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The Party
Cast: Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones
Director: Sally Potter
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Running Time: 71 minutes
The Party' is a comedy wrapped around a tragedy, in which a celebratory gathering of friends goes violently wrong in a very short space of time. A week may be a long time in politics, but a few minutes can be a long time in a relationship. When under extreme pressure, in a confined environment – and any house that once felt like a sanctuary can quickly feel like a jail – everything hidden can come hurtling to the surface. This was the abyss I looked into as a writer. I wanted to invite laughter on a knife-edge, as we witness - through the inquisitive eye of the lens - this group of people failing abysmally to keep to their own party-line of what is morally right and politically left.
The Party was conceived as a -bare-bones' film turning confinement of place (and the constraints of real-time) into a virtue. In a black and white cinematic world without elaborate special effects or multiple changes of location, apparently simple elements have to do the work of storytelling. Everything is exposed. There is no-where to hide when working with the primary ingredients of story, character, light and dark, voices and music. The camera peers into the shadows and stares unflinchingly at the faces of these characters in their moment of crisis - a crisis that develops as each one starts to tell the truth. I was blessed with an ensemble of great, risk-taking actors who launched themselves into the process with gusto and discipline in the service of the healing power of bitter-sweet laughter, at a moment when events in the world make us all want to weep.
The Party
Release Date: 12 April, 2018
