Keswick Film Club - Patrick

Synopsis

As soon as Mark Kermode stated that this was "a Belgian nudist tragi-comedy", my ears pricked up; when the first clip had the man saying "Sometimes, to get what you want, you have to... not want what you want" I was hooked. I just had to find out why Patrick was so bothered about losing his hammer when all around him were... well… naked people.

Mark Kermode goes on to say, in the Guardian, "Anyone wanting a raunchy comedy with titillating displays of flesh definitely won’t get it… The fact that such sub-Shakespearean intrigue plays out in the nude is, remarkably, the least remarkable thing about this deadpan delight".

Patrick has just inherited this nudist campsite when his hammer goes missing:"Defying any conventional euphemisms of what this tool might represent, frequent shots of the empty space it filled as part of a treasured set make it clear that Patrick's search is to make himself whole once again – or in fact to find a new whole in the wake of his father's death. His furrowed brow, inability to make eye contact and shuffling awkwardness mean that the real conflict of Mielants" film is an internal, psychological one. The comical litany of clues as to who had stolen the hammer, where it has travelled and whether it can be retrieved are a side-show to – or rather a reflection of – the introspective journey Patrick takes to come to terms with the past, present and a worrying
future" – Matthew Anderson, CineVue.

In his first feature film, director Tim Mielants, who is best known for tv series such as 'Peaky Blinders' and 'Legion', took inspiration from his own stay on a naturist campsite where it was the oddity of the individuals there that he remembered not the nudity. 'Patrick' will certainly have us feeling the same!