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| Jamie (Josh O'Connor) and Sara (Hannah Murray) share an intimate moment in Bridgend (2015) |
I find it hard to describe the elegiac beauty and the narrative frustrations intertwined within Danish director Jeppe Ronde's first narrative feature
Bridgend (2015).
Based on over 80 incidents of suicide by hanging that occurred from 2007-present in Bridgend, Wales, mostly by kids aged 13-19, the film's links to actuality can be a little bit distracting, what with investigative articles and conspiracy theories circulating, including a documentary on the topic directed by John Michael Williams in 2013. Here's some
material if you feel like falling
down that particular
rabbit hole. This narrative feature is much more ambiguous and nuanced than any "factual" exploration of these events.
Sara (Hannah Murray--Gilly on
GOT) and her father, Dave, (Steven Waddington) have returned to Bridgend from Bristol after the (unexplained) death of Sara's mother. The two hope to start fresh in their former home, but the film also implies that Dave, a copper, has returned to help investigate the string of recent suicides that have been plaguing the young people of the area. Each kid dies by hanging, and does so in a way that they are very deliberately found by their parents. Is there something in the water in Bridgend that's making all the kids so miserable, or is the parenting just really terrible? Thankfully, the film does not provide any easy answers.
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| Plenty of Toxic Masculinity on display in Bridgend |
I have not been a teenager for quite some time. I do not happen to have any teenagers (or kids for that matter) either. But I teach a revolving door of teenagers for a living, and those kids certainly struggle--Bridgend, Wales has not cornered the market on teenage misery. So part of my frustration with this film is that these kids just do not seem to have it that tough. Yes, some of their friends have ended their lives, and that's a really hard situation to face. And yes, some of their parents could have done better (as many parents could). At the same time, Sara's Dad and Jamie's Dad, the local vicar (Adrian Rawlins), seem to be doing their very best and reaching out to their kids while still trying to maintain some sense of order. Frankly, these kids are pretty OUT OF CONTROL. Drinking like crazy, beating on each other, screaming constantly, vandalizing property, sexually assaulting each other. Even Sara's sneaking out her bedroom window at night to hang out with a teen who gets off on strangling her. Then she plays chicken with a train. I frequently show Catherine Hardwicke's
Thirteen as a great example of kids out of control, but this film gives that one some competition. After a while, the kids just started getting on my nerves, and I wanted them to shut the hell up. Not a good sign for a film that's really trying to foster sympathy for them.
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| Jamie and Sara riding home on his scooter w/their eyes closed |
Nevertheless, this film is gorgeous. I get crushes on DPs/Cinematographers who visually make me viscerally experience a film's setting. Yes, in many ways the director is the vision behind a film, but the cinematographer makes that vision tangible. This film introduced me to Magnus Nordenhof Jonck, a cinematographer capable of investing every frame with both beauty and dread. From sweeping views of the Welsh woods, to dappled light touching on a sea of naked teenage bodies, the visual poetry of
Bridgend elevates this story beyond its often frustrating narrative. Even the film's most gritty and disturbing images, such as the film's opening where a camera follows a dog bouncing through the woods until it encounters one of the town suicides, are infused with a sense of majesty. Likewise, the teenagers are drawn to a nearby lake, where their silent, floating bodies allude to children at peace, and the waxy, white stillness of a sea of corpses.
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| A sea of bodies in the lake, both beautiful and uncanny |
Bridgend raises more questions than it answers, but it rewards viewers who have the patience and intellectual curiosity to formulate their own interpretations about what is happening in this Welsh town. I found that the film was so stunning to watch that its visual beauty counterbalanced some of its more annoying narrative twists and turns. Definitely worth a look.
