January
07
TYPIST ARTIST PIRATE KING (12A)
TYPIST ARTIST PIRATE KING (12A)
Director: Carol Morley
Runtime: 106 min
Cast: Monica Dolan, Kelly Macdonald, Gina McKee, Kieran Bew.
Synopsis: TYPIST ARTIST PIRATE KING puts forgotten artist Audrey Amiss on the map. Inspired by her extensive archive of diaries, letters and art, the film weaves real events into an imagined journey as Audrey goes on a road trip with her psychiatric nurse.
From acclaimed UK filmmaker, Carol Morley, this dark and funny exploration of the growing friendship between two women as they hit the road in an electric car looking for reconciliation, is filled with adventure, humour and compassion
Typist Artist Pirate King premiered on International Women’s Day at the Glasgow Film Festival 23 last March 8th and since then has been on a triumphant road trip all over the Uk stopping in at The Revelator in Glasgow and returned to the GFT also.
Written and directed by acclaimed auteur, Carol Morley, this dark and funny exploration of the life and art of artist Audrey Amiss (played by the wonderful Monica Dolan {Mr Bates vs The Post Office (TV,2024).The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe (TV 2022), Days of the Bagnold Summer (2019)} who studied at the Royal Academy of Arts but was unable to complete her training due to being hospitalised for mental illness is an exceptional film
The film centres on a fictionalised road trip which Audrey takes with her psychiatric nurse, played by Kelly MacDonald {Line of Duty (TV 2021, T2 Trainspotting (2017), No Country for Old Men (2007)} in which they travel north and reconnect with key individuals and moments from Amiss’ past.
Carol Morley’s warm, sympathetic generous portrait of neglected artist Audrey Amiss imagines the artist, whose mental illness curtailed her ambitions, on a tragicomic road trip to exhibit her work.
Audrey suffered from Delusional Misidentification Syndrome which causes much adventure, humour and compassion in the two women’s Don Quixote style road trip during which Audrey kept all her food wrappers and recorded her unique politics of refusal beauty.
The growing friendship between two women as they hit the road in Sunshine – a yellow electric car looking for reconciliation, epiphany and catharsis is of the sort that Audrey Amiss perhaps never knew in her lifetime.
Typist Artist Pirate King is a deeply moving portrayal of an artist diagnosed with mental illness. The expressive cinematography of Agnès Godard , poetic visuals, and profound focus on characterisation and storytelling recall the works of Jane Campion, who executive-produced the filmSunderland-born Amiss trained as a painter at the Royal Academy in the 1950s, had a breakdown and was in and out of institutions for the rest of her life, finally taking a secretarial job but restlessly creating unsold and unseen art, in the form of raw impressionistic sketches of her daily existence and an auto fictional collage-journal of found objects – packaging, flyers, leaflets – to which she added stream-of-consciousness diary entries, a continuously updated real-time manuscript record of a hidden life. It is held in an archive at the Wellcome Collection in London, which Carol Morley was the first to examine.
Gina McKee {Our Friends In The North (TV 1996), Notting Hill (1999), Phantom Thread (2017), My Policeman (2022)
Kieran Bew {House of the Dragon (2022)} plays Gabe Patier, a taxi driver who they meet on their journey to the North East.
“The world is crying out for more magic,” declares artist Audrey Amiss.
The colours in the film pop, interspersed wit Amiss’ real-life artworks emphasises the connection between the artist and her art. Monica Dolan portrays the fascinating artist with empathy and humanism, while Kelly Macdonald is captivating as the nurse who helps Amiss reconcile past traumas. Typist Artist Pirate King achieves necessary magic in an unforgettable way.
