A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

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antnield
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A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#1 Post by antnield » Thu Feb 16, 2012 7:40 pm

Two-disc set to be released 14th May 2012.
To mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee the BFI has conducted an extensive search through the National Archive to unearth a wealth of fascinating and illuminating footage on a range of Royalty-related subjects.

A Royal Occasion is a specially-curated 2-DVD edition which draws upon a number of specially-cared for archival collections to build a comprehensive historical survey of the royal family from the late Victorian era (including Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee) up to the Queen's Coronation in 1953. This superb collection offers the opportunity to see a number of rare and previously unseen films from the National Archive, include silent films, and early colour productions.

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zedz
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Re: A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#2 Post by zedz » Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:35 pm

According to MichaelB, this is the latest in the COI series. He posted info in that thread.

EDIT: Maybe not (different titles). Two money spinners are better than one, I guess!

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knives
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Re: A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#3 Post by knives » Fri Feb 17, 2012 12:30 am

It's also probably at least slightly politically inspired.

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MichaelB
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Re: A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#4 Post by MichaelB » Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:49 am

The COI wasn't founded until 1946!

And I'm not sure what Knives means by "slightly politically inspired" - it looks to me as though it was "inspired" far more by the obvious marketing hook of the Jubilee as an excuse for releasing loads of rare footage. There's a large and proven market for this kind of thing, so I'm not the least bit surprised that the BFI has jumped on the bandwagon.

The parallel COI release has a slightly different emphasis, in that it's about the Royal Family's relations with other parts of the world. In fact, that release arguably justifies Knives' comment more.

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knives
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Re: A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#5 Post by knives » Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:54 am

I wasn't aware of the COI release, but I was referring to how the BFI needs to get into the tories good graces and something like this is a wonderful way to please them while promoting rare and probably wonderful films at the same time.

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tajmahal
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Re: A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#6 Post by tajmahal » Fri Feb 17, 2012 3:27 am

This could, potentially, be one of BFI's best non-fiction sellers'. This would sell well in Australia, and I can't imagine it would be hard to licence out to other Commonwealth countries. Hell, with the current US obsession with Downton Abbey-style period dramas, this could fill enough coffers to guarantee a good number of 'risky' future BFI obscurities.

BFI have become, over the last 12-18 months, the premier film distribution company for classic/obscure/interesting releases for English-speaking film fans.

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MichaelB
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Re: A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#7 Post by MichaelB » Fri Feb 17, 2012 3:35 am

knives wrote:I wasn't aware of the COI release, but I was referring to how the BFI needs to get into the tories good graces and something like this is a wonderful way to please them while promoting rare and probably wonderful films at the same time.
Trust me, you're reading far too much into it!

If you're sitting on a huge film archive, you're constantly looking for ways of exploiting its contents (see the forthcoming Roll Out the Barrel for another excellent example) - and this is a heaven-sent opportunity. Not least because most of the footage will already have been digitised for footage sales purposes, and there won't be any rights issues with the vast majority of it, so I suspect the production budget was comparatively low.

I can absolutely guarantee that the BFI would have done something similar regardless of whether the government of the time was Conservative, Labour, Communist or BNP - they'd have been mad not to. As Tajmahal says, this could well be a mega-seller - much like the way that the BFI's more adventurous VHS and DVD activities in the 1990s and 2000s were effectively subsidised by the British Transport Films collections, even though the latter barely registered on film buffs' radar.

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knives
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Re: A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#8 Post by knives » Fri Feb 17, 2012 3:38 am

You're probably right. Either way I can't wait to hear more about what this set entails. A lot of these recent BFI doc sets have been really great, at least to me.

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jamie_atp
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Re: A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#9 Post by jamie_atp » Fri Feb 17, 2012 5:10 am

speaking of the bnp - some sort of COI set focusing on racism in britain/race relations/immigration would probably be very interesting.

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MichaelB
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Re: A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#10 Post by MichaelB » Fri Feb 17, 2012 1:39 pm

It really depends on whether there's enough relevant material to build a convincing collection - I know the COI funded things like John Krish's refugee film Return to Life (included in the Shadows of Progress collection), but I'm not sure how often they tackled this subject.

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zedz
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Re: A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#11 Post by zedz » Fri Feb 17, 2012 4:12 pm

That is an interesting concept, but it's probably better suited to a more wide-ranging collection, since the COI remit probably didn't extend very often into those kinds of areas. I can't imagine them making a film about the BNP, for instance! There would be a fair number of short and experimental films that address the issue, however.

Jonathan S
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Re: A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#12 Post by Jonathan S » Sat Feb 18, 2012 5:47 am

MichaelB wrote:I can absolutely guarantee that the BFI would have done something similar regardless of whether the government of the time was Conservative, Labour, Communist...
Although if it were Communist I suppose the release would have had to be retitled something like The Fall of the Windsor Dynasty...

