Show Pieces is a British short filmanthology written by Alan Moore and directed by Mitch Jenkins.[1] The series follows a man, James, who finds himself in a strange working men's club after his death.
The shorts were set and filmed in Northampton, England.[2] The anthology consists of five short films with a total running time of 95 minutes. A theatrical cut has a running time of 77 minutes.
Three of the shorts were funded by Lex, "Jimmy’s End" was funded by Vice and the last instalment, "His Heavy Heart" was financed via Kickstarter.[3][4]
Synopsis
"Act of Faith"
Faith Harrington, a young female reporter on a local newspaper who has an exotic private life, prepares for a stimulating evening at home that does not go according to plan.
"Upon Reflection"
Details Faith Harrington's first bewildered arrival at the peculiar working men's club immediately after the event that concludes Act of Faith, all captured in a fixed security mirror above a club's oddly anachronistic lounge bar.
"Jimmy's End"
Louche and hard-drinking womaniser James Mitchum finds himself wandering into one strange bar too many.
"A Professional Relationship"
Explores the peculiar relationship between the club's two managers.
"His Heavy Heart"
Picks up the narrative of the hapless James Mitchum from a point following his dreadful realisation at the conclusion of Jimmy's End. In a grotesque parody of Egyptian funerary rites, James is shepherded less than gently into his unenviable afterlife.
Reception
In a segment on Channel 4 News on 22 August 2014, Moore's scripts were described as "his mix of the mysterious and banal which unfolds in his beloved hometown where the working men’s club plays host to a bleak and graphic journey through purgatory."[5]
In a positive review of the Show Pieces' theatrical cut, Kim Newman writing for Screen Daily opined "a distinctively British spin on the red-curtained night-spots in another dimension which recur in the work of David Lynch... that it’s as bewildering as it is beguiling is as much down to the essential nature of the vision as it is the fact that it’s a work in progress."[6]
Writing in The Guardian Ben Child described the films, "Defiantly avante garde, this louche and oddly sinister vignette suggests that Moore, as a film-maker, is determinedly disinterested in regurgitating his own comic-book back catalogue: we're definitely not in Smallville any more."[7]
Little White Lies listed Show Pieces as one of the best films at Frightfest 2014.[8] Anton Bitel of Little White Lies wrote "this Midlands memento mori remains a genuine curiosity, matching a strong sense of place to a mood all its own – and all its clownishness is a mere masquerade for something far more grave (or should that be the other way around?)."
Martin Kudlac writing in Mubi's 2015 Writer's Poll compared Moore's Show Pieces to Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain, "Because Jodorowsky migrated from moving pictures onto sequential art and it was a wise career change; and Alan Moore succumbed to the moving pictures siren call and provided a mystical experience."[9]
Festivals and Screenings
In December 2012 "Jimmy’s End" was shown at the location it was filmed, the hall at St James’ End Working Men's Club.[10]
"Act of Faith" and "Jimmy's End" were shown together at BAFICI in Buenos Aires in three screenings between 12 and 21 April 2013,[11] and screened at Latitude Festival in June 2013, introduced in person by Mitch Jenkins and Alan Moore who were then interviewed by Adam Curtis.[12]
In 2014 Lex released a box set including a DVD of all films, a separate book of storyboard illustrations by Kristian Hammerstad and the original screenplay and a CD of the soundtrack.[2]
In July 2014, Moore completed the screenplay for a feature film titled The Show, which continues the story of Show Pieces.[23] The film was shot in 2018 and was an official selection for SXSW 2020.[24] The feature film stars Tom Burke and Ellie Bamber in addition to much of the Show Pieces cast including Darrell D'Silva, Siobhan Hewlett and Alan Moore reprising their roles from the short films.
