Archipelago from Ed Rutherford on Vimeo.
Archipelago
There is something exacting and audacious in it, something superbly controlled in it's composition and technique. The clarity of her film-making diction is a marvel...this is quietly outstanding. Five stars.
Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN *****
Her painterly eye informs her every image, whether she's sweeping over the natural world or closing in on characters arranged with the physical reserve, spatial harmony and otherworldly aura of an old master group portrait...In scene after scene, meaning sneaks in and sometimes roars. In some movies, especially those operating under the self-conscious rubric of the art film, such choices can feel emptily ritualistic. In 'Archipelago' the long shots serve a more basic function: They allow you to see, really see, characters in their natural and unnatural habitats.
Manohla Dargis,The New York Times, NYT Critics Pick
Subtle and sophisticated...taut and truthful performances and visual beauty.
Best Film Jury, Nominated Best Film, BFI London Film Festival 2010
The first time I saw, 'Archipelago', I came upon it almost by accident, and I had no idea what to expect. I found the picture as it unfolded and slowly evolved into a fascinating and quite moving portrait of five people gathered for a vacation on Tresco, one of the Scilly Isles off the Cornish coast. It's about the drama of identity within your family, but it's also about the drama of light, of weather, of terrain, and colour, and the way all these elements affect one another. There's a mystical link between the people and the place - even though they're vacationing, they seem to belong there.
Everything seems to fit, it's who they are. As I watched the picture, I had a powerful sense of the English landscape and it's intimate relationship with the culture, the sense of life. It struck me as very similar to Powell and Pressburger's, 'A Canterbury Tale', which I later learned was a key film for the director. I marvelled at, 'Archipelago' and I think Joanna Hogg is a uniquely gifted filmmaker.
MARTIN SCORSESE April 2011
A perceptive and beautifully composed portrait of a middle class family in a state of subtle disarray...no other British director is making films quite like this.
Sukhdev Sandu, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH *****