Proust's Favorite Fantasy
A short commissioned by the Arts Council for BBC 2's LATE SHOW, concerning a hotel room, a gendarme, and a chicken.
Richard Kwietniowski
Casts & Crew
Also Directed by Richard Kwietniowski
Dan Mahowny was a rising star at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. At twenty-four he was assistant manager of a major branch in the heart of Toronto's financial district. To his colleagues he was a workaholic. To his customers, he was astute, decisive and helpful. To his friends, he was a quiet, but humorous man who enjoyed watching sports on television. To his girlfriend, he was shy but engaging. None of them knew the other side of Dan Mahowny--the side that executed the largest single-handed bank fraud in Canadian history, grossing over $10 million in eighteen months to feed his gambling obsession.
Giles De'Ath is a widower who doesn't like anything modern. He goes to movies and falls in love with film star, Ronnie Bostock. He then investigates everything about the movie and Ronnie. After that he travels to Long Island city where Ronnie lives and meets him, pretending that Ronnie is a great actor and that's why Giles admires him.
Set on a steam-shrouded railway station and shot in high-contrast black and white, Richard Kwietniowski's film lovingly twists David Lean's stiff-upper-lipped romance Brief Encounter into a rich and witty contemporary melodrama, with two devilishly handsome young men standing in for Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.
Film introduces a gay alphabet, with the aid of images and music, which it is argued is a defense against heterosexual language, and the hidden insults contained within.
Photo-romance featuring a number of events which may be made illegal in Britain by Clause 25 of the Criminal Justice Bill.
An elaborate gay dinner party with good food, good wine, and good conversation.
Six deaf performers-three women, three men- are brought together to devise staged pieces based on their experience of gay and deaf cultures intersecting, and the highly politicized nature of both in Britain. The result is a diverse, assertive collage, ranging from advice on how to seduce a librarian( in silence, of course), to the importance of short hair in visibly proclaiming your lesbianism and deafness: plus an essential beginner's guide to sexual signing. Shot entirely in British Sign Language with subtitles for the hearing.
Oscar Wilde’s famous and eloquent defence of love – made while he was being cross-examined at the trial that led to his incarceration and death – is strikingly illustrated, word by word, with Mapplethorpe-like imagery.