The Edge Of The Map Of Love

Posters are all over London, featuring two beautiful young starlets, for the new movie The Edge Of Love, opening in Britain on the 20th of June. Nowhere do the posters suggest that the protagonist, and main theme of the film, is Dylan Thomas. At some point, Eyewear will want to review the film. For now, what's telling is how the people behind the marketing campaign (probably grosser versions of mediocre Lee McQueen) thought it best to hide, rather than share, the poetry at the heart of this romantic biopic.

Ironically, Dylan Thomas may (just barely) be one of the only modern poets the average cinemagoer can still name. And, his life of apparent drink and erotic encounters (or erotic encounters with drink), is hardly of zero interest in the time and place of Amy Winheouse et al. Anyway, this marks another low point in poetry's intersection with mass culture. The fact that a key element of the film, the poet's attempt to get the law to punish a drunken accidental gunman, has been "dramatised" (in "real life" Thomas was sympathetic to the man) hardly fills one with much hope. It seems like a missed opportunity, concocting false drama in the life of a larger-than-life cultural figure, who, from the sounds of it, experienced more than enough real drama for several people.

Speaking of McQueen, The Apprentice is a show trial for all that is wrong with contemporary Britain. Each time Alan Sugar had the chance to reward creativity (as in the tissues advert) or style, he opted for the lowest common denominator (and usually a man). It's particularly unfortunate that a self-confessed liar and CV-cheat should be rewarded so publicly. What signals does this send to our children, etc? No truth in film or advertising! What is the world coming too?! Sigh.

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