The GPO Film Unit Collections

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MichaelB
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The GPO Film Unit Collections

#1 Post by MichaelB » Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:48 am

Addressing the Nation: The GPO Film Unit Collection Volume 1

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The first of three deluxe double-disc box sets presenting all the key films of the GPO Film Unit on DVD for the first time.The complete collection includes legendary filmmakers such as John Grierson, Len Lye and Humphrey Jennings.

Created 75 years ago out of the ashes of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit, the GPO Film Unit was one of the most remarkable creative institutions that Britain has produced. A hotbed of creative energy and talent, it provided a springboard to many of the best-known and critically acclaimed figures in the British
Documentary Movement.

John Grierson, Alberto Cavalcanti, Humphrey Jennings, Basil Wright, Harry Watt, Edgar Anstey and Arthur Elton, alongside innovators and experimentalists such as Len Lye and Norman McLaren are some of the directors whose work embraced public information films, drama-documentary, social reportage, animation and advertising.

Celebrating the 75th anniversaries in September 2008 of both the BFI and the GPO Film Unit itself, the BFI National Archive, in partnership with The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA), Royal Mail and BT Heritage, has curated and restored this legendary output of short films.

Addressing the Nation contains 15 films from the period 1933-1935 and provides a fascinating exploration of the unit's early experimentation with sound. It features Basil Wright's award-winning Song of Ceylon and Len Lye's A Colour Box; the critically acclaimed Weather Forecast; Coal Face - directed by Alberto Cavalcanti and Auden and Brittens precursor to Night Mail (included in volume two) and other neglected works, many of which will be available for the first time since their original release.

The discs are presented in a deluxe box with an 80-page bound book.

Extras
- On the Fishing Banks of Skye (John Grierson, 1935)
- GPO Film Display trailer
- 80-page book containing introductory essays, biographies and film notes
- Dolby Digital mono audio

We Live in Two Worlds: The GPO Film Unit Collection Volume 2

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Created in 1933 out of the ashes of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit, the GPO Film Unit was one of the most remarkable creative institutions that Britain has produced. A hotbed of creative energy and talent, it provided a spring board to many of the best-known and critically acclaimed figures in the British Documentary Movement, including John Grierson, Alberto Cavalcanti, Humphrey Jennings, Basil Wright, Harry Watt, Edgar Anstey and Arthur Elton, alongside innovators and experimentalists such as Len Lye and Norman McLaren. Their work embraced, public information drama-documentary, social reportage, animation, advertising and many points in between. The BFI National Archive, in partnership with the British Postal Heritage Museum, Royal Mail and British Telecom, has preserved and curated the legendary output of short films produced by the GPO Film Unit.

If War Should Come: GPO Film Unit Collection Volume 3

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This, the final of three volumes, covers 1939-1941, the last years of the GPO Film Unit before it evolved into Crown Film Unit, and sees it at its most technically sophisticated, with directors, such as Humphrey Jennings, Harry Watt and Alberto Cavalcanti leading the way in the use of documentary cinema in support of the war effort. Featuring the poetic masterpiece Spare Time and the rousing classics London Can Take It! and Christmas Under Fire, the 18 films in this collection provide a fascinating and poignant insight into a nation on the cusp of war and its transition to the brutal realities of life in the Blitz.

Disc one: The City (1939), The Islanders (1939). Spare Time (1939), A Midsummer Days Work (1939), SS Ionian (1939), If War Should Come (1939), The First Days (1939), War Library Items 1,2,3 (1940)

Disc two: Squadron 992 (1940), La Cause Commune (1940), French Communique (1940), The Front Line (1940), Men of the Lightship (1940), London Can Take It! (1940), Spring Offensive (1940), Story of an Air Communique (1940), War and Order (1940), Christmas Under Fire (1941)

Extras
- An interview with Pat Jackson
- Britain Can Take It!
Last edited by MichaelB on Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Addressing the Nation: The GPO Film Unit Collection

#2 Post by htdm » Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:17 am

Thanks for this, Michael.

Finally, Song of Ceylon. An incredible collection.

