by
Douglas Messerli
L. T.
Hewitt (screenwriter and director) Battersea Power Station / 2019 [25 minutes]
The mother from Hell in this short film (played brilliant
by Carolyn Saint-Pé) is from Fichleke, probably better known as Fishlake,
a South Yorkshire community (population in 2011 of 682) from which her son,
Peter (L. T. Hewitt, the writer and director of this terrifying comic coming
out film) who has escaped to London, a city which Ms. Seegar (his adoptive
mother) finds terribly, gray, dirty, and utterly forbidding. One of her first
questions directed to her batter-brained son is “What’s in a big city that you
can’t get in Fichleke?” Peter can only begin to answer, since she constantly
interrupts all logical thought, “Art. Employment. Places to go.”
.png)
The
postcard’s reverse-side message, so we later discover, in a kind of
apologia/love letter to Peter’s boyfriend, Lloyd—a graphic designer who
probably also created the card—not only apologizing about Peter’s inability to
share the information of his being gay with his ridiculously dismissive mother,
but expressing his deep live for his Lithuanian-born boyfriend and even a
desire to marry him. Obviously, Peter is privy to all this information, and
over the years, the card becomes almost a game to them, as each return to the
other, an open secret they share through the years.
On a tour of the scrubbed-down apartment, Peter
shows her his “own” bedroom—a pigsty, she proclaims—and Lloyd’s room, which is
as clean as possible since it has obviously been vacant.
.png)
Paul,
however, finally hints to his sister that he believes it strange that a man
Peter has never before mentioned has suddenly become a roommate—but then, of
course, he’s read the now ancient message, and Mary cannot comprehend what he
might possibly be talking about.
Peter,
meanwhile, has decided to bow out yet again from revealing his relationship to
his mother and siblings, while Lloyd finally gets to read to never-sent epistle
and suddenly realized just how intense his lover had felt about him so very
early in their friendship.
Lloyd
leaves his lover in the back room to sort things out, while he goes forward in
another attempt to charm the gorgon. She again asks what he does, he explaining
that he’s a graphic designer. And when Mary and Peter probe what kind of
customers he has served in the past, he finally responds, perhaps intentionally
or maybe even innocently, that he worked on the campaign for the transformation
of the Battersea Power Station, all suddenly rattles into place, as the
monstrous mother turns into a hurt bull, demanding to know, as she pushes her
way into her son’s bedroom, why he has never before admitted that he was gay.
Unbelievable as it is, she is not upset because of his sexuality as much
as she is furious for his inability to talk to her about the matter. It takes a
deep inhale of air and a blink or two of imagination to accept that fact that
she is not upset very much about his attraction to the lovely Lloyd as she is
angry for his lack of openness and honesty.
.png)
She still
believes that the Battersea Power Station if an ugly building (“It was ugly 40
years ago and if they keep the same design it will still be ugly now.”), while
Mary attempts to relieve the situation by simply responding “Let’s just all
agree that it’s an interesting building and now it has other functions.”
“Other
functions?” Ms. Seegar queries.
Peter’s
answer is perfect: “Hope so. It’s the venue for my wedding reception,” as he
pulls off Lloyd, the two of them leaving the Fishlaker’s behind.
This
short UK movie is not very profound, but yet again reveals just how difficult
it is for many men (and presumably women) to come out to their own families.
Los Angeles, February 6, 2025
Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (February 2025).
.png)
.png)
.png)
