Five movies that inspire The Last Dinner Party
Part of the reason why the world of The Last Dinner Party is so hypnotic is that it goes well beyond the music.
Before the band had even released anything, they had a cultish following who would head down to their shows in full costume, already clued into and in love with the group’s aesthetic world. Then, when the songs started coming, along with full-scale glossy music videos, that world expanded once again into the cinemas as the band’s love for films stands right in the spotlight.
That was clear from the very beginning as the music video for their debut single, ‘Nothing Matters’, was a 2023 highlight in the craft. Moving between several different cinematic references, the band chose to introduce themselves by introducing some key influences.
Alongside their debut, the band started working with their own director, too. Harv Frost’s work now sits integral to the band as a creative they return to time and time again after making their short film, Prelude To Ecstasy, to team up again on the era launching single ‘This is the Killer Speaking’, sharing a music video that felt more like a full feature.
Now, after the release of their second album, From The Pyre, their cinematic universe has only grown bigger and bolder, bringing in a vaster array of inspirations from across the worlds of horror, fantasy, drama and beyond, from classic films to the influence of modern directors.
Five essential movies for The Last Dinner Party fans:
Suspiria (1977 and 2018)
If there’s one film that feels most crucial to The Last Dinner Party, it seems to be Suspiria, which sits on that perfect cusp between glamour and gore, divinity and disgust, and femininity and horror, offering a visually stunning fright-fest that matches their own aesthetic perfectly.
It provided the jumping-off point for their film as the band is cast as students in a school for the gifted, with Abigail Morris arriving as a new dance student, much like the character of Suzy Bannion. Especially when it comes to the song ‘Feminine Urge’, even the lyric “ballerina bend under the weight of it all”, and the rage held in the track, feels reminiscent of the Dario Argento classic. But according to Harv Forst, the 2018 Luca Guadagnino version was also inspiring as she told Promonews, “Suspiria, both original and remake, and TDLP just made perfect sense”.
In general, though, the whole genre of giallo, the Italian colour-dripped horror category, suits the band as equal amounts of melodrama and richness paint all their visuals.
Possession (1981)
Also in Prelude To Ecstasy, Possession appears as a key jumping-off point, as in the final moments of the ‘Burn Alive’ section, Abigail Morris recreates the iconic subway scene, throwing herself around the room and crashing out before eventually giving birth to something unnatural, much like Anna in Andrzej Żuławski’s classic.
According to Frost, Morris was focused on that reference; everything about the film felt key to representing that song as she said, “From the cold blue colour palette of Anna and Mark’s apartment to the iconically harrowing underpass scene, which Abigail (lead singer) completely nailed in that final ‘birth’ scene,” adding that Morris was “actually watching this scene right before we shot our version.”
Once again balancing insanity, horror, glamour and sexuality, Possession feels like another obvious fit for the band, turning the feminine experience into a slice of fitting insanity.
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Moving over to a vastly different aesthetic, the band’s dark glamour is equally matched by a bright, light pastoral side; however, even that maintains a level of mystery which is perfectly in tune with the atmosphere of Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock.
With Georgia Davies in the band being Australian, the influence of this Aussie sun-laden mystery makes a lot of sense and seems to be referenced any time the band are seen frolicking through fields or lounging in grass. It’s key during the ‘Sinner’ section of their short film, but also in the visuals for newer tracks like ‘Woman Is A Tree’, where the band’s style is lighter but no less dramatic, just like this movie.
Sofia Coppola’s entire world
It’s not enough to pick just one Sofia Coppola film, as the director’s fascination with and grasp of girlhood seems to move the band over and over and over.
In their debut video for ‘Nothing Matters’, The Virgin Suicides is a huge reference with certain scenes, like Morris in the bathtub or the band lounging in a bedroom, being basically shot-by-shot reactions.
But across everything, Coppola’s aesthetic constantly crops up, whether it be in the band floating in a little wooden boat, much like in Marie Antoinette, or the fascination with bedrooms across their short film, mirroring the director’s interest in feminine spaces.
Drowning by Numbers (1988)
When it came to making their second album, the band couldn’t shake the sense that this was specifically an “outdoor” album, as they told Rolling Stone; to them, it felt green and bright and very specifically British.
“We kept saying this is an outside album, and I don’t know why. It just feels very outdoors, and of nature, I think specifically in English nature because we wrote it in London and in England, and it’s an English album,” Morris explained, and when those feelings were coming up, one director stood out: Peter Greenaway.
“He has a really beautiful way of shooting nature and people and characters that is really distinctly English,” the band said, adding that his lens is very interesting in that it is romantic but also “really wry and kind of cheeky and kind of not taking itself too seriously”.
In particular, they referenced his 1988 movie, stating that Drowning by Numbers cast a huge shadow of influence for this album for us, as they saw Greenway inventing what is considered the “Wes Anderson style” before him and was better at it too.
