MetaFilter posts tagged with uk and film

"More than one American has offered to buy up our Tower and erect it on Palm Beach as a bungalow!"

fearfulsymmetry — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:16:06 -0800

The Open Road London pioneering colour footage from 1927 (SLYT)

Gasparcolor

Kattullus — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:49:24 -0800

Colour on the Thames is a 7 minute film shot in 1935 using Gasparcolor, one of the many early forms of tinting black and white film. Beside Colour on the Thames, which provides a wonderful view of 1930's England, the only film made in Gasparcolor I could find online was Colour Flight by New Zealand artist Len Lye, an abstract cartoon set to instrumental 1930's pop music. The story of Gasparcolor is in itself interesting, for instance touching on Nazis, Hungary between the wars and early color animation.

A Kitten for Hitler

fearfulsymmetry — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:21:01 -0800

'Ten years ago, while working on The South Bank Show, Melvyn Bragg and I had a heated discussion on the pros and cons of film censorship. Broadly speaking, Melvyn was against it, while I, much to his surprise, was absolutely for it. He then dared me to write a script that I thought should be banned. I accepted the challenge and a month or so later sent him a short subject entitled A Kitten for Hitler. “Ken,” he said, “if ever you make this film and it is shown, you will be lynched.'

That film has been made. The story behind it.

Christmas at the BFI

Rumple — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 19:13:01 -0800

Christmas in the London Blitz, 1940; Making Christmas Crackers, 1910; Santa Claus, 1898; Christmas is coming, 1951: short films from the British Film Institute's wonderful Youtube Channel (including excellent playlists), which you can also explore through Google Earth using the kmz file found here.

I piss on Gods stupid world!

Artw — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:26:24 -0800

"Our boss is a madman! I was in the sorting office and he said our system was outdated! I spat in his face! He fired me! I have to look for a job now!" Would Klaus Kinski have been so angry if he hadn't been so famous? A vintage column by Graham Linham (Father Ted, The IT Crowd) from the late lamented Neon magazine. (via).

Holmes' and Watson's World

digaman — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:01:27 -0800

One minute and four seconds in London, 1904. Birkbeck College professor Ian Christie rediscovered this footage in an archive in Canberra, shot for a travelogue by film pioneer Charles Urban.

"You meet a better class of people in pubs"

fearfulsymmetry — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:10:59 -0800

Oliver Reed. Movie star or hellraiser? Actor or alcoholic? But it was probably not as simple as that... The Real Oliver Reed (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) (Poss. NSFW Brief nudity) Oliver Reed: The original hellraiser 15 Things You Genuinely Didn’t Know About Oliver Reed The infamous Aspel appearance , More on that and other chat show appearances Oliver Reed - Resurrecting Proximo (1, 2, 3) Uncut interview from 1992 (1, 2) Johnny Carson interview (1, 2, 3) At the Oliver! reunion (Poss. NSFW some swearing) Reed on The Word Spitting Image ... and finally the last pub. RIP

Something Of Boris

fearfulsymmetry — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 07:30:53 -0800

Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish of Adam & Joe fame put forward their proposals for the theme tune for the upcoming Bond film Quantum Of Solace

"It's not of this world. It's Sadako's fury. And she's put a curse on us."

fearfulsymmetry — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:20:04 -0800

RIP Tartan Films. The UK-based film distribution company has gone into administration, laying off it's entire staff. With the help of their American arm (Tartan USA, the closure of which had already been announced at this years' Cannes Festival), they were responsible for bringing some of the best recent foreign cinema, especially from Japan and Korea to the West, including Infernal Affairs (remade as The Departed), Oldboy (currently being remade), A Tale of Two Sisters and the original Ring series, virtually single-handed launching the J-Horror / K-Horror phenomenon. Other notable films they backed include Primer, Red Road (Pos NSFW, brief nudity) and Funny Games.

"Sid James is Silenus... Barbara Windsor is Aphrodite. Hattie Jacques is Athena."

fearfulsymmetry — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:32:34 -0800

The Carry On films have been a much-loved part of British life for the last 50 years, and they may even be making a new one. This give a quick feel of what you might of missed (slightly NSFW) And though it does have its knockers, one person liked them so much he made a religion out of them, literally.

UK Film Director Anthony Mingella has died.

Mintyblonde — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:52:14 -0800

UK Film Director Anthony Minghella has died.

Viddy well, little brother. Viddy well.

