Dreams of a Life
Dreams of a Life
Format: Cinema
Release date: 16 December 2011
Distributor: Dogwoof
Director: Carol Morley
Writer: Carol Morley
Cast: Zawe Ashton, Neelam Bakshi, Jonathan Harden
UK 2011
95 mins
Joyce Carol Vincent’s body was discovered in her Wood Green flat three years after she had died. Documentary maker Carol Morley has attempted to piece the life of this mystery woman together and has built a portrait, not of the ageing shut-in that most people might have imagined from the tabloid reports, but a pretty would-be singer and bubbly social girl who seemed to hang around in other people’s lives and never quite become herself. Fascinating stuff, with brilliantly assembled material that makes you ponder what effect you have on those around you and what impression you will leave behind. It’s a pity that the long, stagey reconstructions just don’t work and seem to strain for an effect that they don’t achieve, because the talking heads quietly reduced me to tears.
Mark Stafford
