Desperate Remedies

The beautiful Dorothea lives in a fictitious 19th century colonial town. She runs a drapery shop together with a friend. Dorothea wants to save her sister from opium dependency by marrying her off to the penniless immigrant Lawrence. However, the sister doesn't want to be saved, since the pusher is her only true love. Lawrence doesn't mind. He only has eyes for Dorothea, but so does her partner ...

COMMENTARY
A real stunning melodrama where she scriptwriters/directors Stewart Main and Peter Wells make use of all the stereotypes the genre could possibly have to offer. And they do it well.
They do it with a sense of humour and irony but without dissociating themselves from the film, which makes it capable of provoking laughter and strong feelings.
The setting is terrific. Very formalized and well-directed. No props, not one single image with superfluous attributes is included in the frame.
We move between a brutalized Dickensian dockland area, with its hanging carcasses, adults fucking indifferently in the open, filthy children, and Dorothea's beautiful, clean drapery shop in surreal blue and red.
We are witnessing the story of love as a drug. Love as sex. False love. Love as a social act. And true love, where the heart leads man, who can only follow.
Desperate Remedies is a true melodramal The images are accompanied throughout most of the film by equally melodramatic music by, among others, Verdi, Strauss and Peter Scholes. The last-mentioned is responsible for the new music written for the film.
The image of the sound is grand and airy, just as the setting and the music. People's steps echo from the bare floors of Dorothea's house. Seemingly enormous gates are slamming. Birds flyaway. Crystals clink.
But although the exterior is highly stylized, and the acting slightly enhanced, the interaction between the characters is entirely natural and exciting.
The movie resembles a remarkable but excellent combination of Gone With the Wind - the melodrama of melodramas and Fassbinder's Quere/le. It's an exciting movie. Well-made, well-played, humorous and dramatic. ':'
Jannike Grut

Medverkande
Jennifer Ward-Lealand, Kevin Smith: Producent
James Wallace: Manus
Stuart Main: Foto
Leon Narby: Musik
Peter Scholes: Talat språk
English