Raving and ranting

HUMAN TRAFFIC
****

Starring John Simm, Lorraine Pilkington. Written and directed by Justin Kerrigan.

BY JASON ANDERSON

The first thing you should know is that Justin Kerrigan's Human Traffic is the only feature to authentically capture the euphoria and camaraderie of British rave culture. Finally, the raving is no mere background for a crap youth film or crime thriller, but the whole point of the exercise. And Human Traffic has the right tunes (house, techno and drum 'n' bass tracks, plus classics by Primal Scream and Orbital), the right chemicals (ecstasy, pot, coke and lager) and the right feel, from the time Jip (John Simm) and his friends in Cardiff, Wales, come up on Friday night to when they land softly on Sunday afternoon.

It hardly matters that Human Traffic doesn't have much of a plot. "There's very little story," agrees Kerrigan while in town recently. "There's only one problem resolved, and that's Jip's monumental case of Mr. Floppy." Kerrigan, who grew up in Cardiff, swears that "everything in Human Traffic has happened" -- even the E-related penile dysfunction -- and it's all captured in loving detail. The film's few attempts at sociopolitical commentary (like a pub full of people singing an "alternative" national anthem) are mostly naff, but Human Traffic is undeniably exuberant.

Though its unmoralistic attitude toward soft drugs (i.e., no one dies) made it difficult to get financing, Human Traffic was readily embraced by audiences and critics last spring in the U.K. The fact that it was uncontroversial is a testament to how much rave culture is youth culture in Britain.

But the film may turn out to be more controversial in North America, where cities like 多倫多 are newly paranoid about raves, with newspapers reporting on deaths and drugs at parties and officials making concerned noises. To Kerrigan, that's proof the culture is heading toward the mainstream and "the fact that the press are giving it such bad publicity is only gonna publicize it more." He points out that the banning of clandestine raves in Britain in the early '90s drove the parties into the clubs, effectively legitimizing rave culture. "The fact is that it brings together people from all different classes, races, sexualities.

"Everybody leaves their ego at the door and people just have a laugh -- that's what the whole culture's about."

That spirit is well-captured by a killer anecdote Kerrigan gave to me because I was the only interviewer to smoke with him all day.

After he shot the film, he somehow got an invitation to a reception in Windsor Castle's recently rebuilt Great Hall.

"I borrowed a suit and some shoes and went down there," says Kerrigan. "It's full of celebrities. And I'm thinking, 'What the fuck am I doing there?' I'm walking around and I'm knocking back the free booze, like, and I got absolutely steaming very quickly. I'm down at the end of the Great Hall trying to get an ashtray off the butlers. I'm there trying to stay up straight and I look around and it's the Queen! She's finishing her conversation with someone and I'm next in line.

"So she comes over and says, 'Oh, hello, who are you and what do you do?' I say, '哈囉, ma'am, I'm Justin Kerrigan,' and I stick my hand out. Then I realize that you're not supposed to shake the Queen's hand.

"She's looking at me and I'm looking at her and I'm thinking, 'You're not gonna leave me hanging here.' So she shakes my hand and I tell her, 'It's a film about youth culture in Britain based on me and my friends, blah, blah, blah,' and I'm pissed so I forget what I'm talking about. And she's not coming back with anything, man -- she's just standing there stone-faced.

"We're standing there in silence, and I'm thinking, 'Fucking hell, this is my last moment with the Queen.' So I said, 'The place looks great -- do you rent it out for parties at all?' That went -- whoosh! -- over the top of her head. She said, 'No, we just keep it for functions like this.' I said, 'I was only joking,' and she gives me this curt little smile and walks off.

"Immediately tons of people swarm me, saying, 'Oh, you spoke to the Queen, what did she say?' I said, 'She wanted me to sell her some charlie -- I'm gonna meet her later upstairs.'"
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