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Dead London is a dark and moody short thriller, compressing a surprising
number of plot twists into its 20 minutes of overlapping, mumbled dialogue and
harsh black and white photography. It bears at least a second viewing to
understand exactly what's going on. Its locations (Smithfield, Bank, King's
Cross, slaughterhouses and subterranean tunnels), photography and costumes evoke
a timeless London of neglect, where only oddballs and obsessives pay attention
to the city's everyday death and tragedy. The film was made the year before
Labour's 1997 election victory which brought civic planning and pride back to
the city.
Neither Nick - played by Press Gang's (ITV, 1989-93) Dexter Fletcher - whose
meticulous precision becomes fatal, nor Paul, with his lurching, babbling
romanticism (which Ewen Bremner reproduced to iconic effect the same year in
Trainspotting) possess the essential empathy with London that
newcomer Jen, played by writer Simone White, somehow acquires. Indeed, some of
the film's most affecting and archetypal London aspects are incidental and
surreal moments surrounding the main action: a packet of Chinese cigarettes left
in a cab and offered to an asthmatic businessman; a drunken woman's prophecies
about sausages; and a little girl, all alone at night in the goods yard at
King's Cross, playing stick 'em up with a stranger.
Danny Birchall
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Complete film (19:30)
