There's something about depicting horrors that actually happened that renders it particularly tricky. Go too far and you risk exploitation and insensitivity towards the real-life atrocities and tragedies that occurred. Take away too many of the details, and you run the risk of trivialising them. It's worth noting then that so many films use real-life events but as 'inspiration' for fictional narratives, to avoid running this risk. Sometimes they make for great, thought-provoking films, but sometimes it just comes across as filmmakers playing it far too safe.
Occasionally, however, a film decides to take the daring route of actually doing its utmost to bring to life the intensity, the pain and suffering of the real-life events. Schindler's List and Hotel Rwanda are two fantastic examples of how true events of suffering and the searing bravery of individuals who did their best to counteract them, could be drawn in such exceptional fashion, the first in a specifically stylized but still powerful fashion, the latter with such a gritty realism that made it difficult but utterly necessary to watch. 10 Rillington Place is another example of real-life horror brought to cinematic form perfectly. Unlike those films though, who had in Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) and Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) rays of shining light to brighten the darkness, the story of notorious British serial killer John Reginald Christie (Richard Attenborough) and his victims, 10 Rillington Place is bleak through and through.
It's not a serial killer horror film along the lines of the Saw, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre where the gruesomeness and goriness of the murders are the preoccupations, nor is it a procedural like Zodiac or Se7en, or the underrated Citizen X, where the hunting of the serial killer is focused upon, or Silence of the Lambs, Halloween, Peeping Tom or I Saw the Devil where the psyche of the killer is intensely stylized. Those films work incredibly well alongside their respective styles, but 10 Rillington Place takes on an even more daring approach in it completely removes the depiction of a serial killer's lifestyle with a complete lack of style, so to speak. The film horrifies so effectively because it feels so very real and vivid without ever compromising the extreme nature of the material.
Director Richard Fleischer, who did Dr Doolittle with Attenborough four years before this one, could not have picked a more stylistically opposed project to do his second collaboration. Fleischer eschews any of the jolly saturated, multicolored palatte of that family friendly musical and opts for an extremely down-to-earth and straightforward style in depicting the world of 10 Rillington Place. 1940s postwar Britiain is depicted as precisely the rather modest and somewhat grim backdrop you'd imagine it to be, and what's great is that Fleischer never overplays the morbid elements from the outset. He lets the horror of the story come through the scenery, and underrated cinematography (which is rather beautiful in its own very grimy way), instead of making the atmosphere too stiflingly scary from the outset. This plays into the opening scene of the film, where we watch Christie murder his first victim onscreen (though not his first victim overall).
The build-up to the first horrible act is brilliant on many levels. One is of course the direction and the script. Fleischer and screenwriter Clive Exton keep the discourse between Christie and his neighbour Muriel so pleasant and so understated, so like a normal conversation one would have with a neighbour, that it's so jarring and terrifying when we gradually see where Christie's 'medication' for Muriel's bronchitis is leading to. Another part is Attenborough. He's particularly great in just disappearing into the role of Christie immediately. There's that creepiness he brings to the man intrinsically from the outset by that limping walk, those nervily swiveling eyes and best of all, the raspy, whispering voice that is very rarely raised - one of the most chilling deliveries in the film is in an altogether unthreatening situation where he tells a rowing couple to quiet down with a 'now, now' - he's absolutely brilliant in keeping that raspy whisper and yet exuding such creepy, unsettling magnetism to his performance.
The rowing couple in question are Timothy and Beryl Evans (John Hurt and Judy Geeson) . I've talked so much about Hurt's amazing performance before (see here: http://actorvsactor.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/revised-list-top-30-best-supporting_24.html ), but I'll reiterate again in that his scenes with Geeson, the two actors give an incredibly resonant portrait of a struggling but still loving marriage. They never sugarcoat either characters' faults - Beryl is perhaps too quick to blame Timothy for every aspect of their predicament and too hasty in trying to get an abortion, Timothy likes to tell tall tales about himself a bit too much to compromise for his uneducated and unprivileged background - but instead make them very human characters we don't entirely like, but whom we can completely emphasize with. The relationship between Timothy and his new landlord Christie is particularly brilliant, because the film depicts it as something of a subversion of the usual 'genius serial killer, dimwitted victim' trope. There's nothing grand or extravagant about how Christie strings Timothy along, and Christie is shown not to be exactly the perfect executioner of crimes himself, it's just that Hurt's portrayal of Timothy Evans' weak-willed and unintelligent state is so convincing that you'll believe how Christie can make him go along with his charade involving the cover-up of his murder of Beryl.
