Roll Out the Barrel: A History of British Pubs on Film

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antnield
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Roll Out the Barrel: A History of British Pubs on Film

#1 Post by antnield » Thu Feb 16, 2012 5:48 am

Roll Out the Barrel: A History of British Pubs on Film
This fascinating 6-hour collection of entertaining short dramas, humorous trade films, perceptive documentaries and archival newsreel items is an essential history of the British boozer on film.

From Arnold Miller's swinging Under the Table You Must Go, Philip Trevelyan's beautifully expressionistic The Ship Hotel & Tyne Main and German director Peter Nestler's Workingmen's club in Sheffield to the local quirks and characters of Richard Massingham's wartime Down at the Local, the whirlwind regional tour of A Round of Bass and Michael Palin and Terry Jones' humorous trade film Henry Cleans Up, this must-have double measure of DVDs is full to the brim with the sights and sounds of the great British pub, exploring its role as a place of communal gathering, game playing and opinion debating throughout the ages.
Release date: 11th June 2012

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MichaelB
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Re: Roll Out the Barrel: A History of British Pubs on Film

#2 Post by MichaelB » Thu Feb 16, 2012 6:20 am

This will almost certainly be another spin-off of the research that went into Portrait of Britain, the epic attempt at depicting the whole of Britain on film (if I remember rightly, each of the 650 political constituencies were to be illustrated with half a dozen films) that was sadly curtailed after the 2010 general election.

The previous government had pledged something like £25 million for the construction of a gigantic freezer to preserve Britain's nitrate film, but when the new government looked at the figures in mid-2010 in a very different financial climate, they decided that while the nitrate storage facility was clearly urgent (and, thankfully, the project went ahead), the accompanying online archive film showcase was considerably less so.

But since tons of research had already been done and numerous films had already been digitised, we're seeing projects like this and last year's Here's a Health to the Barley Mow - and doubtless more in the pipeline.

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zedz
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Re: Roll Out the Barrel: A History of British Pubs on Film

#3 Post by zedz » Thu Feb 16, 2012 5:40 pm

Fantastic - and likely to be an even bigger seller for BFI than Here's a Health to the Barley Mow.

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MichaelB
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Re: Roll Out the Barrel: A History of British Pubs on Film

#4 Post by MichaelB » Wed Apr 25, 2012 6:46 am

Image

Full specs announced:
Roll Out the Barrel
The British Pub on Film


The BFI continues its tour of Britain on film with this intoxicating anthology of shorts devoted to that most traditional of national institutions: the public house. Roll Out the Barrel – The British Pub on Film, released on DVD on 11 June, is a unique and fascinating collection of 19 films, made between 1944 and 1982. From wartime documentaries, intended to keep up flagging spirits, to independent productions exploring the permissive society of the 1960s, this five-and-a-half-hour collection provides the perfect measure of cultural change in Britain over a 40-year period, from the perspective of the bar and lounge.

With many pubs currently fighting for survival, this nationwide pub crawl presents a lasting reminder of the sights, sounds, people and personalities of the great British pub, exploring its unique role as a place of communal gathering, game playing, story-telling, opinion debating, bonding rituals and unbeatable banter for generations. Dozens of pubs, many of which are still in existence, are featured in the films; from London boroughs to Tyneside, Sheffield, Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Kent, Oxfordshire, Yorkshire, Argyll, Salisbury, Somerset, Surrey, Cleveland and beyond.

Amongst the films on offer are Arnold Miller’s (London in the Raw, Primitive London) 1969 tour of London’s varied club and pub scene, Under the Table You Must Go, the Guinness-sponsored trade film Henry Cleans Up (1974), starring Monty Python’s Michael Palin and Terry Jones as rival landlords, Philip Trevelyan’s (The Moon and the Sledgehammer) beautifully expressionistic portrait of a Tyneside pub and its patrons, Ship Hotel – Tyne Main (1967), renowned German director Peter Nestler’s documentary on leisure time in Steel City, A Working Men’s Club in Sheffield (1965), the local quirks and characters of Richard Massingham’s (Coughs and Sneezes) wartime trip around England’s favourite locals in Down at the Local (1945), and Eric Marquis’ (Time out of Mind, Seven Green Bottles) promotional film Guinness For You (1969), which features a soundtrack by British avant-garde composer Tristram Cary.

Mastered from film materials preserved in the BFI National Archive (except A Working Men’s Club in Sheffield, which was restored by the Deutsche Kinemathek), the films in this collection have remained unseen since the time they were made.

