23 November 2010

The Lady Lovelace Deception System


This short thriller, written and directed by Alexandre Moors is twelve minutes of cool, dark science fiction.

It has been around the festival circuit and has been featured at ResFest and the Hollywood Film Festival. It has a very noir look to it – and a certain steampunk retro-sophistication which do more to evoke a back story than the film itself.

As it is only twelve minute long the plot is far from convoluted, yet I found the short time went by very quickly, such was my engagement with the subject matter.

Peculiarly, I found myself to be the greatest distraction while watching the movie.  I kept wondering whether the program had been so named as a kind of homage to Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace.

As she is widely regarded as the world's first computer programmer I thought it was appropriate but then wondered whether or not she would approve of such an homage.  And so it went on.

Don't let me put you off, however.  The Lady Lovelace Deception System is one of those short films that you find yourself thinking about a while after you have watched it. It lodges somewhere in your brain and keeps coming back in flashback. Which is good.

It should be noted here that The Lady Lovelace Deception System is adult themed and although there is nothing really in it to startle your grandmother, one or two scenes are a little saucy - so you may want to save it till you are at home if you are reading this at work.  And if you are reading this at work, well done.  Ride this recession out in your obviously boring but unsupervised job.

In the future virtual reality is a means to an end – for many men at least. Frank lives a life of what you might call quiet desperation, his life made a little less lonely by the Lady Lovelace Deception System.

In this other world he and others like him can enjoy the virtual performance of Lady Lovelace. Soon he is joined by other men to witness the evening’s performance and all are in awe of the image of beauty they see before them.

All except one.