18 1/2 Philadelphia Film Festival - Sunday
A Look at The BBC's Red Riding Trilogy, Starting With 1974
Oct 19, 2009
On the eve of the Philadelphia Film Festival, word came that three of the festival picks -- known collectively as the Red Riding trilogy -- would get an American remake, of sorts. British director Ridley Scott is in talks to direct with Steve Zaillan in talks to script. At first look, the announcement -- despite the interesting talent in talks -- stinks of the typical Hollywood remake: take something successful and foreign, dumb it and dull it for people who won't pay to read subtitles or listen to accents. But after viewing the flawed but ambitious Red Riding trilogy, it's apparent that in order for Red Riding to work on a big screen, some condensing and rearranging might actually do the material some good.
Based on a four-part book series by David Peace, Red Riding takes two prominent serial murder cases, weaving both into a larger tale of corruption in the West Yorkshire police force. Each installment takes a different director and film stock (1983 is shot digitally on the Red) with screenwriter Tony Grisoni scripting all three. As a coordinated filmmaking effort, Red Riding is impressive, but as each film suffers from diminishing returns, the answers prove far less satisfying than the initial mystery.
Red Riding: 1974 (Directed By Julian Jarrold)
1974 -- shot in grainy 16 mm -- sets up Yorkshire as a musty, smokey world of murder and deception. The subtitle accompanying 1974 (and each ensuing year-title for the other films) is "the year of our lord", suggesting a higher line of judgment being passed from above.
The image of a fallen angel serves as more than a metaphor -- we find out the angel is a girl gone missing, her wings sewn from mutilated swan wings. Young crime reporter Eddie Dumford (Andrew Garfield) becomes obsessed with solving the case by connecting it with two other missing girl cases. Inevitably, he bites off way more than he can chew, breaking every practice of ethical journalism along the way.
More so than the following two films, 1974 exists in the spirit of a pure noir -- the good, truth-seeking men and women are imprisoned and continually punished by their surroundings. And nearly everyone has blood on their hands. The police are awful, but Jarrold and Grisoni cast Yorkshire as the most sinister of villains -- a cesspool of lies and death, a dumping ground for profiteers and sinners. Without the satisfaction of the concluding chapters, the film feels a little incomplete. But somehow, the denial of any comfort feels best fitted to the spirit of 1974.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
To continue for a look at parts two and three of the Red Riding trilogy, click here.
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