Crystal Gazing

Wollen and Mulvey's most narrative feature to date marks time in London during the Thatcher recession as it follows (and digresses from) the paths of two men who have less of a future than the two women who make up the centre of the film. The main object of its makers is to make connections, placed somewhere between Brecht and Breton, in a city where the wires are either crossed or the lines down and things are falling apart under Thatcher, leaving only isolated pockets of activity. If the subject matter is dour, tragic even according to Wollen and Mulvey, they take pains to disrupt the sombreness with deliberate levities, and their playfulness in establishing connections recalls early Godard. Its achievements are to show how life proceeds at different rhythms, not often caught in fiction, and to make everything in the film so clearly recognisable - for once the title says it all.