Director: Jack Bond
Screenplay: Jane Arden
Starring: Jane Arden, David de Keyser, Ann Lynn, Iain Quarrier, Terence De Marney
Running Time: 93 minutes
Genre: Experimental drama
London: Jane (Arden) is married, but carrying on an affair with a younger man (Quarrier). As her marriage collapses, scenes from her past, present and potential future are revealed along with her dreams and fantasies.
Written by and starring Welsh poet, actress, scriptwriter and director Jane Arden, and directed by her then partner Jack Bond, this experimental film portrays the inner life of a woman in a series of fragmented scenes. Largely shot in crisp monochrome, interspersed with brief surreal dream sequences in vivid colour, this demands a lot from the viewer. The dialogue is often enigmatic, with phrases frequently being repeated throughout the film in various permutations. This is is in many ways a product of the Swinging Sixties, with the Procol Harum soundtrack, trips along Portobello Road and meals at a cool restaurant where the clientele includes Michael York, and James Bond composer John Barry and Jane Birkin are sent packing by the police before they can even get out of their car. However the blandly pretty suburban streets, brutalist high rises, sterile offices and swimming baths have not aged, neither has it's bleak presentation of marital and mental breakdown. The film is visually striking with inventive camera work, and memorable imagery, but it's Jane Arden who is the most compelling thing about the film. It is something of a feminist film depicting a woman's mental landscape. This is a challenging and often disturbing film, but there are frequent flashes of surreal humour. Arden and Bond would collaborate on two subsequent films The Other Side of the Underneath (1972) and Anti-Clock (1979).
Iain Quarrier, Jane Arden and David de Keyser in Separation
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