Usually the start of a New Year heralds the best intentions but rather than sabotage myself and disappoint others, my only resolution for 2017 \u2013 to complete \u201cVoyageuse\u201d \u2013 is fulfilled. Readers of this blog will know this is the culmination of years of soul searching, writing and production and a rare, if not unique example of a feature-length film made entirely by one person.<\/p>\n
As I write, I’m aware that every corner of my house contains fragments of the film: photo albums, folders of letters, diaries and personal objects: Bob Eisner\u2019s army cap badges, a framed etching of Fishguard and Erica\u2019s broken wristwatch, minus strap. Given how I began this blog with the story of a house clearance, the irony’s not lost on me but the question \u2013 what shall I do with all this stuff? \u2013 is one I\u2019ve been avoiding.<\/p>\n
The more pressing question \u2013 will \u201cVoyageuse\u201d ever reach an audience? \u2013 I can\u2019t dismiss so easily. Like most consumables, films don\u2019t have an infinite shelf-life, not that I need fret about release dates. Having no distributor or sales agent my immediate plan is to host a private screening in London to try to promote it to those who may be able to influence others. If this fails, I may attempt to persuade independent arthouse cinemas to programme it. There\u2019s also the option to upload to a VOD platform on a pay-per-view basis that would at least cover the cost of hosting. Or I can simply put the DCP and my drives in a drawer knowing there was never an imperative to show or sell the film, only the desire to make it.<\/p>\n
On social media and countless websites there\u2019s much talk of how to distribute a film. Every week 10-15 films are released across 300 screens in the UK, largely dominated by Hollywood output. Independent films compete for fewer slots and only those with substantial P&A and PR behind them tend to secure a release. Recently I\u2019ve noticed the rise of third party companies who may (or may not) support a small indie film, a route that might make sense for \u201cVoyageuse\u201d if the terms are mutually agreeable.<\/p>\n
What matters most right now is to gauge audience reaction so recently I invited a friend, Jennie Macfie, to watch the film. Not an easy favour to ask of anyone because it\u2019s fraught with potential embarrassment for all concerned but short of staging a test screening with a focus group there\u2019s no other way to find out if \u201cVoyageuse\u201d plays. I\u2019m sure the industry wisdom would regard Jennie as the ideal target audience \u2013 an intelligent, mature, independent-minded female with a wide interest in the arts, although I\u2019m sure Jennie would be quick to deny such lazy pigeonholing.<\/p>\n
Fact is, I haven’t seen Jennie for over two years but when I sat her down in my edit suite to this most private of screenings I sensed I wouldn\u2019t get a free pass nor the usual polite dissembling when it comes to showing one\u2019s work. Rather, my hope was for some honest and impartial criticism. That, and \u2013 subject to a positive reaction, of course \u2013 a couple of supportive tweets.<\/p>\n
At the end of the screening Jennie emerged, clearly moved but also brimming with curiosity and comment. Remarking on the archive film and photos, she pointed out something that had never occurred to me \u2013 just how exactly did<\/u> the Eisner family manage to bring all their possessions when they fled Hungary in 1938? Unlike contemporary news reports of refugees showing the displaced with little more than the clothes on their backs, Bob and Vera Eisner somehow imported an entire suite of furniture, including a large Afghani carpet, Erica\u2019s cot, a batterie de cuisine (which I still own) and not least, a large metal box containing reels of 16mm film that my husband passed to the BFI Film and Television Archive for restoration, a process taking over two years to complete.<\/p>\n
Shortly after I showed Jennie the film came a direct message via Twitter containing a link to a review she had written, unprompted. I won\u2019t reproduce it in its entirety but here\u2019s an extract:<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas finds her own sparsely beautiful visual language to tell the story, a dramatic tale that needs no extra drama. Scientific experiments. Vivisection. Euthanasia. Military secrets. Medical secrets.\u00a0Lies. Deceptions. The Cold War.\u00a0Espionage. The film obliquely layers multiple tissue-thin slices of Erica\u2019s life one on top of another until one cannot be sure what is or was real – but her (you now realise) extraordinary life now seems as real as your own.<\/p>\n
\u2018Keeping up appearances\u2019 is the essence of femininity, and also the groundbed of successful espionage. \u201cWhen did I stop using lipstick\u2026\u201d, Erica wrote on a scrap of card found with four \u2013 unused \u2013 Yardley lipsticks and used on the film\u2019s poster. By the time the line is voiced aloud, it brims over with resonances, due in no small way to Sian Phillips, whose emotionally intelligent reading of Thomas\u2019 script gives the film even richer layers of meaning and deserves its own Oscar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thanks, Jennie.<\/p>\n
Had she lived, Erica would have been 84 this month. It\u2019s poignant to reflect on the events that led her, as the script says, \u2018to become English.\u2019 Had she been denied entry to the UK in 1938, what fate might she have met? Among Erica\u2019s possessions I found a telegram from the Magyar (Hungarian) Red Cross stating that her maternal grandparents were \u2018safe and well\u2019. Captured by the Nazis, they were imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen but miraculously released. They later travelled to the Unites States, settling in Bridgeport, Connecticut.<\/p>\n
Seen from a broader perspective as a film \u201cVoyageuse\u201d may be inconsequential but at a time of political uncertainties, post-truth and alternative facts its themes are more prescient than ever when the lessons of war, political expedience, class division and population control seem destined to be forgotten. A few days ago, alone at the Glasgow Film Theatre watching my film, I mourned the fact I’ll never see it in the same way as a first-time viewer. Still, there are sublime moments where I lose myself so surely that’s enough consolation.<\/p>\n
Later the projectionist remarked how it looked \u2018pretty good\u2019. Leaving the building, as I stepped into a rainswept Sauchiehall Street I wondered to myself if this was the only time I’ll see the film on a big screen. I also recalled a quote by the late Carrie Fisher, delivered by Meryl Streep during her Lifetime Achievement award speech at the Golden Globes.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake your broken heart. Make it into art.\u201d<\/p>\n
The above image is a frame grab of a hand-painted title taken from Bob Eisner’s 16mm films and restored by the BFI Film and Television Archive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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