Film

The gleaners and society

Gleaning is the ancient practice of going into a field after the harvest and picking up any fruit, cereal or root crops left behind. Its most famous representation is the painting by Jean-Francois Millet, “The Gleaners”, which he completed in 1857. What the painting represented was “updated”, as it were, by French director Agnès Varda in 2000 with her documentary The Gleaners and I . Shot in various locations in France, including the suburbs of Paris, film shows modern day gleaners doing very much what their ancestors have done for hundreds of years. They explain in their own words why they do...

An exceptional spy film

Most spy films are rubbish but The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (directed by Martin Ritt, 1965), based on the novel by John Le Carré, is an exception. The drama centres on Alec Leamas (Richard Burton), who is set-up by MI6 to go into East Germany to unmask Mundt, an intelligence operative causing problems for British operations in Berlin. However, Mundt, a one-time Nazi sympathiser, is actually working with the British, and the real purpose of the mission is destroy Fiedler, another East German agent who is close to exposing Mundt as a double agent. The grim plot of betrayal and counter...

The Tree of Wooden Clogs

I once heard of a man in Newcastle who stipulated that when he died there should be no funeral service for him. Anyone who cared for his memory should instead watch The Tree of Wooden Clogs , a 1978 film written and directed by the Italian Ermanno Olmi. It was a good choice. Apart from other considerations, this is one of the great Italian films of the post-Neorealist period. Set in Lombardy in the late 19th century, the film depicts the working lives and utter hardship of four families (all played by local non-professionals) who work on the farm of a local landowner. A priest tells Bastiti...

An empire massacres its own troops

On returning to their country in 1944, Senegalese troops (called “tirailleurs”) who fought for France, the colonial power at the time, found themselves herded into a detention camp. Ousmane Sembène’s moving 1988 film Camp de Thiaroye captures the intense sense of betrayal felt by these troops. They are surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers. There are many complaints about the treatment they receive and particularly the lousy food. A representative is nominated to speak to the French commanding officer, who flatly refuses to do anything. When the Senegalese troops are finally due to leave...

A slaughterhouse and Watts

Released in 1978, Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep initially had a difficult time reaching an audience. It was made on a tight budget while Burnett was finishing at film school — he was writer, producer, editor and director — and there were problems with the film’s release as Burnett had not acquired the rights to the 22 songs on the soundtrack. That was eventually sorted out and the film was transferred to a 35mm print and DVD. It became a much praised depiction of working-class African-American life in the Watts district of Los Angeles, shot almost entirely on location and using many non...

Satjajit Ray’s Apu trilogy

I must confess to not watching very much cinema from India. I’ve never been a big fan of Bollywood; however I hope to make some small amends by highlighting Bengali director Satjajit Ray’s brilliant Apu Trilogy: Panther Panchali (1955), Aparjito (1956) and Apu Sarvar ( The World of Apu ) (1959). With original music by a then almost unknown Ravi Shankar, these films are a story of the childhood, education, youth and early manhood of Apu in the early twentieth century. Apu is born into rural poverty. His family moves to the city of Benares/Varanasi, but their life does not improve. His father...

The City Without Jews

The 1920s Austrian Expressionist film The City Without Jews was once thought lost but fragments turned up in an archive. A full copy (in very bad condition) was later found in a jumble sale and painstakingly restored. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Hugo Bettauer and depicts a city (Vienna) from which the entire Jewish population is expelled. It was adapted for the screen by Hans Karl Breslauer, and first screened in Vienna in 1924. Many thought it was a ridiculous fantasy. In New York it was panned as “fatuous”, yet it would be only another ten years or so before the Nazis...

Harry Belafonte, 1927-2023

Better known as a singer, Harry Belafonte performed in a number of films and was a long-standing civil rights activist in the United States. Born in Harlem, he was the son of Jamaican parents, becoming attracted to the theatre at an early age. His first film was Bright Road in 1953. followed by Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957) and others. He famously turned down the role of Porgy in Otto Preminger’s film adaptation of Porgy and Bess , saying the role was racially stereotyped. From 1954 to 1961 he refused to perform in the American South. He concentrated on his singing career, but...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.