Locarno report part one

Geoff Andrew catches the first great film of the Swiss festival – Dave McKean's 'Mirrormask'.

Aug  8 2005

By the end of the first weekend, the Locarno Film Festival was in its fifth day and half-way through.

As usual, it has thrown up a combination of good, intelligent, mostly modestly-budgeted films which, despite evidently admirable ambitions, were so tedious as to be tough to sit through.

The overall standard so far, however, has been acceptably high.

As always with festivals it's been fascinating to note a number of recurrent themes, motifs and preoccupations. Sex and sexuality have been to the fore in quite a few movies, as too have politics and social injustice.

Inevitably, then, it's been a motley array of movies on offer, but one thing is certain so far, in the opinion of this writer and of most others he's spoken to, the most satisfying film shown to date has been 'Mirrormask', the first feature by Britain's own Dave McKean.

Best known for his collaborations with Neil Gaiman on comic strips and graphic novels, McKean had already shown considerable cinematic promise a few years back with the half-hour short 'N(eon)'.

Though that film was more upfront about its experimentalism, 'Mirrormask' – co-written with Gaiman – should in no way be seen as any less audacious or, indeed, adult in its concerns, even though it's a teenage rites-of-passage movie that should be understandable and enjoyable for many younger viewers as well as adults.

A combination of dazzlingly designed and executed digital animation and live action, it focuses on a Brighton girl (the extraordinarily good Stephanie Leonidas, already on London screens in Sally Potter's 'Yes'), the daughter of a couple running a circus that's struggling to survive.

The feisty young heroine's fed up with being expected to help out, and during a row with her mother (Gina McKee) says she wishes her dead – shortly after which mum collapses and is taken into hospital for an operation.

Cue a long, dark night of the soul during which Leonidas embarks upon a strange inner journey that reflects her fears, anxieties and guilt.

It's here McKean pulls the stops out: the Darklands he imagines as an embodiment of his heroine's emotional and psychological turmoil is brilliantly realised.

Memorably bizarre creatures, landscapes and events, together with an eventful, witty script, make for exhilarating entertainment in the mould of 'Time Bandits', 'Brazil' and 'The Company of Wolves'.

Leonidas gives a very strong lead performance to make all the fantasy feel utterly credible, and is given sterling support all round.

But in the end it's the sheer inventiveness of it all that makes the movie special. If Locarno produces a better film in competition, we're in luck.

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