‘I will allow you to stay…’
The first lockdown was generally a bad time for film. Cinemas were closed. Productions were halted. Tentpole films were pushed back a year. As a consequence of this however, several unlikely cinematic jewels emerged. Movies like Host and The Vast of Night received far more attention than they otherwise could have hoped for, and bringing up the rear in this improbable list of unexpected success stories is Fanny Lye Deliver’d.
Released late in 2020, Thomas Clay’s film earned warm reviews for it’s mixture of Tarantino and Shakespeare, and there is no doubting its power as an unusual oddity on the cinematic landscape.
Fanny (Maxine Peake) and John Lye (Charles Dance) share a puritanical world of sacrifice, suffering and servitude. Their world is upended by the arrival of Rebecca Henshaw (Tanya Reynolds) and Thomas Ashbury (Freddie Fox) – a devilish couple who attempt to ‘save’ Fanny from her martial oppression.
Despite the sombre subject matter, Fanny Lyd Deliver’d is a whole lot of fun. Combining ultra violence with a smart script, writer/director Thomas Clay evokes both The Witch and A Field in England whilst still ensuring his third feature stands on its own two feet. Peake and Dance make for a wonderful duo, the sinister arched eyebrows of the latter combining wonderfully with the dutiful subservience of the former, and Freddie Fox also excels as the catalyst for a great awakening.
A truly unique take on what it means to be free.