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Addressing the Nation: The GPO Film Unit Collection

#3 Post by MichaelB » Thu Sep 11, 2008 9:57 am

Screenonline has just launched its GPO Film Unit collection - including detailed coverage of most of the titles on the upcoming BFI release.

There are eighteen titles discussed in depth already, with lots more to be added over the next few months.

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Addressing the Nation: The GPO Film Unit Collection

#4 Post by Zazou dans le Metro » Thu Sep 11, 2008 10:28 am

MichaelB wrote:interactive video guide to the GPO Film Unit (presented by Sir Derek Jacobi) includes clips from A Colour Box, The King's Stamp, Pett and Pott, 6:30 Collection and later titles to be featured in the two subsequent GPO DVD collections.
Shouldn't Sir Derek be wearing a multi-coloured jumper and dungarees?

Particularly like 'You could moisten it with your tongue sir".
Where are the Fast Show when you need them?

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Addressing the Nation: The GPO Film Unit Collection

#5 Post by MichaelB » Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:00 pm

Zazou dans le Metro wrote:Where are the Fast Show when you need them?
You don't need them. The Fairy of the Phone goes so far beyond parody that it would be futile to even attempt it.

Incidentally, I've now seen the final package, and it looks fantastic - pretty much the same production values as Land of Promise in that both the packaging (Digipak in a thick cardboard sleeve) and booklet are reassuringly hefty.

And volumes 2 and 3 should both be out well before this time next year - I don't think individual titles have been finalised yet, but my understanding is that they'll continue the chronological survey started by volume 1, and that you can pretty much guarantee the inclusion of all the major work.

MovieMail has just published my feature article on the GPO collection.

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Addressing the Nation: The GPO Film Unit Collection

#6 Post by What A Disgrace » Thu Sep 18, 2008 1:42 pm

Amazon UK has the set at a pre-order price 40% off the retail value.

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#7 Post by GaryC » Wed Oct 08, 2008 2:19 pm

Since the company I work for has a more than passing interest in the contents of this DVD, there was a draw to win a copy on its intranet - and I did!

I've only glanced at it so far, but it looks an impressive set.

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#8 Post by MichaelB » Thu Oct 09, 2008 7:43 am

GaryC wrote:I've only glanced at it so far, but it looks an impressive set.
I think it's a fabulous set, and I also know that it was a real labour of love for the people who worked on it (I hope it shows!).

And the chronological survey means that volumes 2 and 3 should be even more enticing, as the GPO's great period was 1936-9, while the present volume only covers 1933-35, when the Unit was still finding its collective feet.

There are also major GPO-nurtured talents largely unrepresented by volume 1, including Norman McLaren, Lotte Reiniger and Humphrey Jennings - or at least Jennings behind the camera: I'm not counting his gurning turn as a messenger boy in The Glorious Sixth of June or his performance as one of the witches in a BBC radio production of Macbeth! (BBC - The Voice of Britain).

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Re: Addressing the Nation: The GPO Film Unit Collection

#9 Post by zone_resident » Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:14 am

DVD Times on Volume 1.

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GPO Film Unit Collection Vol.2: We Live In Two Worlds

#10 Post by What A Disgrace » Mon Dec 01, 2008 11:03 am

February 23 release date, according to Amazon UK.

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Re: GPO Film Unit Collection Vol.2 - We Live In Two Worlds

#11 Post by MichaelB » Mon Dec 01, 2008 5:29 pm

What A Disgrace wrote:February 23 release date, according to Amazon UK.
This one covers 1936-38 - and I couldn't see any obvious omissions when I was given a sneak preview of the shortlist.

(There are more titles than there were on Volume 1, too...)

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Re: GPO Film Unit Collection Vol.2 - We Live In Two Worlds

#12 Post by What A Disgrace » Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:20 pm

MovieMail lists the titles.

