Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh until Thu 12 Jan

Carol Morley / UK / 2011 / 95 mins

It can appear vacantly philosophical or even haughty to claim that we live in a completely disconnected world which is supposedly globally “connected”. The Internet has long since been a moral minefield on issues of intimacy, individuality and community – a debate which may be a pertinent one in society but loses its energy as time passes. Director Carol Morley picks up this idea in her quasi-documentary about Joyce Vincent who died in her flat in North London in 2003, remaining undiscovered until 2006.

At first, there is something uneasy about Morley’s film; the recreated interviews with friends and family seem to sentimentalise something which would remain as potent without the use of actors. It almost makes the film feel awkward and forced, yet as the analysis of Joyce’s behaviour and the violent influence of her past is discussed by the characters, it reveals something which lingers with an alien stillness over the film’s surface. What eclipsed the tragedy of Joyce’s death was not the event itself, or even how long it took to discover her body, but the influences of a lifetime that produced a nomadic existence which nobody but Joyce herself could understand. Not only is this respected by the level of detail in Morley’s background research but it is immortalised by the solemn beauty of the cinematography.