THE LORELEI
Mol Smith has made 2 feature films (Tainted Love, Dark Matter) and half a dozen or so shorts in just 3 years, from a background with nothing to do with film making.
Untrained, old enough to be a grandfather, his films are quirky, different, and with a unique style that marks them as original and thought provoking
whilst retaining the trait of compulsive watching.
Having now ‘cut his teeth’ on these early movies, he is producing a new feature film (shooting June to August), where he promises to introduce entirely new methods to independent film making.
The Lorelei is based on the myth of Sirens and mermaids, in particular – The Lorelei, a mermaid inhabiting the waters of The River Rhine in Germany.
His new tale is based in Oxfordshire, where numerous canals, waterways, streams, and rivers, spread like tangled webs throughout the countryside surrounding Oxford.
Genre-wise, he refuses to have his films specifically categorised, saying… “My films are mixed genre. They veer towards physiological horror movies but remain puzzles to be
solved by the audience”.
The Lorelei promises to be 105 minutes in length, and aims to be a highly stylised, breaking the rules of Protagonist, antagonist, story arcs. Instead , he says, “In my new movie, you’ll want to follow every character”.
He says, having watch thousands of movies, it is so predictable to understand what is going to happen. Film making and story telling is following old and safe models instead of exploring
exciting, new , and novel ways of intoxicating audiences of now… an audience sophisticated in absorbing quickly visual imagery and complex stories. Never before has a generation
been bombarded with so many moving images as this one, and they’ve moved ahead of normal linear story telling and are quickly bored by hackneyed themes and out-of-date methodology.
I want to give them something different. The Lorelei will be my first real attempt to do exactly that!
When asked about the cast, he says that so far he is still hunting with casting calls for 3 main characters and struggling to find people with the high degree of skill and charisma required for the roles.