“One of Summer 2017’s best movies.” – The Guardian
“Film of the week: Edith Walks makes England loopy again.” – Sight & Sound
“I loved it to pieces.” Mark Kermode, BBC Radio 5 Live
★★★★ “Andrew Kötting brings his bric-a-brac style to a walk in King Harold’s footsteps.” – Financial Times
★★★★ “A wonderfully eccentric film.” – The Observer
★★★★ “[This] quest is at once piss-takingly absurd and profoundly resonant.” – The Skinny
★★★★ “Edith Walks benefits from a story as cerebral as its style is quirky, as well as an excellent whimsical performance from Barton.” – The Upcoming
★★★★ “A truly unusual film which offers way more than you would have bargained for.” – HeyUGuys
★★★★ ” The future of humanity will be okay as long as artist, filmmaker and galavanting bohemian, Andrew Kötting, just keeps on keeping on.” – Little White Lies (print only)
★★★★ “Kötting’s project is in large part a lark; and it’s his mixing of fairly serious intellectual conjecture with whimsy, jokes and gossip that gives it its life.” – Sight & Sound (print only)
Edith Walks is a 60 minute 66 second feature film inspired by a walk from Waltham Abbey in Essex via Battle Abbey to St Leonards-on-Sea in East Sussex.
The film documents a pilgrimage in memory of Edith Swan Neck. Bits of King Harold’s body were brought to Waltham for burial near the High Altar after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and his hand fast wife Edith Swan Neck is seen cradling him in a remarkable sculpture at Grosvenor Gardens on the sea front in St Leonards. The film re-connects the lovers after 950 years of separation. The 108 mile journey, as the crow flies, allows the audience to reflect upon all things Edith. A conversation in Northampton between Alan Moore, Iain Sinclair and Edith Swan Neck is also a key element to the unfolding ‘story’. With images shot using digital super 8 iphones and sound recorded using a specially constructed music box with a boom microphone the film unfolds chronologically but in a completely unpredictable way. The numerous encounters and impromptu performances en route are proof, as if needed, that the angels of happenstance were to looking down upon the troop, with Edith as their hallucination. Starring David Aylward, Claudia Barton, Anonymous Bosch, Jem Finer, Andrew Kötting, Alan Moore and Iain Sinclair.
Edith Walks will be preceded by Eden Kötting’s short film, Forgotten the Queen a 10 minute and 66 second film made in collaboration with Andrew Kötting and Glenn Whiting with music by Jem Finer. Forgotten the Queen is a short animated film that digs into themes inspired by the life of Edith Swan Neck. Eden’s drawings and collages are brought to life by Glenn Whiting and tossed into the time-line like flotsam from a demented passion. Meantime Edith’s eyes fix on the man-shadows overhead, resplendent in their didactic belief systems and stupid hats, which seem to have blighted women since the beginning of time. King Harold would not have approved because despite the fact that time itself can touch you like a feather, stupid men keep firing their bloody arrows.
Screenings of Edith Walks will be accompanied by the short film Forgotten The Queen from Director Eden Kötting…
The Dual Edition Bluray and DVD of Edith Walks is now available to buy from our bookshop or on the Cornerhouse Publications website.
For bookings and enquiries, please contact the HOME Artist Film team at artistfilm@homemcr.org
The Guardian has listed the film among the top films of Summer 2017 – read the article here. Listen to our Edith Walks review in our June film podcast. Skip to the 10.30 mark!