By our selves

Andrew Kötting rejoins his two sidekicks Iain Sinclair, writer, also a big territory pacer, and Alan Moore, legendary author of comics whose beard and inimitable Northamptonshire accent blend into the rural, Middle-England setting of this new wandering in the footsteps of John Clare. A Romantic poet, one of the greats of the 19th century, reputedly insane and actually interned in an asylum for many years, one day in 1841 he fl ed on a 140 kilometres walk through the countryside. Kötting in turn travels through a black and white landscape that sometimes serves as an imaginary reconstruction haunted by the poet’s obsessions or else as an outdoor studio where the sound engineer captures the words of experts and informal discussions about John Clare, the whole cut with personal archives featuring Eden, the director’s daughter. One meets mysterious characters there, contemporary echoes of Clare’s genius in grasping the popular and rural England from which he emerged, like a straw giant. During the film, this unknown corner of England becomes the centre of gravity of British literary and artistic life – a “black hole” even, according to Alan Moore, as the great poets would eventually be sucked into it. Toby Jones, who is accustomed to Hollywood productions, portrays a mute John Clare and is seen here with his father, Freddie Jones, Lynch’s favourite actor, a duo possessed by the spirit of the British poet. (CG)