Dreams of a Life opened in Irish cinemas on Friday, 6th January. This chilling film tells the true story of Joyce Carol Vincent, a 38 year-old woman that society tragically forgot, whose decomposing body was discovered in a north-London flat, where it had lain for three years. Dreams of a Life is an Irish co-production with the bulk of the dramatic reconstructions being shot in Dublin.
Director Carol Morley and actress Zawe Ashton, who plays Joyce Carol Vincent, were in attendance at Friday’s IFI screening and participated in a post-screening Q&A, chaired by Dearbhla Walsh, giving the audience an insight into the reality behind Dreams of a Life and the forgotten woman who died in such bleak and forsaken circumstances.
Morley came upon the tragic story in an English newspaper and ‘it struck me as very, very powerful,’ she told the audience, ‘this image of a woman the same age as me, dying alone and not being discovered and this television flickering over her. When I read it I just couldn’t let it go. It felt very profound. It wasn’t just the three years that she lay there, but also the television being on. It was the sense of these images and sounds of this television going over her. In my own life there are times of being solitary and lonely, and you often use the television as a companion. So I found that quite a powerful image.’
Morley noted how anonymous Joyce was in the article, the sum of bits of forensic evidence and misinformation. She couldn’t let it go and started to try to find out more information behind the newspaper piece. People wanted to know how she died but as Morley found herself become more involved she wanted to celebrate her life as an attractive and intelligent young woman with dreams of becoming a singer.
Morley began to take on the role of a private investigator – but rather than trying to make a film that sought to say this is Joyce – she wanted to make a film of people’s hypothesis of who Joyce was. Morley’s film is not about pointing the finger of blame but rather about giving Joyce a legacy beyond blame and ‘bringing Joyce to life in the best possible way.’
The film uses dramatic reconstructions as a means of breathing life into Joyce and take the documentary beyond mere facts and opinions. Morley admits that she ‘wanted to create an almost dreamlike quality and look at different aspects of her life. I feel we have a public life and a private life and an inner life and I wanted to bring that into the film.’
Zawe Ashton came to the project after Morley had seen her performing in a play in Soho Theatre in west London for Clean Break, a company that helps rehabilitate women who are ex-offenders and at risk of offending through theatre education. Morley remembers ‘loving Zawe immediately’ when she came to audition for the role of Joyce and was able to bring out the inner life of Joyce that Morley wanted to portray. Something she does so effectively in a particularly memorable one-shot scene when she sings ‘My Smile Is Just a Frown (Turned Upside Down)’ in its entirety. For Ashton the scene is a culmination of the dreams that hadn’t come to fruition for Joyce. Morley added that the scene was important for her to create a space and almost ‘give Joyce her voice back’ and to give her ‘her moment’.
With Dreams of a Life, Morley achieves that and more in this haunting and heartbreaking tale.
Steven Galvin
Dreams of a Life continues at the IFI
For more information and discussions on the film, visit http://dreamsofalife.com/