Disc One
Rainbow Dance (1936)
The Saving of Bill Blewitt (1936)
Calendar of the Year (1936)
Fairy of the Phone (1936)
Night Mail (1936)
Roadways (1937)
Trade Tattoo (1937)
Big Money (1937)
We Live in Two Worlds (1937)
N or NW (1937)

Disc Two
A Job in a Million (1937)
Book Bargain (1937)
What’s On Today (1938)
Love on the Wing (1938)
The Horsey Mail (1938)
Heavenly Post Office (1938)
News for the Navy (1938)
Mony a Pickle (1938)
North Sea (1938)
Penny Journey (1938)
The Tocher (1938)
Gods Chillun (1938).

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Re: GPO Film Unit Collection Vol.2 - We Live In Two Worlds

#13 Post by Adam » Mon Jan 19, 2009 2:59 pm

This includes Night Mail as well?
What would be the advantages then of getting Night Mail in its stand alone edition?

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Re: GPO Film Unit Collection Vol.2 - We Live In Two Worlds

#14 Post by MichaelB » Mon Jan 19, 2009 3:28 pm

It's worth noting that this has a more comprehensive survey of Norman McLaren's GPO work than was included on the NFB's Norman McLaren: The Masters Collection blowout.

That included Book Bargain, News for the Navy, Love on the Wing and an excerpt from Mony a Pickle, but the BFI set includes all those, plus the rest of Mony a Pickle plus other titles like A Job in a Million, which he edited.

In fact, animation fans in general are well catered for, with three Len Lyes (Rainbow Dance, Trade Tattoo, N or NW) and two Lotte Reinigers (The Tocher, The H.P.O.).
Adam wrote:This includes Night Mail as well?
What would be the advantages then of getting Night Mail in its stand alone edition?
Well, the main advantage is that you could have bought it at any point in the last thirteen months - and the continuing advantage is that the supporting films are unique to that edition. And if you're primarily interested in Night Mail, it's a lot cheaper!

But I'd certainly favour the new GPO set over the old Night Mail package myself.

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Re: GPO Film Unit Collection Vol.2 - We Live In Two Worlds

#15 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:06 pm

I've just seen a draft of the booklet - at 96 pages, it's longer than the first GPO booklet, though this is offset by some repetition: biographies of directors have understandably been carried over where they're equally relevant here.

But otherwise, it's mostly new stuff - an article on the GPO and experimental film by avant-garde expert Michael O'Pray, a 1937 Sight & Sound article about John Grierson, a long interview with his successor Alberto Cavalcanti and an NFT introduction by Harry Watt. Plus of course individual notes on every film, plus biographies of all the directors - and composers and writers. (I'll declare an interest here: I wrote the one on Norman McLaren, which is hilariously slanted towards his pre-1940 work. It doesn't quite end "and then he went to Canada and made a few more films before dying in 1987", but I do devote approximately three times as much space to his GPO work from 1937-8 as I do to his entire NFB output!)

All in all, this looks like a stronger package than its predecessor - and probably the one I'd pick if I had to choose just one, if only for all the Norman McLaren, Len Lye and Lotte Reiniger goodies.

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Re: GPO Film Unit Collection Vol.2 - We Live In Two Worlds

#16 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jan 27, 2009 5:21 pm

Here's the press release:
We Live in Two Worlds
The GPO Film Unit Collection Volume Two


The second of three deluxe double-disc box sets presenting all the key films of the GPO Film Unit on DVD for the first time will be released on 23 February 2009. It includes the much loved Night Mail and the experimental animations of Len Lye and Norman McLaren.

Created in 1933 out of the ashes of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit, the GPO Film Unit was one of the most remarkable creative institutions that Britain has produced. A hotbed of creative energy and talent, it provided a spring board to many of the best-known and critically acclaimed figures in the British Documentary Movement, including John Grierson, Alberto Cavalcanti, Basil Wright and Harry Watt, alongside innovators and experimentalists such as Len Lye and Norman McLaren. Their work embraced public information films, drama-documentary, social reportage, animation, advertising and many points in between.

The BFI National Archive, in partnership with The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA), Royal Mail and BT Heritage has curated and preserved the legendary output of short films produced by the GPO Film Unit.

