Richard Billingham's odd, memorable, yet off-putting biographical endeavor, RAY & LIZ

UPDATE: the 
Digital/On-Demand 
release of this film, 
via 1091, will be 
available on 
April 14, 2020

There's a scene in RAY & LIZ, the new autobiographical movie from photographer/ artist/teacher Richard Billingham, in which a member of the extended family named Lol, marvellously played by Tony Way (below), stops in for a visit, after which the title characters Ray and Liz (Billingham's utterly incompetent parents -- he's an alcoholic, she's grossly overweight and problemed by fuck-all), go shopping and leave Lol with the care of their very young son.

Lol has been warned to leave alone the booze in the apartment, but soon arrives a new character -- a nasty young man, either a tenant, relative or supposed friend -- who brings out that booze, get Lol roaring drunk, and then....

This scene, arriving maybe a quarter way into things offers the suspense of Hitchcock, the possibilities inherent in the most awful of any current horror movie, and a growing sense of a dreadful injustice that is about to befall an innocent character (or two). The filmmaker, shown below, could hardly have crafted a more riveting scene had he been making full-length movies over an entire lifetime (he's known mostly as a photographer, I believe).

Mr. Billingham's skills, as writer and director, seem to TrustMovies both legion and limited, in that he is able to visually offer up a truly horrible story of an abusive childhood, due more to utter neglect than anything else -- the movie may remind you, thanks to its lower-working-class setting and child abuse, of the work of Terence Davies, though in style, it is light years away from Davies -- that is artful, often very effective, but in the end lacking in much depth-of-character.

This is due to a screenplay and to writing that is simply missing (though it is made up for, to an extent, by the acting on view). We do not really get to know these people much at all. They exist as one-note creations: alcoholic, overweight, mean-and-nasty, and in a couple of cases caring-and-helpful.

The children, thanks mostly to their age and lack of experience, also come across in this way: One seems fascinated with the natural world and animal life (Joshua Millard-Lloyd, above); the other, a teenager (playing the younger Mr. Billingham, I presume), seems typically self-involved and absent, though his plea toward the end of the film, "Can I get foster parents, too?" is moving and certainly understandable, given his circumstances.

Fortunately, the film has been cast very well. Every character, older or younger version (Ray & Liz takes place over three time periods, with the most recent one acting as a wrap-around frame), seems dead-on, usually giving us at least a taste of what the little, sometimes undecipherable dialog leaves out. The title characters are played by Justin Salinger and Ella Smith (shown above, right and left, respectively), and both fill their roles with as much specific behavior as they are able (she is given much more dialog than he).

Overall, while the movie captures neglect, along with despair, repressed anger and near-squalor with remarkable zeal and thoroughness, we never really know these people much. Nor, maybe, would we want to. Still... Knowing, understanding... isn't that the point?

I did enjoy the short scene in which young Jason feeds a giraffe, and wondered at how he managed to collect an array of pet snails without mom tossing them out (ah, neglect has its benefits!). And the nighttime scenes are captured with the eye of the artist, while other moments -- the bunny rabbit in the baby carriage -- offer surprise, charm and wit. I think you'll remember Ray & Liz for certain scenes and moments, even if you're not completely taken with its British miserabilism whole.

From KimStim and running a long, harrowing 108 minutes, the movie has its U.S. theatrical premiere this coming Wednesday, July 10, in New York City at Film Forum. Upcoming playdates include the Zeitgeist Theatre and Lounge in Arabi, Louisiana, and the Vancity Theatre, Vancouver, both on July 12, and Laemmle's Royal in West Los Angeles on July 19. Click here, then click on Playdates, to see if others have been added subsequent to this post.

TrustMovies apologizes for earlier posting 

one of Mr. Billingham's photos above, 

under the guise of its being 

the photographer/filmmaker himself.  

That mistake has now been corrected.

At NYC's FIAF next week: another delectable Sacha Guitry delight, THE STORY OF A CHEAT

Lovers of classic French cinema had better mark their calendar for this coming Tuesday, April 24, when FIAF's New York City branch screens one of cinema/theater-master Sacha Guitry's enduring works, THE STORY OF A CHEAT (Le roman d'un tricheur) from 1936. TrustMovies has come quite late to discovering the films of this fellow, having just recently seen and reviewed his remarkable La Poison. As I noted earlier, and now feel even more strongly, I want to view anything by M. Guitry that I can get my hands on. The filmmaker, shown below, came from theatrical roots, which can be seen and heard in his remarkable dialog and his delightful way with words.

Sophisticated and urbane, Guitry had a grand understanding of humanity's foibles, including not only its need for hypocrisy and denial but also for bonding, beauty and love. He's a satirist who is wonderfully humane but rarely sentimental and never stupid. He sees the irony in just about everything and everyone, and this gives his work a consistent jolt of pleasure and surprise. Don't get too comfortable, he seems to be telling us, because that kick in the ass is just around the corner.

The tale Guitry tell here is one of a late-middle-aged fellow sitting at a little Parisian cafe, writing his memoir (beginning with his life as a child, above, in a family of 12) -- which springs to life as he writes and speaks. Much of the movie is told via narration (there is surprisingly little actual dialog here), and were this narration not so cleverly written and sustained via Guitry's wit and charm, we might grow weary of it. No chance of that.

How the child is suddenly orphaned and why he survives -- it involves thievery and punishment -- ought to be awful and horrifying. In Guitry's hands it is instead delightfully funny and witty, and so we follow this kid as he grows into an adolescent, then a young man and then into full maturity -- as both the "cheat" of the title (above) and yet somehow not quite a cheat at all.

The world is filled with cheats of all types and both sexes, we -- and our narrator -- soon learn, and these involve everyone from the woman with whom he has his first affair to his later jewel-thief mistress (above), and his even later on-paper-only wife (who eventually is to become, unknown to her, his one-night-stand). More of these cheats are female than male -- the men seeming to be the stronger and perhaps more trustworthy sex.
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Based upon the two films I've so far seen, Guitry could be accused of some misogyny, I think, and probably rightly so. He's a child of his time, after all, who perhaps today would have grown out of this, at least somewhat. I may have to correct my views once I've seen more of his work. Even so, this trait does not overpower the many strengths this writer/filmmaker possesses.

Nothing is sacred here: not gambling, not sex, not childhood, not family, and certainly not the Principality of Monaco! Well, maybe friendship. That seems to be something that could stand the test of time. Meanwhile, we have some delightful locations, assignations and peregrinations to enjoy. 

Guitry's sublime sense of irony, his great skill at story-telling, and above all his love of humanity in all its sublime silliness and sadness makes this movie a keeper indeed. How lovely that FIAF is showing the film as part of its CinéSalon series, Classic of French Cinema with Olivier Barrot, the journalist and TV personality.

The Story of A Cheat will screen at FIAF this coming Tuesday, April 24, at 4pm and 7:30, with the talk by M. Barrot scheduled for 6:45pm and open to audiences at both screenings. As usual with CinéSalon, there will be a post-screening wine/beer reception. For more information and/or tickets, simply click here.

For those of you not in the tri-state area or who can't make the FIAF screening, it may be of service to know that the film also exists on DVD via Criterion and its no-frills Eclipse collection and via FilmStruck -- for purchase, rental or streaming. 

Click here for more information.