged just 18 in 1956
and having begun his career with Associated British Pictures he gained
experience in a variety of roles and worked on films directed by Anthony
Asquith, Val Guest and others. In her booklet essay, the BFI’s Jo Botting says his
experience on Joan Littlewood’s Sparrows Can’t Sing (1963) was particularly
important in his development. As she says, he would later favour… “unconventional
narratives with larger-than-life characters – so Negatives was the
perfect debut.” Hard to get life larger than Glenda, Peter and Diane…
Long may he reign and there’s two recent interviews with him
in the extra special features below – as usual with the Flipside, the BFI are
spoiling us!
Newly remastered from the
original camera negative by Severin Films and presented in High Definition
Audio commentary by Tim Lucas
Audio interviews with Peter
Medak (2024, 89 mins): two interviews with director Peter Medak, the first
by the late author and film historian Lee Gambin, and the second with Severin’s
David Gregory which was conducted at the director’s home
False Positive (2025,
11 mins): a newly recorded interview with actor Peter McEnery
Editing Negatives
(2026, 31 mins): an interview with Barrie Vince, the award-winning editor of Negatives,
Smashing Time and Deep End
Positives From Negativeland**:
Scrapbook from a Grand Debut (2025, 16 mins): Peter Medak takes us
through his production material for Negatives, as well as A Day in the Death
of Joe Egg, recalling his memories of each experience
The Doctor Will See You Now
(2025, 24 mins): an interview with Dr Clare Smith, the historic collection
curator at the Metropolitan Police Museum, who discusses the life and crime of
Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen
Image gallery
And, with the first pressing only, comes a handsome illustrated booklet featuring new essays by Dr Josephine Botting and William Fowler with notes on the special features and credits
The Blu-ray is released on 16th March and you can pre-order from all the usual places or queue up at the BFI shop next Monday!
*America the Beautiful is at the Kings Head Theatre until 21st March, details available on their website!
**I see the reference to the "Krautrock" classic track from NEU!
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| Diane Cilento gets out of the VW opposite Stamford Bridge |
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