FREE ON YOUTUBE Shane Meadows - Once Upon A Time In The Midlands

FREE ON YOUTUBE (DU FINDEST DEN GANZEN FILM FREI AUF YOUTUBE) Once Upon A Time In The Midlands sounds familiar with the sound of a plaintive harmonica and distant flutes. Shane Meadows' film evokes the atmosphere of an Italo Western, which carries the comedy with a wink. But we are neither in the west, nor in southern Spain, but in Nottingham (as usual with Meadows). There a group of typical working class characters gets into a whirlpool of love, loss and revenge - and western music. Dek (Rhys Ifans) wants to lead his long-time lover Shirley (Shirley Henderson) to the altar, but she rejects him. At the same time, her former husband Jimmy (Robert Carlyle) comes to town. A classic western situation, because Shirley now has to decide between a respectable shopkeeper and a vagabonding "gunslinger" (at least Jimmy takes on this function). Shirley and Jimmy have a daughter together, which he uses as a reason for his return. Jimmy manages to rekindle the dark fascination he once triggered with Shirley. Meanwhile Dek dreams of a showdown with the villain (but not with revolvers, but drills). In truth, he's already about to give up if it weren't for Shirley's daughter, who sees him as her father. Meadows films this with a lot of tenderness and in general he develops a great affection for all characters - except Jimmy's characters. Once Upon A Time In The Midlands also features real slapstick scenes like the bank robbery. We as viewers know, of course, that none of the participants would be able to do such a thing. Maybe they saw it in a Western, but in reality everything fails! The red-haired Rhys Ifans is the actual main actor: His game allows him to play strange characters as well as normal ones: In Meadow's film, Dek, after Shirley tells him that she doesn't feel any love for him, is so caught in self-doubt that he just agrees with her. Dek himself doesn't think of himself as being kind anymore after the rejection. Not only the soundtrack, but also Brian Tufano's camera remind us of an Italo Western, whereas Meadows doesn't force these parallels on us at all. He simply transfers the fight between good and evil to Nottingham and has fun with various allusions. The music is supposed to help beyond the sequences, because you just can't understand the accent...