Bulldog Film Distribution will be be releasing Craig Roberts’ ETERNAL BEAUTY in cinemas and on demand from Friday 2 October 2020. An inventive, emotional romantic-drama, ETERNAL BEAUTY features a stand-out, BIFA-nominated performance from Academy Award Nominee and Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water, Paddington 1 & 2, Blue Jasmine, Happy-Go-Lucky) supported by a stellar cast including Billie Piper (Yerma, Penny Dreadful, Doctor Who), David Thewlis (Fargo, Wonder Woman, Harry Potter), Morfydd Clark (St Maud, The Personal History of David Copperfield), Alice Lowe (Prevenge, Sightseers), Penelope Wilton (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Downton Abbey), Bob Pugh (Master and Commander) and Paul Hilton (Lady Macbeth).
ETERNAL BEAUTY is written and directed by Craig Roberts and produced by Adrian Bate of Cliff Edge Pictures. The executive producers are Mary Burke (BFI), Adam Partridge (Ffilm Cymru Wales), Pip Broughton (Cliff Edge), Meroë Candy (Wellcome), Paul Higgins (Dragon). The film is financed by the BFI and Ffilm Cymru Wales (both awarding funds from the National Lottery), Welsh Government and Wellcome. The film was shot on film by director of photography Kit Fraser (Under The Shadow, Possum) and features an original score by Michael Price (Just Jim, Sherlock, The Inbetweeners 2).
When Jane (Sally Hawkins) is dumped at the altar she has a breakdown and spirals into a chaotic world, where love (both real and imagined) and family relationships collide with both touching and humorous consequences.
ETERNAL BEAUTY is the second directorial feature from Craig Roberts after his debut Just Jim, which was nominated for a BAFTA Cymru award. As an actor Craig’s breakout role was in Richard Ayoade’s Submarine, playing the role of protagonist ‘Oliver Tate’ alongside Sally Hawkins and Paddy Considine, and winning Craig the BAFTA Cymru Best Actor Award and the London Critics Circle Film Award for Young British Performer of the Year. His film credits as an actor also include Tolkien, Kill Your Friends, 22 Jump Street and Amazon’s Red Oaks.
Shot in and around writer/director Craig Robert’s native South Wales, the inspiration for the character of Jane at the heart of ETERNAL BEAUTY came from people Craig was close to when growing up. He explains “The character came fully formed. I just kind of knew those people, to be honest. In most movies that I’ve seen that tackle mental health or mental health issues, the protagonists are always the victim, or they’re deranged and possessed and it’s a horror film. I wanted to flip it. I’d rarely seen it where you’re like, ‘Oh, wait, she’s the normal one; everyone else is the one that’s not normal.’ I wanted to take this psychological element of it, and go, ‘this maybe isn’t a weakness. Maybe it’s a superpower.’”
Craig Roberts’ unique screen portrayal of schizophrenia, a much-misunderstood condition was also informed by medical specialists he consulted with on the script. The reality we see through Jane’s eyes is a different vivid reality, heightened in the film by the stylized palette, camera work and intoxicating score - a reality that the film celebrates is as valid as anybody else’s and treats it with dignity, humour and affection.
Sally Hawkins gives a compelling performance playing the character of Jane. Craig Roberts had worked with Sally previously in a couple of films as an actor, and she was his only choice for the role which he wrote for her. She recalls her reaction to the character on reading the script: “I remember just opening the first couple of pages, and I was so moved by it. I felt, ‘I just know her. I recognise her. And I’m incredibly moved by her, by everything she’s trying to communicate to survive, to get by.’ It was such a unique way of seeing it, like someone is inside her head, who understood that character and every sinew of her being... There’s a real compassion in the way Craig sees her. There’s a real love. And a real wisdom. It’s not demonstrated. It’s not patronised. It’s not sentimental at any stage. It’s all stripped bare of that. There’s a lot to learn with seeing people who have been seen in a weak position previously, or compartmentalised. But you can’t compartmentalise her. You can’t predict her. And that is just a joy to play. She’s completely, terrifyingly, unpredictable.”
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