Radio On

I watched this not in the cinema on its re-release but on the Region 1 DVD.

I was drawn to the film by the premise: a road movie set in England and shot in Monochrome. I was however, a little disappointed with the result.

I respect the film a lot but my main problem lies with the protagonist. He can at best be described as wet. His character is so mute and passive that at times you want to reach in and slap him. Perhaps this lack of character can be attributed to the fact that Christopher Petit had never directed a feature length film before.

For example, at one point the character is verbally abused by a girl in a bar who takes a disliking to him. It escalates to a point where she sweeps his bar-stool from underneath him and what does he do? Does he strike her over the head with her own pool cue? No, he lies there on the floor, prone like a fish. It's all rather frustrating after a while.

I know this is part of the character he represents; the immobile, the dysfunctional, the mute, but it becomes increasingly difficult to empathize with him. He is strikingly similar in look and character to the central protagonist in Christopher Nolan's "Following" and equally unlikeable.

Despite this, the film has many redeeming qualities. The most notable is the cinematography. Seldom nowadays is Britain committed to film with such deliberation. Here we must thank the German cinematographer, Martin Schäfer. Schäfer began his career as Robby Muller's assistant, Robby Muller being Wim Wenders DOP of choice, Wim Wenders being one of the producers of Radio On.

In particular, a high angle cityscape shot of a car leaving London for Bristol is breathtaking. Fortune smiled on the filmmakers for just as the car exits frame, an elevated train crosses over the motorway. Later, another high angle shot shows the protagonist driving his car around a disused quarry. The quarry is awash with rain and it makes a wonderful composition. The camera mounted on the car is reminiscent of Robby Muller's photography in Wim Wender's "The American Friend". A haunting tracking shot from a car reveals a woman standing alone in the window of a dilapidated hotel. All these shots go to make this film a must for anyone wishing to see what can be achieved photographically in the often undervalued landscape of Britain.

Music plays a central part in the film. Not only because the main character is a radio DJ with a passion for old British rock n' roll but the filmmaker truly understands the power of image and sound. The film opens with David Bowie's Heroes/Helden, the same version used two years later in the outstanding German film, Christiane F. Kraftwerk feature throughout to emphasize the synthesized, radioactive, dystopian nightmare the filmmaker wishes to project and also of note is one particularly noisome scene with Sting as a guitar playing petrol pump attendant.

There is clearly a huge German influence on the film. A quote at the beginning sites Fritz Lang, the hero becomes involved with a German woman (who he endlessly asks, "How would you say that in German?" No wonder she quickly decides that she doesn't want to sleep with him), the music of Kraftwerk, Martin Schäfer and Wim Wenders, the very fact that the film is set in a post-war England where all previous values have been erased and replaced with shelled out, derelict institutions and a disparate people.

Although the film is bleak and seemingly pessimistic, one cannot help but feel nostalgic for a Britain that is clearly lost in the past. A much freer and more trustworthy time. A Britain where one would stop to pick up a hitch-hiker (even if they did turn out to be Scottish ex-soldiers with serious mental issues) a time where one could drive ones car to the very edge of a quarry without some busybody calling the police, a time without CCTV, where everyone smoked in pubs, where it was OK to drive without a seatbelt and drink a can of Guiness whilst doing so and a time where hopping down onto railway tracks to catch a train on the other side was perfectly legitimate and caused nobody to fuss or fret.

Perhaps the character in this film should have realised just how good things were back then and lived a little, expressed himself more.

Perhaps we should learn from his mistake.