LFF 2020: Lovers Rock
LFFLovers Rock, part of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology, is one of its lighter entries and one of McQueen’s lightest films overall. The film is the only one in Small Axe that is entirely fictional – the rest are based on true events. Lovers Rock follows two dancers as they fall for each other at a Blues house party in the 1980s. The plot is both a slow burn and meandering, the audience reduced to flies on the walls of the Victorian house as they watch a tiny slice of Afro-Caribbean culture.
The fictional setting provides McQueen with the opportunity to create a world that is entirely his own and representative of his own culture. Lovers Rock is an ode to joy, to all-night parties and loud dance music. McQueen takes the time to fill the film with the warmth of West Indian culture; we see goat curry simmering in a large pot, men setting up the DJ station, women sauntering around in their outfits. Costume designer Jacqueline Durran’s work is exceptional here, with ladies in vibrant dresses and gentlemen in everything from loose floral button-downs to pinstripe suits. At one point, Martha (Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn) notes that Franklyn (Michael Ward) has put on too much aftershave. Cinematographer Shabier Kirchner also works hard to capture the intimacy of the party: close-ups on the actors’ faces, camera shots of their dancing feet. McQueen and his crew take diligent care to trigger each of the five senses, bringing the audience straight into the party.
McQueen does linger too long on certain shots, a consequence of Lovers Rock's plotless story. Yet it feels the lingering is supposed to represent the longing of the heart. Lovers Rock is about falling in love after all. What plot the film does have follows Martha and Franklyn as they get to know each other throughout the party. Franklyn asks Martha to dance for the first time, they’re always close, faces inches from kissing as they’re pierced with envious glares that they’re oblivious to. St. Aubyn and Ward have indescribable chemistry with one another, the perfect pairing for a film called Lovers Rock.
Obviously, with the film being named after a music genre, music clearly needs to be the most important element of the story and McQueen does not miss the mark. The Lovers Rock genre is a type of reggae noted for its romantic sound and content. McQueen does add regular reggae music – the “Kung Fu Fighting” needle drop is one of the best needle drops of all time and so is the dancing – yet most of the sound is for the romance. One of the most prolific scenes in when the party erupts into Janet Kay’s “Silly Games”, even when the vinyl is being changed the crowd continues the song acapella.
With Steve McQueen’s heavy filmography, Lovers Rock is one of the few times McQueen gives himself the opportunity to simply portray Black joy. He crafts a beautiful world in a single house at a single party, and while the film sometimes loses itself it, always finds its way back on the path of love. The intimate setting of Lovers Rock is so culturally Caribbean that West Indians will feel like they’re back on their islands without a care in the world.