Imperial War Museum Short Film Festival

The Coach That Made History

This film had an interesting concept. I never knew the significance of coach 2419 in which or around which so many defining events took place; the first armistice in 1918, second armistice in 1940 and so many more. The narration allowed me an insight into just how large a part it played in history and just how clever Hitler's propaganda radar really was. However, after a while I wanted more than narration. I wanted experts, I wanted interpretations, I wanted more than just some archive and a knowledgeable narrator.

That is not to say that there was not a remarkable amount of archive that had clearly meant a lot of research. But the absence of a contributor left the production searching for visuals, leaving some of the images that perhaps would ordinarily be thrown out, to find their way in (A thing I too am guilty of within my first production). There were wobbly pans and over-exposed pull focuses that although were relevant, just took away from the fact that this was actually, a very finished, interesting and informed piece.

The narration was well written and well researched but was annoyingly ruined a little by the rather intriguing choice of music. In short, I thought the music was terrible. I understood that at times it was supposed to represent jeopardy and therefore fell away from major tones and pleasing notes, but it swelled into a key bashing mess that became too prominent to ignore. My advice, find a new composer. I'm sure that their other works are better, but the thought of this soundtrack makes me shiver.

In all I thought that this would work well as a historical piece and if they sorted out the music and some of the contemporary shots that were a bit wobbly, they've got some grounding to look for distribution within museums, maybe even the IWM themselves.

The Last Words of Gavrilo Princip

I was a lot more excited about the promise of this film than it returned. However, it was an interesting angle to tell the story of Franz Ferdinand's assassin. The location was well found. The cinematography wasn't bad either. The costume was well attempted. The hardest colour to make look dirty is white, I'll say that much. A tip for the next time you need a white shirt to look like it's been worn for years, to buy a grey one. It's kinder on the aesthetic for a period piece and MUCH easier to make look dated and dirty.

I would have liked to have seen a flashback, cleverly shot could have meant there was no need for crowds, just for a third character to be shot. And a reaction shot from Gavrilo Princip. I'd also have liked to have seen some form of written reveal. He is given paper but we don't get to see the result of it. He really DID write whilst in prison, there is record of two letters written by Princip... could that have been used to give it more grounding? Particularly with the title being 'The Last Words'... we never know what those last words are!!!

The booklet was entitled Gavrilo Princips Bekenntnisse, Gavrilo Princip’s Confessions. It was published in Vienna by Rudolf Lechner and Son. It was a short monograph consisting of 32 pages. The first part was an introduction and a commentary including two letters that Princip wrote. The last section contained the stenographic notes of the conversations that Pappenheim had with Princip from February 19 to June 5, 1916. http://serbianna.com/analysis/archives/2737

These are all suggestions of course, as a piece it was nice but I feel it could have been even better as the team showed clearly that they had the skill and dedication to make something worthwhile.

Time Bleeds

I liked Time Bleeds quite a bit. I'm still a little unsure as to whether the candid voxpops/interviews were the actors being genuine or if they were acting there too. Aside from that, it was a great idea to show the relevance of the world war in our modern lives. Rather than preaching it, it painted the picture for us, which made it less of an appeal and more of a dramatic exploration. It also portrayed the impact it had on a generation, a young generation. It had some powerful re-enactment scenes with those characters we'd already met elsewhere.

More than that, I have to applaud the actor's ability. Particularly the girl with the ginger hair. I liked the symbolism and I like how the group did not try and attempt to be something that they weren't. they were an acting group, and they were portrayed as just that. I think it could be an interesting film to show within other drama classes when exploring the world war.

Desecrating Eden

Desecrating Eden was a nice angle on something I'd never known about. It did however, need a bit of context to inform the audience what it was about. There's only so much we can tell from a poem and some silent images. A blurb on screen before and after, explaining which conflict it was about, which year it concerned and what happened would have added a lot more meaning to what we saw on screen. I still don't know any more than i did about that particular part of history than when I walked in. Although I did appreciate that there were some nice archive reels within the film.

Chronicles of Courage

Chronicles of Courage was wonderfully shot and the best of the bunch that I was able to see. It had some nice Visual effects, particularly with the silhouette of our soldiers against a fiery orange sky.

The trench scenes were particularly impressive and the make-up (particularly the scar) was brilliantly done. It conveyed research, it told a story, it acknowledged that a soldier's tale is not the only tale of WW1. What was nice is that it was based on truth. Real letters that passed through the fingers of those at war and found themselves dramatised for an audience 100yrs later. There's almost a bit of magic in that and the magic was justified. 

The narration was well read, the cinematography well planned and well executed. The grading was nice. I can't really fault it to be honest, It's voice was not to inform, nor to teach, more to express a personal reflection on personal experiences therefore we can find no fault in that.

Great film, I hope it's released by Savage Mills for the masses to enjoy.

It's even inspired me to think more pro-actively about a documentary idea about women in WW1.

More Sex Please, We're British

I only recently came across Channel 4's 2012 doc 'More Sex Please, We're British'. Now in the last few years, I've been invited to more Ann Summers parties than I count on my fingers, so what on Earth has happened to Britain's stiff upper lip - (couldn't resist).

teddy babe plush doll - lovehoney

Going behind the warehouse workings of Lovehoney, we were treated to find ordinary people with a vivacious sense of humour for dealing with their day jobs. With a sticker system for dirty phone calls and photo shoots in the boss' bedroom, it could very easily be misconstrued as seedy and inappropriate, yet the company characters charm us by speaking smutty at the dinner table and sharing their popular chat-up lines.

