Archipelago - A Very British Drama

I had the pleasure of watching Joanna Hogg’s second feature ,Archipelago, tonight. Although at first I was apprehensive, I needn’t worry – it was another solid drama that traded in real characters in real situations.

The film focuses on a family that comes together before the son goes to Africa on a voluntary mission – they’ve rented a small cottage on a remote island off the British mainland – in fact the only way to get to the island seems to be via a helicopter taxi service of some sorts.

The family , which consists of the mother, the two siblings and a missing father , bicker and fight. Resentment simmers just under the surface. In this strange environments are also two strangers: Rose, a young cook hired for the two weeks and Christopher , a painter, who is a family friend.

To be honest not much else happens. It’s everyday stuff, shot in wide shots without the use of any incidental music whatsoever. Ms. Hogg avoids close-ups when she can giving the whole thing a more natural feel.

As I was watching this rather terrific drama, I thought of how good the British are at making films with small dramatic focus that get their energy from real life. Mike Leigh’s ‘Another Year’ was one of my favourites last year. It thrived on low-key drama with real to life characters.

When Hollywood goes independent , the result is usually the same: weird-quirky , mumblecore products which seem to be running parallel to life as opposed to through it. Whereas over here, our kitchen sink is exemplar – a knack exists for capturing characters straight from the heart of everyday.

I always felt that the British Film Industry’s biggest mistake was trying to turn its’ gaze towards west, in specific towards Hollywood. There is no such thing as a universal product and to be honest an American audience strikes me as one of the pickiest in the world.

However, turn your gaze towards Europe and you find similarities. The French are extremely adept at rural dramas about the lost countryside, the Italian do fading nobility better than anyone else, Spaniards get away with the most brilliant urbane stories, Eastern Europe can create low-key suffering during difficult times (especially communist regime) like no-one else.

A shared attitude and viewpoint pairs our kitchen sink dramas to the output coming from these countries. And it seems almost silly to me that we never take advantage of this to propel forward our films.