The Protagonists
Luca Guadagnino / IT, 1999 / 92 min.
The eccentric, seldom screened debut of Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name) featuring Tilda Swinton is a bizarre drama-documentary that recreates a motiveless murder in London. The Protagonists looks back at an incomprehensible crime.
In 1994, two rich schoolboys from Oxford committed a brutal, motiveless murder on a waiter in Kings Cross, London. Luca Guadagnino breaks the boundaries of conventional drama and documentary films by recreating this true crime story using interviews with the police, the victim’s family and friends as well as dramatised scenes from the murderers’ and victim’s past. Tilda Swinton crosses London relating the tale of the ‘perfect crime’ and related that: “Luca and I had endless conversations about this murder”.
New 4K restauration by Cineteca di Bologna
Pre-film
Before The Protagonists, you’ll see Will We Wake (1998, 7’), a long take of Tilda Swinton’s sleeping twins, Honor and Xavier, who also make a brief appearance when the fourth wall comes down in The Protagonists. Will We Wake was produced by Illuminations Production for the BBC. Tilda Swinton hand-picked a short film, either from her rich oeuvre or from Eye’s collection, to precede all feature films.
This is part of
Special screenings
Details
Director
Luca Guadagnino
Production year
1999
Country
IT
Original title
The Protagonists
Length
92 min.
Language
English
Subtitles
NLD
Format
DCP
Part of
Tilda Swinton
This autumn, Eye presents Tilda Swinton – Ongoing, an exclusive exhibition dedicated to the celebrated Scottish performer, artist, and fashion icon. This unique and personal exhibition centres on Swinton’s creative collaborations.
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Why in Eye
Luca Guadagnino’s and my first film together. A wild-eyed experiment: our genuine fascination with the detail of a true-life murder and the curlicues of fiction and storytelling itself. On reflection, I see in it a meditation on the concept of innocence and on fantasy. A properly weird adventure, featuring the magisterial Laura Betti - Pasolini’s muse - as The Devil herself, and my crawling baby twins.
Tilda Swinton
Actor and Performer
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