Helen is a 2008 drama film by Desperate Optimists, (Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy), and was the first feature film made through their production company Desperate Optimists Productions.[1] It is often spoken of as an expansion or companion piece to their short film Joy.

Helen
Promotional Poster
Directed by
  • Joe Lawlor
  • Christine Molloy
Written by
  • Joe Lawlor
  • Christine Molloy
Produced by
  • Joe Lawlor
  • Christine Molloy
Starring
  • Annie Townsend
  • Sandie Malia
  • Danny Groenland
Release date
  • 1 May 2009 (2009-05-01) (Ireland)
Running time
79 minutes
Countries
  • Ireland
  • United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Plot

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Helen stars Annie Townsend as a teenage girl who, when asked by the police to play the stand-in for a reconstruction, realizes it gives her a chance to confront her own troubled past.

Cast

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  • Annie Townsend as Helen
  • Dennis Jobling as Mr Thompson
  • Sandie Malia as Mrs Thompson
  • Danny Groenland as Danny

Release

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Helen played in over 50 film festivals and was distributed across the UK in 2009 by New Wave.

Reception

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Helen was acclaimed by critics such as Jonathan Romney in The Independent[2] and Philip French in The Observer who wrote: 'With echoes of Antonioni and Bresson, the story of a young woman's disappearance is one of the most remarkable British debuts of recent years.[3] Despite some misgivings on this first feature, Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian lauded the filmmakers as 'real talents with a distinctive, if evolving, film-making language of their own.'[4]

Critic and writer Sophie Mayer highlighted a mythic quality to the film, something which has also been mentioned in relation to Desperate Optimist's more recent Rose Plays Julie. She writes: 'Given the film's title and protagonist, it seems unlikely that Desperate Optimists weren't thinking, at least a little, about the most famous Helen in history. Rather than the story of Troy, or the Helen who tempts Faust, they rediscover - in a thrilling comment on cinema's star system and the viewer's desire to both desire and believe - the eidolon, a woman always performing her fragmented self.'[5]

References

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  1. ^ Wigley, Sam (19 August 2021). "10 great films that don't have a Wikipedia page". British Film Institute.
  2. ^ Romney, Jonathan. "Molloy and Lawlor's haunting, missing-person study shows that homegrown art-house cinema is back from the dead". The Independent. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  3. ^ Philip, French. "With echoes of Antonioni and Bresson, the story of a young woman's disappearance is one of the most remarkable British debuts of recent years". The Observer.
  4. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (1 May 2009). "Helen Film Review". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  5. ^ Mayer, Sophie. "Desperate Optimists, Helen [Review]". Academia. Wide Open. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
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