Disc One
The Story of English Inns (British Council, 1944, 8 mins)
Down at the Local (dir. Richard Massingham, 1945, 18 mins)
The Inn that Crossed the Sea (Hope and Anchor Breweries, 1950, 14 mins)
Tramps' Ball (Mining Review, 1953, 4 mins)
Beer And Skittles (Mining Review, 1954, 1 min)
The Old Pheasant (Mining Review, 1958, 2 mins)
The Friendly Inn (Tourist Board, 1958, 14 mins)
Mining Review 16th Year No. 5 (1963, 8 mins)
Lucy's Table (Mining Review, 1965, 2 mins)
All In Good Time (dir. Robert Tronson for Guinness, 1964, 24 mins)
A Working Men's Club In Sheffield (dir. Peter Nestler, 1965, 40 mins)
The Ship Hotel - Tyne Main (dir. Philip Trevelyan, 1967, 32 mins)

Disc Two
Under the Table You Must Go (dir. Arnold Miller, 1969, 50 mins)
Guinness For You (dir. Anthony Short, 1969, 15 mins)
A Round of Bass (dir. Geoffrey Reeve for Bass Charrington, 1972, 21 mins)
Henry Cleans Up (dir. Digby Turpin for Guinness, 1974, 12 mins)
What'll You Have? (The Brewers Society, 1977, 25 mins)
New Pubs For Old (UK) (COI, 1979, 5 mins)
New Pubs For Old (International) (COI, 1979, 5 mins)
Local Life (The Brewers’ Society, 1982, 18 mins)

This double-disc set also contains an extensive illustrated booklet with notes on each film by BFI curators and newly commissioned essays by Robin Turner, co-author of The Search for the Perfect Pub: Looking For the Moon Under Water (Orion) and Chris Murray of the Pub History Society.

RRP: £22.99 / cat. no. BFIVD937 / Cert PG
UK / 1944-1982 / black & white, and colour / 321 mins / 2 x DVD9
Dolby Digital mono audio (320kbps) / Original aspect ratio 1.33:1

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Duncan Hopper
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Re: Roll Out the Barrel: A History of British Pubs on Film

#5 Post by Duncan Hopper » Wed Apr 25, 2012 7:45 am

Wow, what a collection, can't wait for this. Under the table you must go is worth watching for a Kaiser helmet wearing Jon Pertwee starting a singalong in a German beer house.

Also good to see original artwork from Graham Humphreys.

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MichaelB
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Re: Roll Out the Barrel: A History of British Pubs on Film

#6 Post by MichaelB » Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:38 am

I'm really looking forward to this: the only film I've seen already is Guinness For You, which was shown in a South Bank programme of unintentionally avant-garde postwar documentaries. If I remember rightly, large chunks of it could easily double as a purely abstract film.

And it's nice to see that they're still trawling through the National Coal Board catalogue: the short Mining Review items are little gems of social history, and the link with mining was often quite tenuous. (Largely because they were as much made for miners as about them).

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GaryC
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Re: Roll Out the Barrel: A History of British Pubs on Film

#7 Post by GaryC » Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:26 am

I saw What'll You Have? as a supporting short in my local cinema - and 1977 would have been about right. I can't remember which film I saw it in support to, though as I was 12-13 that year, I certainly wouldn't have been old enough legally to take part in the activities shown onscreen!

There would be questions about appropriateness these days, though remembering things like supporting shorts (and double bills, for that matter) rather reveals my age.

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antnield
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Re: Roll Out the Barrel: A History of British Pubs on Film

#8 Post by antnield » Thu May 03, 2012 6:53 pm


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antnield
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Re: Roll Out the Barrel: A History of British Pubs on Film

#9 Post by antnield » Thu May 17, 2012 11:31 am

Graeme Hobbs' latest MovieMail podcast.

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antnield
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Re: Roll Out the Barrel: A History of British Pubs on Film

#10 Post by antnield » Sun Jun 10, 2012 11:11 am


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antnield
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Re: Roll Out the Barrel: A History of British Pubs on Film

#11 Post by antnield » Mon Jun 11, 2012 8:19 am


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MichaelB
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Re: Roll Out the Barrel: A History of British Pubs on Film

#12 Post by MichaelB » Sat Jun 30, 2012 12:13 pm

The Guardian - a lovely, evocative piece.


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antnield
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Re: Roll Out the Barrel: A History of British Pubs on Film

#14 Post by antnield » Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:07 am


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