Cannes Review: Mark Jenkin’s ‘Enys Men’
20.05.2022 - 17:25
/ deadline.com
Mark Jenkin’s 2019 film Bait had the rare distinction of being a genuine out-of-the-blue discovery, featuring heavily on UK critics’ year-best lists after a modest arthouse release by the BFI. The black-and-white film’s experimental style was emphasized in all its press coverage, nodding to avant-garde auteurs like Stan Brakhage, Derek Jarman and Guy Maddin — all directors who are interested in the literal grain of film and video (indeed, Jenkin reportedly developed the negative with coffee and washing soda then distressed the image by hand). Throw in post-synch sound, and you have a film more likely to screen to two people and a dog at a smoky underground 1960s cine-club than win a BAFTA.
For all its formal intricacies, though, Bait had a very traditional narrative, being the story of a Cornish fisherman who sees his village becoming gentrified after selling his house to a couple of rich out-of-towners. Enys Men, Jenkin’s Directors’ Fortnight entry here in Cannes, despite making the upgrade to color and a significantly higher budget, is actually a tougher sell; there is only one main character, and everything that happens to her is framed as a kind of delirium. Like Bait, it is quite militantly parochial (which has its positives), but there are an enormous amount of ideas and allusions in the mix here that are specialist even in genre circles.
Jumping the gun somewhat, Jenkin describes his film as “a lost Cornish folk horror,” which saves a lot of time for everyone. Initially an unheralded fad in the 1970s with films such as The Wicker Man and The Blood on Satan’s Claw, folk horror has grown exponentially as a cultural touchstone ever since, mostly among British directors such as Ben Wheatley, Peter Strickland, Corin
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