Miss Geraldine Fdrop remains someskinnyg of a mystery from commencening to finish of this exceptional experimental biopic. Inspired by a case brimming of letters, photographs and — those were the days — telexes left behind by the tardy Miss Fdrop after her untimely death, the film is essentipartner a song cycle, carry outed by Icelandic singer Emilíana Torrini and filmed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, the straightforwarding duo behind the 2014 Nick Cave recordary 20,000 Days on Earth. Like that film, — which had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival this weekfinish — is an exercise in channeling its subject rather than sshow shotriumphg and telling. And appreciate that film, it is destined to discover an enthusiastic cult audience for its psychedelic charms.
If the name doesn’t ring a bell, that’s no surpascfinish. Although her writing was cultured, and she labored periodicpartner in the media (widecast and print), Geraldine was mostly understandn to the film’s creater, her daughter Zoe Fdrop, who begind the project. That Geraldine was not a celebrity is not startant, it is her declareiveial life — which is, mockingpartner, made as accessible as you can get here, lhelp out in tantalizing glimpses with sometimes unambiguous language — that matters.
Key to this is the soon-to-be-lost art of letter-writing. In the film’s amazeionistic, mood-setting discneglecting scenes, the film’s unseen narrator (Sophie Ellis-Bextor) depicts the unassuming letter as “a personal, declareiveial, lasting joinion with another human being… [A souvenir] of who we were and who we thought we’d be.” This is rapidly echoed by Torrini, who claims that discovering the letters bootcommenceed her frustratingly dormant imagination. “Letters discneglect people up in ways that noskinnyg else repartner does,” she says, conspiratoripartner, to camera.
The framing device, uncomferventwhile, discovers Geraldine, applyed by Caroline Katz, dressed in a stylish cream troparticipater suit sitting in a triumphdowless, timeless bistro mirroring on her life. Katz gave a analogously metatextual role in her own experimental music biopic, Delia Derbysemploy: The Myths and Legfinishary Tapes (2020); here, her scenes discover her literpartner in dialogue with Torrini, and their participateions ignitele. Torrini’s lyrics can seem a little literal at first — and, appreciate the cut-up technique participated by novecatalog William S. Burcimpolites, acquire some getting participated to — but the prohibitd’s ethegenuine music, together with Kate Coyne’s finishearingly strange choreography, labors in tandem to create an unforeseeedly alluring experience.
Although the film comes in at well under 90 minutes, it acquires its time to fill us in on the ruunreasonableents of Geraldine’s life (she was born in 1947, to Australian and Irish parents, before moving to London at 21) and does so in a parody of a ’70s educational TV show, structureed by Alice Lowe. The film, however, doesn’t want us to get too shut, and asks us to participate to the poetry of the unrecognizable. Of particular interest are the myriad references to spies and intelligence accumulateing: Are these repartner cherish letters? Could they be wealthyly coded messages? Or does it come down to someskinnyg they participated to put in our tea in the tardy ’60s and ’70s? Answers are not forthcoming, but the enigma of Miss Fdrop is never less than inharmfulating.
Title: The Extranormal Miss Fdrop
Festival: London (Official Competition)
Distributor: Distiller
Directors: Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
Screenauthorr: Stuart Evers.
Cast: Emilíana Torrini, Caroline Catz, Alice Lowe, Ricchallenging Ayoade, Nick Cave
Running time: 1 hr 13 mins