[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Penda's Fen (1974)

I watched this for the second time last night. I don't think i was quite in the mood for it as it bored me silly and my overriding view as it finished was "What a load of pretentious toss".

However i know i loved it first time round so here is the review from my first viewing.

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Penda's Fen (1974)

Centering around the adolescence of a boy named Stephen as he approaches his 18th birthday, Penda's Fen is a wonderful exploration of growing up, English tradition, art, sexuality, and loads of other things all to the magnificence of England's greatest composer, Sir Edward Elgar.

Directed by Alan Clarke and written by David Rudkin, this is a quite enthralling television film full of weirdness, quite a bit of which i didn't fully understand on first viewing. It's subject matter is controversial and i can appreciate why it is largely unknown but loved by those who have seen it.

Penda's Fen appears at first glance to be a host of unrelated vignettes as a boy turns into an adult and as such could almost be dipped in and out of, but it's the merging of pagan tradition and old England which grabbed me with it's stunning imagery such as the angel and King Penda on the hill, however none are as visually stimulating as the winged gargoyle perched on Stephen's bed one night. Admittedly, it's a sequence poached directly from Fuseli's The Nightmare painting but it's memorable and so highly effective as to be the highlight of this drama.

Penda's Fen isn't all po-faced metaphysical ambiguity. Some scenes are laugh out loud funny. Witness Stephen discovering a man erecting a road closure sign with a miss spelling of Pinvin. (Penda's Fen was the place name originally but the name morphed over the centuries into Pinvin).

Odd, obscure, occasionally unfathomable, yet riveting throughout. Penda's Fen is one i'll be coming back to make no mistake.