Recluse (1981) - Short Film

Bob Bentley’s arresting short film based on real events!

[@PugLifeJM]

This must be the most well directed and well shot short I've ever seen. Apparently it's super rare and obscure, too, so thanks for sharing. I wouldn't have heard of it otherwise. Enjoyed this a lot even though I had a terribly hard time understanding the dialog.

[@DanielshakespeareDanze1]

Phenomenally well-shot. The story in itself was a little predictable, but when told with this level of craft, and with performances this good, it all meshes together.

[@johnwestlake9496]

This is totally authentic of the 70s and 80 s of some of peoples lives in rural areas of mid and west Devon;I grew up there.The dialogue is in the main making use of Devon slang /regional dialect and terms/stuctures now rapidly dying out so unless you are a Devonian of vintage it is very difficult to understand.Miss Huxtable though was not able to master the slang and had tinges of Yorkshire accent I suggest.The farmer in the cattle market was perfectly cast though.The market would have been based on nearby Hatherleigh and is completely real of that era.This film represents a complete and accurate posterity of the past for that part of rural England and how peoples lives were circumscribed by certain mores and traditions of not allowing any marriage outside of the family whilst parents were still alive or whilst a family member was afflicted by illness-in this case of a deranged mental state.I have yet to read the book that complements the film.

[@WillyAndRobby]

I think the book you are alluding to was published a year or two after this film. I am re reading it for the third time; a fascinating read - Earth to Earth by John Cornwell - although a lot of the old locals say it wasn't really accurate. That book is now out of print but they have a copy in the stack at Okehampton library. Well they will when I am finished reading it! The farmer at the market was acted by Tony Beard who I am pretty sure was the same Tony Beard the Wag from Widecombe who died recently. He was a Radio Devon disc jockey on Sunday Mornings and did the request show. Well he has exactly the same voice. There is a chapter in the Cornwell book about this film and he wrote that it was actually filmed on location at West Chapple Farm, Winkleigh, Hatherleigh market and a lot of the locals were used as extras in the film. Although it doesn't look like Hatherleigh market to Me!

[@johnwestlake9496]

@@WillyAndRobby The book despite being out of print I bought as "used" from Amazon and despite its criticised shortcomings I think gave a good historical picture of life in mid Devon.I suppose if one went back there to find the farm at West Chapple it would be totally different.The film and the book is just the kind of artefacts that needs to be retained by local museums.

[@stoysville]

​@@WillyAndRobby The market looks very much like Barnstaple Pannier Market to me.

[@albertmoss1]

Luxtons 1975 West Chapel farm

[@kokwahtan8577]

Watching in 2022, so many people has passed!!!