Naked
Naked
Naked (BFI BIB1432-TM) Blu Ray Disk
After the sympathetic portraits of the overworked and underpaid in ‘High Hopes’ and the family togetherness -or otherwise- of ‘Life is Sweet’, Mike Leigh’s 1993 film ‘Naked’ marked a return to the kind of hard-edged drama he presented so well in ‘Meantime’.
Johnny (David Thewlis), a self-educated and dangerous outsider, leaves his Manchester home and drives to London in search of his ex-girlfriend Louise (Lesley Sharp). He finds the house easily enough, and immediately starts his educated style of bullying on Louise’s vulnerable flatmate Sophie (Katrin Cartlidge). Bombarding Sophie with questions about herself without giving much away about himself, he exploits her weak personality to the hilt, even getting her into bed. On Louise’s return to the comfortable but neglected flat, Johnny is casual, sarcastic and ready to take on Louise, but she’s initially having none of it.
Elsewhere, in a members-only gym, we meet Johnny’s rich counterpart, Jeremy (Greg Cruttwell), a sneering yuppie with a planet-sized sense of entitlement and an unending appetite for rough sex with every woman he meets. He later turns out to be Louise’s landlord.
After more wordy provocation, Johnny goes out and reaches Soho’s Brewer Street, late at night. He runs across Archie (Ewen Bremner), a Scot with a nervous tic and a loud voice, looking for his girlfriend, Maggie (Susan Vidler). After a brief interlude with Johnny trying to engage the hapless, twitching Archie in a conversation which switches from psychogeography to the prophesies of Nostradamus, (‘Are you with me?’ is a refrain he uses throughout the film) we’re treated to a classic jokey scene, with Johnny offering to wait while Archie looks for Maggie, and to keep Maggie there if he finds her. He does the same with Maggie, later on.
In the encounter with Brian (Peter Wight) a security guard with the unenviable task of guarding an empty office, we see Johnny feeling that he has met his match, at last. Well-read and acutely single minded, Brian shows Johnny around the ‘post-modernist gas chamber’ with its various logging in points for Brian to prove he has examined its various nooks and crannies his job demands. Johnny’s new rap takes in the end of the world, The Bible, particularly the nightmarish Book of Revelations and various modern conspiracy theories about credit cards, bar codes and their supposed relation to the Great Beast of Revelation. We learn that Brian has one thing Johnny’ doesn’t; a dream, and Johnny’s reaction is typically blunt and cynical. Johnny’s encounter with a middle-aged alcoholic lady living opposite the office block, and the object of Brian’s fantasies, is the most touching in the film. Noticing she has a skull and crossbones tattoo on her shoulder, Johnny recoils from the symbol of death and leaves without taking his customary advantage of her.
Johnny’s next victim is a shy café waitress (Gina McKee) who offers him a place to doss down for the night. He is characteristically rude about the camp Grecian furnishings-not hers-and has a bath and settles down, trying to engage her in a conversation about the Greek myths. Perhaps misreading her manner, Johnny’ is thrown out by the confused and regretful waitress, who is immune to his pleadings, a sign that Johnny’s roguish charm may be waning.
Johnny’s beating at the hands of a young gang leads him back to Louise’s flat, where Jeremy (now calling himself Sebastian) has abused Sophie and is treating the place less like an investment and more like temporary accommodation. The return of flat mate Sandra (Claire Skinner) from her holiday in Zimbabwe lights the touchpaper, as she reaches the point of hysteria, completely unable to process the fact that her otherwise smart flat seems to have become a flop house for drifters. Johnny, bandaged and laid up on the sofa, appears to make up with Louise, but who knows?
The almost unrelentingly bleak ‘Naked’ offers up some acutely observed performances, particularly by David Thewlis, whose Baudelarian Johnny is one of modern cinema’s most compelling/repellant anti-heroes. Lesley Sharp’s caring, put-upon Louise does not get nearly enough screen time, whilst Katrin Cartlidge’s Sophie is often trapped in the camera’s glare, as she is in the abusive cycle of her life. The viewer may leave the cinema feeling thankful that they do not live like these characters, and don’t know, or perhaps no longer know, anyone like Johnny.
Scenester
28/11/21
Released on 29th November on BluRay and Digital formats
Buy here: https://shop.bfi.org.uk/naked-blu-ray.html
Trailer; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdKPbyvS0qc
