ROOM TO RENT
UK/France, 2000, 98 minutes, Colour.
Saeed Taghmaoui, Juliet Lewis, Rupert Graves, Anna Massey.
Directed by Khalid Al -Haggar.
Room to Rent is a comedy, focusing on issues of London’s multicultural background. Saeed Taghmaoui portrays a young Egyptian man, in England on a student visa, who wants to extend his stay. He gets mixed up in schemes for fake marriages (with explicit reference to Green Card) and various entanglements ensue. He wants to write screenplays and is ousted from his lodgings because the landlord thinks that the incidents in the screenplay are too much based on him and his allegedly unfaithful wife.
He then encounters a photographer, a gay man played by Rupert Graves. He boards with him for a time but also falls foul of him because of his new screenplay. However, an arrangement is made with an American singer who looks and speaks like Marilyn Monroe and sings her songs (Juliet Lewis). In the background is a mysterious elderly blind woman (Anna Massey) who encounters the young man, thinks he is the reincarnation of a man she was in love with in the 30s and 40s. A final encounter with her brings the proceedings to an end – with the touch of magical realism or a tough of reincarnation.
The film is interesting in its look at the mix in London at the beginning of the century.
1.The UK, the multi-ethnic background, multicultural background?
2.The perspectives of Egypt and North Africa compared with those of London? Freedom, artistic freedom? Politics? The English perspective? Towards the newcomers? The American touch?
3.The use of London locations, the streets, the flats, studios, restaurants? Authentic? The musical score? The songs? Especially with Linda and ‘I Want to be Loved By You’, Marilyn Monroe-style?
4.The elements of fantasy, magic realism, reincarnation? The blend with realism?
5.Ali and his life, the Egyptian background, talking with his family by phone? The student, writing his screenplays, imagining events with the characters like Tony his landlord and his wife? The encounter with Mark, Mark and his helping with Linda who wanted to marry? His being refused six-month extension on his visa? His work at the restaurant, the Green Card situation, the plan, his being ousted? His taking up with the British woman, the sexual relationship, her husband and his being ousted? The encounter with Mark, the room, posing for the photos, seeing Linda, the exhibition and the fashionable response to the photos? Mark seeing his story, ousting him, Ali being arrested, Mark taking him back? Linda and the contact, the agreement, the conditions, her wanting the money? The lyrical scenes together? Her husband and the fight? Ali’s friend, the thousand-pound deal for a bride? The failure of this scheme, his arrest? The background encounters with Sarah, in the bus, talking with her, re-meeting her, the discussion about her childhood, her love for Ali, his marrying her? Confessing the truth? Her being happy? The interview on television? The quietness of her death? His inheriting the flat – and the woman coming to view the flat, her name being Sarah, a possible reincarnation …?
6.Ali and his friends, the restaurant, the clients at the restaurant, the illegals, being forced to act as a gigolo, the affairs, patronage? The fickleness of the women?
7.Mark, photographer, the gay man, his visitors? Photographer, photographing Linda? Meeting Ali, helping him with Linda’s phone number, the agreement, Ali posing for him, the exhibition? His being angry with Ali and the story? Taking him from the police station? His father’s death, the severity of his father’s attitudes, not understanding his son? The father assuming that Ali was Mark’s partner, talking to him, the reconciliation between father and son?
8.Linda, American, the Marilyn Monroe impressions, her needs, the meetings, the dating of Ali, her husband turning up, her sympathy for Ali?
9.Vivianne, the rich women, their affairs, using the foreign men?
10.Sarah, her story, her love for Ali, his death, her blindness, expectations of his return, reincarnation, talking with Ali, the marriage, her happiness, the discussions on the television, her death?
11.All of Ali’s friends watching the television interview and their happy reactions to seeing him with Sarah?
12.A slice of life, a range of attitudes and characters, stances?
