Rose Play Julie received its world premiere at the BFI’s London International Film Festival on 3rd October, and we are pleased to announce, to positive reviews!
The Guardian‘s film critic, Peter Bradshaw, gave the film a four-star review, and explains that ‘Writer-directors Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor have returned to the London film festival with their best work yet’ and explains that ‘this film grabs you by the throat’.
Screen Daily also gives the film a positive review and comments about the sound: ‘The use of sound is equally as important. Stephen McKeon’s score combines swelling classical chords and rumbling, guttural bass, which grow in intensity before abruptly cutting to everyday noise, or silence. These turn seemingly mundane shots into moments wrought with tension.’
Film Comment made Rose Plays Julie – which they describe as ‘powerful’– their film of the week.
The four-star review on The Skinny described the film as ‘hypnotic, thrilling, deeply confident filmmaking’.
The Upcoming’s mixed review acknowledged the sound design, specifically how the soundscape added to the profound performances: ‘The prickly unease they generate is magnified by the immensely affecting soundscape, which articulates the intensity of Skelly’s performance.’
Finally, Dario Llinares, a podcaster and presenter of Cinematologists twitted in response to The Guardian’s story about actor, Hugh Grant, claiming deafening cinema sound is ruining films: ‘My answer to this, watch more Desperate Optimists films. Their sound design, recording levels is always superb.’
Cinematologists podcast also mentioned Rose Plays Julie in their London Film Festival round up episode (episode no.88), which described the sound as ‘Amazing’. Molloy and Lawlor will be part of a more in-depth episode of the podcast to talk about Rose Play Julie and their work. You can follow Dario Llinares on Twitter at @dariodoubleL
Fonic are proud of all the positive reviews Rose Play Julie has received and for the soundscape to have been acknowledge in some of the critique. We really enjoyed working so closely with Desperate Optimists on the sound design and feel that through this collaboration the sound complimented the visuals and helped tell the story. We wish Rose Plays Julie lots of success as it continues to enter festivals and with distribution, and we will continue to update on here and across social media of the film’s developments.
We would be keen to work on more feature films, so if you have any projects, please do get in touch!