With his enquiries into the 'problem of Britain' as stimulating as ever, Robinson delves into histories of property, ownership and resistance in England. Graeme Hobbs takes a look.
Following his earlier peregrinations in London and Robinson in Space, which saw the mordant, deadpan narrator considering 'the problem of England', in Robinson in Ruins, our ever inquisitive but increasingly elusive guide resumes his journeys into the country on the day after the latest global financial crisis. Vanessa Redgrave takes over Paul Schofield's earlier narrative duties, slipping into his same rhythms of speech and sly comment.
Tracing histories of property, ownership and resistance through various sites in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, Robinson looks into questions of land and labour, delineating the new geopolitical ley lines that run alongside the countryside's more ancient ways, and giving the lie to the supposition that the lansdscape is, or could ever be, anonymous.
As he pinpoints a nexus of financial and political connections in seemingly innocuous pockets of countryside, restful bucolic shots - teasels, a white foxglove, a hoverfly on a dog rose - combine with those of the depopulated industry of the countryside, in which the colours of familiar crops such as oilseed rape and wheat, take their place alongside more surprising hues, such as those of a field of opium poppies.
Mulling over, and drawing together, topics as diverse as rocket research, anti-road protests, Greenham Common, Goethe, SSSI's and the natural history of lichen, Keiller's eye for a telling image is as keen as ever. By the end, Robinson has headed west (maybe), leaving behind more erudite, surprising and stimulating visual considerations of the sources and sustenance of the new England - whatever and wherever that might be.
Standard Definition and High Definition presentation
Optional effects-only soundtrack
Panel discussion: Patrick Keiller, Doreen Massey, Patrick Wright and Matthew Flintham on their project The Future of Landscape and the Moving Image (2011) (DVD only)
Original theatrical release trailer (DVD only)
Downloadable PDF of Doreen Massey’s essay: ‘Landscape/space/politics’ (DVD only)
Illustrated booklet with introduction by Patrick Keiller, notes by Doreen Massey and review by Mark Fisher.
Film Description
One of Britain’s most intellectually stimulating filmmakers, Patrick Keiller is widely acclaimed for London (1994), his extraordinary portrait of the UK capital, and Robinson in Space (1997), his highly original meditation on ‘the problem of England’. In Robinson in Ruins, his eagerly awaited follow up to the earlier films, Keiller revisits the English landscape, this time applying his beguiling wit and acute powers of observation to our current environmental and economic predicament.
Robinson in Ruins sees Patrick Keiller's mysterious scholar, newly freed from prison, resume his wanderings through England, here by haunting the countryside of Oxfordshire and Berkshire. Rusting film cans found abandoned in an old caravan turn out to contain the results of his research into the the origins of capitalist catastrophe in the English landscape.
These beautiful pictures have been compiled by his research associate (voiced by Vanessa Redgrave, taking over from Paul Scofield's duties in Keiller's London and Robinson in Space). The resulting film – reflecting the range of Robinson’s preoccupations, as well as his curiosity and apparent erudition – is interwoven with references to the deepening economic crisis, looming environmental catastrophe, Shelley, Marx, the war in Afghanistan and the Captain Swing riots of 1830. Yet Robinson also detects more hopeful signs: alongside striking images of a landscape littered with ‘keep out’ signs, wire fences, satellite dishes and military installations, there are also exquisite cloudscapes, the blossoming hawthorn tree on Greenham Common (now returned to civil use) and unexpected orchids flourishing defiantly on the edge of a motorway.
