LONDON ROAD
UK, 2015, 91 minutes, Colour.
Olivia Coleman, Paul Thornley, Nick Holder, Tom Hardy.
Directed by Rufus Norris.
This is a film that it is better to know something about before one goes in because it is not quite what one might be expecting. To say that it is a musical is accurate but, again, it is not a musical in the way that one might be expecting. There are songs, but it is the way that they are incorporated into the film that makes it rather different…
London Road is not in London itself. Rather, the road is in the Suffolk town of Ipswich, one of those ordinary English roads, with ordinary English homes, of the lower middle-class variety, where residents live rather cheek-by-jowl but not necessarily know one another. And in this road, for just 10 weeks, one of England’s notorious serial killers rented a house. His name was Stephen Wright and he was accused of killing five prostitutes, found guilty, sentenced to life imprisonment.
A musical?
One of the authors of London Road, Alecky Blythe, had written some documentaries and interviewed quite a number of the inhabitants of London Road as well as a number of journalists who covered the case and the court proceedings. She found that there were certain rhythms in their speech, in their answers, and she decided to use these rhythms musically. As many of the personalities speak in the film, they start to accent their words as if they were reciting, then move into singing. Because the film is fairly realistic in its interview techniques, this method is intriguing, while some might find it off-putting, but it grows on the audience.
This stylised delivery of the words and music and rhythms enables repetition of phrases for emphases, dramatising the communication, from individuals, from groups, sometimes with choral effect.
While the film details of the case of Stephen Wright, nothing of the murders appears on-screen. What the film does is to focus on the people who live in London Road, their reactions to the situation, the shock that somebody could live so close to them, that something like this could happen on their street, that the press and public opinion condemned them, especially for the work of the prostitutes who solicited on their street. In fact, the focus of the film is the effect of the case on the people, ordinary citizens, some who are condemnatory of the prostitutes, others who are more sympathetic to the working women.
As we are introduced to Julie, Ron, Dodge, the principal characters in the street, we see the group banding together, responding to film media and holding meetings in St Jude’s parish hall, deciding that they will build up morale for the street, planting gardens to be judged in the street competition by the local council, having street parties and inviting everyone to celebrate the neighbourhood.
There are some sequences with some of the prostitutes themselves, relegated to the periphery, reflecting on themselves and their work, drug habits, clients – and with one of the girls arriving at the final street party, walking through, offered a balloon, and a little girl waving to her and she waving back.
The film makes much of the journalists, their presence on the street, a great number of interviews with the residents, their hanging around the courts, their talking to camera, a comment on the role of the media, its immediacy, presenting the news, but the touches of sensationalism.
As the audience get used to the film, we realise that it is saying (singing) a good deal about contemporary society – and that out of the bad can emerge some good and some hope.
1. Film experience, a theatrical experience? Realism and stylised presentation?
2. The Stephen Wright case, UK serial killers, mental illness, and troubled lives and marriages, prostitutes, sex and violence? The disposing of the bodies? His arrest, going to court, the trial, the sentence and the verdict on each killing, guilty? The killings happening off-screen?
3. The screenplay, the writer and the interviews with the actual people, using her words verbatim, the rhythms of their response, the emphases, becoming music, songs, the variety of performance? London Road, the residents, the media announcers, the prostitutes? The importance of words, importance of rhythms? The effect on the audience?
4. Photography, the realism of London Road, the homes, the gasometers, the street, the courts?
5. Interviews, the revelation of the characters, ordinary people, people in the street, the wide variety of views, the film offering a feel for the street, the surprise of the residents, the horror that the killer could live there, even for 10 weeks, the condemnation, some support for the prostitutes, others condemnatory, the ousting of the prostitutes, the respectability of the road? The single interviews, Julie and daughter, Dodge, Ron and his wife, the other couples? Accents of people, speech patterns, rhythms, their lives and perspectives?
6. The response of the people, their surprise, angers, and being labelled by the public, the reaction, Ron and his being proactive, the meeting at St Jude’s Hall, Julie and the idea for everybody improving their gardens, the street fair? Morale boosting, success, the awards, the spirit of London Road?
7. Seeing and listening to the prostitutes themselves, ousted from the road, the comments about Stephen Wright and the clients, the stories, the drugs, the regulars…? The prostitute at the street fair, walking through the street, receiving the balloon, going up the gasometer, the child waving and her waving back?
8. The mass response, the crowds at the barriers, others present, witnessing the arrest, the leaving, a glimpse or not? The action in the court, waiting for the verdict? The variety of songs, individuals, and groups, chorale?
9. Tom Hardy as the taxi driver?
10. The role of the journalists, the interviews, and speaking to camera, Simon and his getting his words and details mixed? The court, the verdict, the singing and the touch of cacophony, the young girl and her first program and success?
11. The film as a social document, events in 2006, serial killers, gruesome murders? The tarnishing of reputations, the street, and the possibilities of recovery of reputation, rehabilitation?
