elab49
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Joined: 1/10/2005
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Listen to Britain (Jennings/McAllister, 1942)
"the only real poet the British cinema has yet produced” Lindsay Anderson, 1950s
Humphrey Jennings, one of the UK's most important filmmakers, died at sadly quite a young age, shortly after WWII. This means that most of his important and best-known work served to combine art with the propaganda needs of the country at war – key works include London Can Take It, Fires Were Started, A Diary For Timothy and A Silent Village (transferring the story of the Nazi massacre in Lidice in Czechoslovakia to a Welsh village). Although others involved in the GPO Unit are included here, Jennings is sadly only going to appear with this short – although this 20 minute masterpiece is probably the best of 1400 MOI shorts during WWII and it was certainly one of the most effective in terms of propaganda.
This is a short documentary that examines how civilians are handling the impact of war, both in terms of the destruction they are seeing at home and the impact of resource reduction. Images of children playing are followed by army vehicles driving through country villages – mills and factories and a deliberate mix of high and low culture cutting from Flanagan and Allen to Mozart. Jennings had a variety of influences, particularly the Surrealist movement and the juxtaposition of incongruous images is key to his work – but as one of the key members of the movement for documentary realism within the GPO he also wanted to put real life on screen (and, indeed, one of this other significant contributions included the co-founding of the Mass Observation Project) and with Listen to Britain this was achieved triumphantly – the "distillation and magnification of …experience… on the home front”. This abstract meditation on how Briton was surviving the war (a particularly pointed snapshot filmed over 1941/42 when, although the threat of invasion had receded, Britain had just gone through the worst of the blitz and victory wasn't exactly inevitable) kept to his familiar themes – a sense of the English nation, its history and culture, and an admiration for the working man. In short, a perfect encapsulation of the idea of the "Peoples' War”.
The background to the film shouldn't distract from the beauty of the composition – although Jennings did write a script, his very painterly approach meant that when they got back to the editing booth there were reams of other scenes shot on spec to be incorporated in the story to be told. While none of this is to diminish the contribution of editor Stewart McAllister, I tend to think the fact that the work Jennings did without McAllister shared the same look and themes, i.e., A Diary for Timothy where, especially, the contrast of high/low culture also appears.
Unfortunately we can only access clips on youtube, etc. but I'd very much recommend you try and seek Listen to Britain and other works by Jennings out by other means – many appear on the BFI GPO releases (where you'll also find works by McLaren, Lye and Reiniger amongst others), e.g.
Rewatch inspired by Rick's top 100 list. 
Things I Like, Things I Don't Like (Jeunet, 1989)
A man faces the camera listing likes and dislikes, reacting appropriately to them with the film expanding on them. We see a child kicking a ball against a wall that has a penis drawn on it for innocence, film of trains, photo montages, animation and illustrations (we even get a quick snippet of the very non-French TinTin!). Some are gross, some are sweet – we even get a look at Richard Widmark's giggling psychopath and end on the great Jean Gabin.
Starring the great, rubber-faced, Dominque Pinon (who went from this to performing in each of Jeunet's feature films (including MicMacs which won't be out here until next year)), Jeunet's last short before Delicatessen gives strong hints of the style to come, not least because the title gives away the link to Amelie and the listing of likes and dislikes in that film. Also, Pinon keeps faith with at least one of his professed likes in Delicatessen (apparently).
All in all this is a lovely short, wonderfully performed and imaginatively edited. A recognisable calling card from Jeunet that leaves you with a smile on your face, just like Amelie.
< Message edited by elab49 -- 1/2/2010 4:46:12 PM >
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RE: Top 100 Films I've Watched This Year: 2010 - 
I just told Homer on MSN why I didn't like it that much and it's redeeming points, and I managed to list lots of redeeming bits. So it's a 3/5. You partially win, heathen.
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