Caitren Sheather-Reid

Set among the lush gilded halls of the Palace Cinemas in Como begins this year’s British Film Festival here in Melbourne for 2024! Upon arrival, I was guided towards a table filled with glasses, offered a glass of wine (which, of course, I take), and then showed towards Cinema 1. Whilst my heart is beating fast from almost running late and my feet are throbbing from not choosing the comfiest shoes to run almost late in, all this is left at the door as I am welcomed by a plush chair and ample foot space (thank goodness).

As an audience, we are officially welcomed to the Media Night of the British Film Festival and shown some trailers of upcoming movies (many of which look incredible) before the movie starts. I highly suggest checking out the program as this year’s running has such an intriguing mix of stories to view by some promising, talented, established directors and actors.

And then, the movie starts. As an audience, we follow the story of Pansy, a short fused woman who appears to be in a deep hole of depression, frustration and anger. Pansy, played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste and directed by Mike Leigh (All Or Nothing, Happy Go Lucky) plays a character whose emotions are on her sleeve and affect those around her to a detrimental point.

Now, while this movie does have a somewhat linear plot, I still came away a little confused. It felt a bit like the movie was trying to follow all of the main characters but, in the end, left so many loose ends. I suppose if the movie was trying to mimic real life, then this approach feels very realistic. However, the ending felt abrupt.

On the flip side, this does not diminish the acting ability of the actors in this film. Each character felt deeply thought out, thoroughly lived in and exciting to watch. Jean-Baptiste acted with such a tangible sense of rage and grief that it was so easy to get caught up in it all. I laughed at a few of her insults (almost rivalling Shakespeare in their wit) and cried along with her too. But it was hard to view such a continually confrontational character which did break my immersion for longing to psychoanalyse her right then and there. Instead of focusing on the story, I wanted to focus on the character of Pansy as that seemed more directly interesting to me.

Some other honorary mentions go to both Michelle Austin (who played Chantelle) and David Webber (who played Curtley). Austin’s portrayal of a tender sister (and tender character all round) who coaxes her sister slowly out of a deep hole of grief had me longing for a sister of my own. And Webber playing Curtley shows a stark contrast to the other people in his life, consistently withdrawn, quiet, a human doormat for Pansy to walk all over. I felt bad for this character, but it was also really hard to watch Curtley not stand up for himself. He was so in his shell and, as an audience, it was really difficult medicine to take knowing that almost everyone has someone like Curtley in their life and yet don’t always know how to help.

In summary, this film has a tremendous array of portrayals of the British middle class, but also accesses a confronting amount of emotions which are hard to sit with whilst watching the story unfold. I wish it made more sense to me, but perhaps I am in the minority. I think it would be worth a rewatch just to see what I potentially missed. I will, however, be looking at the rest of the program for the British Film Festival and attending what I can as there are a large number of films in it that pique my interest. This festival is on until the 6th of December and is worth checking out even just for the ambience of the Palace Cinemas!

The British Film Festival 2024 runs from Nov – Dec 8.

To book tickets to this or other films click https://britishfilmfestival.com.au/ for session and venue details.

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