it struck me as i watched, what i distinctly warmed to that i was missing from films, that i felt i had once been promised, was exactly this sense of flimsy provisionality that the nouvelle vague long ago held up against anglo-film; and free cinema held up against Classic British Cinema; and the early amerindies briefly held up against hollywood

what has always happened to these challenges — why the promise is never maintained — was a kind of creeping formalist aestheticisation, which replaces Justification By Moral Intent and/or Outcome, with Justification by High-Concept Technique (great cinematagraphy, for example)

i guess what i was reminded of was a kind of punky throwaway i-don’t-careness — eg don’t care that turgoose isn’t that good of an actor — which is the thing that would quickly congeal into post-punk indie anti-quality, and become intolerable and fearful of ambition or commitment to achievement; but was/is an incredibly liberating impulse when it comes to hand-me-down stuff about What A Film Ought To Do…

meadows is at his worst when he’s moralising; i really like it when he cuts away from that and just lets the camera follow what might happen, the oddity and the semi-randomness of that (ie tommo ending up as graham’s bitch; or marek’s dad so crestfallen at the lame crappiness of marek’s “party”) — this is vanishingly tiny stuff, and SM swamps it quite easily (less here than in TIE) when he starts to worrry about the “point” of what he’s doing; but i really really wish more people would do it… of course as soon as there’s a formalised space for it, it would stop being what i like about it, i guess

I think the B&W signifier has changed post Clerks, when it became clear that B&W is no cheaper than colour. Therefore it is always an aesthetic decision, which needs to have reason. “It looks pretty” is a good reason – not used here. “It looks ugly” is a reason too but if that is really Meadows’s choice here then it really is just knee jerk anti-London (or pro-ADVERT).

Hadn’t thought of Stranger Than Paradise and that is a Manchild version of this child-MAN play. But the real problem at the heart of all of Somers Town’s issues is that its slight running time apparently does not seem to let it do anything of worth with its characters (even Tommo and Mareks first meeting is 90% bullying, 10% affection). Which is odd considering most syndicated TV shows can do a hell of a lot of character work in a 40 minute TV show. As a TV play, ST would be roasted ALIVE!

(STP has a much better B/W contrast on its cinematography and goes out of its way for the odd striking image. And B&W was cheaper back then. But STP walks in with its inconsequentiality on its sleeve. Wheras ST walks in with a abuse care home kid in muddy proto-realism B&W, THE CINEMATOGRAPHY IS BAD BECAUSE IT IS REAL : AND REAL LIFE IS SHOT BADLY).

(i have been infected by lindsay anderson here obv: b/w is “poetic” he sez abt 20 billion times) (and in fact come to think of it, this film reminds me of my favourite bits of “the white bus”, which are also the mainly unpeopled bits) (i just like films which are really more about forgotten and unloved buildings than people i guess)

they’re not mediocre characters, they’re just unformed — graham has a certain dotty charisma; the girl is a wisp; marek’s dad i could have done with more of

a better comparison for yr argument — which it will come off way worse against — is “stranger than paradise”: it has the same plot (more or less) and was a founding movie in self-financed indie cinema, so you get the moral high ground re the funding here

Its all well and good claiming some sort of quality for making a film where not much happens to mediocre characters, and that Meadows can make that tolerable for 73 minutes is perhaps a positive thing. But its not much to write home about, when that hand is really just about missed opportunities (and missed trains).

obv my line on meadows is that he is not and has NEVER been a realist, but in an age of Oligatory Disenchantment™ you need to set up that kind of pseudo-social promise bcz no one would go see a film that’s “about nothing much happening to half-sketched ppl in a likeable way” — which i think is a pity, everything is distorted by the need for Higher Justification

i am not sure these two teenagers were even meant to be worth their salt — that’s kinda the point

Its got all the bits of coming of age without having the time or inclination to follow through with it. Meadows may have though coming of age to be a bit old fashioned, much like he has decided that much plot or conflict (with the exception of the Dad scene) is also not needed. I get what you are saying about the “space they are in supplying a coping strategy”, but that space is wholly constructed within the film. Given more than ten minutes of this tedious existence any thirteen year old worth their salt will go throw stones at some cars – but then a possible whole other Eurostar edict is THERE ARE NO CARS IN THIS FILM (hence no roads).

Plenty of London may be this unpeopled, but Somers Town ISN’T! Indeed its geographical cul-de-sac nature means you have to leave it via the front door (ie the Euston Road) to go anywhere.

i think the point about not straying more than 200 yards from where you land up is good observation, actually (possibly this is not so obvious to someone who’s been visiting london** all his life; but this is what we outlanders do, i promise you, until we meet someone who can show us round, and marek and tommo meet each other) — actually the trick meadows was bribed by eurostar to miss is that he should have made this a advert for (eg) the north london line rather than eurostar

also i really liked the weird dysjunction of tommo’s and marek’s make-do friendship — if they had their heads screwed on it would indeed be a different film

*it’s an auteur tic: his midlands and his north are also strangely empty
**i didn’t have time in SS to expand on me “what happens when you expand kitchen sink londonwards = something REALLY strange viz straight to india and the maharishi”, which is fact london-hating, bcz the uk is in fact (in its angry back-to-back heart) london-hating!

The only whimsy in the film would have been spoiled by Laurence Corner (and they never go that far west!) – namely Tommo being reduced to wearing an old lady skirt as a shirt. Which is funny and all, but makes no sense as one of the only other plot points in the first ten minutes of the film has Marek giving up his Man Utd shirt for an Arsenal one. He could have given Tommo the Man U shirt.

Probably have got in a lot more whimsy if Laurence Corner hadn’t shut.