The Fall meets post-punk dance meets cinema verité – with a smattering of Leigh Bowery! 40 years on, Hail The New Puritan still exhilarates and dazzles.

It’s a docu-fantasy which stars dance superstar Michael Clarke – in an incredible and muscular series of performances. The film is a vivid invocation of the decadence and excess of the 1980s post-punk London subculture. It’s also a time capsule of a lost time and place. Filmmaker Charles Atlas seamlessly integrates Clarkes extraordinary presence into the narrative of the film, taking in music, clubs and fashion of the era.

From the surreal opening dream sequence to the final solo dance – Hail The New Puritan is mesmerising – all aided and abetted by THAT soundtrack. “The music of the Fall gives me a broader canvas to make whatever I want to” said Clarke at the time. He wasn’t wrong…

Now Press Play 2026 is  supported byFilm Hub NI, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, awarding funding from the National Lottery

Director/Editor: Charles Atlas. Choreography: Michael Clark. Dancers: Gaby Agis, Leslie Bryant (Les Child), Michael Clark, Matthew Hawkins, Julie Hood, Ellen van Schuylenburch. With: Leigh Bowery, Nicola Bowery, Michael Clark, Anthony Doughty, Mark E. Smith, Brix Smith, Sue Tilley. Music: Glenn Branca, The Fall, Bruce Gilbert, Jeffrey Hinton. Camera: John Simmons. Producer: Jolyon Wimhurst. Special Thanks: Dave Baby, Chisenhale Dance Space, The Clarendon, R.K. Studios, Henry Stein.

1985-86, 84:47 min, colour, sound, 16 mm film on video