Boy Meets Girl (1994)

A man meets a woman in a bar, the two go back to her flat and begin watching porno films. The man passes out and wakes to find himself strapped to a dentist chair. The woman, along with her accomplice begin to torture the man.

Director:

Ray Brady

Writers:

Ray Brady, Jim Crosbie

Stars:

Tim Poole, Danielle Sanderson, Margot Steinberg

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tim Poole	...	Tevin
Danielle Sanderson	...	Julia
Margot Steinberg	...	Anne Marie
Susan Warren	...	Woman in chair
Nathalie Khanna	...	Tevin's Wife
Myuki Smith Khanna	...	Tevin's Child
Pierre Smith Khanna	...	Tevin's Child
Georgina Whitbourne	...	Female Victim on Monitor
Robert Haynes	...	Branded Man
John Reid	...	Hanging Man
Ray Brady	...	Laughing Man
Chris Read	...	Whipped Man
Pam Hogg	...	Woman in Bar
Patrick Lelarge	...	Person in Bar
Sam Taylor-Johnson	...	Person in Bar (as Sam Taylor-Woods)

Storyline

A woman picks a man up in a bar and takes him back to her place. He thinks he is going to get laid, she has over plans. She proceeds to drug him and incarcerate him in a chair in her basement before torturing him, physically and phycologically. It starts as an S&M excercise and goes to somewhere much much darker.

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Plot Keywords:

dentist chair | torture | s&m | sadism | blood | 

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Taglines:

Too controversial to release

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Genres:

Drama | Horror

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

1994 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Boy meets Girl - Liebe mit Hindernissen

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kino Eye

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When filming in a council flat location in south London, Georgina Whitbourne was so convincing in her portrayal as a hysterically screaming victim that two vans loads of policemen arrived and stormed the set to save her, bringing filming to a halt.

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Connections

Featured in Banned in the UK: Early '90s (2005)

User Reviews

A lost classic - macabre, marvellous... mandatory!

One of the many things I love about DVD, as a medium, is the way that so many wonderful films that never got the video release they so richly deserved have being unearthed from the vaults and unleashed on the viewing public - usually a public that can't even remember them from the first time round at that.

One such forgotten gem is Ray Brady's "Boy Meets Girl" (1994, UK) which although responsible for huge amounts of controversy upon its theatrical release (BBFC not liking its subject matter, for some reason!), never seems to get mentioned by many folk any more. Luckily, after being banned on video in the UK since its inception, it got a nicely put-together R2 DVD release in 2002 so now there's no excuse for having not seen this terrifying slice of thought-provoking brutality...

The film begins, as the title suggests, when Boy Meets Girl in that all-too-familiar setting of a divey little bar somewhere. Girl is French, quite the 'randy little tart' it seems, so Boy thinks he's struck lucky, especially when she takes him back to her flat, plies him with wine and asks if he'd like to watch some porn with her. It's all very exciting but after a glass of wine he starts to feel a bit woozy and ... oops! Quicker than you can say "she drugged your drink, dude!", Boy wakes up to find he is in a small room with black walls, strapped into a dentist's chair. Girl is not actually French at all. She's also not particularly nice either. Bad things ensue. VERY bad things... and she wants to film it all.

I'd love to tell you more, because the way I've put it probably makes it sound like one of the "Guinea Pig" films (which it's quite a far cry from!), but I also don't want to spoil the plot for you. I WILL however go as far as to say, the entire thing takes place in the black room with minimal cast members (which all lends it quite a 'theatrical' feel), so major cred points distributed all round for creating such a continuously tense and edgy atmosphere that keeps you guessing and utterly engrossed right up until the final few grotesque scenes.

There are so many things in this deeply unusual film's favour that enable it to be so effective. The direction, despite an obvious shoestring budget, manages to be stylish and taut, using camera trickery and plot-contextual switching between film and video to keep things looking lively. The acting is surprisingly strong, considering the relative obscurity of the cast members. Danielle Sanderson (sadly never seen in anything else) is nothing short of unforgettable, playing her unstable character with a disarming mix of light and dark. One minute she's soothing, sensual, almost maternal and the next she's positively fearsome, spewing forth verbal bile with the maniacal savagery. It would be so easy for some of her dialogue to be delivered with a large side order of ham, but Sanderson makes her character believable through the intensity of her performance. I *really* wish she'd made other films. It's tragic to think of such an incredible talent being wasted.

Of course, what REALLY makes this movie is the razor-sharp script, unpredictable and surprisingly complexed as it is. On top of its constant heartfelt assaults on the (at the time very hot) topic of violence in media, it relishes in playing with your mind and your personal politics, when it comes to morality. The lines between good and evil, right and wrong, continually shift (along with the viewer's sympathies). It's almost disorientating, the way the characterisations manipulate perceptions of what's going on and, by the time the plot reaches its ferociously visceral climax, the impact is made all the greater, because you're being made to THINK about what's going on instead of just watching it through zombified, desensitised eyes.

"Boy Meets Girl" is one of the more genuinely disturbing films I've seen. Obviously being creeped out by the movies is a very subjective, personal thing but, like I say, this one definitely did it for me. The closest comparisons I could make would be to place it in a similar category to "Man Bites Dog" or "Audition". Fiercely original, darkly comic at times but ultimately very harrowing indeed.

Overall Rating: A no-budget 9.5 out of 10.