Enys Men

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When considering the DNA of Enys Men, it’s maybe predictable that many of the films that made it onto the following list are drawn from the 70s – the decade in which the film is grounded. Inevitably, when thinking of this era in Britain, a number of entries on the list are not in fact films at all, but highly innovative, haunting, weird or eerie, productions made for the small screen. Some of them are free-form, others experimental or oblique, yet all are uncompromisingly authored. Acclaimed independent Cornish horror feature Enys Men, from film-maker Mark Jenkin, was released earlier this month by the BFI. The low budget film was made using Jenkin’s unique workflow and is a masterclass in how to incorporate university learning into hands-on film-making.

Her life is quiet, punctuated by the occasional scratchy rumblings of a radio and the starter cord motor for her petrol generator, on which she is dependent for power. At bedtime she reads an environmental manifesto, Blueprint for Survival. Her relationship with Boswens is strange; the volunteer seems alone – but is she? BBC Culture spoke to Jenkin about his new film and the preoccupations of his work. "I was a rural kid," he suggests when asked of his influences, "and I suppose I always seemed to be attracted to the dark side of things, a desire to be a bit scared, but to also look at the flip side of the idyll. Part of that is a reaction against the way that Cornwall is idealised and romanticised."

Jenkin is a professor at Falmouth University and Enys Men was produced with Falmouth University lecturer Denzil Monk for his own company Bosena Production. It’s presented by Film4 in association with Falmouth University’s Sound/Image Cinema Lab. Enys Men" doesn't explain itself. This may be frustrating for some. I found it compelling, not just stylistically but emotionally. It called to mind, on some level, Chantal Akerman's "Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles," in its devotion to repetition, in its patience in noticing small changes, in breaking down the routine into something strange, even threatening. There's tension in the monotony. When change comes, it drops from the sky like a menacing anvil. This woman’s steady state of hermit-like seclusion is disrupted when she sees lichen emerging from a flower and finds lichen growing on her own skin. She has visions, perhaps of dead miners or lifeboatmen, and also of an elderly priest, singing the hymn Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy, with its request to send a light to save “some poor fainting, struggling seaman”. He is played by Woodvine’s father, the distinguished Shakespearean actor John Woodvine. These visions are eerie not simply because they are derived from the rural landscape but because they only intimate their presence; they are glimpsed terrors. The eerie resists revealing its horrors head on. "The mood of the eerie is lingering," Soar believes, "a sensation that is hard to shake off. The eerie doesn't deal in jump scares, but involves a nagging, troubling sense of doubt and uncertainty that colours all activities." Mark Kermode, reviewing for The Guardian, gave the film five stars calling it "a richly authentic portrait of Cornwall" and saying Woodvine's performance was "quietly mesmerising". [12] Adam Scovell, writing for BBC Culture, said that the film was "a perfect, anti-romantic expression of Cornish eeriness". [13]

We’ve been involving students in feature film production for over a decade now but seeing students working in all weathers on remote locations is a privilege to be able to offer, and extremely rewarding for those involved. Many of these students were second year undergraduates at the time – and we can see the impact on their learning and the ambition of their own practice when they move into the third year, and after graduation – where those involved have moved immediately into roles within the film and television industries.”On-stage interview with Mark Jenkin and Mary Woodvine by film critic Mark Kermode at BFI Southbank (2022, 29 mins) As identified by Macfarlane and others, the eerie acts as a kind of counter-tradition to the romantic Pastoralism of English art; rather than portraying the English countryside as a place of chocolate-box fantasy, it has often zoned in on specific rural localities and tried to convey their haunted essences that are beyond the understanding of urbanite considerations.

First pressing only*** illustrated booklet with a Director’s Statement; essays by Tara Judah, Rob Young, William Fowler and Jason Wood; credits and notes on the special features Most edit decisions were made on the shoot. “It has to be then because that’s when everyone’ s creative energy is focused – during the shoot,” says Jenkin on The Film Makers Podcast. On the odd occasion when they hadn’t captured footage to plan, he was forced to go into improvisation mode in post-production.A wildlife volunteer’s (Mary Woodvine) daily observations of a rare flower take a dark turn into the strange and metaphysical, forcing both her and viewers to question what is real and what is nightmare. Is the landscape not only alive but sentient? On-stage Q&A interview with Mark Jenkin and Mary Woodvine by film critic Mark Kermode at BFI Southbank (2022) Enys Men is written and directed by Mark Jenkin. It stars Mary Woodvine, Edward Rowe, Flo Crowe and John Woodvine.

a b "Enys Men: Film poster a Cornish language breakthrough". BBC News. 6 December 2022 . Retrieved 15 January 2023. Haunters of the Deep (1984, 61 mins): a Children's Film Foundation adventure that shares many of the same West Cornwall locations as Enys Men, and made quite an impression on its director Special features on the Dual Format Edition include an audio commentary by Mark Jenkin and Mark Kermode, recently filmed interviews, two complementary archival films and more.The retro ‘70s look and feel of Enys Men features popping reds and yellows, which Jenkin describes as ‘disturbing colours.’