LOADED
UK, 1994, 95 minutes, Colour.
Thandie Newton, Catherine Mc Cormack, Oliver Milburn.
Directed by Anna Campion.
Loaded is a British- New Zealand co-production, written and directed by Anna Campion (sister of Jane Campion). It takes a conventional situation, a group of people at an isolated house. They interact, their are truth games. However, this is a group of 20-year-old-pluses and their aim in going to the house is to make their own video horror movie. This gives the opportunity for characterising the young men and women, their performances, their relationships, tragedy. However, issues of relationship and responsibility and selfishness are raised.
The film is well acted - although, for older audiences, the behaviour and attitudes of the young people could be very trying.
1.A portrait of young adults of the '90s? A New Zealand-UK co-production? Its universal relevance?
2.London settings, the road, the country house? The musical score?
3.The title and its references: loaded with drink and drugs, loaded with money, the video camera loaded?
4.The opening with Neil, in himself, music, his audio letters to his psychiatrist, the discussions with the psychiatrist and videoing the interviews? His replaying them? The theories about re-enacting one's own psyche in one's life?
5.The video loaded: the film, the dreams, the psychological power of the video? Neil and the memory of his brother's death (and willing it or not)? Lionel's death?
6.The trip down, the introduction to the group, arrival at the house, the criteria for selecting rooms, each character and their relationship with the other?
7.The preparation of the video film, the props, the story? Giles and his preoccupation with serial killers, the picture of Myra Hindley? The scenes and the gore? The filming, having fun, the retakes?
8.Interrelationships, friendships, sexual relationships? Neil and his love for Rose? Rose and her virginity? The attraction towards Lionel? The contact with Lionel, searching for the contact lens, his kiss, Lance seeing it and telling everybody, the dire results?
9.Lance and Charlotte and their relationship? Lionel and his coming late? The meals, the discussions? The decision to take the acid? The hallucinatory experiences? Their being loosened? Their talk, their behaviour, attitudes?
10.The trip to the town, Lionel on his bike, the reaction of the town kids and the violence? Lionel coming back on his bike, Neil accelerating? Intending to kill Lionel or not? The reactions, the fear, burying Lionel in the woods?
11.Questions of responsibility, their avoiding responsibility, their fears, selfishness? Especially Lance?
12.Neil and Rose, the discussion, Neil having to take responsibility, the sexual encounter with Rose? His going to the police?
13.The searching for the body and unable to find Lionel? The forest and its secrets? Their wondering whether everything was a hallucination? Rose and her love for Lionel's gentleness and thinking of him as rising from the dead? The final fast tracking through the forest - and the uncertainty of the future?
