Morris: A Life with Bells On (2009) User Reviews

A dire film - bad plot, bad scripting, unimaginative, and not funny.

[otis_Luxton · 1/10 · 15 November 2010]

I'm not entirely sure what the reason for this film being made was, but in short, it shouldn't have been made.

There are many reasons I wouldn't recommend this film, the main ones being are that firstly, the plot is tedious and predictable - it seems that no effort has been made to create an interesting narrative or use interesting dramatic devices that keep you drawn throughout the film.

Secondly, the script is not particularly funny, quirky, or imaginative. Although I acknowledge the fact that the film is set in the west country, the actors all have very wooden, stereotypical west country accents - reminiscent of 'The Wurzels' (which of course, is not funny in 2010) Thirdly, in addition to 'having a laugh' over the west country accent, the rest of this film to me simply not funny. I like to think that I have a fairly varied and open sense of humour, but I did not laugh once in this film, let alone a snigger.

The reason for this, I can only hypothesise as follows - This film is evidently trying to be a 'Spinal Tap' of Morris Dancing. Based on the mocumentary style, this film is clearly trying to create humour from the Morris Dancing culture - but instead of cleverly parodying this culture, it seems to have only represented this culture fairly close to the truth (not even in an observational style). Evidently the makers of this film knew quite a lot about the Morris Dancing culture, and are very possibly part of this culture themselves. Here, they obviously didn't want to poke too much fun at Morris Dancing, at the fear of disapproval from that very culture. Here it is obvious that the main target audience of this film is Morris Dancers and those involved in the Folk culture; the makers couldn't risk offending their main target audience now could they.

So as a result, this film would only be understood by those in the culture associated, and even then, there isn't much to laugh about.

Morris Dancers and 'Folkies': If you intend on convincing yourself that this film is funny just because it is about Morris Dancers, please think twice. Non-Morris Dancers or 'Folkies': Don't bother yourself with this film. There are too many references you will not recognise, and even if you did, they aren't funny.

funny movie

[spkrook · 10/10 · 25 May 2009]

Great movie, hilarious,especially if you are an Anglophile. The actors do great characterizations. The scenes are well shot, especially those depicting California. The movie was well accepted by the Morris dance and folk-dance community at the Seattle Folklife festival and the Seattle International Film Festival. We need to see more Morris dancing like that done by the OCM. If you enjoy folk dance you must see this film. If you enjoy England you must see this film. If you enjoy laughing you must see this film.This film is a mocumentery in the tradition of This Is SpinalTap, and A Mighty Wind. This is all filler, the movie was shot in the wettest summer in england, on a low budget. The film makers did wonders in poor conditions and with little to work with.

Offbeat hilarious mockumentary

[john-purcell · 10/10 · 3 December 2009]

This film takes a very offbeat and affectionate view of a folk-dancing tradition in England that is under threat of disappearing. I very much hope that this amusing and endearingly eccentric movie will raise public awareness of Morris dancing in England. The tension between preserving an old, "sacred" tradition and desiring to experiment and innovate is delightfully caught in a clever script and plot. Charles Thomas Oldham turns in an excellent performance as Derecq Twist, the eccentric leader of a Dorset Morris dance side whose daring experiments outrage the leader of the Morris Circle - Quentin Neely - played by Sir Derek Jacobi. One of this dancing side is a Frenchman, Jean-Baptiste (played by Dominique Pinon) and even the French language scenes are beautifully scripted. When the film jumps to California (a California filmed entirely in England), we meet a tremendously funny plot twist. Henceforth Derecq does for Morris dancing what Michael Flatley did for Riverdance. When I saw the film, the cinema was packed with Morris Dancers who were universally delighted with the jokes, the poignancy of some moments in the film and the general joie de vivre that the film conveys. I cannot recommend this film highly enough. It deserves to become a cult classic. Thank you Lucy Akhurst for a wonderful night at the cinema.

Hilarious mocumentary

[Rozinda · 9/10 · 15 October 2009]

I couldn't quite make out if some of the characters in this story actually exist, although it seems some did, or the Morris group does...? It would be nice to be sure.