This second volume covers 1936-1938 and represents the Unit at its creative height. It includes much-loved classics such as Night Mail, the experimental animations of Len Lye and Norman McLaren, and Harry Watt’s first forays into drama-documentary with The Saving of Bill Blewitt and North Sea as well as other neglected works, many of which will be available for the first time since their original release.

We Live in Two Worlds is not just important in cinematic terms, but provides a valuable and fascinating insight into 1930s Britain.

The discs are presented in a deluxe box with a 98-page bound book containing introductory essays, film notes and selected biographies.

Volume One, Addressing the Nation was released last September. Volume Three, If War Should Come, is released on 13 July 2009.

Experts on the collection are available for interview and there is extensive information on the GPO Film Unit project at www.bfi.org.uk/gpo

Release date: 23 February 2009
RRP £24.99 / cat. no. BFIVD759 / E
UK / 1936-1938 / black and white, and colour / optional subtitles for the hearing-impaired
257 mins / DVD-9 / ratio 1.33:1
Available from the Filmstore at BFI Southbank, London SE1 and all good DVD retailers; by mail order from the Filmstore on 020 7815 1350 or online

Disc One
Rainbow Dance (Len Lye, 1936)
The Saving of Bill Blewitt (Harry Watt, 1936)
Calendar of the Year (Evelyn Spice, 1936)
The Fairy of the Phone (William Coldstream, 1936)
Night Mail (Harry Watt and Basil Wright – uncredited – 1936)
Roadways (William Coldstream, Stuart Legg, 1937)
Trade Tattoo (Len Lye, 1937)
Big Money (Harry Watt, 1937)
We Live in Two Worlds (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1937)
N or NW (Len Lye, 1937)

Disc Two
A Job in a Million (Evelyn Spice, 1937)
Book Bargain (Norman McLaren, 1937)
What's On Today (R.Q. McNaughton, 1938)
Love on the Wing (Norman McLaren, 1938)
The Horsey Mail (Pat Jackson, 1938)
The H.P.O. (Lotte Reiniger, 1938)
News for the Navy (Norman McLaren, 1938)
Mony a Pickle (Director of Sequence – uncredited – Norman McLaren, Alberto Cavalcanti, Richard Massingham, 1938)
North Sea (Harry Watt, 1938)
Penny Journey – The Story of a Post Card from Manchester to Graffham (Humphrey Jennings, 1938)
The Tocher (A film ballet by Lotte Reiniger, 1938)
God’s Chillun (Words by W.H. Auden, music by Benjamin Britten, 1938)

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Re: GPO Film Unit Collection Vol.2 - We Live In Two Worlds

#17 Post by MichaelB » Tue Feb 03, 2009 5:50 pm

To promote the rest of the set, the BFI has just published Len Lye's N or NW and Norman McLaren's Love on the Wing on YouTube.

(Click the high-resolution option if your connection's up to it!)

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GPO Film Unit Collection Vol.3: If War Should Come

#18 Post by What A Disgrace » Thu Mar 05, 2009 8:47 pm

GPO Film Unit Collection Volume 3: If War Should Come: Up for preorder at Amazon UK

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Re: GPO Film Unit Collection Vol.3: If War Should Come

#19 Post by MichaelB » Fri Mar 06, 2009 2:29 am

This won't come as a huge surprise, but Volume 3 will be presented along more or less identical lines to Volumes 1 and 2, continuing the chronological sequence through 1939 and 1940, when the GPO Film Unit was taken over by the government to become the Crown Film Unit.

I'm not sure if I can confirm titles yet, but you can probably guess the vast majority from a GPO filmography - as ever, I believe all the obvious ones will be included (no reason for them not to be!). And that most certainly includes Humphrey Jennings' breakthrough Spare Time.

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Re: GPO Film Unit Collection Vol.2: We Live In Two Worlds

#20 Post by MichaelB » Fri Mar 13, 2009 9:26 am

Ken Russell's review.

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Re: The GPO Film Unit Collections

#21 Post by HarryLong » Fri Mar 13, 2009 1:56 pm

Nice to see Russell still finds ways to remind the public he's still alive. But I wish someone would hire him. He's still got at least one film in him. (And he recently directed a play in NYC, so it's not like he's lacking the stamina, no matter his age.)

