A Story of Faith and Devotion
The plot of "Deed Poll" is easily told: After Mr and Mrs Poll have found out about the incestuous relationship of their children, Ivy and Sean (played by Vicky Lambert and Orlando Bloom), they die under mysterious circumstances. The kids inherit a huge property outside London where they have prosperous times. Their only raisons d'être are sex, drugs, and poker.
Ivy hires two callboys for their orgies of lust and poker. One of them, the LSD-addicted Nathaniel Griffin (comedian Andre Schneider in an electric performance), grants Ivy her greatest wish: a pack of cards, made out of human skin ...
Canadian director Jeremy Podeswa ("Eclipse", 1994) wrote "Deed Poll" in the early 1990s: "I wanted to tell a story of faith and devotion, a story about a sadomasochistic relationship between siblings", he explained his intention of doing this movie.
After "having some trouble with finding a producer" for this somewhat extraordinary project, he finally started filming in late 2001 in London. |
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The Making of "Deed Poll"
Reportedly, Podeswa wasn't pleased with the cast and wanted to have the movie's leading men replaced with "some proper actors", as producer Wolfram Tichy recalls. "Obviously, he wasn't content with Orlando Bloom; but Andre didn't want to make this movie without him."
For four days, the director and his two principal actors "fought like tigers" (Tichy). In the end, after slapping Schneider's face, Podeswa got fired and flew back to Canada, "highly disappointed that they've taken this project out of my hands". American indie icon Jeffrey Arsenault, who's made a cult classic with 1993's "Night Owl" (starring John Leguizamo), stepped in and finished this movie.
"Deed Poll" took 34 days to shoot. For the entire period of filming, the actors and actresses had to face each other's nudity. "It was rather strange", recalls Bloom. "At the beginning, we were just sitting around like chicken, covering our privates up with our hands."
Swedish actor Hampus Bjork later told interviewers that "after a couple of days, Andre and Orlando started kissing each other frequently before every take to become more familiar and get rid of their tenseness. I thought that was a very good idea."
Surprisingly, this movie isn't quite as shocking as one might assume after reading the summary. Shot almost entirely in black and white, "Deed Poll" looks like a collection of Bruce Weber photographies. [The only sequence (duration: ca. 45 seconds) shot in reddish colour is a love scene between Schneider and Lambert (see picture above).] Jeffrey Arsenaut focused his concentration very much on the esthetical aspect of the movie: "Unlike Podeswa, I didn't want to tell a story. [...] After reading the script, I thought, it would be far too gruesome if I did it like an ordinary movie. So I decided to establish my priorities differently."
He and cinematographer Howard Krupa (with whom he had collaborated for a decade now) captured the beautiful body shapes of Vicky Lambert and Andre Schneider (both former dancers) in about 130 close-ups. Sometimes the camera is so close that you can see every pore on Lambert's skin. |
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Bloom and Schneider: Amazing!
While all the other actors - Lambert, Ward, and Bjorck - do decent, convincing jobs, this is definitely Schneider's movie. He and Orlando Bloom privide the most intense portrayals of their lives so far.
Even in rather shocking scenes, Schneider remains sexy and vulnerable - you simply can't take your eyes off him. Bloom makes an equally desirable bisexual in his love scene with Schneider and Lambert. Both are turning into an almost delirious state of mind at the end of this movie. "At one point, I thought, I really lost myself", Bloom admitted later.
The ending of the movie is quite poetic: Ivy and Sean have managed to make their skin-cards. Their faced are mirrored in Nathaniels skin while they are playing poker with his brother and his mother. Nathaniel lays next to them. Smiling like an angel. Dead.
Cast & Crew
Andre Schneider (Nathaniel Griffin), Orlando Bloom (Sean Poll), Vicky Lambert (Ivy Poll), Mary B. Ward (Mrs. Griffin), Hampus Bjorck (Thor Griffin).
Directors: Jeffrey Arsenault, Jeremy Podeswa
Writer: Jeremy Podeswa
Producer: Wolfram Tichy/Zenith Pictures
Composer: Mark Styles
Cinematographer: Howard Krupa
Editors: Jeffrey Arsenault, Susan Maggi
GB 2001, 40 mins, black/white. |
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