New Feature Film from Director of Ealing Club Documentary

Never A Master Plan is a tribute to west London's creative community

Celeste (Allegra Shock) and Lee (Margaux Billard) in a scene from Never A Master Plan
Celeste (Allegra Shock) and Lee (Margaux Billard) in a scene from Never A Master Plan

May 3, 2023

The director of a documentary on the Ealing Club has returned to the area for his first drama feature film.

Giorgio Guernier’s ‘Never A Master Plan’ will be shown for the first time, apart from at a film festival, at the Ealing Project later this month.

It marks the drama debut of documentary filmmaker whose previous film about the historic Ealing Club has been shown around the world.

He is the writer, producer and director of this new release which tells the stories of creative Londoners through a series of interconnected vignettes.

He said: “It’s my tribute to cinema vérité and to the London creative community. I have a documentary background and I’ve always been interested in people and the reality in which they live.”

Never A Master Plan tells the story of a group of actors, musicians, students and artists all in their 20s and 30s, striving to find a place in the world while living on the fringes of the capital and struggling to cope with limited opportunities and money.

Mr Guernier explained: “The idea of making a movie about a group of creative Londoners came to me very naturally. I just needed to look around. It’s my story, it’s my friends’ story. I was interested in the sort of realism where the characters are somehow based on the actors' real life: given a detailed storyline, all the dialogues have been improvised.”


Giorgio Guernier

Never A Master Plan features performances by up-and-coming French actress Margaux Billard supported by a troupe of non-professionals, including Allegra Shock, Ella Clayton Bell, Sandro Crisafi, and Thomas Rossi.

The hour and a half snapshot of modern city living features an indie soundtrack by Big Boys, The Dils, Kikagaku Moyo, La Quiete and features surprise appearances by drummer/guitarist Jonah Falco (F**ked Up, Jade Hairpins, Career Suicide) and counterculture music legends singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan (Just Another Diamond Day) and bass player Mike Watt (The Stooges, The Minutemen).

The director says, “ I’ve added to the recipe a pinch of rock music, a genre I’ve grown up on and which was the subject of my first film, Suburban Steps to Rockland.”

Mr Guernier’s documentary feature film called Suburban Steps to Rockland: The Story of the Ealing Club (2017) was released internationally.

The trailer for Never A Master Plan can be seen here. https://vimeo.com/717786165

The film is being screen on Wednesday 24 May at the Ealing Project Cinema (1 High Street, Ealing W5 5DB) at 8pm.

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