Plangent Rain: Strait Street

<body> <table width="915" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td><h1>PLANGENT RAIN</h1></a></td> </tr> <tr align="center"> <td> <table width="*" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr><td><ul class="horizontal_list"> <ul class="horizontal_list"> <li><a href="fs_story_eng.html">Story</a></li> <li><a href="fs_cast_eng.html">Cast</a></li> <li><a href="fs_crew_eng.html">Crew</a></li> <li><a href="fs_trailer_eng.html">Trailer</a></li> <li><a href="fs_stills_eng.html">Stills</a></li> <li><a href="fs_strait_street_eng.html">Strait Street</a></li> <li><a href="fs_screenings_eng.html">Screenings</a></li> <li><a href="fs_contacts_eng.html">Contact Details</a></li> <li><a href="fs_sfc_eng.html">Short Film Corner</a></li> </ul></td></tr></table> </tr> <tr> <td> <table width="*" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr><td><ul class="horizontal_list"> <li><a href="fs_LH+A_eng.html">Lighthouse & Ashley</a></li> <li><a href="fs_mff_eng.html">Malta Film Fund</a></li> <li><a href="fs_strait_street_mlt.html">Aqleb għall-Malti</a></li> </ul></td></tr></table> </tr> <tr><td><p> </p></td> </tr>  <tr> <td><h1>Strait Street</h1></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Daqqet ix-Xita / Plangent Rain: A short film from Malta.</td> </tr> <tr>  <td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3"> <tr> <td width="49%" valign="top"><p>Strait Street is as narrow as its name suggests. Indeed, it is significantly narrower than any other street in Valletta, and in some parts one could lie on the ground and be able to touch the opposite walls with the tips of the toes and fingers.<br /> <br /> The reason why Strait Street was built the way it was is not known. Rumour has it that one of the Grandmasters of the Knights of St John banished prostitution to Strait Street: if supposedly celibate Knights could not be stopped from philandering at will, they would at least do it out of sight.<br /> <br /> Strait Street is fondly remembered as the Gut by British, and later NATO, servicemen, who would find solace in one of the many bars of the street, and possibly in the arms of a barmaid.</p></td> <td width="2%"> </td> <td width="49%" valign="top"><p>The titillating lights of the Egyptian Queen, the New Life, the Morning Star, the Union Jack, the Tico Tico, the Cotton Club, Larry’s Bar, Ye-Old Vic (immortalised in Pynchon’s V), the Blue Peter and the Smiling Prince – to mention but a few names of the many bars and clubs that lined the street – saw the birth of the careers of many of Malta’s musicians and performance artists.<br /> <br /> In <em>Plangent Rain</em>, the street becomes an intimidating gorge the Boy must traverse. Filled with echoes of the past and portents of the future, a strait – and supposedly straight – locus that folds upon itself, the street is a seething, living gauntlet from which the Boy is ejected sadder and unconsciously wiser to the fact that to that darkness he shall yet return.</p></td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td> <br> <table width="91" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td colspan="130" rowspan="174"><img src="img_strait_street/strada_crossroads.jpg" width="130" height="174"></td> <td colspan="130" rowspan="174"><img src="img_strait_street/strada_door.jpg" width="130" height="174"></td> <td colspan="130" rowspan="174"><img src="img_strait_street/strada_doorway.jpg" width="130" height="174"></td> <td colspan="130" rowspan="174"><img src="img_strait_street/strada_pigeon.jpg" width="130" height="174"></td> <td colspan="130" rowspan="174"><img src="img_strait_street/strada_retainer.jpg" width="130" height="174"></td> <td colspan="130" rowspan="174"><img src="img_strait_street/strada_signs.jpg" width="130" height="174"></td> <td colspan="130" rowspan="174"><img src="img_strait_street/strada_women.jpg" width="130" height="174"></td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> </table> <p> </p> </body>