BLACK DEATH
UK/Germany, 2010, 102 minutes, Colour.
Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, John Lynch, Tim Mc Inerney, Kimberley Nixon, Andy Nyman, David Warner, Carice Van Houten.
Directed by Christopher Smith.
Black Death is set in England in 1348, at the time of the Black Death plague throughout Europe. It is a sombre film, re-creating the period, in the countryside, in villages hearing infection, in forests, in abbeys.
The film opens in an Abbey with David Warner as the Abbott. Eddie Redmayne is the young monk Osmund, a novice who has a friend, Averill, and he wants to save her and for her to leave the town. A group of mercenaries led by Ulrich, Sean Bean, arrives with a mission to seek out a necromancer in another village. It emerges that his mission is to seek out the witch controlling the village, Langiva (Carice van Houten).
Osmund volunteers to guide the group but finds Averill’s blood-stained clothes. In the village, Lingava urges him to go to a building where he finds Averill, and thinking she is bewitched, kills her.
The witch orders Ulrich to be killed – and he announces that he has the plague. Osmund goes back to his Abbey and the final information is that he became a witch-hunter.
The film has been directed by Christopher Smith, director of three films with the touch of horror: Creep, Severance, Triangle.
1. Audience interest history? Dramatically? Melodrama? Violence and blood?
2. 1348, England, towns and villages, the abbeys, the countryside, the forests? Authentic feel? The musical score?
3. The 14th century, the state of the church, the Popes in Avignon and away from Rome, the plague and the Black Death? The abbeys and the role of the monks? Centres of civilisation – coping with the plague, infections, the mobs?
4. Osmund, his age, novice, the atmosphere of plague and war, the piles of corpses? His friendship with Averill, concerned for her safety, sending her to the forest, the meetings?
5. Ulrich, his arrival in the village, his mercenaries? Commanding? News of the plague, his mission from the Bishops? Osmund and is offering to lead?
6. Ulrich as a warrior, his mission, the ecclesiastical backing, his interchanges with the Abbott, Osmund being allowed to go? The mercenaries, the torture weapon, in action, the truth about the search for the necromancer?
7. The forest, Osmund finding Avril’s clothes, stained with blood? The fight and the bandit ambush? Arriving in the village, suspicions and hostilities?
8. Lingava, the claims and Ulrich denouncing her as a witch? Lingiva and Osmund, his finding Averill’s body, his escape?
9. Ulrich and the mercenaries all drugged, in the prison of the pool, Osmund also? Hob and his being second in charge in the village? Osmund and the killing of Averill? His thinking her bewitched?
10. Lingava, her ordering Ulrich to be killed, his announcement that he had the plague?
11. The final discussions about God and faith?
12. Lingava telling Osmund that Averill was drugged, not dead? The effect on Osmund? Return to the Abbey, and the information that he became a ruthless witch hunter?
