moviemistakes.com

[Tailkinker]

Recognition at last. The official website looks quite good.

And a pretty respectable cast to boot...

2009, or whenever they can find a distributor...
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I may look like I'm doing nothing, but at the molecular level, I'm really quite active.

[OneHappyHusky]

Me thinks I have found the first perfect movie to take my beloved Devin to see!!!! This is her watching Morris Dancing on youtube.com!!! Note "sticks" and "hankies"


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You need to get yourself a better dictionary. When you do, look up "genocide". You'll find a little picture of me there, and the caption'll read "Over my dead body". --The Tenth Doctor

[Happy Manc]

That child is plotting something evil, no doubt.

[Rooster of Doom]

From the "be an extra" section of the website: "We need background artists ... Friday the 1st of June and ... Sunday, the 10th of June ..."
So have you been holding out on us, Chancellor, or did you miss getting word of this until it was too late?
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- Rooster once posted a movie mistake correction so smug, he caused the earth to turn itself inside out. No-one noticed but if you jump high enough you can actually reach Australia.

[Tailkinker]

Much to the dismay of most of Oyster, we didn't find out about it in time.
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I may look like I'm doing nothing, but at the molecular level, I'm really quite active.

[Queenie]

that's a bit dumb of the film-makers, though; I can't imagine it would be THAT difficult to find a list of Morris groups and approach them first
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Strike while the irony's hot.

[Tailkinker]

I don't think they were specifically looking for morris background people, just general crowd. Would have been fun anyway.
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I may look like I'm doing nothing, but at the molecular level, I'm really quite active.

[Queenie]

yes, it would have been mega-cool! can you still write to them and ask to be kept on the books for any re-shoots etc?
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Strike while the irony's hot.

[Tailkinker]

Eighteen months since the last post on the subject and the film still rests on the shelf, other than a minor release in a few West Country cinemas.

We Want the Morris Movie
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I may look like I'm doing nothing, but at the molecular level, I'm really quite active.

[SnowBuddy]

I signed it.
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Last edited by Humph on Wed Nov 30, 2005 6:30 am; edited 11 times in total

I'm not short, I'm fun sized.

[OneHappyHusky]

Me, too
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You need to get yourself a better dictionary. When you do, look up "genocide". You'll find a little picture of me there, and the caption'll read "Over my dead body". --The Tenth Doctor

[Tailkinker]

Am rather pleased to announce that I've finally seen Morris: A Life With Bells On. And it's great fun.

Took quite a bit to do - one of our number actually had to persuade a local picture house to get hold of it, as the film still apparently lacks a major distributor and is thus only being shown at festivals and the occasional pre-arranged screening at a town hall. Anyway, we were able to arrange a screening and it immediately sold out, because we bought all the tickets, so the cinema arranged another screening. Which immediately sold out, not to us this time.

Saw it this afternoon, in the company of four teams worth of morris people, all in kit, as we'd met up earlier to do some dancing and make a proper occasion of it. And it's a good movie. Treats the subject matter pretty well - morris dancing is, annoyingly, often treated as a bit of a joke in this country. The film does poke a gentle amount of fun at it, of course, it is intended as a spoof documentary, after all, but most of the humour is at the expense of the die-hard traditionalists who refuse to accept any evolution of the dance form. Which was fine by us, as we take the piss out of them on a regular basis too.

The film, presented in a documentary style, revolves around Derecq Twist, a top-notch morris dancer who is nevertheless regarded with suspicion by the tradition-bound upper echelons of the tradition's ruling council, the Morris Circle (a thinly-veiled swipe at the real-life, equally tradition-bound Morris Ring) for his use of unsanctioned dancing styles as part of displays by his team. As he prepares for the greatest challenge a morris dancer can face, the notorious three-hour-long Threeple Hammer Damson, his life is devastated by his sudden expulsion from the Circle, followed swiftly by a personal tragedy that pushes him into retirement. Upset, Jeremy, the documentary's producer, elects to break all the rules of documentary making and intervenes, sending Derecq on a journey that will encompass true love, the adulation of the masses, a flamboyantly camp American morris team and the dreaded "Devil's Dance" (or line-dancing, as it's more commonly known) until, in true feel-good movie style, he comes to realise that he can't let setbacks divert him from the life that he loves.

Cast all do well, mostly coming across as quite natural, generally in a distinctly off-beat fashion, headed by first time actor Chaz Oldham, who also wrote the film (first time doing that as well) and produced it (yep, first time). Taking the director's chair was Lucy Ackhurst, who's done a number of acting roles (and plays a supporting role here), but this was her first time on the other side of the camera. Most of the cast are unknowns, with a few more recognisable names enticed in by very little money but a good script; Sir Derek Jacobi has fun hamming it up as the leader of the Circle, Dominique Pinon shows up as a member of Derecq's team who joined under bizarre circumstances, only speaks French and has a less than entirely healthy interest in dancing under the influence of various hallucinogenic ciders, Ian Hart plays the leader of another morris team and occasional Circle announcer/enforcer, Greg Wise appears as a bonkers dance-obsessed Californian guru and Naomie Harris shows up as Derecq's love interest in the second half of the film.

Overall, the film works very well. Went down very well with an audience of dancers (as the director commented in an interview, "fortunately, most morris dancers have a sense of humour"), but practically all of the jokes are readily accessible to those who know nothing about it. I'll award it a overall score of four sticks, although, given that it was a first-time movie for many of those involved (director, writer, producer and lead actor), all those involved with the film can really give themselves a five-stick pat on the back.

For those with additional curiosity, much information, including an excellent extended trailer, can be found on the film's official website.
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I may look like I'm doing nothing, but at the molecular level, I'm really quite active.