''Helen'' is a 2008 drama film by

Desperate Optimists Desperate Optimists is the creative partnership of Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, which began in 1992. In an interview in 2008, Lawlor explained how they took inspiration from the title of Nicolas Mosley's book Hopeful Monsters. The artistic wo ...

, (Joe Lawlor and

Christine Molloy Christine Molloy, is a UK-based artist known for her works of theatre, interactive art, and film. Life and career Molloy was born in Dublin, Ireland. She studied theatre in the late 1980s at Dartington College of Arts, UK, alongside her partne ...

), and was the first feature film made through their production company Desperate Optimists Productions. It is often spoken of as an expansion or companion piece to their short film Joy.

Plot

Helen stars Annie Townsend as a teenage girl who, when asked by the police to play the stand-in for a reconstruction, realizes it gives her a chance to confront her own troubled past.

Cast

*Annie Townsend as Helen *Dennis Jobling as Mr Thompson *Sandie Malia as Mrs Thompson *Danny Groenland as Danny

Release

Helen played in over 50 film festivals and was distributed across the UK in 2009 b
New Wave

Reception

Helen was acclaimed by critics such as Jonathan Romney in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' and Philip French in The Observer who wrote: 'With echoes of Antonioni and Bresson, the story of a young woman's disappearance is one of the most remarkable British debuts of recent years. Despite some misgivings on this first feature, Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian lauded the filmmakers as 'real talents with a distinctive, if evolving, film-making language of their own.' Critic and writer Sophie Mayer highlighted a mythic quality to the film, something which has also been mentioned in relation to Desperate Optimist's more recent ''

Rose Plays Julie ''Rose Plays Julie'' is a 2019 Irish drama film written and directed by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, known collectively as Desperate Optimists. Plot Rose is a veterinary student at university in Dublin. Adopted as a young child, Rose's adopt ...

''. She writes: 'Given the film's title and protagonist, it seems unlikely that Desperate Optimists weren't thinking, at least a little, about the most famous

Helen Helen may refer to: People * Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world * Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress * Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places * Helen, ...

in history. Rather than the story of Troy, or the Helen who tempts

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...

, they rediscover - in a thrilling comment on cinema's star system and the viewer's desire to both desire and believe - the ''

eidolon In ancient Greek literature, an eidolon (; grc, εἴδωλον 'image, idol, double, apparition, phantom, ghost'; plural: eidola or eidolons) is a spirit-image of a living or dead person; a shade or phantom look-alike of the human form. Liter ...

'', a woman always performing her fragmented self.'

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 1288589 British drama films Films shot in the United Kingdom 2000s English-language films 2000s British films