By Ella Saxton, Third Year, French
Perhaps inspired by recent cultural fascination with Britain's social elite (Jacob Rees-Mogg, Meghan and Harry and David Beckham to name just a few), director Samuel Abrahams responds with his self-aware mockumentary, Lady (2025), which is equally a satire and critique of artistic pretension. Though it steers clear of more complex reflections on class and the diminishing importance of the British aristocracy, the result is still an entertaining and sweetly profound story, anchored in its weirdness by Abrahams's superb directing and a stand-out performance from Sian Clifford.
Budding director Sam (Laurie Kynaston) is thrilled to have been commissioned by Netflix to film a documentary centred on a reclusive British aristocrat. However, upon arriving at the vast house, Sam is quickly baffled by his new muse, the film's leading 'Lady', Isabella. Clad in an outrageous wardrobe, she mopes, struts and flops around her mansion like a well-dressed Persian cat. Effectively marooned on this luxurious but isolating estate, her only company is her devoted maid Becky (Juliet Cowan) and pet raven. Excited by the film crew's attention, the narcissistic Isabella fails to inform them that Netflix have never actually heard of her. Instead, she intends to have them film her embarking on a journey of artistic self-discovery - by entering into her own charity talent show for underprivileged children, no less. Things take an even more surreal turn when Isabella, who is desperate to be seen, starts slowly turning invisible.
Technically speaking, Lady is superb, proffering multiple contradictions and ironies. Composer Jonny Woodley's haunting score creates a swooning, melodramatic soundscape over Isabella's comically grand estate. Meanwhile, Abrahams's use of 4:3 aspect ratio, a favourite of surrealist director Yorgos Lanthimos, gives the film a contained, almost claustrophobic effect, hinting at Isabella's entrapment. Aside from the technical aspects, Abrahams's script is exceptionally witty, with some moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity (a particular highlight shows Isabella driving a car excruciatingly slowly down her mile-long drive). And though it evades the question of why exactly people should sympathise with somebody of Isabella's monstrous privilege, it is still a potent reflection on isolation and grief, if diminished at times by its predictability.
However, it is difficult to imagine Lady having the same impact without the strength of Sian Clifford's stellar performance. However, after both this and Fleabag (2016-2019), she should be wary of being further typecast as neurotic, socially incompetent women in dire need of a hug. Whiny, sultry and desperately lonely, Clifford's Isabella is superficially a stereotype of a British aristocrat: wearing copious amounts of tweed and forgetting the name of her maid. However, under the surface, she is not the freak she appears to be, nor the one she believes she is turning into. Clifford expertly tempers the almost manic hilarity of Isabella with a quiet vulnerability. Far from a mere satire of an unobtainable elite, Isabella's conflicting desires - to be seen but also to hide from the world - are all too familiar to us all.
Behind the camera (for all of 30 seconds) is Sam, a plucky young director who becomes the unwitting co-star in Isabella's bizarre show. Perhaps it is simply a testament to Clifford's performance, rather than a fault of Kynaston, who gives an endearing performance as someone almost as awkward and selfish as his muse, that Sam often feels like an unnecessary distraction . The involvement of the film crew in a mockumentary film can be effective - we all remember that poor cameraman in What We Do In the Shadows (2014) - or less so - as was faulted in later seasons of the US Office (2005-2013). In this instance, Abrahams's subtlety means his manipulation of the fourth wall just toes the line of excessive.
Toby Holmes
For those put off by the film's apparent pretentiousness, do not be deceived - though superficially a stereotype of an arthouse film, Lady is, at its heart, a simple, sweet and amusing evocation of loneliness and the difficulties of ageing womanhood. At times, it verges on feeling like an extended, if surreal, episode of The Office, with much the same predictable, but effective, degree of sentimentality. Nevertheless, its leading lady and masterful direction bring genuine beauty and humanity to what could have been a film as shallow and self-absorbed as its protagonist. It is just a shame comedic performances are not held in high regard at award shows, particularly for women - Clifford's monstrous and deeply human creation is surely a work of art.
Featured image: IMDb / Lady
Are you going to see Lady when it comes to a cinema near you?
%20Show-Stealer){kind=link}