Scenes of a sexual nature – review (9/10)

The last review for now, I promise. But this film deserves all the support it can get.

Scenes of a sexual nature (checkout the trailer) (IMDB)

Sex and love. Some seek it, some need it, some spurn it and some pay for it, but we’re all involved in it.

I guess you could consider this Love Actually for grown ups, or Life Actually maybe. Here you have 7 stories about relationships, 7 conversations between 7 x 2 people who in some way have a relation with each other. And all that filmed on a sunny day on Hampstead Heath, which is, as you all know, a perfect place to indulge some chocolate to enjoy a view over beautiful London and to speculate about life a bit.

Apart from the chocolate, that’s exactly what those people do. You get a peek into 7 different types of relationships. 7 short stories bundled together in one feature film. Nothing much really happens in the film, but it is strangely intrigueing and addicting to watch and I could have watched hours and hours more. Thanks to a great script with a lot of wit, and of course an army of talented British actors, this is a film absolutely worth seeing.

And so is the cinema by the way. The Everyman Cinema in Hampstead (North London) is something special. It more or less feels like you are watching a film in your friends living room. It has double sofa’s for couples and luxury laid back chairs for solo goers like myself. Brilliant, and cosy, as it is not big.

After the film there was a Q&A with both the director and the writer. Listening to Anthony Minghella (big shot director) was interesting, but this was probably even more interesting.

It was interesting to hear how they had pulled it off. Here are some interesting facts about the film:

The script is written writer Aschlin Ditta. When I asked him how he had become a screen writer I got the following answer:
I was an actor for 5 minutes, then I was a stand upper for 20 minutes, and after that I began writing. I didn’t learn it the official way. I bought a book about screenwriting once (a Syd Field one) but I didn’t really understand it. So my advice is, just start writing. (gotta love this guy)

Director Ed Blum managed to get actors like Ewan McGregor on board, even though he was only going to pay his actores the Equity minumum wage. Big stars like Ewan love doing projects like this, as they sometimes get fed up acting in front of blue screens and on huge anonymous sets. They love to actually act opposite real people for a change.

The total time from first idea to release of this film in the cinema is 10 months, which is extraordinary for a feature. Normally it takes years from idea to actual film. Persistence and believing in yourself are the things to remember here.

As this was a very low budget film, they used the internet to promote the film. Several clips with Ewan McGregor are put on youTube (lots of good stuff here !!) and the film also used Myspace to get in contact with potential film goers.

Another way to promote their film is to show up on evenings like this, and to tell passionately about their film. Which was all I needed to hear to write this review, and to urge you to go and watch it.

The first weekend for this film (it opens on Friday here in the UK) will decide it’s future. Too few people watching it will probably have it removed from the program the week after. After all, with 10 new films coming out every single weekend here in London, the competition is incredibly tough. I hope the film gets the bit of success it deserves, and also that it will cross the borders of the UK and visit cinemas near you.

So – Scenes of a sexual nature. Go see it, if only for the funky title.
Or for Ewan. Or the Heath. Or the humour. Or the Brits in it.