November 16, 2009 – 12:17 pm
I rather like Andrew Marr’s Making of Modern Britain series on BBC2. It’s punchy tabloid history, simplified here and there (especially about social class, I think) but conveying sound basic historical information in a clear and engaging way.
Or at least, Marr’s script does that. The use of archive film, though, in this week’s episode, had [...]
August 11, 2009 – 10:07 pm
More trawling of the Manchester Guardian archive has come up with an article from November 9th, 1929, just before the B.B.C. radio Remembrance Day broadcast of Journey’s End. It casts an interesting light on current attitudes to swearing.
The article explains that ‘A certain number of pungent words contained in the play… have been excised.’ and [...]
I’ve just get hold of the third box-set in the Forbidden Hollywood DVD series. The six films in this pack are all by William Wellman, the toughest of the tough guy directors. And if you want to know how tough he was, watch the biographical documentary on the fourth disc of the set. Once, when [...]
Visiting London, I took the opportunity to book a research viewing at the British Film Institute, of a film I have wanted to see for years, Victor Savile’s 1933 version of The Good Companions.
It was as good as I’d hoped, and like so many other British movies of the period, left me wondering why nobody [...]
My visit to Stoke has got me thinking (even more than usual) about the way things were. Here is some film of London street scenes in 1903.
The film was posted on YouTube by the ever-excellent BFI, and I found it thanks to one of my very favourite blogs, the West End [...]
Blogs come and go. Here are some that have come to my attention recently, which others might enjoy:
There are two research blogs associated with the University of Exeter (home of Tim Kendall and his War Poetry blog). Sebastian Field is researching Shakespeare and the Great War, though his blogging thoughts range more widely than that [...]
Since I already own the VHS version, I wan’t sure whether I should invest in the new DVD of The Battle of the Somme. I’m glad I did, though. The picture quality is crisp and clear, and finding scenes is much easier than with VHS, of course – but the main advantage is the audio.
The [...]
January 21, 2009 – 8:58 am
If you watch only one film in 2009, make it Abel Gance’s J’Accuse, a film that I cannot recommend too highly.
This was an immense hit in 1919 (filling five London cinemas, including the London Pavilion, without having been submitted to the prissy British censor). Then, like most silent films, it faded from memory, but is [...]
November 17, 2008 – 2:07 pm
A DVD arrived this morning, of the 1932 French film of Raymond Dorgeles’ 1919 novel Les Croix de Bois (Wooden Crosses). This is France’s answer to All Quiet on the Western Front, and a film I’ve wanted to see for a while.
It’s a Zone 1 DVD and apparently came out a year ago, but I’ve [...]
November 8, 2008 – 7:57 pm
The first fortnight of November is the time each year when the respectable media turn their attention to consideration of the Great War. The BBC has already given us some very watchable programmes, and its website has a good timeline of the war, and other historical goodies.
The Guardian has just started another of its pamphlet [...]