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Re: The GPO Film Unit Collections

#22 Post by What A Disgrace » Mon May 18, 2009 6:44 am

Contents of Volume 3, courtesy of MovieMail.

The City (1939)
The Islanders (1939)
Spare Time (1939)
A Midsummer Day’s Work (1939)
If War Should Come (1939)
The First Days (1939)
SS Ionian (1939)
War Library Items 1,2,3 (1940)
Squadron 992 (1940)
La Cause Commune (1940)
French Communique (1940)
The Front Line (1940)
Men of the Lightship (1940)
London Can Take it! (1940)
Spring Offensive (1940)
Story of an Air Communique (1940)
War and Order (1940)
Christmas Under Fire (1941)

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Re: The GPO Film Unit Collections

#23 Post by Gus » Wed May 20, 2009 12:38 pm

I would really like to see these but i wouldn't like the thought of buying them on dvd for there to be bluray edtions of them right after. Anyone heard of Bluray of these sets?

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Re: The GPO Film Unit Collections

#24 Post by MichaelB » Thu Jun 04, 2009 10:45 am

Official release for volume 3:
If War Should Come:
The GPO Film Unit Collection Volume Three


The third and final volume of BFI deluxe double-disc box sets presenting all the key films of the GPO Film Unit on DVD for the first time will be released on 6 July 2009. The 18 films in this collection provide a fascinating and poignant insight into a nation on the cusp of war and its transition to the brutal realities of life in the Blitz.

Created in 1933 out of the ashes of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit, the GPO Film Unit was one of the most remarkable creative institutions that Britain has produced. A hotbed of creative energy and talent, it provided a spring board to many of the best-known and critically acclaimed figures in the British Documentary Movement, including John Grierson, Alberto Cavalcanti, Basil Wright and Harry Watt, alongside innovators and experimentalists such as Len Lye and Norman McLaren. Their work embraced public information films, drama-documentary, social reportage, animation, advertising and many points in between.

The BFI National Archive, in partnership with The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA), Royal Mail and BT Heritage has curated and preserved the legendary output of short films produced by the GPO Film Unit.

This final volume of three sets covers 1939-1941, the last years of the GPO Film Unit before it evolved into the Crown Film Unit. This period saw it at its most technically sophisticated, with directors such as Humphrey Jennings, Harry Watt and Alberto Cavalcanti leading the way in the use of documentary cinema in support of the war effort. Among the films in this collection are Jennings’ poetic masterpiece Spare Time and the rousing classics London Can Take It! and Christmas Under Fire.

The discs are presented in a deluxe box with a 68-page bound book containing introductory essays, film notes and selected biographies.

There is extensive information on the GPO Film Unit project at http://www.bfi.org.uk/gpo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Disc one
The City (Ralph Elton, 1939)
The Islanders (Maurice Harvey, 1939)
Spare Time (Humphrey Jennings, 1939)
A Midsummer Day’s Work (Alberto Cavalcanti (uncredited), 1939)
If War Should Come (uncredited, 1939)
The First Days (Harry Watt, Humphrey Jennings, Pat Jackson, 1939)
SS Ionian (Humphrey Jennings, 1939)
War Library Items 1, 2, and 3 (uncredited, 1940)

Disc two
Squadron 992 (Harry Watt, 1940)
La Cause Commune (Alberto Cavalcanti, uncredited, 1940)
French Communiqué (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1940)
The Front Line (Harry Watt (uncredited), 1940)
Men of the Lightship (David MacDonald, 1940)
London Can Take It! (Harry Watt, Humphrey Jennings (both uncredited), 1940)
Spring Offensive (Humphrey Jennings, 1940)
The Story of an Air Communiqué (Ralph Eton, uncredited, 1940)
War and Order (Charles Hasse, 1940)
Christmas Under Fire (Harry Watt, 1941)

Special features
Britain Can Take It! (1940)
Slightly shorter version of London Can Take It! which was made for British audiences
• Interview with director Pat Jackson (2007)

