Far Out Magazine has just published a new article on the 2015 film, Aaaaaaaah!, in which Toyah had a lead role.
‘Aaaaaaaah!’: The surreal British comedy that sees everyone pretend to be monkeys
British cinema has long championed experimental and offbeat ideas, funding arthouse and non-commercially viable films that have gone on to become cult classics. The work of Derek Jarman, beginning in the 1970s, helped to establish the prominence of art cinema in Britain. His transgressive films, establishing him as one of the most important filmmakers in the queer cinema canon, came to inspire many other budding artists.
Of course, Jarman wasn’t the only experimental filmmaker active when the genre began to gain traction. Other notable avant-garde works of art include Jane Arden’s The Other Side of the Underneath and Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen’s Riddles of the Sphinx, inspiring generations of British filmmakers to lose all sense of cinematic abandon. Britain has since gained a reputation for producing unique, unconventional films, continuing into the 21st century.
In 2015, actor Steve Oram, known for starring in countless British films and television shows, from The Mighty Boosh to Paddington, released his feature directorial debut, Aaaaaaaah! The movie is perhaps one of the most courageously subversive works of cinema released in the past decade, throwing all sense of convention to the wind. The movie, which stars Oram alongside some well-known British faces – Toyah Wilcox, Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding, Alice Lowe and more – features no dialogue. Instead, the characters all communicate through movement, animalistic noises and facial expressions.
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