Searching for the Perfect Full Circle: A Screenshot Comparison of Richard Loncraine's The Haunting of Julia (1977)

I have never made my love (and near obsession) for Richard Loncraine's stunning 1977 film Full Circle (The Haunting of Julia) a secret. I absolutely adore the film and think it is one of the great overlooked masterpieces of the seventies. In the past I have written on the film, its Colin Towns composed soundtrack (also a work of genius) and shared some lobby cards and now I am happy to present this screenshot comparison from the three different sources I have collected.
Fans of Full Circle know that it has never been that easy of a film to track down and most have probably still only seen it via the Magnum VHS tape that was released in the eighties under the title The Haunting of Julia.
A few years back many of us were excited to find out that Full Circle had finally been released in France on DVD on a disc that featured the first ever widescreen presentation of the film, but our excitement quickly turned to bitter disappointment when we found the disc turned out to feature a transfer even worse than Magnum's full-frame video from almost two-decades before.
With Loncraine's incredible film in some sort of legal limbo, hopes of getting a top-quality remastered edition have seemed more and more futile. Thankfully a beautiful remastered anamorphic HD version has recently appeared on Sony Movie Channel, making it possible for the first-time since its original theatrical release to really watch Full Circle the way it was meant to be seen.
I thought it might be interesting to compare my three versions of Full Circle to show just what a revelation this new Sony Movie Channel print is. While a DVD and Blu-ray still might be years down the road (if we ever indeed are treated to a proper release) fans of Full Circle finally now have a worthy copy of the film available to search down. Here are some screenshots comparing the three versions I now have in my collection. The top is the original full-frame Magnum VHS, the middle is the ugly widescreen French DVD and the bottom is the beautiful uncut Sony Movie Channel version (note that not only is it sharper and more colorful but it also has more side-information than the previous widescreen print). The sound is also greatly improved and Town's stunning score, much of which is still unreleased, has never sounded better.
These screenshots I have captured from each version show that the Sony Movie Channel's new HD print is far and away the best ever available and a major cause for celebration!

Overlooked Classics: Full Circle (The Haunting Of Julia) 1977

Richard Loncraine's FULL CIRCLE (THE HAUNTING OF JULIA) is one of the most perfectly realized and executed genre films I have ever seen. From its striking and tragic opening scene to its jaw dropping final moment, FULL CIRCLE never once slips in its relatively brief 98 minute running time. It is a real masterpiece of style and class, and one of the great lost films of the seventies.
At the heart of FULL CIRCLE is a relatively simple and tragic story centering on a child's death and a mother's breakdown. Shelia Benson pointed out in her great original review that the film can be read as a study of a young woman slowly but surely losing her mind, or it can be taken as a superior ghost story. Either way, the film remains a very haunting exercise in loss, revenge and fear.
It is this sense of loss that occupies every frame of FULL CIRCLE that separates it from most films that fall into the thriller or horror genre. Mia Farrow's work as the lonely and isolated Julia is frankly astounding and Loncraine's long takes of her alone in her house or out walking are incredibly intimate. It is due to Loncraine's sensitive direction of Farrow that makes the film so incredibly resonate, and it works not only as a ghost story but as one of the great character studies in all of seventies genre cinema.
The film is remarkably singular on many levels. It is, on the one hand, a rather old fashioned and slow moving work that builds carefully and methodically. On the the other hand it is very much a film that only the late seventies could have produced, made by a group of young relatively inexperienced people who were obviously filled with invention and creativity.
While the film marks career bests for Loncraine, Farrow and composer Colin Towns, that shouldn't overshadow that much of its power is due to the cinematography by Peter Hannan, the editing of Ron Wiseman and the striking production design of Brian Morris.
Hannan had worked with Loncraine on his first film, 1975's FLAME and his work on FULL CIRCLE is really noteworthy. Even on the washed out VHS copy, you can see how beautifully photographed this film is. Hannan's striking, dreamlike work would serve him well on future projects with Loncraine as well as the legendary Nicolas Roeg. Editor Ron Wiseman, whose cutting gives FULL CIRCLE's more intense scenes a real sense of dread and power, had previously worked on the strange 1973 Canadian production THE PYX and his work here is really splendid. The seance sequence is handled extremely well in particular and much of its greatness stems from Wiseman's editorial skills.

