Morris – A Life with Bells On was sheer delight. In a packed screen at Picturehouse in Liverpool (one of only three scheduled showings in the north-west) I had to sit on the front row, and the lack of a wider release is a scandal.
From the moment Derecq Twist (Charles Thomas Oldham, who wrote the story) is seen dancing (supposedly) near the head of the Cerne Abbas Giant and the camera pulls out to show the figure holding a hand across his crotch this was full of great humour both in the words and the visuals. Even the invention of a "Dorchester Airport" got a laugh.
It's done as a sort of Spinal Tap mockumentary. Aidan McArdle plays the producer Jeremy, who breaks the golden rule of documentary – "I intervened". That's after Derecq is plunged into despair following his rustication from the Morris Circle. From its offices in the City of London, Chief Executive Quentin Neely (Derek Jacobi) defends the Englishness of Morris Dancing against such foreign influences as the Brazilian "morrizio".
Manchester's Moss Side Morris are the reluctant enforcers of the Circle's dictates. Ian Hart as their "squire", Endeavour Hungerfjord Welsh, takes his duties seriously. Academic credibility on the history of Morris comes from Harriet Walter as Compton Chamberlayne, Emeritus Professor of International Folk Dance at Cambridge. You're never quite sure whether it's true history or absolute cobblers.
The outrageously camp Orange County Morris in California give Derecq a refuge, and romantic interest from Sonja (Naomie Harris). Derecq follows her to her new job in Iowa where he's reduced to the devil's dance (line dancing, you can learn all the moves in ten minutes). The lure of the Morris (and the prospect of a pint of Onan's Revenge cider) takes him back to Dorset and redemption.
There's just so much good stuff in this: a superb evocation of grief as well as the laughs, and a marvellous turn by Dominique Pinon as a French fisherman washed up on the Dorset shore after a storm, who decided to stay rather than go back to a million empty whelk shells.
From the moment Derecq Twist (Charles Thomas Oldham, who wrote the story) is seen dancing (supposedly) near the head of the Cerne Abbas Giant and the camera pulls out to show the figure holding a hand across his crotch this was full of great humour both in the words and the visuals. Even the invention of a "Dorchester Airport" got a laugh.
It's done as a sort of Spinal Tap mockumentary. Aidan McArdle plays the producer Jeremy, who breaks the golden rule of documentary – "I intervened". That's after Derecq is plunged into despair following his rustication from the Morris Circle. From its offices in the City of London, Chief Executive Quentin Neely (Derek Jacobi) defends the Englishness of Morris Dancing against such foreign influences as the Brazilian "morrizio".
Manchester's Moss Side Morris are the reluctant enforcers of the Circle's dictates. Ian Hart as their "squire", Endeavour Hungerfjord Welsh, takes his duties seriously. Academic credibility on the history of Morris comes from Harriet Walter as Compton Chamberlayne, Emeritus Professor of International Folk Dance at Cambridge. You're never quite sure whether it's true history or absolute cobblers.
The outrageously camp Orange County Morris in California give Derecq a refuge, and romantic interest from Sonja (Naomie Harris). Derecq follows her to her new job in Iowa where he's reduced to the devil's dance (line dancing, you can learn all the moves in ten minutes). The lure of the Morris (and the prospect of a pint of Onan's Revenge cider) takes him back to Dorset and redemption.
There's just so much good stuff in this: a superb evocation of grief as well as the laughs, and a marvellous turn by Dominique Pinon as a French fisherman washed up on the Dorset shore after a storm, who decided to stay rather than go back to a million empty whelk shells.