Short film
Part of the Tory Series

Betacam SP, Director

Approximately 14min

Story:

Having had the green light from the Czech film school in Prague (FAMU), I embarked on Flagdown, the most intellectual film I have made to date. Clearly inspired – at least to me - by whacky postmodern thinking, although this film like the other `Roy Hadfield´ films probably looks more like the modern film. A good example of the pretentiousness of it is the working title, “A Day in the Life of Jean Baudrillard”, which I am very pleased to say I didn’t hold on to.

  However, this film (like so many others of mine in the future, I hope) and its world is primarily created by exterior circumstances of the plot as opposed to the main character’s intentions and wishes. The ‘overall plot’ is simple: “On the day of the world Cup football final in 1994 (to which England failed to qualify) a man in the English Midlands attempts to crawl from one pub to another via taxi and cash point, but is discouraged and so goes home to have a can....”

As in Somnambulists – “a superb transport film”, according to Christoffer Boe – Flagdown is kind of ritualistic without much `dramatic action´, nor does it have any grand plot to write home about. It is as if the film consists of a series of symbolic incidents which are so obviously placed there by……………… well…………..me…………………to create a mood, an effect, a vibe and feeling of the very fabric of this – like the Danish – ONCE so very great imperialist nation now brought to its knees (politically, socially, economically) during the John Major (post-Thatcher) era. The fact that the film – among other things – openly illustrates how the English cabdriver could (at the time) cheat (and cheats!) the boss, the system, and although not entirely clear here, quite possibly the customer as well. Its insistence on commenting on (& in fact wallowing in) the all-pervading political correctness issues so rampant at the time, I hope bears witness to the fact that there was more in my head than could be expressed with the limited technology/know-how available. At the time I didn’t know the first thing about cameras and filming, and so hired a local man, Kirt Parshad of Coventry, who had only done crappy commercial jobs before, stuff like adds for local tele, weddings (Indian ones whose beauty far surpassed this man’s visual ability) and the like. Kirt, the only man around with a U-matic set-up we could then convert to, became the editor of Flagdown, too. Apart from my thesis on the modern film (and the readings of Noël Burch), I don’t think anyone has ever put me off continuity-based film practice as much as Kirt did. Yes, I know that both Eastward & Patricide are pretty much construed according to the book, but at least here its done with a certain knowledge…………… Another point, which I find increasingly more vital with the years, is the very look of a film: Flagdown displays a flatness – at FAMU, Velimir Kovacic later remarked: “It’s disgusting how everything’s focused, but at least you managed to keep that overall fascist feel of the first one…” – comparable only to the TV-news image of the 1980´s. And Velimir was right. This TV-look must be among the most undesired, beyond un-filmic, the sort of world u encounter at the dentists’, simply clinical…

  Kirt, being Indian and Brahmin, was making a very decent living and was (and is, I hope) a good man. This man taught me an awful lot and to his credit I will never forget the time I spent in his secretive house somewhere at the outskirts of Coventry. He never did give me that (paid for) 350 pound Beta master that he had promised, all simply part of the whole learning process I suppose….

  I really like this film and I find it useless to cut out bad bits now. And there are many things that don’t really work, for sure! Making this film I could have decided to be an artist about it all. Wow an artist! But, you know, it’s only a word, and really it’s up to others whether you are or not…I believe you work within one of the seven arts: you’re a filmmaker, painter or a writer…Once labeled The Artist, deary me, good luck…

  At any rate, I hope that Flagdown will be my last, in a certain sense, negative film. I have never known how to direct actors and I guess that’s why these films have no lines. Nevertheless, I still think that the performances in these first films were just great, the reason I cringe, is that I didn’t have a clue how to get the best from them let alone edit these largely undirected gems interacting.

  Jo subsequently mentioned that the whole of the taxi-driving lot were totally out-smarted by the movie and, most importantly, Jim Kilbride owner of Sapphire Taxies was fuming at the fact that his taxi – which broke down 3 times during filming – had been used for subversive purposes…