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MichaelB
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Re: A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#13 Post by MichaelB » Thu Apr 05, 2012 8:05 am

Full specs announced:
To coincide with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, the BFI presents a wealth of rare royal films on two double-DVD sets: A Royal Occasion and The Queen on Tour

The BFI celebrates Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee with the release of two DVDs packed with rare and previously unavailable footage of the British royal family spanning a period of 75 years. A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II and The COI Collection Volume Seven: The Queen on Tour, both released on 14 May 2012, will delight anyone with an interest in the monarchy, British history or the development of cinema. In addition to the wealth of remastered films on the discs themselves, both DVDs come complete with illustrated booklets containing comprehensive film notes and essays.

A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

BFI curator Jan Faull has conducted an extensive search through the BFI National Archive to unearth a wealth of fascinating footage on a range of royalty-related subjects beginning as far back as 1896. The footage creates a comprehensive historical survey of the royal family on film, from the late Victorian era to the Queen’s Coronation in 1953.

This superb collection features previously unseen material, such as silent Topical Budget newsreels and early colour productions, which illustrate the development of British filmmaking techniques. This unique release contains many firsts: the first ever footage of a British monarch on film (Queen Victoria at Balmoral, which is newly restored), the first big British ceremonial event (Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897) and the first colour film of Trooping the Colour (1937).

These surprising films also offer rare glimpses of touching royal moments including the birth of Princess Elizabeth, the Royal Family at home during World War II, and a behind-the-scenes film made by Daimler of the 1947 royal tour of South Africa.

Queen Victoria
Includes Scenes at Balmoral (1896) and Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee (1897)

Edward VII & Queen Alexandra
Includes Edward VII at Queen Victoria’s Funeral (1901), Edward VII’s Coronation (1902), King Edward VII launches HMS Dreadnought from Portsmouth Dockyard (1906) and Queen Alexandra’s Drive through London (1916)

George V & Queen Mary
Includes The Queen and the Land Lassies (1918), Queen’s Visit to the East End (1917) and Silver Jubilee (1935)

George VI & Queen Elizabeth
Includes Wedding Cake for Duke of York’s Bride (1923), The Royal Wedding (1923) and Britain’s Baby Princess (1926).

Elizabeth II
Includes Long to Reign Over Us (1953) and Lambeth Rejoices: Coronation Television (1953)

Plus special features including Buckingham Palace Allotment (1918)

RRP: £19.99 / cat. no. BFIVD953 / Cert E / 2-disc set UK / 1896-1953 / black & white, tinted and colour / English language and silent with music / 287 mins / DVD-9 x 2 / Original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / Dolby Digital mono audio (320kbps)

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MichaelB
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Re: A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#14 Post by MichaelB » Thu May 17, 2012 8:48 am

My copy's just arrived, and it includes quite a few more titles other than those mentioned above.

So here's a complete list:

Queen Victoria
Scenes at Balmoral (1896)
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (1897)
Queen's Garden Party at Buckingham Palace (1897)
The Late Queen's Visit to Dublin (1900)

Edward VII & Queen Alexandra
Edward VII at Queen Victoria's Funeral (1901)
Edward VII's Coronation (1902)
King and Queen Visit Ireland (1903)
Delhi Durbar (1903)
King Edward VII Launches HMS Dreadnought from Portsmouth Dockyard (1906)
Queen Alexandra's Drive through London (1916)
Roses for the Rose Queen (1917)

George V & Queen Mary
Coronation of George V (1911)
King George Fifth's Durbar (1912)
Our King Emperor and Queen Empress Hold a Durbar in Delhi (1912)
With the Queen at Woolwich (1917)
Visit of their Majesties the King and Queen to the North East Coast Shipbuilding & Engineering Works (1917)
Queen Among the Tanks (1917)
The King's Greeting (1917)
Queen's Visit to the East End (1917)
The Queen and the Land Lassies (1918)
How to Hold Baby (1921)
Through India and Burma with HRH the Prince of Wales (1922)
Return of the Prince (1922)
Silver Jubilee (1935)

George VI & Queen Elizabeth
Our Airman Prince Engaged (1923)
Wedding Cake for Duke of York's Bride (1923)
The Royal Wedding (1923)
Duke and Bride off for Honeymoon (1923)
Britain's Baby Princess (1926)
God Speed! The Duke and Duchess of York Leave on HMS Renown for their Six Months Empire Tour (1927)
The Homecoming of the Duke and Duchess of York (1927)
Coronation of their Majesties King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (1937)
King George VI at Plymouth (1939)
Royal Road (1941)
Royal Tour of South Africa (1947)
Erection of the Dome of Discovery (1950)

Elizabeth II
Long to Reign Over Us (1953)
Lambeth Rejoices: Coronation Television (1953)
The Royal Occasion (1953)

Extras
Buckingham Palace Allotment (1918)
Playing Fields Association: Football (1951)
Playing Fields Association: Cricket (1955)

There's also a hefty 44-page booklet with introductory essays, notes on individual films and a supplementary illustrated section on the Dufaycolor process, used for a number of the 1930s colour films.

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antnield
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Re: A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#15 Post by antnield » Sat Jun 02, 2012 7:08 am


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MichaelB
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Re: A Royal Occasion: From Victoria to Elizabeth II

#16 Post by MichaelB » Sun Jun 10, 2012 11:16 am

The Arts Desk (a combined review of this and The Queen on Tour).

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