The mocumentary is masterly. So very funny. Packed with irony. It wasn't given a full showing at our cinema, it wasn't shown at the best times and we have 3 screens. A great shame as it deserved a much wider showing. If there's a problem with audiences, it could be that Morris dancing isn't all that much seen in England, these days. In my London youth, I only ever saw it once, and that was during a university festival when they had some folk dancing in a large open space in the city. I really didn't know what to make of it. It was only when we moved to the West Country that I realised it was still pursued in some places. I guess it has a name with those who haven't seen it of being a bit strange with all those handkerchiefs and bells, so the cinema, even here in the West Country, thought it wouldn't get an audience.

I imagine it wasn't well publicised. A great shame. It's just the sort of hilarious movie most English people are inclined to like so why's the movie being so coy? Sterling performances from everyone, with a special mention for the deadpan "interviewer", the aggrieved Morris dancing hero and his mates, the Beach Boys type Los Angeles group wonderfully sending themselves up, and Derek Jacobi brilliant as always, this time as the insufferably pompous Morris association officer. If you want a good laugh and to see some romantic English countryside and old customs, don't miss this!

A work of gentle genius

[hdickins · 9/10 · 29 November 2009]

I'm not sure that everyone would get this film. Maybe not even everyone British. Nor everyone with a sense of humour. BUT... I'm convinced it is a work of genius.

All the characters are well conceived and, it must be said, completely absurd! In fact it's exactly these bizarre and endearing characters that drive the film. Of course these characters are based on some small nugget of truth, but also on stereo-types - in an inoffensive and self-deprecating way. Even the names of the characters are hilarious.

The mockumentary-style works well, but I wonder if some of the jokes are just a little impenetrable for some people. Not that this matters, for all its subtlety, the humour comes thick and fast. It's just that sometimes, some people might take some point seriously - Don't! ALL of the film is truly absurd and a work of complete fiction. The supposed existence of the authoritarian "Morris Circle" is particularly vivid and yet absolute fiction.

This is not a film for everyone, but nonetheless, it deserves to have a far wider audience and I'm sure is destined to become a true cult-classic.

I offer my hearty congratulations to everyone involved. It was far better than I dared to believe it would be. 9/10

UK film distributors - shame on you!

[bloovee · 10/10 · 15 December 2009]

Morris – A Life with Bells On was sheer delight. In a packed screen at Picturehouse in Liverpool (one of only three scheduled showings in the north-west) I had to sit on the front row, and the lack of a wider release is a scandal.

From the moment Derecq Twist (Charles Thomas Oldham, who wrote the story) is seen dancing (supposedly) near the head of the Cerne Abbas Giant and the camera pulls out to show the figure holding a hand across his crotch this was full of great humour both in the words and the visuals. Even the invention of a "Dorchester Airport" got a laugh.

It's done as a sort of Spinal Tap mockumentary. Aidan McArdle plays the producer Jeremy, who breaks the golden rule of documentary – "I intervened". That's after Derecq is plunged into despair following his rustication from the Morris Circle. From its offices in the City of London, Chief Executive Quentin Neely (Derek Jacobi) defends the Englishness of Morris Dancing against such foreign influences as the Brazilian "morrizio".

Manchester's Moss Side Morris are the reluctant enforcers of the Circle's dictates. Ian Hart as their "squire", Endeavour Hungerfjord Welsh, takes his duties seriously. Academic credibility on the history of Morris comes from Harriet Walter as Compton Chamberlayne, Emeritus Professor of International Folk Dance at Cambridge. You're never quite sure whether it's true history or absolute cobblers.

The outrageously camp Orange County Morris in California give Derecq a refuge, and romantic interest from Sonja (Naomie Harris). Derecq follows her to her new job in Iowa where he's reduced to the devil's dance (line dancing, you can learn all the moves in ten minutes). The lure of the Morris (and the prospect of a pint of Onan's Revenge cider) takes him back to Dorset and redemption.

