Flames of Passion
Directed by Richard Kwietniowski
18 mins, UK, 1989
No dialogue
I’m perplexed by the low scores on IMDb and Letterboxd, both in terms of quantity and ranking. For me, Flames of Passion, Richard Kwietniowski’s sans dialogue, black-and-white short film, looks and feels like a masterful and droll evocation of a specific time and place — cinematically, historically, and geographically. It’s certainly more acutely felt and purposefully realized than The Artist, which no one talks about anymore despite its Oscar wins, if not as strange and personal as anything by Guy Maddin. It deserves to be seen by more people, which is why I’m showing it here. There isn’t even an English Wikipedia entry for the film!
Kwietniowski is known for Owning Mahowny and Love and Death on Long Island, among others. The latter film is one of my favorites.
Set on a steam-shrouded railway station and shot in high-contrast black and white, Richard Kwietniowski’s film lovingly twists David Lean’s stiff-upper-lipped romance Brief Encounter into a rich and witty contemporary melodrama, with two devilishly handsome young men standing in for Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard. One of the most striking and memorable short films of the last few decades.
BFI Player synopsis — Watch Flames of Passion online (in the UK anyway)
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