Porphyria's Lover

SHORT FILM (DRAMA) - 12:26
A contemporary short film adaptation of Robert Browning's 19th century gothic poem exploring unrequited love, lust, the male gaze-constructed female, obsession, and murder.

The story depicts the anguish of many different different types of misguided and ultimately dangerous male adoration: lust; patriarchal love; competetive love; and unrequited love. Interestingly, there is no depiction of a benign or benevolent (real?) love. Each man in Porphyria's life adores her in some way, and each believes they have a right of access to her. Porphyria thinks she is in control of these masculine forces, trying to live freely and dance between these flames - but all will come to an end as passions boil over, toxic masculinity turns adoration into possession and ultimately a battle over Porphyria's body.

Her father, the farm-boy, and Porphyria's friends are all caught in a love web woven around Porphyria - seemingly delicate and invisble, but ultimately suffocating and deadly.

The short film reframes the narrative by depicting the events in modern day, and explores the psychology of the eponymous character by focusing on his emasculation as a possible route into his obsessive, unethical behaviour and disturbing mentality.

The film is also a timely exploration of toxic masculinity, as it is not only Porhyria's poetic lover (here named George), but all the men in her life who try to dominate and control her, in less obviously violent ways, but manipulative and morally questionable nonetheless.

The film finishes with the provocative justification of the unreliable, unhinged narrator using God's silent indifference as a defence of his actions, leaving the viewer with the unsettling feeling that the murderer feels no remorse, and has abdicated responsibility. Unable to live with the pain of his unrequited love, George takes the tragically violent action of strangling Porphyria to death before finally raping her to sate his lust.

A disturbing exploration of patriarchal violence and female oppression.

SECRETS FROM THE EDIT
Getting the fire to spontaneously combust was an extremely treacherous affair. Dousing a huge bonfire (about 10ft high!) with petrol, throwing in a lit rag, and standing well back and waiting...Then, when nothing happened, cautious, wise DOP Guy Hanley insisted that everyone stay back for safety. Sure enough, after about ten minutes, and with Guy stubbornly refusing to cut and re-set, the bonfire suddenly exploded into flames. Phew! Good work Guy!

The frolicking in the field scene, which George watches from the barn entrance, had to be reshot when the dailies revealed that the initial shoot was completely corrupted (knack when things were shop on DV digital tape!). The scene was then re-shot the following day and fireflies magically appeared to give the scene an ethereal, wondrous extra quality.

Moral of the story: always check your dailies.

TRIVIA:
the gaffer, David Proctor, was DOP on Netflix's Innocents (2019). Great work Dave!

dir: Mikołaj Nichols
TTTD Productions, 2006