Faintheart

Faintheart is a 2008 British comedy film, directed by Vito Rocco and starring Eddie Marsan, Ewen Bremner and Jessica Hynes. It concerns a lead character involved in the historical reenactment of medieval battles; and is the first film to be created using active input from an online site.[1][2]

Faintheart
Directed byVito Rocco
Produced byPeter Carlton
Nick Love
Rob Morgan
Lee Thomas
Written byDavid Lemon
StarringEddie Marsan
Ewen Bremner
Jessica Hynes
Tim Healy
Paul Nicholls
Bronagh Gallagher
Phil Lester
Music byMike Batt
CinematographyDavid Katznelson
Edited byNeil Smith
Production
company
Distributed byVertigo Films
Contender Entertainment Group
Release date
  • 27 January 2009 (2009-01-27)
Running time
92 minutes
Country United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The film was a result of collaborative effort from Myspace, Vertigo films and Film4. The resulting group, MyMovieMashUp, sought to harness the talents of the online community and to enable them to be involved in the film-making process.[3] Various cast and crew members were picked from the MySpaceUK website to work on the project, a unique tactic in the film-making industry.[4] Although the casting and soundtrack were assembled with the help of Myspace, the screenplay was written by UK-based writer David Lemon.[5]

Professional Viking re-enactors from UK-based company "The Vikings" formed part of the cast alongside Britannia Romano-British society.[6][7] Also a specialist stunt team from East 15 Acting School took part in filming the large battles under the Fight Direction of Richard Ryan.

Plot

Romantic comedy concerning Richard and his efforts to win back his wife, whilst taking part in weekend re-enactments of Viking battles. At the same time he is bullied at work and his son is bullied at school because of his father's hobby.[2]

Cast

Critical reception

The Guardian gave the film two out of five stars, writing, "this is not a bad movie, exactly, but it aims curiously low, and is faintly pointless; and while the actors cope well with the material, they are finally just cardboard characters in a balsa-wood plot." [8] Sky Movies gave the film four out of five stars, saying, "it's a totally unexpected hoot...Director Vito Rocco and credited writer David Lemon have done a terrific job in creating one of the most consistently funny and winning Brit-coms of recent years." [9] The IGN review by Chris Tilly was positive.[10]

References
  1. Peterkin, Tom (15 June 2008). "Faintheart, world's first MySpace movie, to debut at Edinburgh Film Festival". Telegraph. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  2. "Faintheart | BFI | BFI". Explore.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  3. "Want to be a star? How MySpace made a movie - Features - Films". The Independent. 29 December 2008. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  4. "Film Network - Features - Faintheart: set visit". BBC. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  5. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1017004/
  6. "Britannia". Durolitum.co.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  7. Ian Muirhead. "The Vikings!". Vikingsonline.org.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  8. Xan Brooks (23 January 2009). "Film review: Faintheart | Film". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  9. "Faintheart - Sky Movies HD". Skymovies.sky.com. 20 January 2009. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  10. Tilly, Chris (30 June 2008). "Edinburgh 2008: Faintheart Review". IGN. Retrieved 17 June 2020.

Further reading
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