THE HIDE
UK, 2008, 82 minutes, Colour.
Alex Mac Queen, Phil Campbell.
Directed by Marek Losey.
Based on a play, The Sociable Plover, this film version, by the playwright Tim Whitnall himself, is very much dialogue-driven. In fact, one could shut one's eyes and simply listen and it would be a telling radio play. However, there are effective things going on on screen so it is worth keeping one's eyes open.
Filmed on a lonely stretch of coast in Kent, an ornithologist arrives to look for a sociable plover. He is absolutely meticulous on having everything in order, everything neat, everything noted and annotated. His is 40ish, balding, bespectacled and lacks a capacity for jokes who tells his visitor that he was once on the news because of his garden gnomes but the BBC were too busy to make a copy of it for him. That's what he is like. His name is Roy Tunt and he is played very well by Alex MacQueen?.
The visitor referred to is David John (Philip Campbell), somewhat haggard and mysterious, who wanders around the hide where Roy is looking for the birds. After some tentative suspicions, the two begin to talk, share a sandwich (which becomes more relevant as the film goes on) and some beef tea. We learn something about each of them.
With this kind of two-hander, the audience tends to make up their minds about the characters on immediate evidence. However, as with this kind of film, there is more than meets the eye and judgments need to be reserved until the end.
The dialogue is effective, if stagey (with an influence from the enigmatic statements and pauses of playwrights like Beckett or Pinter). The director of the film is Marek Losey, a grandson of the celebrated director, Joseph Losey.
1.A successful film version of a play? The emphasis on dialogue – and the possibility of experiencing it as a radio play? The contribution of the visuals, the characters and their expressions, interactions?
2.The Kent settings, the coa, the water, the hut, the swampy ground? Atmospheric? The skies? The birds themselves, flight? The musical score?
3.The title, the interior of the hut? The hide and its use for bird-watching?
4.The introduction: Roy Tunt, his arrival, walking to the hut, setting himself up, the absolutely meticulous having everything in order? The bird-watching, his notebook, sandwiches? His clothes? His settling himself in, the desire to find the plover? The title of the play?
5.The audience’s impression of him by appearance, manner, behaviour, hobby?
6.The sudden arrival of Dave? Appearing at the window? Coming in, Roy’s frightened approach? Then taking charge of the situation?
7.Dave, his appearance, cut face, manner? Suspicions about him being out and around? His reasons for coming to the hut?
8.The discussions between the two, the gradual revelation of life stories? A sense of menace? Discussions about the birds? Dave and his examining of Roy’s goods, the books?
9.The turning of the tide, the flashbacks in Dave’s imagination? His reading Roy’s book, discovering the truth?
10.Roy, his behaviour, killing his wife and the lover, the elaboration of his plan? The abattoirs, the mincing? The sandwiches? Dave’s reaction?
11.The fight, the superiority, the wounding? The discussion about morality, what Roy had done? Roy and his madness, his attitude towards life, towards dying? Dave and his brother’s suicide, his not wanting to leave life after all?
12.The helicopter, initial suspicions, audiences thinking it was for Dave, with his gun, as a criminal? The search for Roy?
13.An interesting psychological drama, the initial impressions, judging characters by appearances, knowing the truth – and the difference?
