For her debut feature film, Irish director Alexandra McGuinness has created a bacchanal of fashion and fast-living reminiscent of Antonioni’s Blow-Up and Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. Inspired by the story of Odysseus’ sailors losing all desire tfor home after tasting the fruit of the Lotus

plant, Lotus Eaters, follows a clique of privileged sybarites living an increasingly decadent and vacuous London existence.

Among them is Alice, an ex-model and struggling actress who is jaded by her friends hedonistic lifestyle, tired of the unbridled excess and the white-noise of the morning after. Her path negotiates the fracturing relationships of her friends as she struggles to find a life that will make her happy.

Shot in black and white and featuring a host of hot young fashion designers such as Simone Rocha, alongside nascent acting talent like Antonia Campbell-Hughes and singer/songwriter Johnny Flynn, Lotus Eaters is more than just a beautiful film, it’s a paean to contemporary London.

But while the backdrop of local cafés and boutiques immortalises the capital’s vibrance, the overall effect is more fantastic than real. Like Evelyn Waugh’s Bright Young People before them, McGuinness’ lotus eaters belong to a perennial epoch of youth, where despite beauty and riches, all that glitters is not gold.

Lotus Eaters premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
lotuseatersmovie.com

Tags: Alexandra McGuinness, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Blow-up, Evelyn Waugh, Johnny Flynn, La Dolce Vita, Lotus Eaters, simone rocha