Perhaps the most striking behind the scenes effort was given by production designer Brian Morris. Julia's house is especially memorable with its high ceilings, spiralling staircases and Gothic feel. Just look at the details Morris contributes to the work the next time you watch it, specifically how children's toys seem to be everywhere in the film. Morris would use this striking eye in later work with Loncraine and on memorably designed productions ranging from PINK FLOYD THE WALL to ANGEL HEART.
I have already written on Colin Towns incredible score and I will only reiterate that this is one of the great marriages between image and music and the soundtrack album is in bad need of reissuing, with the missing cues added on as a bonus.

Joining the magical Farrow is a very distinguished cast featuring some of the best British actors of the period. These include a young Tom Conti, a creepy Keir Dullea and a great Jill Bennett.
Young Samantha Gates, in her film debut, plays the ghostly Olivia incredibly well and it is unfortunate that she only appeared in a handful of films afterwards. Popular British actress Sophie Ward makes one of her first on screen appearances as Julia's daughter Kate, who tragically chokes to death in the films opening.
FULL CIRCLE seemed to be cursed distribution wise from the get go and it remains relatively little seen, despite being a favorite to many horror fans. Used copies of the full frame VHS version can be found on online, and I suspect that I am not the only one slightly in love with the flawed, fading print that is used on it with its soundtrack that sounds like a very scratchy record. I have often wondered what my experience would be seeing a proper widescreen dvd of it...a French DVD is available and while it does finally featuring widescreen print of the film it is unfortunately so dark that it is an eyesore to watch. FULL CIRCLE remains, much like the ghost Olivia, very much lost in time right now.

This wraps up my look at one of my favorite films...I hope that those reading the posts have enjoyed them and will take them all together as my review of the film, and not just the above rather short ended posting. It is a really splendid work that has haunted my dreams for more than two decades now. With LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH and LEMORA now on DVD, FULL CIRCLE remains to me the great lost English language genre films from the seventies...seek it out and submit to its power.

Life Rotates In 45 Revolutions Per Minute (Colin Towns: Full Circle and Olivia)

This stunning 45 contains two of the most sublime moments in seventies experimental pop and should be seeked out by any fans of not only FULL CIRCLE, but British music in general.
The main selling point to this very rare 45 is that side A contains an otherwise unreleased edit of the unforgettable main theme from the film. While this edit is only a shadow of the original, it is still exceptionally powerful and is a worthwhile addition to Town's catalogue.
The b-side is the haunting OLIVIA, which is the same version as the album's take. This occasionally pops up on Ebay but, like the full album, is becoming harder and harder to find. A special edition release of the soundtrack would do well to feature this fine edit as one of the bonus tracks.

Dust Off Those Grooves (Chapter 16) Full Circle By Colin Towns

There is a line from the film PLAYING BY HEART that goes something like, "Talking about music is a bit like dancing about architecture" and that is a bit how I feel when it comes to writing on something like Colin Towns remarkable score for Richard Loncraine's FULL CIRCLE. This elusive album needs to be experienced and nothing I write can come close to capturing the astonishing music contained on it.
Outside of being one of the finest soundtrack albums ever released, Towns' work also stands as some of the most memorable electronic music of the seventies. I hold the best moments on FULL CIRCLE up with some of the work people like Eno, Popol Vuh, Mike Oldfield and Goblin were doing in this period, the album is that good.
Towns was born just a few years after World War Two in Britain and began taking piano lessons at a very young age. Throughout his late teens and twenties he would do a variety of session work before landing a spot in the Ian Gillian band. It was while working in Gillian's band that Towns began to work in his spare time on the themes that eventually wound up in FULL CIRCLE.
I am not sure how Loncraine and crew came across the relatively unknown Towns but a demo tape of Towns score ended up in the producers hands and once they heard the magnificent main title they knew they had found their composer, and Towns was commissioned for the full score.

