70s: Sea Without Shore
By Jo Phillips
The long awaited reopening of the UK’s first ever cinema took place this month, the birthplace of British cinema selected the poetic dance drama “Sea without Shore” to screen in its first season on May 28th.
Ground-breaking and extraordinary ‘Sea without Shore’ advocates individualism, encapsulating The Regent Cinema’s spirit to showcase rare and unique films. Not open to the public since 1980, the hall has been renovated keeping its 19th Century heritage, helping to transport the viewer to the films remote forest landscapes in rural 19th Century Sweden. The period film is spell binding in aiming to tackle the questions of sexual identity, exploring love and loss between two women at the fin de siècle.
Directed by Andre Semenza and Fernanda Lippi, founders of critically acclaimed Anglo- Brazilian physical theatre company Zikzira, makers of ‘Ashes of God’.
The narration features words by 16th century poet Katherine Philips and 19th end of the century poets Renee Vivian and Algeron Charles Swinburne, whose poetry lend the film an intoxicating quality. This dramatization of an emotionally charged situation uses shockingly visceral scenes and editing to liberate the mainstream mind.
Click here to see the stirring film trailer
