I hesitate to call this fascinating, slippery film an ‘experimental documentary’ in case it sends people who would otherwise enjoy its storytelling trickery and moving subject running for ‘Paranormal Activity 2’. It’s true that Clio Barnard revisits the life of the late playwright Andrea Dunbar, who wrote ‘Rita, Sue and Bob Too’ in the mid-’80s, by going back, journalistically, to her old Bradford stomping-ground, the hard-as-nails Buttershaw Estate. Watch The Arbor (2011) Movie Online
But once she gets there, Barnard re-enacts scenes from Dunbar’s first play with actors, and instead of filming interviewees (Dunbar’s relatives, mainly) she records their voices and asks actors to play them in locations that suggest varying degrees of realism and – this is the interesting bit – lip-synch to their words. We see archive footage from Dunbar’s spell in the media spotlight, but, even then, Barnard sometimes frames that footage fictionally, such as beaming it through a modern television.
But once she gets there, Barnard re-enacts scenes from Dunbar’s first play with actors, and instead of filming interviewees (Dunbar’s relatives, mainly) she records their voices and asks actors to play them in locations that suggest varying degrees of realism and – this is the interesting bit – lip-synch to their words. We see archive footage from Dunbar’s spell in the media spotlight, but, even then, Barnard sometimes frames that footage fictionally, such as beaming it through a modern television.