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 06:05:48 -0800

The Return of a Clockwork Orange - Writers, artists, directors, UK film censors and starring actor Malcolm McDowell discuss Stanley Kubrick's classic film A Clockwork Orange

Hammer Has Risen From The Grave!... er Rave!

fearfulsymmetry — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:23:39 -0800

Hammer films are back! ... The classic British horror film company has returned from the dead with the first new film in 20 years to be first broadcast in instalments via MySpace. This has allowed some news programs to camp it up just a little... See the trailer here. Behind the scenes. Time will tell if the latest venture will be up to the classics of the past such as... Draculawith Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (recently restored by the BFI), The Curse of Frankenstein (also with Lee and Cushing), The Mummy (Lee and Cushing again), The Hound of the Baskervilles (with yup, you've guess it, Lee and Cushing), She (with Lee, Cushing AND Ursula Andress), The Quatermass Xperiment (The Creeping Unknown in the US), the rather arty Vampire Circus, One Million Years B.C (with Raquel Welch in that fur bikini), The Devil Rides Out (with Lee playing a good guy for once), Countess Dracula (with Ingrid Pitt) and the 'Karnstein Trilogy' of The Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire and Twins of Evil. (Which I was introduced to by the splendid Horror Double Bills the BBC used to run late night in the summers of the 1970s) Although best known for their classic horror films though they also produced films in other genres (they made a great deal of profit from horrifically bad film versions of the popular tv sitcoms of the time) Even though the popularity of the films faded Hammer continued into television (some of which may look rubbish now but frightened me to death as a kid.) Their style has been spoofed over years... but never better than here. Here's one lady who should be happy at least. (Some of those clips may be NSFW... or X-rated as we used to say)

Splinter your sides with laughter

fearfulsymmetry — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 07:52:30 -0800

The Plank, classic British comedy (Youtubed: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Starring Eric Sykes, who despite being partially deaf appeared in his own show Sykes and elsewhere with 'sister' Hattie Jacques, and the odd interesting guest, and Tommy Cooper, Britain's worst magician but funniest man (Spoon Jar, Bottle Glass, Magic Cloak, Hats, Card Trick, Paper Tear, Milk) who finally died on stage for real, live on television.

NOW how am I going to watch Growing Pains?

SassHat — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 21:24:40 -0800

TV-Links website shut down, site creator arrested. Says David Rock, who awaits charges, "It was just a hobby." Despite not actually hosting the content, Rock has been accused of "facilitation of infringement."

Brownlow's and Mollo's Nazi Britain

matteo — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 08:04:11 -0800

"The German invasion of Britain took place in July 1940, after the British retreat from Dunkirk". We see, documentary-style, members of the Wehrmacht trooping past Big Ben and St Paul's Cathedral, lounging in the parks, having their jackboots shined by old cockneys, and appreciatively visiting the shrine of that good German, Prince Albert, in Kensington Gardens. Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo's film "It Happened Here", with its cast of hundreds (.pdf), imagines what a Nazi occupation might have been like — complete with underground resistance, civilian massacres, civil strife, torch-lit rallies, Jewish ghettos, and organized euthanasia. Shot on weekends, eight years in production, made for about $20,000 with nonactors and borrowed equipment and Stanley Kubrick's help, "It Happened Here" was originally envisioned by Brownlow as a sort of Hammer horror flick about a Nazi Britain. Thanks in part to Mollo's fanatical concern with historical accuracy, however, it became something else. The most remarkable thing about this account of everyday fascism is that it has no period footage. Brownlow's 1968 book about the film's production, "How It Happened Here", has recently been republished. More inside.

Moving Archives

nthdegx — Tue, 30 Dec 2003 03:47:16 -0800

The Sorcerer's Scissors; Air Raid Practice, Knoll School Hove; and An Eye to the Future [wmv's all, I'm afraid]. These and other examples nonpareil available at the University of Brighton's Moving History: "A guide to UK film and television archives in the public sector".

BFI presents screenonline

jacknose — Mon, 01 Dec 2003 09:41:59 -0800

BFI presents screenonline | The British Film Institute announces the launch of screenonline: "This new site features an unrivalled collection of archive film and television footage from the bfi National Film and Television Archive.... [It] is the first time the bfi has given the public access online to its comprehensive collection of film and television material, giving teachers, students and film enthusiasts an exceptional opportunity to investigate British history, culture and society through cinema. "

Bixby23 — Mon, 02 Sep 2002 19:56:51 -0800

The British Empire in Colour -- a three-part documentary series from the producers of the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award-winning Britain at War in Colour will air this month. The series is supposed to include "a treasure-trove of early colour movies filmed before 'technicolour' transformed film making in the 1930s. Unique colour footage of the Edwardian splendour of 1906 British India, soldiers of the First World War and class divided Britain in 1926 as seen for the first time by a modern visually sophisticated audience." Apparently, it also includes Horrifying footage of last days of Raj.