 |
|||
 |
Empty
|
 |
 |
 |
|||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|
Night Mail / West Highland
Film Description Two classic train films. Night Mail, produced by John Grierson and with verse by W H Auden is one of the most celebrated documentaries of all, showing the Postal Special's nightly run from London to Scotland. It has realism, perfect structure and inspirational appeal. West Highland is a 1960 BBC film that gives an impressionistic, romantic yet factually precise account of a day on the West Highland steam railway line. All the technical information is there but there is also Gaelic singing and Betjeman/Auden style poetry in an innovative narrative collage.
Film Information
DVD Extras Interactive Menus\Scene Access
Technical Details
Reviews & ArticlesShare your thoughts and opinions - write a review
Review by DP on 25th November 2002 Long before he was co-opted by the makers of Four Weddings, W.H. Auden had already left his mark on cinema history with the rhythmic verses for this documentary masterpiece. Produced by John Grierson for the GPO Film Unit, it essentially depicts the passage of the mail from Euston to Edinburgh. But with Auden’s ingenious rhymes - which were tailored to fit the action - it becomes a spellbinding odyssey. A bonus is the BBC travelogue, Western Highland, which melds the style of the British Transport Film Unit with a score by the same Radiophonic Workshop that was responsible for the Dr Who theme.
Review by GH on 11th January 2002 Altogether now: ‘This is the night mail crossing the border / Bringing the cheque and the postal order…’. The Auden/Britten section of Night Mail is the part that has become iconic. Justly so, a palpable excitement builds as the train speeds up and the verse speeds up, but the newly-cleaned print for DVD shows there is far more to Grierson’s film than this. The incidental noises orchestrated by Cavalcanti, the shots of staff and trains at Crewe station that recall Bill Brandt photographs in their use of light and shade and the aerial shots of track and overhead lines that resemble something that Norman McLaren would later animate.
Article - "Humphrey Jennings"
by Graeme Hobbs
The quotation inevitably pressed into service in discussions of Humphrey Jennings comes from Lindsay Anderson’s appreciation of him in the Spring 1954 issue of Sight and Sound, where he says, ‘it might reasonably be contended that Humphrey Jennings is the only real p... View article in full
Collections & ListsThis film is part of the following Film Collections
Including: All That Mighty Heart, British Buses - The Golden Years, British Transport Films Collection (Vol 1): On and Off the Rails, British Transport Films Collection (Vol 2): See Britain by Train, British Transport Films Collection (Vol 3): Running a Railway, British Transport Films Collection (Vol 4): Reshaping British Railways, Farewell To The Routemaster - The Last Days Of The Famous London Bus, Fred Dibnahs World Of Steel, Steam And Stone Part 1 & 2, Geoffrey Jones: The Rhythm of Film, Metro-Land.
Including: 40s Britain - Fishermen At War, Classical Music In The Forties, Drifters / Caller Herrin, GPO Animation, Len Lye - Rhythms, London Pride, Night Mail / West Highland, The GPO Classics Collection: Britain At War - The First Days, The GPO Classics Collection: Britain at War -Under Fire, The GPO Story: Thirties Britain (Vol 1).
This film is part of the following Customer Film Lists
MovieMail Top 100 Best-Sellers of All-Time by MovieMail This is your list: the 100 films you've bought the most of in the 10 years of MovieMail's existence. There are some surprise entries and some glaring omissions – but it’s all true, and, frankly, you’ve got very good taste! It’s such a good list that we're going to make it a permanent fixture on our website and to celebrate the launch we’ve slashed many of the prices on these wonderful films. Enjoy!
Top Documentary Shorts - a look at Britain on film by Lester May Little gems deserving a bigger audience. There is a wide variety of great documentary films now released on DVD. Many of them will help to complete the picture in your family history and in some of them, some lucky people will actually see their ancestor on film! These films are excellent examples of the art of documentary film making and give a fascinating view of our islands in peace and in war, at work and at play. There are some real gems too, so surprise yourself and dip into these wonderful films about aspects of our island life.
Customers who bought this also bought...Recommendations from fellow customers
by Ken Russell
by James Kenyon / Sagar Mitchell
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||
| Home | Film Catalogue | New Releases | Special Offers | Top 30 | ||
|
||
| Film Collections | Film Media | News | Your Account | Help | Become a MovieMail affiliate | ||
|
||
For questions or assistance, call us on (+44) 0844 776 0900 or email on enquiries@moviemail-online.co.uk © 2004-2007 MovieMail, Ltd., All Rights Reserved. Find out more about MovieMail |
||
|
The Edge Of The World
Elgar
British Transport Films Collection (Vol 1): On and Off the Rails
The Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon
Bowling For Columbine
