Eclipse (15) |Home Ents Review
Dir. Simon Perry, UK, 1977, 85 mins
Cast: Tom Conti, Gay Hamilton, Gavin Wallace
Review by Colin Dibben
Tom (Conti) is troubled by memories of his twin, Geoffrey (also Conti, in flashbacks), whom he saw die at sea. He returns to his childhood home in rugged coastal Scotland for a Christmas celebration with his brother’s alcoholic widow Cleo (Hamilton) and her son Giles (Wallace).
Dark secrets and sibling rivalries surface as the odd trio set about the festive season. Hints of murder and lust and sociopathy peek out from behind the bottles of gin and scotch, the undercooked turkey and a rather fab train set – a present from Tom to Giles that, of course, Tom ends up playing with.
There’s an oblique and distracted, dead zone quality to the film, especially with the actors playing such subtly damaged characters. In truth, Hamilton looks suitably gin-frozen most of the time; while Conti’s dark side is slow to emerge out of that friendly intensity he is so good at – but all the more horrific for being glimpsed through the bric-a-brac of a middle class Christmas.
Special features include:
- Audio commentary by Vic Pratt, co-founder of BFI Flipside
- Sun & Moon – Tom Conti Discusses Eclipse (2025, 10 mins): the actor on his experience of making the film
- Relative Strangers: two stylish short films, The Chalk Mark (1989, 24 mins) and Marooned (1994, 20 mins), that echo the disjointed relationships central to Eclipse
- Not Waving, Drowning: Joe and Petunia: Coastguard (1968, 2 mins); Charley Says: Falling in the Water (1973, 1 min); Lonely Water (1973, 2 mins): three haunting water-safety Public Information Films eerily adjacent to the psychogeographic headspace of the main feature
The ‘first pressing’ of the Blu-ray also contains an illustrated booklet with new writing on the film by Vic Pratt, an archival interview with director Simon Perry, an original review, an essay on the film’s locations by Douglas Weir and writing on The Chalk Mark and Marooned by the BFI’s William Fowler.
