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12 APRIL 2023

RECORD 10 SOUTH LONDON POETRY


It’s not unusual but sad that among endless number of blockbusters in the cinema, you don’t get to catch a movie like Rye Lane (2023). Although, the posters were everywhere from the Lizzy line to Queen’s road in Peckham, and it wouldn’t let you forget to go and watch it, I did enjoy the film greatly.

It’s a debut feature by a Manchester-born and Brixton-bred film director Raine Allen-Miller. The screenplay, initially set in Camden, was moved south to the river, to Allen-Miller’s second home, since she moved to London. The director says Rye Lane is a love letter to South London, as we see the two main characters walking through Rye Lane in Peckham, the now-demolished Elephant & Castle shopping centre, Brixton Village Market while snacking tacos from Love Guacactually, and etc. It made me feel witnessing greatness (almost quoting Lana Del Rey) in the moments of London, and such vibrant and mundane areas of South London that are filled with mythology and memories that are very personal and important for many people. As if catching the magic of London that everyone attached to and that exists outside Zone 1 by its tail.


Premiered at Sundance 2023, the film was marked as Breakthrough 2023 by BAFTA, British Independant Film Award and attracted a lot of interested with BFI making a special screening, including a following Q&A with Allen-Miller and Vivian Oparah. According to whom, this lightness is contained in the romance the audience sees on the screen, as almost it exists as long as the film is on the screen and you don’t know what happens after, as with the all life moments the audience is exposed to, with singing karaoke, crushing a bbq party, seeing a dancing cowboy while in a shopping mall and so on. Light but also elusive. When asked about gentrification of South London areas, Raine expressed her constantly chaining opinion about it, and despite that, having the movie play a time-capsule role in a way as well. She says that most of the location scouting happened during on-location rehearsals with Vivian Oparah and David Jonsson, playing the lead characters. Raine also says that one of the references for making this film was how she as a director can depict the world of a city, looking at how Scorsese creates his New York that is different to Spike Lee’s.





Perhaps, same happens with the characters that are located in different ares of London and it captures not just particular class or cultural group but freezes in time staples that we know about areas where the characters exist, that sometimes helps to stand to the gentrification. Just as with a Hackney-bred filmmaker and artist Ayo Akingbade, who appeals to gentrification and London Black communities in her practice with her films Jitterbug (2022) or Tower XYZ (2016). The first I get to watch at Whitechapel Gallery as a part of their annual screenings of Jarman Awards nominees (that is an Oscar in the video art world). Others, similarly to Allen-Miller, put their community’s representation on screen, like Gurinder Chadha, depicting British Sikhs and British South Asians in a British classic, Bend It Like Beckham (2002), and Bhaji on the Beach (1993).





On the other side of the scale, there are Notting Hill (1999), Fleabag (2016 – 2019), Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) and (outside the UK) Somewhere (2010), capturing quite privileged but also site-specific life and issues. I’m not a fan of Notting Hill (1999) with the story creating an ultimate romcom that has reversed gender roles. However, what seems to be a sequel character to Hugh Grant’s character from Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and his Notting Hill have been bewitching dozens of Americans and other foreigners to settle in West London. Which I’m sure contribute to the real estate market there, and Steve Rose argues over Rye Lane possibly achieving the same for Peckham. 





Fleabag is different but appeals to a similar romantisasion of London. I first came across it during the lockdown and indeed it got me and my friends and family through it. I think just as with the honest and relatable voice of Dolly Alderton’s debut memoir Everything I Know About Love and its enormous popularity and love from the world-wide audience, Phoebe Waller-Bridge manages to appeal with her wrong in-any-possible-way lead just as much. With its resisting-accepting dynamics within the lead character and confessional 4th wall moments, it reminiscent of Bridget Jones’s honesty with the film audience but comes out with more complex problems of a newer generation of females in their 30s. Rye Lane also stays within the language of British cinema with the similar filming approach. Allen-Miller refers to her choice of close-up shots as a reference to Peep Show (2003 – 2015), when the dialogues get very honest and very witty.





At the end, whilst freezing the frame of a fast changing South London, with its Bridget Jones easter egg appearance, nasty and overwhelming gallery openings, Colin Firth’s cameo, a meet-cute and classic heterosexual romcom vibes, the film reaches out to beyond just the south from Thames, being relatable and nostalgic to all.