Robin Redbreast (1970)

directed by James MacTaggart
UK
76 minutes
4 stars out of 5
----

The weather outside was dark and stormy thanks to some runoff from Tropical Storm Michael, and it was the perfect atmosphere for watching Robin Redbreast, which I've wanted to see for such a long time. Its black-and-white cinematography makes it look like it was shot around 1932, but surprisingly its politics and stance on women's rights is more modern than a whole lot of movies coming out even today.

I made a bit of a mistake in thinking this was going to be like The Wicker Man, because it has an entirely different vibe, although the two films have many similarities. Wicker Man is joyful in its pagan celebrations, dancing around maypoles and flaunting it in the face of staunch modernity; Robin Redbreast is almost the opposite. The villagers are depicted as conservative in terms of sticking to an old, unchanging way of life; the outsider in their midst is the non-religious, free-ranging, unmarried and (eventually) pregnant woman. They don't make a point of begrudging her for her ways, but neither do they openly accept her among their number. It's a kind of quiet ostracization that fits the gloomy atmosphere.

I absolutely love old lo-fi British horror like this because it feels like they had so little to work with in terms of effects, but did so much more with what they did have. I think context plays a part, too- this was Play For Today, which as I understand means it was broadcast on public television, and I don't know much about the standards for TV content in Britain at the time, but I would think that you couldn't exactly make Texas Chainsaw Massacre and show it at 2 in the afternoon. Hence these slow-burn, psychological folk horrors, with focus on hidden occult truths underneath the landscape of the countryside instead of on explicit bodily harm.

Like I said in the beginning, this is more progressive about women's autonomy than scores and scores of modern films. To start off with, the main character is a sort-of middle-aged woman who's depicted as actually having sexual desires simply because she wants to- the idea of a woman seeking out sex in a way that's personal and not intended for the consumption of men is something that a lot of media won't touch. Secondly, she openly uses birth control, and when she accidentally gets pregnant she doesn't flinch about the option to get an abortion, and even though she does eventually decide to keep the baby, she's militant about the fact that it's her right to terminate the pregnancy if she wanted to, and the man has no say in it.

So don't come into this looking for something dramatic and constantly changing, it's a slow tide of oppression building up to a mostly offscreen horror. I guess it probably did inspire The Wicker Man but the two are very different in tone and in moral standing. I do feel like this might have been gorgeous if it were in color but the black-and-white gives it a Vibe™.