Richard Heslop

Movies

The Raft of the Medusa
Director
After months of continuous rain, all coastal areas of the UK are flooded. Bella and Jude are marooned on their flooded farm, cut off from any contact with the world outside.
Shooting the Hunter
Director
A tribute to Derek Jarman.
Frank
Screenplay
Caught up in a world he doesn't fit into, FRANK tells the unique story of an lonely outsider who manages to find friends in the strangest of places.
Frank
Director
Caught up in a world he doesn't fit into, FRANK tells the unique story of an lonely outsider who manages to find friends in the strangest of places.
Sugarcubes: Live Zabor
Director
Live concert footage of The Sugarcubes from 1988 and 1989, mixed with short interview segments.
Floating
Director
A Docklands bus driver on the verge of a nervous breakdown, destroys his house to build an ark in his living room.
The Garden
Camera Operator
A nearly wordless visual narrative intercuts two main stories and a couple of minor ones. A woman, perhaps the Madonna, brings forth her baby to a crowd of intrusive paparazzi; she tries to flee them. Two men who are lovers marry and are arrested by the powers that be. The men are mocked and pilloried, tarred, feathered, and beaten. Loose in this contemporary world of electrical-power transmission lines is also Jesus. The elements, particularly fire and water, content with political power, which is intolerant and murderous.
Ostia
Ostia is a fascinating short film directed by Julian Cole and produced for the Royal College of Art, which reconstructs the events leading up to the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini. Ostia relocates the proceedings to London and stars Derek Jarman as Pasolini. The film features an evocative dream sequence which is accompanied by poignant excerpts from Pasolini’s own poetry, as read by Jarman.
The Child And The Saw
Director
A nine year old girl receives a giant bandsaw for her birthday
The Last of England
Cinematography
The artist's personal commentary on the decline of his country in a language closer to poetry than prose. A dark meditation on London under Thatcher.
The Queen Is Dead
Co-Director
Three song clips by The Smiths ('The Queen is Dead', 'There is a Light that Never Goes Out' and 'Panic'), all directed with an artistic and conceptual vision by the late Derek Jarman. The result is the junction of the powerful lyrics and melodies by Morrissey and Marr combined with Jarman's expressive images.
Procar
Director
In 1986 Landin directed the film Procar in collaboration with Heslop and Herbert Verhey for live performances in Amsterdam with the Car Ensemble of the Netherlands. The film Procar later appeared in the programme of the Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin 1987 with a remastered audio recording of the Car Ensemble as soundtrack. It was also released as part of a compilation of British short films 1984-1987 called Fat of the Land.
A Nosegay
A homoerotic homage to Jean Genet and Comte de Lautréamont, featuring Francois Testory Richard Heslop and Celestino Coronado. The visual motif of the nosegay is used to tell the story of the love of an angel for a hermaphrodite. Made at the Royal College of Art.
Imagining October
Cinematography
Imagining October explores art and politics in the final years of the Cold War, drawing connections between pre-Perestroika Russia and Thatcherite Britain. The title refers to the 1917 Bolshevik revolution and Sergei Eisenstein’s propaganda film October: Ten Days That Shook the World 1928. The project began during a trip to the Soviet Union sponsored by the British Film Institute in October 1984. Jarman was invited to present The Tempest in Moscow and Baku with fellow filmmaker Sally Potter and film theorist Peter Wollen and asked in return to make a short film for the London Film Festival in November.
Fuck You G.I.
Director
A music video made while I was at St. Martins College of Art, compiled from 8mm film I'd shot and found footage. The recent version has a clean soundtrack but the picture came off a very old U-matic tape that was warped, hence it has a strange stutter and freeze effect on it which wasn't in the original edit but--as part of the look of the piece was to do with decay and things falling apart--it kind of fits. I made this video after I had made 7 Songs for 23 Skidoo as I was doing a live multi-screen film show for the band during their live performances and this was an extension of that process, again at St. Martins College of Art and the London College of Printing.
Language
Director
Scratch video piece by Richard Heslop for the band 23 Skidoo.
23 Skidoo, 7 songs
Director
"The 7 songs video was Made between 1981-1982 . Edited at The London collage of printing and St Martins school of art. Shot on 8mm and vhs and u matic tape and found footage. The colourisation was created using a wonderful hand made early colour synth that was installed into the edit suite at the L.C.P at the time. I started doing live projectons for 23 skidoos performances having already known Johnny and Alex Turnbul from being in the same skateboard team and hanging out at skate cty skateboard park with them. They released 7 songs and wanted to make pictures to go with the tracks. We were rehearsing In Throbbing Gristles recording studio in london fields in Hackney at the time and i filmed them there for the small bit of live footage of them in the video. I released the VHS of this with Doublevsion a coumpany from Shefield . It was a cut and paste piece of work, i was learning to edit as i went along and was a very ntuitive process." - Richard Heslop