John May, played by the brilliant Eddie Marsan, is a dull man. He dresses in dull clothes, lives in a dull apartment, works in a dull office, lives a dull life in solitude, and adheres to a dull routine. He appears to have no family or friends. How appropriate then, that his job requires him to organize a dignified burial for deceased individuals who have no family of their own.

John takes great pride in his work, and his organized, dull nature seems to allow him to put the utmost care into every facet of the deceased person's farewell service. In fact, it is this great attention to detail that seems to be the sole reason that his employer terminates…

Uberto Pasolini (no relation, but actually Visconti's nephew) made the ingenious choice of propelling Eddie Marsan to leading man in this wonderful film that has its indie sensibilities materializing through a serenade using all of your heart strings.
A quiet, simple, respectful man has the perfect job for his personality; he offers those of us whome are unfortunate enough to leave this life with no one looking after or over us as dignified a final passage as is possible.
It's an important subject, and now and then it is covered in Norwegian media (and even books) as well. A fate worse than death is actually possible, and it is visualized in Still Life: getting your ashes lumbered together with a…

With Nick Frost given his own feature film to front earlier in the year, the fine talents of Eddie Marsan have also finally been rewarded. He has been one of the most reliable character actors around for some time now and he is in fine form again in this sombre, lo-key affair.

The film is directed by Uberto Pasolini who has mostly worked as a producer over the course of his career, most notably The Full Monty. He uses the ambiguous title to carefully develop the character of Marsan's John May from his static, photo-like life to one that is tempted by the idea of enjoying what the world has to offer him.

Photographs play a key part in the…

John May has an unusual occupation. From his grey office (it's quite well lit, just grey coloured), He attempts to locate the friends and family of those who have died lonely deaths in his South London borough.

John May has an unusual life. Nightly, in his impeccably clean flat, he eats his upended tin of tuna from a plate with one slice of dry toast on the side.

John May has an unusual shock coming to him. All in one day he's sent to investigate a death in his block and finds himself out of a job. With his closest case turning out to be his last, John May throws caution to the wind and sets out to delve a…

Anyone who was rightly moved by Carol Morley's beautiful 2011 documentary Dreams of a Life about Joyce Vincent, a woman whose body lay undetected in her flat for three years, will be equally moved by this fictional tale about such overlooked bereavements and the one man whose precise and methodical nature means he is dedicated to giving them the fitting send off they deserve. Be warned though, you better have some tissues at the ready because this one is heartbreaking.

There's more than a touch of Mike Leigh to the proceedings too, most notably in the hangdog, forlorn features of Eddie Marsan, a long time Leigh leading man and an equally long time favourite of mine, in the central role…

Review from Next Projection

A film that remains far less feted than it deserves to be, Carol Morley’s incredible documentary Dreams of a Life uncovered, via its investigation of the life of a woman found in her London home three years after her death, a harrowing image of isolation amidst civilisation, of the loneliness of being lost among the crowd. Would that we were one in a million, as the old adage goes; being but one among seven thousand times that can make one feel both surrounded and subsumed. That’s the concern, similarly, of Uberto Pasolini’s Still Life, an enormously affecting and steadfastly unsympathetic evocation of loneliness in the modern world, a stark reminder that sometimes the best we can…

If I had to pick the most underrated actor in the whole of the movie business I would go for Eddie Marsan . 
A prolific actor who everyone has seen in one film or another and who never gives a bad performance and Still Life is the perfect example. 

In this , Eddie plays a employee who dedicates his life to tracking down the next-of-kin and arranging funerals for his community's unclaimed dead.

It’s a performance that is understated yet brilliant . You totally believe this man , who seems a little bit OCD and loves his job , that he will do what he can for these dead people and their families even though his own life outside of…

Ich hatte schon im Voraus das Gefühl, dass Still Life mir zusagen würde. Die Thematik fand ich ansprechend. Die Melancholie und eigenwillige Inszenierung des Films passen dann auch wie die Faust aufs Auge. Besser als mit Eddy Marsan hätte man Mr. May auch nicht besetzten können.

Trotz der vielen stimmigen Einzelteile wusste ich lange nicht, wie ich den Film den bewerten würde. Als am Schluss bei mir aber dann sämtliche Dämme gebrochen sind, wusste ich dass ich hier die höchste Note zücken muss. Ich glaube, man muss Still Life als eine Art Märchen verstehen. Ein Märchen der besten Sorte. Dies hat sich mir erst mit etwas Abstand erschlossen. Aber heutzutage ist es Auszeichnung genug, wenn man sich noch Stunden nach…

Who will remember you when you’re gone? What lives have you touched in such a way that you’ve left a mark that cannot be erased? What sort of power lies in connection and what in solitude? Who does the caring when there’s no one left to care? As an achingly simple piece, this film examines those basic but important human questions. British quietude wins the day yet again, with a crushingly understated but beautiful performance from Eddie Marsan. His somber but effective John May moves purposefully through this movie, trying to pull together the broken pieces of one man’s life as a way to salvage his own with quiet, almost otherworldly grace. The characters he meets along this journey are…

If I had to pick the most underrated actor in the whole of the movie business I would go for Eddie Marsan . 
A prolific actor who everyone has seen in one film or another and who never gives a bad performance and Still Life is the perfect example. 

In this , Eddie plays a employee who dedicates his life to tracking down the next-of-kin and arranging funerals for his community's unclaimed dead.

It’s a performance that is understated yet brilliant . You totally believe this man , who seems a little bit OCD and loves his job , that he will do what he can for these dead people and their families even though his own life outside of…

Mr. May (Eddie Marsan) is a council case worker trying to find the relatives of people who died sudden and alone. His job means his life to him and he – a lonely man himself - is very accurate and considerate about „his“ deceased.
One day he is informed about being dismissed from the job as a result of reorganizations in his department. He has one last case – to find the relatives of a man named William Stoke. He becomes deeply absorbed in finding Stokes family and reveal the story behind the name.

In telling his story writer/director Uberto Pasolini never leaves the boundaries of the realistic, he doesn’t allow himself to sentimental tricks. His tale is sober and…