52 Films by Women Vol 6. 23. SILENT NIGHT (Director: Camille Griffin)
The English dinner party comedy gets a make-over in writer-director Camille Griffin’s feature debut, Silent Night . In it, a group of old schoolfriends are hosted by Nell (Keira Knightley) and Simon (Matthew Goode) for an evening of eating – only one potato each, unfortunately – and drinking - numerous flutes of Prosecco are consumed - as well as games and revelations, before all the guests and their four children are required to take a pill to spare them of the effects of poison gas, making its way across the country and killing everyone in its wake. The film was conceived before Covid-19 took hold, though in practice anti-microbial resistance – a virus that resists all vaccines – has been discussed at the United Nations for years. What Silent Night gains in being zeitgeisty, it loses in execution, being not quite as funny as one would have liked. At the start, there is simply no clue that any of the characters are driving or hosting their way to their death. Art (Roman Gri...