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Black and white photography and a waltzy score impart a surface-level splendour to Midnight in London , but the real sense of grandeur lies in the filmmaking. This documentary short has been cut with something of a choreographer’s eye, director-editor-cinematographer Imran Suleiman fashioning a push-and-pull ballet from images of a London hushing up for the night and one hustling headfirst into it.
Through a montage of divergent nocturnal scenes from across London, Suleiman captures the heightened urban-ness of the capital – or of any large city in which time has lost its natural etiquette, where darkness means “come out” as much as it does “go home”. For director and audience, there is delight in seeking out the topsy-turvy rhythms that humans have been setting down ever since the invention of the light bulb, and which cinema has been obsessed with since ‘40s film noir. On floodlit astro-turfs, men p