Timestalker
It is a promise which has existed since the beginning of time, hovering on the edge of consciousness, perceived by Agnes as a pink-hued dream floating in the forest mist, often glimpsed but never caught, the possibility of true love recurring in the form of a beautiful man who takes form as a heretic preacher, as a highwayman, as a rock star, taunting and tempting her while she is forced to make do with what she has.
In 1688 she sits at her spinning wheel on straw floors as he is due to be executed, and in 1793 with rouged cheeks and towering wig she arranges an assignation at a masqued ball, then posing as a journalist in 1980 she attempts to arrange an interview with the hottest star, hoping his memories of their previous encounters through time will awaken, she always Agnes and he always Alexander, just out of reach.
Described as a reincarnation romantic comedy, Timestalker is written and directed by Prevenge’s Alice Lowe who also stars as Agnes in all her facets, the unfortunate pattern of her life repeating even as she tries to break the cycle, often accompanied by “confidante with the brain of a lamb” Tanya Reynolds and the more pragmatic Kate Dickie, and frequently tied to Nick Frost as her boorish husband or stalker, always George and always in the way, even when he’s a dog.
A colourful fantasia which dances through the eras in costumed splendour, the film is dominated by two specific periods, Georgian England and New York of the eighties, Agnes trying to assert herself without the constraints of corsetry but finding that women’s liberation has only changed the challenges of her pursuit of Dead in a Week (or Your Money Back)‘s Aneurin Barnard as new romantic idol Alex Phoenix.
The rules of the game shifting with the fashions, across time Agnes remains single-minded, her memories fuelling an obsession which she instinctively knows has always ended in bloody failure, yet she is determined to try again and again, playing the cards that fate has handed her while Interview with the Vampire‘s smirking Jacob Anderson observes her endless folly.
Charming in its eccentricity and devotion to a lost cause, that which is desired inevitably more attractive from a distance than when finally captured like the recurring image of the bird in the gilded cage, like the diverse periods in which it is set Timestalker skips effortlessly through genres, heedless of convention or expectation, a unique and ambitious film which could not be more different from Lowe’s debut and yet remains undeniably her work.
Timestalker is scheduled for release in late September
The Edinburgh International Film Festival continues until Wednesday 21st August
