Sleep Furiously Gideon Koppel UK 2008
Something sublime comes slowly to the boil in Sleep Furiously. Few film titles truly convey a film’s nature but this one absolutely nails it. At face value a pastoral documentary shot in 35mm film, ideas and themes bubble around in the background to an increasing intensity. Much as a microwaved dish continues to heat after it comes out of the oven so too does this film. The finale sets the flourish to which the rest of it is almost reappraised. At which point the furious bit happens. To explain…
Set about Trefeurig, a Welsh village allegedly 50 miles north of Dylan Thomas’ Llareggub, nothing very much happens. We see the most mundane things imaginable from this little community. Livestock being tended, the ubiquitous yellow library van going about its business, a woman having her stuffed owl amended and so on. In this case the height of interest is a lady making the most gloriously delicious Victoria sponge. It really is! You see her using jam straight out of a pot and everything. There’s even stuff from the local primary school which is rather expectedly facing threats to shut it down. Fleetingly very Etre et Avoir, the French documentary about a countryside school. Not such a tenuous link considering it shares a producer with that film.
Essentially a series of countryside vignettes there’s a vague seasonal flow towards the end. It’s delightful how Sleep Furiously avoids pulling any particular story out of all of this and yet is survives intact as a riveting experience. To pick at one strand: there are quite a few accents floating about here including Welsh, English, Scouse and even some clipped Received Pronunciation too. None of this is commented upon: it just is. Taking the lead of the mobile librarian the film just gets on with it in whatever accent or language happens to be appropriate.
Partly the sleeping masterpiece tone is set by the choice of music: Aphex Twin. Those familiar with Richard James’ music will be aware that his electronic music can explode out of nowhere and although slumbering here on the main. It’s like making one’s bed next to an abandoned munitions dump. Uneasy might be the word.
But the kicker which spins a deeply thoughtful documentary into territory elsewhere is the ending. After much pleasant meandering a little focus is applied.
First the seasons visibly come into play with a nod to the inevitability of some things. However deftly Sleep Furiously avoids patterns, here is a natural one. Where a narrative film might have a plot twist, Sleep Furiously has a calm deeply filmic one. It’s exactly the pulse required to make the film memorable, connecting the seemingly mundane to the romantic. Wistful slumber is turned on its head for an imaginative brilliance that hits you after the film has drawn to a close. With a fury.
