52 Films Directed By Women Vol 1: 39. ALL ABOUT E (Director: Louise Wadley)

 Review fragment only (word document damaged)

At some point during the writing of All About E, or maybe during a crackly telephone conversation that led to the idea, the following words may have been exchanged.

‘I’m writing a love story about a lesbian.’

‘A Lebanese woman?’

‘No Mum, a lesbian.’

‘A Lebanese lesbian?’

‘No. Wait, Mum – that’s brilliant.’

‘What’s brilliant about being Lebanese? Do you follow the Middle East?’

‘I didn’t know you were on Twitter.’

‘I would be – but I can’t follow the accents.’

OK. That conversation probably didn’t take place. But there is some super-secret reason why writer-director Louise Wadley made her heroine Lebanese. Why? ‘Why not,’ she retorted to the numerous people who asked. In my book, you write what you know, because if you write what someone else knows, that’s called plagiarism. If you write what you don’t know, that’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. If you write what you should know, that’s called revision.

All About E is Wadley’s feature debut and tells the story of a young Lebanese DJ, known simple as E (Mandahla Rose) who desperately wants to play a gig closer to her ethnic origin (‘Arabian Nights’ – has she read it?) but ends up dressing as a matador. Why a matador? She takes a load of bull.  E and her camp costume designer flatmate, Matt (Brett Rogers) wake up with a bag of cash that doesn’t belong to them. They do what any characters in a genre film would think of doing – they run away. Now a bag of cash isn’t a reason to leave one’s life behind, it’s a flimsy excuse for a chase movie.

Suddenly I find myself thinking of Sticky Fingers (director: Catlin Adams, 1988) about two New York women (Melanie Mayron, Helen Slater) asked to mind a bag of money. They are hand-to-mouth musicians, for goodness sake, who cannot resist a little peek and – oh my Reginald!

No-one remembers Sticky Fingers but it is a reminder that a film about characters who happen on a bag of money don’t end well, don’t begin well, don’t even middle well.

 

Originally published on Bitlanders.com

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