Lady

Lady, from first-time feature director Samuel Abrahams, sees Sian Clifford (Fleabag) take on the role of Lady Isabella: a larger-than-life, incredibly posh and sublimely eccentric aristocrat who hoodwinks a down-on-his-luck but Bafta-nominated film director to document her comically banal daily life in Lady.

The film follows Lady Isabella, as shot by an off-screen and hilariously disobedient film crew helmed by the young, ambitious but unconfident director Sam (Laurence Kynaston), who, supposedly hired by Netflix, arrives at Lady Isabella’s stately home to film a documentary for which nobody quite understands the reason or the vision. Lady Isabella, a lonely aristocrat with no company other than those in her employ and an unfeeling and absent husband, is one part stereotype of the British upper classes in her posh-and-proud self-importance and another part tragic character haunted by unimaginable loss and driven solely by a burgeoning desire for an artistic legacy to which her grand stately home provides no comfort. When Lady Isabella decides to enter “Stately Stars”, the yearly talent contest she hosts for underprivileged children, with an act she hasn’t quite figured out and with the revelation that Netflix did not, in fact, commission the project, Sam comes to his wits’ end and threatens to leave the production, which results in wholly unexpected and surprisingly supernatural consequences.

Abraham’s mockumentary occasionally has notes of Wes Anderson, with each passing act providing suitably stylised transitional snapshots of Lady Isabella’s wonderfully bizarre but somewhat endearing creative pursuits. At other times, it feels like a loose-limbed, improvisational-led film that allows its cast the freedom to play within their roles. Clifford is undoubtedly having a blast in the lead role and, already known for her comedic chops and scene-stealing capabilities in her Bafta-winning turn in Fleabag, hits all the right notes as “the aristocracy’s answer to the Kardashians”, delivering shades of Joanna Lumley but minus the self-awareness, bringing a gloriously cringe Lady Isabella to life. Laurence Kynaston plays his part well as the talented but slightly gormless film director Sam, who is plagued by an unruly crew, to which the camera’s lens provides an active and impudent participant in the events that unfold, and a fickle subject in Lady Isabella.

There’s not much that’s ground breaking work here, but in the current landscape of the British debut feature so often being tired, social realist exercises that attempt to recreate the spark of Andrea Arnold or Mike Leigh, Abrahams’s Lady comes as a real breath of fresh air and perhaps signals a changing of the tide and the return of the British genre-driven filmmaker that we so desperately need. With an expectedly witty yet heartfelt performance from Sian Clifford as the self-absorbed and perfectly unhinged Lady Isabella, Lady is a rollicking, belly-laugh-inducing riff on the modern British aristocracy, and undoubtedly one of the best British debut features of the year. 

Ronan Fawsitt

Lady does not have a release date yet.

Read more reviews from our London Film Festival coverage here.

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