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The Cost of Living (2004 film)

The Cost of Living
The faces of three identical clowns standing side by side, facing right, on a sky blue background with title text written above, DV8 PHYSICAL THEATRE, THE COST OF LIVING, "EXTRAORDINARY". The "Digital Classics DVD" logo is in the bottom right corner
DVD box art
Directed by Lloyd Newson
Produced by Nikki Weston
Written by Lloyd Newson
Based on The Cost of Living - stage production by DV8 Physical Theatre
Starring Eddie Kay, David Toole, Vivien Wood, Tanja Liedtke, Rowan Thorpe, Kareena Oates, Tom Hodgson, Jose Maria Alves, Robin Dingemans, Eddie Nixon
Narrated by John Avery
Music by Paul Charlier, Jonathan Cooper, Nick Hooper
Cinematography Cameron Barnett
Edited by Stuart Briggs
Production
company
Distributed by Channel 4 (TV) and Digital Classics DVD
Running time
35 min
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Budget £250,000

The Cost of Living is a British physical theatre dance film made in 2004 by DV8 Films Ltd. and Channel 4. It is an adaptation of a stage production by DV8 Physical Theatre. Directed by Lloyd Newson, the founder of DV8 Physical Theatre, the film uses dance, dialogue and physical theatre to tell the story of two street performers and their interaction with other performers in Cromer, a seaside resort town, at the end of the summer season. The film has won a number of awards.

The cast are:

The characters use the actors' actual first names.

The principal characters Dave (David Toole) and Eddie (Eddie Kay) are out of work performers in a seaside resort at the end of the summer. Dave is a double amputee dancer determined to keep his independence in spite of his disability, Eddie is a tough, aggressive character who believes in justice and respect. Through a series of scenes and dances Dave and Eddie encounter and interact with other people living on the fringe of society.

The film was well received by critics and also won a number of awards at film festivals in various countries.

This is a piece about something, and someone, who is great, about what a profound pleasure it is to encounter greatness, and about what a persistent concern it is that we live in a culture, more specifically a dance culture, that resists such greatness.

Nearly every scene strikes the heart: Eddie's disruption of a brilliantly choreographed six-clown routine; his caustic hostility to gays; Eddie and Dave looking down on a lawn at two women dancers prancing on the green; Dave giving a sexual come-on to an imaginary woman in a pub; Dave verbally harassed by a man with a video camera, followed by a swaying fantasy dance, echoed by the other dancers; Rowan's first encounters with the hula-hooper (Kareena Oates), and their growing romance, all done with silence and hoops; Dave's fluid floor-dance with a woman in a dance studio; and the astonishing final scene, with Eddie and Dave on the beach, speculating about moving to New York and making it on the club circuit.

There was an unexpected outbreak of artiness on Channel 4 on Sunday night, when DV8 Physical Theatre were given 45 minutes of post-pub screentime to air a mixed-media piece, The Cost of Living. Despite a few annoying moments involving masks, this was a very beautiful mishmash of dance and dialogue set on the north Norfolk coast, featuring a man with no legs who danced on his hands, an aggressive Scottish man who danced like an elegant Bez, and a really awesome routine to Cher's Believe. The piece came to Channel 4 laden with awards, and it's not hard to see why - it was beautiful, provocative, political and erotic. It was probably watched by two people and a dog, but it almost made me want to forgive Channel 4 for Big Brother.


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