Archipelago is a film made squarely in the European film-making tradition of Tarkovsky, Tarr, Antonioni and many others, requiring the viewer to reach out and engage with the film. It uses a pared-down, static style using carefully-framed tableaux and natural light, drawing heavily on the natural environment and on natural sounds. The cinematography is remarkable: being dark with subdued, almost pastel, colours. I was struck several times by its similarity to watercolour painting. There is no background music but much sound from wind, insects and birds.
There are many difficult silences where we suffer along with the characters as they misunderstand each other and fail to connect, causing me to see strong similarities to Antonioni's L'Avventura, which is also set on an island among people who engage with each other with difficulty. In Antonioni's day we called this disconnection Alienation.
The story concerns six characters, one materially absent but present in other ways. It is the story of a holiday on the island of Tresco, arranged in honour of Edward who has dumped his career to go off to Africa to fight AIDS. He is with his sister, Cynthia and his mother, Patricia. Also present are Rose, who has been employed by them as a cook, and Christopher, who is a painter separately on the island, and is a friend of the family. The father is due to join them but never arrives, but we can speculate on what sort of a person he is as we get to know his wife and children. We see them eat in their rented cottage, eat in a restaurant, go on picnics and go on walks and cycle rides. They have a few rows.
Rose, the cook, was recruited because she is a cook, but Hogg happened on someone who also had studied acting. Christopher is not an actor but a painter and he has in fact given Hogg painting lessons.
In a Q&A someone made the perceptive observation that the film is fueled by female fury, and all the males are in various types of retreat - Edward to go to Africa, Christopher retreats into his painting, and the father wisely never arrives, while Cynthia and Patricia express their anger and frustration directly or in displaced ways.
This film is about a farewell holiday for Edward, and he, played very well by Tom Hiddleston, who was also in Hogg's preceding film, is its central character. On a few occasions he parodies his father's manner, and it is easy to imagine that, being caring and lacking aggression, he fears that he may not be the son his father may have wished for. He irritates his sister, Cynthia, who gives way to outbursts against him. Again, we may speculate about what is really needling Cynthia. Edward turns to Christopher as a sympathetic male and Christopher explains and discusses his understanding of his art, and the road he had to follow to become an artist, touching on issues of courage and self-belief, issues where Edward is assailed by doubts. Also, Christopher may be expressing in a coded way Hogg's approach to film-making.
This is a film that provides plenty of space for the thoughtful and receptive viewer to project his or her own preoccupations and experiences onto the events of the film, bringing their own interpretation and understanding. Those whose sensibilities have been dulled by too much Hollywood will find it slow and boring.
The behaviours of the characters ring true and there is much to enjoy in the images and the soundtrack. Joanna Hogg is someone who has a clear idea of the type of film she wants to make and she is a valuable addition to British cinema. It is a refreshing contrast to such feel-good working class realist films as Made in Dagenham or Calendar Girls.
