Oh, suddenly we’re in the 80s… 1984, even. So it seems like Clarke had a hiatus at the BBC for a few years? Ok, Danton’s Death was in 1981, so that’s not very long, but that seemed quite 70s, and this looks like an extremely 80s sci fi thing.
Nothing has been explained yet, but it seems like all these kids are living in a state run roller skating rink? YES I KNOW! It’s great!
(Echoes of Skateman…)
Oh, it’s like an unemployment agency slash jail? If you don’t have a job, you have to stay in the roller skating rink until you get a job…
Very helpful people trying to get them into jobs.
So… what they’re doing here is basically talking about the problems kids have in general, but with everybody skating around all the time, which certainly gives things more visual interest… I’m really into this for some reason!
This is very strange… you’d expect this sort of thing would be about how horribly these kids are treated and stuff, but we basically follow a couple of pairs of people, with most of the time spent with this guy — who wants to work building fine furnishings, so he’s turning down job after job he’s offered, even when they sound perfect.
And these guys who do random destruction, and … are subjected to treatment which is doing more random destruction.
So it’s… extremely metaphorical.
(No, he’s not.)
Wow, this is really something… Clarke keeps what’s going on vague, and then he just hits you over the head in the final scene.
It’s a fascinating little film — looks great, wonderful performances, original script — I really enjoyed watching this one.
Stars of the Roller State Disco. Alan Clarke. 1984. ⚅