Towns work on the film is simply astonishing and it is a prime example of how important music can be in a horror film. Saying that FULL CIRCLE wouldn't be as effective without Towns score is a massive understatement. The film is unimaginable without it in the same way that Carpenter's HALLOWEEN or Argento's SUSPIRIA would be without their respective scores.
The main thing that sells Town's score for me is the sense of loss in it. Towns perfectly encapsulates Mia Farrow's tragic Julia in this music, you can almost imagine that this is the music that is playing in her head throughout the film. No where is this more evident than in the stunning pieces that bookend the film, FULL CIRCLE: THE PARK and FULL CIRCLE: EVERYTHING'S RIGHT NOW. Julia's very sad but remarkable journey is perfectly captured in these two long and unforgettable tracks.

The album, which is one of the most exceptional releases of a year that included Bowie's LOW among many other career defining releases, starts off with THE PARK and it takes its grip immediately. THE PARK is probably Towns most famous creation and it has popped up on many ambient and electronic collections over the years. A ten minute plus tour de force of sound effects, inventive synthesizer work, distant voices and one of the most beautiful piano themes I have ever heard, THE PARK is the album's masterpiece and it is one of those rare pieces of music that I can play over and over again.
After the majesty of the opening track, Towns delivers the intense HAVE YOU GOT A MAGNIFICENT PROBLEM, one of the more frightening tracks on the album. A persistent and heavy piano solo signals this track as perhaps the darkest and most traditional track on the record and it leads directly into PRETTY MEN ARE VERY RECEPTIVE, a synth orchestrated piece that is my least favorite on the album; although it is still quite brilliant.
KATE, on the other hand, is a real favorite and contains some of the loveliest moments on the album. Highlighted by a sweet keyboard solo that merges some of THE PARK'S themes into it, KATE is a real highlight on the record. Even better is the one sung song on the album, the jaw dropping OLIVIA. Towns sings in an emotional and pleading style that matches the nostalgic and yearning tone of the song perfectly. The song, a meditation on the ghostly Olivia from the film, features one of the great moments in Towns career when just past the three minute mark, his vocals stop and one of his most inventive and moving synth solos suddenly appears and the song switches gears from a pop single into a dissonant mix of ghostly voices and echoes of a lost time.
OLIVIA is a bit hard to recover from but LOVE SCENE, with its striking flute solo, is a nice moment on the album and is one of the lightest. MAGNUS: THE UNWELCOME INTRUSION on the other hand is one of the most terrifying, a droning landscape that suddenly explodes into a chorus of bells that reminds one immediately of a similar effect Pink Floyd had used on DARK SIDE OF THE MOON a few years earlier.
Town's score concludes with FULL CIRCLE: EVERYTHING'S RIGHT NOW, a comapnion to THE PARK and nearly its sequel. The seven minute plus EVERYTHINGS RIGHT NOW starts out with a lovely nostalgic piano solo that sneakily drifts into a quiet version of the main theme before exploding into a slightly speeded up version of THE PARK. Anyone who has seen this film will remember this piece of music as it goes along with the film's final shot, one of the most iconic and unforgettable in all of horror.

Colin Towns' FULL CIRCLE is a major work and its current out of print status is unacceptable. Briefly available on cd in the mid nineties, copies of the album and disc fetch huge prices on Ebay and are very hard to track down. The album is in bad need of a re-release and re-appraisal, as much of the score still remains unreleased. Indeed one of the films key moments, the rainy drive home, and best pieces of music is nowhere to be found on the original lp or cd. For those who can't locate this towering and magical work, I would suggest doing a blog search as downloads often pop up. It is unfortunately the only way to hear this breathtaking and rather groundbreaking record right now.
A google search will also bring up TOwns official website as well as a comprehensive fan site. The man is one of the great unknown voices and composers in popular music, and FULL CIRCLE is his masterpiece.