There's just so much good stuff in this: a superb evocation of grief as well as the laughs, and a marvellous turn by Dominique Pinon as a French fisherman washed up on the Dorset shore after a storm, who decided to stay rather than go back to a million empty whelk shells.

Truly laugh out loud film without being cruel about anyone.

[m-smith320 · 9/10 · 8 February 2010]

I think this film is amazingly funny. I'm also surprised at how few places are showing it. Perhaps it's true that even people in the UK wouldn't get it as a mocumentary. I did hear one lady saying, "It wasn't really a documentary was it? I thought there would be more Morris dance teams shown"! Bless! I thought the Californian blokes were fantastic and everyone was (gently) sending up Morris dancing. It is beautifully shot and the scene where Derique's best friend dies is truly moving.

Nothing is overdone - it could so easily have descended into farce or bathos but it kept the right side of the lines at all times. Can't wait for it to come out on DVD to add to my collection! As far as wondering if anybody on the film was appearing as themselves: I think all of the two main Morris Teams were actors - they were dancing fairly straightforward morris dances but there did seem to be shots (especially at the end) of real teams. And all the main characters were definitely actors.

My only slight criticism is that the girl ends up following the bloke! I guess in the context of the film that's understandable but it's rare in real life for a bloke to follow a woman and rarer still in film!

Wonderful, loving send-up

[IAAL · 10/10 · 29 November 2010]

I'm honestly not sure whether this movie would be funny to someone who isn't involved in morris dancing, but to those of us in the morris community, this is just priceless. It's a wonderful, gentle, loving, and intimately knowledgeable parody. Other reviews have compared it to "Spinal Tap" because of the mockumentary style, but I thought it was closer to "A Mighty Wind." The thing that jumps right out at a morris dancer is that the dancing is consummately well done, and the choreography -- even the really over-the-top "morris meets Lord of the Dance" bit at the American folk festival -- is always recognizably Cotswold morris, no matter how silly it is. The story actually manages to be touching, even when it's broadly humorous; the little moment at the "rustication" ceremony (where did they get that word?) where Dev silently mouths "I'm sorry" to Derecq just gets me every time, and I've seen the movie four times now. The acting and writing are consistently spot-on. As an added treat, it's fun to spot the actors from all the Jane Austen adaptations: Willoughby, Fanny Dashwood, and Robert Farrars from "Sense and Sensibility" all put in appearances, for example.

My only mild complaint, and it's really a small thing, is that it seems like they could have found an American actress to play Sonia. Some British actors can do American accents and some can't; Naomie Harris, unfortunately, is one of the latter variety. She was perfect in the role other than that, but this is one of those "other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play" situations. Her overly-broad A's, particularly in the TV promo for Villandance bit, came off like a Brit poking fun at the colonials, which wasn't the idea at all.

T'was a pleasure to watch.....

[scotty-skunk · 9/10 · 21 January 2012]

..this low-budget flick. Odd that the only negative review here criticises the makers for 'knowing their subject too well'. OK, getting laughs at the expense of the quirky and idiosyncratic people that are attracted to Morris is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel but the makers carry it off with aplomb without resulting to crude stereotypes. Perhaps those outside of Old Albion may struggle to grasp the strangeness of the Morris Folk tradition but these types do exist. On any Sunday, somewhere in England, in a pub car park, or on some village green, or some festival stage, Morris dancers will be merrily twirling their hankies and drinking ale from pewter tankards. It's not mainstream, but it is an important part of British culture. Morris is possibly the only indigenous folk tradition that has survived the last 1000yrs recognisable today in it's present form and it's a joy that there is a film of this calibre that celebrates it. (I'm not a Morris dancer - I'm Scottish, but I loved 'Morris: A Life with Bells On')

A beautifully shot, intrinsically funny film, the appearances of Sir Derek, Dominique Pinon and Ian Hart in this humble little movie should tell you all you need to know - watch it.

Spinal tap style

[joefalla · 9/10 · 28 December 2021]

Pleasantly surprised by this quirky English film

The same type of film as spinal tap but it has to be said I preferred this ,

Fun look at the idiosyncrasies of English life.