Dreams of a Life | |
---|---|
Directed by | Carol Morley |
Written by | Carol Morley |
Produced by | Cairo Cannon |
Starring | Zawe Ashton |
Distributed by | Dogwoof Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
Countries | United Kingdom Ireland |
Language | English |
Box office | £187,513 [1] |
Dreams of a Life is a 2011 drama-documentary film, released by Dogwoof Pictures, directed by Carol Morley and starring Zawe Ashton as Joyce Carol Vincent, a London woman whose remains were discovered in her home in 2006, just over two years after she had died.
The film tells the story of Joyce Carol Vincent, whose skeletal remains were found in her flat in Wood Green, North London, in January 2006. Joyce was found surrounded by wrapped Christmas gifts and with her TV still switched on, having remained undiscovered since December 2003. [2] Due to advanced decomposition, the cause of death was unable to be determined.
The film features interviews with various friends, acquaintances, former partners and individuals involved in the developing news story, including Vincent's MP, Lynne Featherstone, in an attempt to tell the story of Joyce, who is played in reconstructions by Ashton. Vincent's father is played by Cornell John. [3]
The film confronts issues such as loneliness, even while living in one of the busiest cities, how loss of contact with family and friends can cause no one to notice a missing relative or friend, and how a body can go unnoticed in a room feet away from a busy street, without repercussions from unpaid rent and utilities. [4]
Director Carol Morley was inspired to make the documentary on Joyce's life after reading an article in a tabloid newspaper which she found discarded on the London Underground, which while describing Vincent failed to mention her age, race or any detailed information. [4] She spent the next five years tracking down interviewees by taking out ads in newspapers, and hiring a cab to drive around London bearing a poster asking people to contact her if they knew Joyce. [5]
She was surprised to learn that many of the respondents did not know Joyce was dead until she spoke to them even though some of them remembered hearing of her death when it was reported on in newspapers. One of the first respondents to Morley's advert was Martin, who features prominently in the film, an ex-partner and one-time close friend who was able to provide photographs for Morley. Martin then put her in touch with other friends, including an ex-landlord, ex-partner and friend who had recorded her singing in his studio. [6]
Morley was criticised for an extended fictionalised sequence that featured Zawe Ashton as Joyce performing the song "A Smile is Just a Frown".[ citation needed ] She stated that she was inspired to keep the sequence in the film by a similar sequence in Agnès Varda's Cléo from 5 to 7 and also credited Varda's documentary work with inspiring much of her movie.[ citation needed ]
Morley was also in contact with Joyce's four sisters, all of whom refused to be in the film. [7] Although they asked Morley not to make the film, she went ahead with production, but gave them an advance screening in order to show that she had been respectful in remembering their sister.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 76% based on 29 reviews. [8] On Metacritic the film has a score of 62% based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [9]
The Guardian described it as "empathic, brave, clever, haunting", [4] while The New York Times reflected on the frustrating nature of the story only half told. [6] The Telegraph described the film as a "tender, thoughtful and celebratory homage to Vincent's life". [10]
Steven Wilson's album Hand. Cannot. Erase. was inspired by his viewing of the film. [11]
Paloma Faith's song "Lost and Lonely" from the album The Architect was written and recorded in response to seeing Dreams of a Life. [12]
Richard Edmund Williams was a Canadian-British animator, voice actor, and painter. A three-time Academy Award winner, he is best known as the animation director on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) -- for which he won two Academy Awards -- and as the director of his unfinished feature film The Thief and the Cobbler (1993). His work on the short film A Christmas Carol (1971) earned him his first Academy Award. He was also a film title sequence designer and animator. Other works in this field include the title sequences for What's New Pussycat? (1965) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) and title and linking sequences in The Charge of the Light Brigade and the intros of the eponymous cartoon feline for two of the later Pink Panther films. In 2002 he published The Animator's Survival Kit, an authoritative manual of animation methods and techniques, which has since been turned into a 16-DVD box set as well as an iOS app. From 2008 he worked as artist in residence at Aardman Animations in Bristol, and in 2015 he received both Oscar and BAFTA nominations in the best animated short category for his short film Prologue.
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Zawedde Emma Ashton is a British actress and playwright. She is best known for her roles in the comedy dramas Fresh Meat and Not Safe for Work, the Netflix horror thriller film Velvet Buzzsaw, and for her portrayal of Joyce Carol Vincent in Dreams of a Life (2011). She also portrayed Dar-Benn in The Marvels (2023).
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Carol Anne Morley is an English film director, screenwriter and producer. She is best known for her semi-documentary Dreams of a Life, released in 2011, about Joyce Carol Vincent, who died in her North London bedsit in 2003, but was not discovered until 2006.
Joyce Carol Vincent was an English woman whose death went unnoticed for more than two years as her corpse lay undiscovered at her bedsit in north London. Prior to her death, she had cut off nearly all contact with those who knew her. She resigned from her job in 2001, and moved into a shelter for victims of domestic abuse. Around the same time, she began to reduce contact with friends and family. She died sometime in December 2003. Her remains were discovered on 25 January 2006, with the cause of death believed to be either an asthma attack or complications from a recent peptic ulcer.
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