Full Circle: The Director, Richard Loncraine

Although he has had a relatively non-prolific career has a film director since his debut in the Mid Seventies, British born Richard Loncraine is one of modern cinema's secret weapons; a director capable of producing masterful films in any genre with a rare mix of style and class.
Loncraine was born in Gloucestershire England just after the war in 1946. After studying to be a sculptor at the Central School of the Arts he became interested in film and attended the Royal College of Art Film School, where he quickly showed himself as a talent to watch.
Loncraine's early career was spent mostly working for the BBC on commercials and television productions. 1974 would prove to be the turning point for the then 29 year old Loncraine when he co-scripted the children's' anthology PROFESSOR POPPER'S PROBLEM and directed the acclaimed short, RADIO WONDERFUL. His work on these and his previous BBC experience led him to his first feature film, 1975's FLAME. Scripted by Andrew Birkin and starring Tom Conti, FLAME was essentially a showcase for the band Slade. FLAME is a film I have long wanted to see as it sounds like a truly fascinating extravaganza, and it has gained a considerable cult following since its release.
FLAME underperformed slightly in 1975 but it received enough attention to garner Loncraine his greatest film, 1977's FULL CIRCLE. Nothing in Loncraine's past would have suggested that he would have been the perfect director for a modern day ghost story, but his direction of FULL CIRCLE is astonishing in its conviction and power. Loncraine seemed to bring out the best in everybody, including lead actress Mia Farrow and composer Colin Towns; both of whom would delivery career best work under Loncraine's direction.
Working closely with cinematographer Peter Hannan and editor Ron Wiseman, Loncraine and company made FULL CIRCLE into an unforgettable experience that would transform Peter Straub's already solid novel into something spectacularly spooky, compelling and resonate.
FULL CIRCLE garnered Loncraine the grand prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival and it should have cemented his reputation as one of the great British directors of the seventies, but distribution problems plagued the film from the get go and it would take nearly five years for the film to be seen outside of British and some European markets.

The delayed release and muted reception of FULL CIRCLE stalled what should have been one of the brightest directorial careers of the late seventies. Loncraine returned to British television for the next several years and finally came back to feature film making with 1982's THE MISSIONARY starring Trevor Howard and Maggie Smith.
Loncraine's real return though was with the fantastic BRIMSTONE AND TREACLE (1982), an intriguing and memorable cult film starring Sting and Denholm Elliot. As in FULL CIRCLE, Loncraine would provide the film with some seriously intelligent direction that made it one of the most memorable British films of the period. Loncraine would go on to win another Grand Prize award, this time at the prestigious Montreal World Film Festival.
Loncraine surprisingly dropped mostly out of the public eye for the rest of the next decade or so, delivering only one feature and some more TV work. He would storm back with vengeance in 1995 with his audacious take on Shakespeare's RICHARD THE THIRD. Loncraine's RICHARD is one of the great personal readings of one of Shakespeare's greatest works, and he would garner several awards for the triumphant work, including the BAFTA and a Silver Berlin Bear.
Loncraine would again return to television after the stunning RICHARD where he would stay until 2004 when he delivered the sweet and surprising WIMBLEDON. This lovely and winning little romantic comedy is one of the more underrated from the decade and features two incredibly charming performances from Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst, two of the most talented and charismatic young actors on the planet today. Shot actually on location at Wimbledon, Loncraine delivers a rare romantic comedy that is both intelligent and heartfelt. WIMBLEDON is a real jewel of a film that serves as a great reminder that Richard Loncraine is capable of just about anything he sets his camera on.
Loncraine followed WIMBLEDON with the rather disappointing FIREWALL which failed more due to the miscasting of Harrison Ford rather than his direction, which still maintained a real sense of style and suspense even when the script didn't.
Richard Loncraine in his early sixties no doubt has many more films to give and surprise us with. As a director, he is capable of the creepiest Gothic horror, the heaviest drama, and the most charming comedy imaginable. Loncraine is a really valuable asset to modern film. Here is hoping to many more great works in his future.

A great interview with Loncraine can be found here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A24983779