We start with the director giving his cues to the effects dept and extras, a character starts to run through the rain...
And the tone is set. Wonderfully original directing leads us to two superb actors (Olivia Coleman & David Thewlis) that 'just are' their characters, Susan & Christopher Edwards. A middle aged couple entirely in love with each other, yet very traditional, and hiding, their general drabness is certainly excellent camouflage.
Susan is depicted as part living in a fantasy world based on her love of cinema, especially old westerns. Christopher is the doting husband desperately seeking a job in a land where the language defeats him with his painfully bad job interviews.
There are so many different styles used, however they blend into each other seamlessly. Some of the lighting techniques/tricks are straight out of the theatre and early colour film. Yet they really do work in this mix of old/new. Dropping characters into strange locations to deliver monologues through the fourth wall was very effective. A lot of the credit has to go to the visual editor, Elen Pierce Lewis, who must have many a headache during the cutting.
Then we meet the detectives that receive a tip off. One smart, one stupid and one a sweary, aggressive, sexist bully that regularly loses it with fits of rage, and he's also the boss. I don't think we're meant to like him, I certainly don't. What would now be described as 'an old school copper'.
The end credits are also worth a watch, a real mixture of the real and the imaginary. You'll see an original photo of the Edwards, and then a shot of the crew striking (dismantling) a set, plus other stuff that's meant to be against 'the rules' of directing, but in this case just aren't.
The original soundtrack borrows heavily from past epics, Hitchcock would love some of the tension created by it.
Now, here's a caveat, I've only watched one episode so far. If the next three ep's are as good I'll revise this from a 9/10 to a 10/10. It's that good.
The master of his craft, exec producer and director is Will Sharpe. Watch out Chris Nolan, this dude is inevitably coming to Hollywood.
UPDATE - All 4 episodes watched. The directing gets even more quirky, the lines between fact and fiction more blurred until by ep' 3 we get to see all of the sets and the workings of film making 'full frontal'.
Are they guilty? There is no definitive answer, but I reckon so. Shame really. Susan is obviously a compulsive liar, Chris is obviously a bit of a mug. But Susan's parents were undoubtedly bad, even evil. Karma? Karma would be that they get out soon. They've been punished enough.
Susan is depicted as part living in a fantasy world based on her love of cinema, especially old westerns. Christopher is the doting husband desperately seeking a job in a land where the language defeats him with his painfully bad job interviews.
There are so many different styles used, however they blend into each other seamlessly. Some of the lighting techniques/tricks are straight out of the theatre and early colour film. Yet they really do work in this mix of old/new. Dropping characters into strange locations to deliver monologues through the fourth wall was very effective. A lot of the credit has to go to the visual editor, Elen Pierce Lewis, who must have many a headache during the cutting.
Then we meet the detectives that receive a tip off. One smart, one stupid and one a sweary, aggressive, sexist bully that regularly loses it with fits of rage, and he's also the boss. I don't think we're meant to like him, I certainly don't. What would now be described as 'an old school copper'.
The end credits are also worth a watch, a real mixture of the real and the imaginary. You'll see an original photo of the Edwards, and then a shot of the crew striking (dismantling) a set, plus other stuff that's meant to be against 'the rules' of directing, but in this case just aren't.
The original soundtrack borrows heavily from past epics, Hitchcock would love some of the tension created by it.
Now, here's a caveat, I've only watched one episode so far. If the next three ep's are as good I'll revise this from a 9/10 to a 10/10. It's that good.
The master of his craft, exec producer and director is Will Sharpe. Watch out Chris Nolan, this dude is inevitably coming to Hollywood.
UPDATE - All 4 episodes watched. The directing gets even more quirky, the lines between fact and fiction more blurred until by ep' 3 we get to see all of the sets and the workings of film making 'full frontal'.
Are they guilty? There is no definitive answer, but I reckon so. Shame really. Susan is obviously a compulsive liar, Chris is obviously a bit of a mug. But Susan's parents were undoubtedly bad, even evil. Karma? Karma would be that they get out soon. They've been punished enough.