London To Brighton : Best British Film Of The Year

A few years ago, I was a partner of a small film production company with a couple of guys called Paul Williams and Ben Moulden. You could have described us the usual upstarts except none of our peers had the dark and gritty creativity Paul had, nor the cinematic vision Ben held. We spent a year together making music videos for record companies with crap budgets, viral films for brands with even less cash, time pitching for finance for a feature Paul wrote called The Cottage. We also made a short film that Paul wrote in a few days and Ben shot on 35mm film for just $2,000 which managed to get premiered at Sundance.

In February 2003, I got tired of a year of sleeping on other people’s floors and buying occasional half pints of Guinness in the local near our King’s Cross office and decided to try my luck in the US, where I had to bang on the doors of an advertising industry I had only a year earlier fled from, swearing at the time that I would never work in advertising again.

Paul and Ben were in it to the end.

As you can see from Ben’s site, his DoP career has since blossomed. And, as for Paul, our director: well he’s got a new middle name: Paul Andrew Williams, and he’s also got what looks like a huge hit with his new film ‘London To Brighton’. A film he wrote over a weekend and shot over 19 days for 80,000 Pounds. The UK papers are all giving the film the thumbs up. Here’s the trailer:

London to Brighton Film Trailer

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The Guardian says:

The journey from London to Brighton has become something else: a
journey into the final circle of the inferno. Williams’s film is a
120-degree proof thriller, with storytelling nous and technical flair:
it’s the best British film of the year.

The Observer says:

London to Brighton [is] a violent gangster movie
with a resemblance to John Cassavetes’ Gloria. It opens, garishly,
claustrophobically, with two women rushing into a foul ladies’ lavatory
in London. The older one, aged around 30, Kelly (Lorraine Stanley), has
taken a blow in her left eye and is badly bruised. The younger one,
Joanne (Georgia Groome), is 12 or 13, her thick make-up dissolving, and
she’s in a state of extreme shock. How did they get there? Who are they
running from? Where are they going? We really want to know.

The Independent says:

Engrossing in its study of exploitation and near-heartstopping in its
tension, this is a movie out of the top drawer, with performances so
intense they almost burst from the screen. The Brighton Tourist Board
might demur, but everybody else should stand and applaud it.

The film is an evolution on a short film Paul and Ben made called Royalty – and London To Brighton seems to contain some of the characters (and actors) from that film. Paul always believed in himself. He always knew he would do it. And, God knows, it was a scary and lonely ride for him. But he did it. He fucking did it.

But please go and see the film. And watch out for his next film: The Cottage.

London And Brighton – The Movie

London To Brighton on MySpace