The murder of Beryl is a truly terrifying scene. You know what's going to happen every second of it, but that doesn't stop one from being utterly horrified by every moment of Christie's actions. Both Attenborough and Geeson shine in this scene, and completely earn the horror of the moment; and Attenborough goes a step further by showing such human fear at being found out when an unexpected visitor comes by to check on Beryl. For a moment, we fear with him too before we, horrified, confront ourselves with the fact we're fearing for the fate of a cold-blooded murderer. Hurt himself gets to shine soon afterwards in probably the most heartbreaking scene in movie history when he discovers the body of Beryl. This moment is equally scary as the murder itself; where the act of killing was terrifying on one level, Timothy's reaction is equally so because it puts the audience in his position and makes us heartbreakingly sympathize for this flawed person.
The scenes in which we see the atrocities and the fallout are some of the most masterfully built scenes in film history in terms of not just building tension, but also the visual depiction of its release. Each camera angle in these scenes aren't showy but they're nevertheless incredibly effective, the use of close-ups generating the effects of heartbreak and terror perfectly as we see with such a close, intimate scope precisely what's going on through the characters' heads. The saturated colours and swift movements from varying perspectives in the murder scenes have a certain craftsmanship that don't distract from the overall product but only add to its perfectly attuned claustrophobia and morbidity.
The rest of the film is a cover-up of the murder by both the villain and the victim. What's interesting here is that the 'bad' and 'good' characters in this serial killer film aren't chasing each other, but instead are both being chased. Christie's manipulation of Evans is striking because the film depicts it with such a cold, unsparing tone; you'll entirely believe it too, because of how well drawn the characterizations of both characters have been. Dividing the film into two concurrent sections where Christie covers up his loose ends and Timothy blindly tries to make things better to no avail, they coalesce with Timothy being arrested by the police, leading to yet another amazing Hurt moment where he finds out about his daughter's death for which he is being accused. Hurt's probably my favourite British actor of all-time and his short reaction to this news shows why; he brings all the sadness and terrifying enormity of the news in such an understated but powerful fashion.
I won't lie, I'd say this portion of the film is pretty much dominated by his performance up till his wrongful execution, which is itself one of the most blunt, swift exits for a character onscreen. The way the man we've grown to care for is disposed of in a few seconds is fitting to the tone of the film but also really sends chills down your spine; how easily one man's life, like Christie's victims, could be take in such an immediate instance. Afterwards, Attenborough takes back the reins of the film with aplomb. Christie through Timothy's wrongful accusation for his murders, is a most interesting monster. There's a moment in the courtroom where he bows down his head and breaks down into tears - real? Fake? Tears of joy or sorrow? Christie is a terrible human being through and through, and I think his brief escape of emotion in that scene makes him even scarier and bone-chilling; like us he has moments where he drops his façade and reveals the twisted soul within, who either hates the idea of his victims suffering but can't help enjoying the act of murder, or who loves killing but is forever fearful at being found out. Another particularly great moment towards the end involves Christie and his wife, Ethel (Pat Haywood in an extremely underrated, taken for granted performance). In a brief interaction, we see how someone so close to Christie, who was at some point probably in love and cared for him, finally see him for the appalling human being he is. The film's ending is in a sense, satisfying in that Christie gets his comeuppance. But its postscript is just about as bleak as everything beforehand. The culprit got what he deserved, but the way it's depicted just doesn't feel all that rousing, nor is it meant to be. That it mentions that Timothy Evans posthumously got a reprieve for his wrongfully accused crimes just unsettles the viewer even more - there's not cathartic release because in the end, no real justice was done, and miscarriage of it caused one more death to add to many others.
Can't wait to see this movie, great review!
ReplyDeleteAmazing film, and you explained why. There is one thing I find particularly effective in the ending is the seemingly clumsy frame Fleicher ends on, just a odd close up of Attenborough, yet it reinforces so well the lack of real satisfaction or justice even even when Christie is caught.
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it, Calvin. Now I want to see it again, I think I'll appreciate more the thired act this time.
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