Retro in interesting ways and visually luscious, 100 Nights of Hero represents a compelling if uneven sophomore effort from British writer-director Julia Jackman, swerving here from the affable comic 2000s-set realism of her debut, Bonus Track, into fantasy territory. Adapted by Jackman from Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel of the same name, this queer, feminism-forward romance posits a quasi-medieval world where patriarchy is in full swing and women aren’t even supposed to know how to read or write.
Luckily, storytelling is still allowed. So maid Hero (Emma Corrin) uses her narrative skills to distract the household’s predatory guest, Manfred (Nicholas Galitzine, Red, White & Royal Blue), from his efforts to seduce her beloved lady of manor Cherry (Maika Monroe, Longlegs) when Cherry’s duplicitous husband Jerome (Amir El Masry) goes away on business. The final result is so eccentric, fey and surprisingly dark, viewers may start to expect anything could happen — like pop superstar Charli xcx showing up in a supporting role as an unlucky bride with barely any lines but a sumptuous assortment of jewel-toned gowns.
100 Nights of Hero
The Bottom Line
Visually lush but a little vapid.
Venue: Venice Film Festival (Critics’ Week)
Cast: Emma Corrin, Nicholas Galitzine, Maika Monroe, Amir El Masry, Charli XCX, Richard E. Grant, Felicity Jones, Varada Sethu, Tom Stourton, Christopher Fairbank, Safia Oakley-Green, Clare Perkins
Director: Julia Jackman
Screenwriter: Julia Jackman based on the graphic novel One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg
1 hour 30 minutes
Truly, the costumes here, designed by Susie Coulthard (whose design work on TV series Mrs. Davis and Brave New World was similarly above and beyond), deserve pre-title billing. Some might even say the ‘fits risk upstaging the cast. But that’s certainly not the case with the leads, especially Corrin, who can look chic, gamine and supple as a birch tree in anything, as proven by their frequent modeling and catwalk gigs for Miu Miu and their ability to make the kookiest of outfits work on the red carpet. Given that Hero is a lower-class character compared to Monroe’s Cherry, Coulthard keeps them dressed mostly in severe minimalist black, but they do get to wear the most exquisite white hat, a sculptural work that looks like a cross between a nun’s wimple, a pilgrim’s capotain and a tribute to the Himalayas, while a starched white collar with points so sharp they could maim frames Corrin/Hero’s elfin features.
Slighter, more traditionally femme Cherry/Monroe has to work it to hold her own. For her, Coulthard goes all out with intricately pleated bishop’s sleeves; massive neckpieces fashioned from pheasant feathers; corsets seemingly made out of deconstructed bread baskets; and a few white hats just for her, including one memorable single-peaked structure Georgia O’Keeffe might have designed, with frothy wings made up of starched layers, frilly as a vulva.
Elsewhere, Coulthard and Jackman manage to convey the menfolk’s essential ridiculousness by having many of them wear papier-mâché bird’s beaks, symbols of their faith in local deity Birdman (Richard E. Grant), not to be confused with Michael Keaton’s alter ego in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). These Birdman-disciples are severe kill-joys who consider women merely vessels for heirs.
As the film starts, an imposing high table of elders berates Cherry’s husband Jerome (El Masry) for having failed to impregnate his wife, and they give him 101 nights to knock her up. It’s strongly hinted that women are not Jerome’s cup of tea in the bedroom, so when his thrustingly hetero friend Manfred shows up, raring to deflower any virgins on hand, Jerome offers him a wager that frankly doesn’t make much sense. If he manages to seduce Cherry while Jerome is away, he will give Manfred to her along with his castle. If Manfred fails, Jerome gets Manfred’s castle. Either way, Cherry will be the loser.
In Greenberg’s novel, Cherry and Hero are already secret lovers who conspire to thwart the menfolk’s machinations. Here, though, the love between the two women grows at the same time that Manfred attempts to woo Cherry with traditional courtly efforts, like compliments and showing up in the morning covered in blood with a freshly slaughtered stag. Who could resist?
But each night, Hero’s stories before bedtime prove so entrancing that Manfred fails to go through with any seducing, let alone ravishing. The tale Hero mostly tells is one of three beautiful sisters, the daughters of a merchant, who form a secret society of literate women who collect and record stories. The youngest of those sisters, Rosa, is played by the aforementioned Charli xcx, contributing a serviceable performance that doesn’t demand much of her apart from the need to look ravishingly exotic and rocking her famous mane of brunette waves.
It all feels like the film is setting up for nested tales within tales, but instead the layers don’t go that deep. Nor does the film offer up much in the way of thematic substance beyond love (between women) is grand, men are mostly bad, and matriarchal societies are better than patriarchies.
But there’s a goofy sense of humor that runs through the material that’s charming, found for instance in the guards who are so besotted with Hero’s stories, like people addicted to soap operas, that they resist hurting the women. And in addition to Coulthard’s stunning costumes, production designer Sofia Sacomani creates imposing, intricately detailed sets that help build the world out with help from well-chosen locations, such as the ever photogenic (and much used in film) Knebworth House, with its Victorian-made Tudor-Gothic turrets and gewgaws.
The combination of mock-medieval silhouettes with all those big hats and acres of fabric in contrast with the lush sets somewhat brings to mind the delirious period pastiche design ethos of the late Derek Jarman, himself a production designer early in his career. But Jarman’s films were ultimately more subversive and intellectual than this decorative but slight work — the sort of movie that won’t offend anyone and will bring out celebrities and stars in interesting outfits for the red carpet, making it perfect programming fodder for festival closing nights. Indeed, it will perform that very service for the Critics’ Week strand at the Venice Film Festival and for the BFI London Film Festival in October.