The Iron Lady, emerging from the most unabashed reactionarism, is one of the most obscene acts of antipolitical cinema that we can recall. The hagiography of Margaret Thatcher, in its crude non-criticism which cannot be stressed enough, artfully transcends an entire generation of filmmakers who used the screen like a shield or a parapet from which to practice the self-defense of all those who felt violated by the conservative counterrevolution carried out by the shopkeeper´s daughter. Margaret on the Guillotine:
The kind people
Have a wonderful dream:
Margaret on the guillotine.
Cause people like you
Make me feel so tired...
When will you die?
When will you die?
When will you die?
When will you die?
When will you die?
And people like you
Make me feel so old inside...
Please, die.
Like Morrisey, Roger Waters and all the fruitful rage against this policy of the destruction of social rights embodied by Thatcher created a symphony, a sound track of resistance. Of the rubble in which her politics left England of the welfare state, there are a few picture postcard images of the disaster, images of spirited kinetics—ranging from Ken Loach to Mike Leigh, unquestionably the two most tenacious troubadours of this struggle, but also Stephen Frears, Lindsay Anderson, Jim Sheridan, Mark Herman and even Gary Oldman, who also tried his hand at directing, with an outburst of a film called, Nil by Mouth, about the human gangrene that was the product of a regime that came out of the polls.
But, Maggie, what have you done?
This question—the social outrage of a predatory system—has been addressed by Ken Loach and Mike Leigh referred to above, using a large part of their creative energy. The latter does so more subtly, although Loach is certainly more outstanding in terms of popularity. One of the reasons for this is, of course, Loach’s prolific rate of production, and also because his films, while full of harsh reality, are much more digestible than those of Mike Leigh, whose cruelty and sense of helplessness cannot be matched in terms of taking things to the limit.
I think that Mike Leigh, through high points in nihilist cinema like High Hopes, All or Nothing and, particularly, Naked, takes on, like no other director, these fragments of the apocalypse, this crater left by Maggie, the shopkeeper´s daughter, when she leaves or is forced to leave office, and she is bored at home, still stirring up bitterness, inviting her friend Pinochet –in a difficult situation- to tea and biscuits, or haggling over welfare, now only of the household kind: skimping on the butter she spreads on Dennis’s toast.
This is a review of Naked—but the same could be said of High Hopes, Life is Sweet, All or Nothing, Career Girls or Meantime (not released in Spain), which in this film festival, we have recovered. And I realize that every time I think of the long iron night of Maggie Thatcher, my mind conjures up the shadow of David Thewlis limping, dragging his solitude around this ghostly city of London that seems to have been born out of a dystopian society.
Of Ken Loach´s extensive filmography, we have also recuperated a film that was not released in Spain, either-Looks & Smiles, his most political film, along with Hidden Agenda, which somehow complements it.
At the CGAC, where Derek Jarman was wandering around only a few weeks ago, it would be a good idea to keep him in mind in this dark and disturbing work, The Last of England.
And, continuing our reminiscing, England the country that Thatcher began to defoliate it—Maggie, what have you done?—had a soundtrack that was full of sound and fury. The dialectics of the punk counterculture and the Sex Pistols versus the shopkeeper´s strict application of capitalism without compassion must be heard and felt through the fundamental diptych work of Julien Temple that is part of an absolute masterpiece, The Filth and the Fury and his opportune complement The Great Rock ´n´ Roll Swindle.
Margaret on the guillotine.
Cause people like you
Make me feel so tired...
DIRECTOR: José Luis Losa
SCREENING PROGRAM
10 April Naked (Mike Leigh, 1993)
11 April High Hopes (Mike Leigh, 1988)
24 April The Great Rock ´n´ Roll Swindle (Julien Temple, 1980)
The Filth and the Fury (Julien Temple, 2000)
25 April Meantime (Mike Leigh, 1984)
8 May Nil by Mouth (Gary Oldman, 1997)
9 May The Last of England (Derek Jarman, 1987)
15 May Looks and Smiles (Ken Loach, 1981)
All screenings will begin at 8:30 p.m. Entrance is free until filled to capacity.