PURITAN

UK, 2005, 95 minutes, Colour.
Nick Moran, Georgina Rylance, David Soul, Ralph Brown.
Directed by Hardi Hajaig.

No, not a witches of Salem story or something of that kind. Puritan is the name of the central character who does not act like a puritan at all.

Rather, as the Lebanese-born, London-based, writer-director, Hadi Hajaig, notes, it is a film noir in colour that connects with the themes of the supernatural. While there are elements of the supernatural, with a mysterious 300 year old house whose former owner conjured up the devil, which exercised baleful influence on a woman who shot dead her rock star boyfriend thinking him an intruder, it keeps its main malice for the central character, Simon Puritan (Nick Moran).

Simon has been a journalist with a book on the paranormal. Drinking heavily, he acts as a medium to help people in their grief. It is mostly faked with previous information, but some things he knows… When an attractive woman (Georgina Rylance) has a session (after a warning from her badly burnt and disfigured husband), he begins an affair with her.

This is where the noir part comes in. Since her husband (David Soul) is a brash American businessman with wealth and the art of a demagogue, you sense murder is in the air. Simon sells his soul for the woman – but, when he explains his theory of the fourth dimension, where time is not sequential and who knows what events influence what, we wonder whether his soul has long been sold.

Filmed in 21 days on a small budget, Puritan might be considered as an experimental film and a calling card for bigger films in the future. It achieves what it intended and provides a variation on the femme fatale and pacts with the devil.

1. The impact of the film? Film noir in colour? Supernatural film? British made? Small budget?

2. The location photography, Whitechapel and the opening credits and the maps? Simon’s apartment, his office, the darkness? The bright exteriors, the countryside? The churches? Interiors and exteriors? The mansion? The contrast between light and darkness? Authentic atmosphere – but atmospherically filmed? The use of colours? The musical score?

3. The plausibility of the plot? The focus on Simon, his work as a journalist, his interest in the supernatural, his researches? His own experience as a medium? Truth and fake? The encounter with Anne? With Jonathan Gray? The meeting with his friend Mickey? His not fulfilling his obligations, not going to the interview? Being abandoned? His encounter with Anne, attraction towards her, the meeting in the hotel, the beginning of the affair? The meeting with Eric Bridges and his temper? The aftermath? The affair, the urgent call, the death of Eric Bridges, Simon going to the house, the plan, the cover-up, tying Anne up, Bridges and his struggling, the disappearance of the knife? His going away, hiding for four months? His migraines? His going to the doctor? His seeing Mickey with Anne, her not coming to the hotel? The phone call, the encounter, the set-up with the gardener, his having the gun, Anne having the gun and arriving early, Simon’s arrival and Simon bashing him? The shooting, the explosion, his being badly burnt? The year passing? The doctor and the clearance of the tumour, with Anne, his vision of the girl shooting her rock-star boyfriend?

4. The importance of Simon’s interest in the supernatural, the man who conjured up the Devil in the house, the three hundred-year history of the house, the churches built on pagan sites, for pagan rituals or for worship? The appearance of the conjuror at the end? Simon as a medium? His explanation of the fourth dimension? Events not happening in chronological order? Simon and his depression, standing on the railway station, his being hit by the train, the warning from the burnt man? His being saved and going through his story with Anne? The irony of his warning himself? His seeing the past? His telling the conjuror that he was the Devil? His finally being with Anne and content?

5. How interesting a character was Simon? In his ordinary self? As his burnt self? His supernatural powers?

6. The visit of Jonathan Gray, his warnings – and the irony that this was the future and he was Simon?

7. Anne, her coming for the reading, the warnings by Jonathan Gray? The death of her sister? Her being comforted by Simon, attracted to him? The later meeting? The beginning of the affair? The meeting with her husband? Her relationship with her husband? The alienation? The stabbing, hiding the body? Her being tied up? Disappearance? Jonathan Gray saying that she was a femme fatale, repeating this process, marrying millionaires, killing them, inheriting their wealth? Her late arrival, her stories about the insurance office? The final confrontation? Was she a criminal? Did she intend to kill Simon? Finally being with him – happily ever after?

8. Eric Bridges, wealthy, his influence on industry, finance? His speech – right-wing fanaticism? Rousing the crowds? The confrontation with Simon? Anger? His being dead in the house, his bleeding, clutching Simon’s leg?

9. Mickey Conway, journalist, giving help to Simon, refusing to give him any more money, Simon’s failure to go to the interview? His going to Eric Bridges’ talk, getting Simon to take the photographs? Under suspicion from Simon when he met Anne? His being hit on the head, taken to the final confrontation?

10. The interlude with the woman coming downstairs, shooting her boyfriend – the evil power of the house?

11. The background of Simon and his work, the initial reading, the wife giving the information, the husband angry and punching him, coming back and hearing the truth?

12. How well did the themes all fit together? The explanation of time travel and fourth dimension?