Middleton's Changeling

Attempting a radical update of Middleton's Jacobean tragedy, with the iconoclastic intentions, but without the discipline or sense of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo & Juliet, writer/producer/director/editor Thompson throws in incongruous modern trappings amid a general sense of gothic medievalism. At court in Alicante, Beatrice (Ray-King), betrothed by her father Vermandero (Mayes) to marry Alonso (Williams), falls for dashing Alsemero (Ó Maonlaí). Their trysts are witnessed by Vermandero's servant De Flores (Dury), a toad-like villain who lusts after her and whom she abhors. In desperation she accepts his offer to dispose of Alonso; then, before she can marry Alsemero, De Flores reveals his price - Beatrice's virginity. Intercut are lengthy scenes of Connolly running a slave-trade circus of lunatics. Gary Moore's monotonous guitar lines soar across the soundtrack, attempting to evoke grand tragedy, while Thompson's camera indulges in similarly grandiloquent swoops.