Release date: 6 July 2009
RRP £24.99 / cat. no. BFIVD760 / E
UK / 1939-1941 / black and white / optional subtitles for the hearing-impaired
260 mins + 19 mins extra material / DVD-9 / ratio 1.33:1 / DVD-9

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Re: The GPO Film Unit Collections

#25 Post by zedz » Mon Oct 19, 2009 6:17 pm

I have to put in a good word for the second and third GPO sets. These are really magnificent collections, with superb books and any number of essential films. Lye's Trade Tattoo on the second set looks staggeringly beautiful, and that collection is probably the high point of the series in terms of experimental film.

The third volume might be my favourite, though, full of films made on the brink of war. Plenty of remarkable work from Humphrey Jennings, who's arguably the most important British filmmaker of the 40s. There's Michael Powell of course, but Jennings' influence is probably more pervasive, even though many of his inheritors might not be aware of that.

In the context of these sets, however, you realise that Jennings is in many respects just a synthesis of everything that was going on at the GPO Film Unit at the time, but one who manages to unite many of the hallmarks and innovations of the unit and build them into a strong personal style.

Although there's a fascination and urgency to the material on this third set that makes it intrinsically a little more compelling than many of the postal docs from the earlier sets, it's also consistently formally exciting.

Harry Watt’s Squadron 992 is a solid documentary about Britain's barrage balloons that builds up to one of the most thrilling shots I’ve ever seen, one that also serves as a textbook example of the virtues of montage and mise-en-scene. A key interlude in the film is a reconstruction of an attack on the Forth Bridge by a lone German aircraft, which is chased by a British Spitfire. In classic GPO fashion, this event is refracted through the experiences of the ordinary people carrying on their daily activities in the vicinity (in this regard, Jennings’ involvement with the Mass Observation movement is interesting). One of these vignettes involves a couple of poachers, and footage of their hound chasing a hare is intercut with the Spitfire chasing the German plane. It’s an effective, rather obvious piece of montage, and the rate of cutting accelerates as dog and plane draw closer to their prey and the circles in which they pursue one another get tighter. Then there’s a sudden cut to a long shot of a cold Scottish paddock with the hound chasing the hare in tightening circles at the bottom of the frame while the two planes mimic their actions in the sky beyond. It’s absolutely stunning and the mind boggles at how difficult it must have been to engineer that perfect shot, but it suddenly elevates the purely montage-based visual metaphor into something grandly cinematic.

Men of the Lightship is another mini-masterpiece, a drama documentary that reconstructs a particularly grim early episode in the war. During the ‘Phoney War’ there wasn’t actually that much drama to reconstruct, so many of these early films tend to have an odd, subjunctive air to them. Here the typical concern with everyday details of work routine and character have an unexpected payoff that I won’t spoil for you.

S.S. Ionian is one of the damnedest films I’ve ever seen, and more confirmation of Jennings’ extraordinary talent. It’s a very slippery film, which is one of its crucial secret weapons. At the most obvious surface level, it’s a kind of logistics procedural, a long, droning enumeration of the stops the eponymous ship makes on its journey around the Mediterranean, the cargo it offloads and takes on at each port – i.e. one of the most pointless trainspotterish films ever made. But this is clearly just a red herring. It’s actually a travelogue, and we get pretty pictures of all the lovely tourist spots the Ionian visits. Well, actually, this being a Jennings film, its real meaning lies in those glancing portraits of the men on board, and the way they integrate their recreation with their labour. In this regard, it’s completely of a piece with Jennings’ work in Spare Time, Listen to Britain, Fires Were Started and A Diary for Timothy. However, the longer the film runs, the stranger its discursive form becomes, until eventually the weight of its numerous asides reveals it to be one of the most oblique and ingenious propaganda films ever conceived. But this final revelation only really works because the film is already juggling so many other layers. Resolving into a thundering, overt patriotic message would completely destroy the desired effect of the film. As it stands, the film is so delicately balanced I came out of it grinning at its brilliance. A masterpiece.

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