RAY & LIZ

“Ray & Liz” (United Kingdom, 2018) by Richard Billingham is set in a council flat in the Black Country near Birmingham. Ray, around 1990, lies alone in a room in a tower block, drinking home-brewed beer from plastic bottles and waiting for the neighbour who brings it to him. From there the film jumps back a decade: Ray and his tattooed wife Liz live with their sons Richard and Jason in a flat full of knick-knacks, cigarette smoke and animals. While babysitting, Uncle Lol is tormented with alcohol by a lodger. Years later, young Jason roams the area for days on end, and no one asks after him.

Billingham, who first became known as a photographer with images of his parents, tells his own childhood during the Thatcher years here, shot on 16mm and in a narrow format, with a gaze that neither accuses nor glorifies. The film premiered in competition at Locarno in August 2018. It was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2018.

Shown at the 2018 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2018 · Film Archive