14 minutes. One pier. A pickup that goes somewhere you absolutely won't expect.
Celebrated filmmaker Bill Douglas’s early student short follows two men who meet in a cafe on a Southend pier. Glances, body language and very brief snatches of lewd dialogue suggest a pick-up, but the atmosphere soon darkens and events take an unexpected twist.
Direction
Douglas builds dread from silence and a static cafe table.
Acting
Merrison's eyes do more than the sparse dialogue ever could.
Director
Bill Douglas
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Douglas made this as a student at LFS before his epic 'Trilogy'—already showing his obsession with cruelty disguised as intimacy.
1970: homosexuality had been partially decriminalized for three years, but public spaces remained dangerous negotiation zones. The pier's optimism rotting into menace isn't accidental.
GB