It might not have given us the customer access that we wanted so much to complete the picture of this £20million annual craze, but it at least gave us our first glimpse into one of Britain's most popular dirty secrets. With unrestricted access to the warehouse, the returns room, the call centre, the photoshoots, the marketing meetings and to product testing, it was interesting to watch as normal people interacted with some very abnormal everyday objects - or perhaps not so abnormal anymore. So, I may not be about to take on a Teddy Babe anytime soon but I suppose a programme that champions 'happy rabbits' over lonely hearts, can certainly do no harm.

Not a bad insight but would have loved to have had access to a few raunchy consumers for the REALLY juicy stuff!

The Trench

A Monday night at the theatre after a busy weekend of filming was apparently just what the doctor ordered. Greenwich Theatre was host to hit Edinburgh Fringe Show 'The Trench' by Les Enfants Terribles. The audience walked into a smoky auditorium with the outline of a blackened trench showing the stage. It took a while for me to notice the members of the cast sitting in the darkness also.

http://lesenfantsterribles.co.uk/shows/the-trench/

My lack of awareness was probably because of the sense of dread I had at the amount of teenagers there on a school trip. I wouldn't normally have minded this but fifteen minutes into the production, having listened to a wealth of inappropriate comments by a single teenage boy, I, not far from teen-hood myself, had to turn around and tell him to be quiet for me to actually begin to start understanding and becoming part of the performance.

Back to the show.

As the play began I found it a little difficult to get used to the main character's third person narration. Once I'd settled into it though, it got easier to follow and the physical theatre was not only supportive of this narration, but simply brilliant. The incorporation of minimal props, of shadows, of projection, of movement, of puppetry and of song was what made a fairly ordinary written piece, into a stunning one.

The still images I've included show you just how imaginative Les Enfants Terribles have been with their production although it doesn't not show you the carefully choreographed movement that accompanied each episode. The breathing in of the monster during the 'gas attack', the moving of the set across the stage during the projections to give the illusion of time and movement, the beautiful embodiment of the beast and of our soldier's wife. 

The set was more than just a prop, it was a part of the production, cleverly designed to seamlessly interact with the cast. The props are passed through it, the lights are shone through it, the cast are seen within it and above it, it folds down to show the bedroom of our soldiers pregnant wife, it moves and collapses to become part of our soldier's journey and to show the disorientation of being buried alive - but to name a few.

The props and puppets were beautifully made and we as an audience appreciate them all the more as they are so tenderly manoeuvred. A particular favourite moment was when the wife reaches out her hand for the rain and snow and smooths over the snow beneath her.

There was symbolism everywhere too. The story follows our entrenched soldier as he faces three challenges from the beasts of his prison, challenges to prove his good and strong heart. The first, is to walk the path of the dead and not falter. Overcome his fear and walk on towards the exit - The fear that comes with war. The second, to tell another beast what you could possibly give those in charge of war to stop them, as smoke rises and blisters his skin, he answers nothing - a gas attack and battling hallucination and pain to stay true to the cause of war. The third, to put his inner child aside and others first as he rescues his comrade buried alongside him - the loss of childhood innocence and camaraderie that came with war, lost brothers in arms. All symbols within the symbol of walking the path towards death. Pain, loss of hope then one last push before denial and death.

The walk towards the light could have been him facing death, it could have been the end of the war, it could have been his escaping the tunnel. The truth may be death but the production leaves it so we make up our minds, create our own story, our own endings... as they who fought could not.

Overall a wonderful piece with a voice that transcended our subconscious into seeking every metaphor, asking every question. A tremendous voice that I am eternally grateful exists outside of the theatre circuit. He stills your soul with his falsetto and makes our journey with 'The Trench' complete. You can buy his music here: http://alexanderwolfe.bandcamp.com/

Enough of the poetry, a truly stunning show that was not to be ruined by the ignorant teenage boy at the start, who failed to appreciate the emotive performance we all became a part of.

http://lesenfantsterribles.co.uk/shows/the-trench/

Stories We Tell

I'm still not quite sure what to make of Stories We Tell. It was sold to me as an award-winning attractive-looking film with a profound message about family and I'm not completely convinced that this is what I found.

Perhaps the biggest hindrance for me was the absence of any description as to who each contributor was. All that we as an audience are given, is a single name which does not help us at all when trying to discover the relationships between the people featured. I realised why this was necessary towards the end of the film but I feel that it made it quite hard to follow in the early stages. There are still two female contributors I have no idea about.

Michael Polley

The two different filming locations of Michael Polley, our director's father, did not help us out either. In both shots, one in recording studio and another at the kitchen table, he looked completely different and it took me a good 40mins to decide that it was in fact the same man. So for a long while I was sat thinking to myself, 'how many dads does this girl have?'.

From confusion to illusion - I am also undecided on the effectiveness of "archive" within the film. The recreation of the past, to create a visual version of the mother we never get to meet, is almost a little too fabricated. There are moments where we believe that it's real, with her mother applying make-up in the mirror and winking to the camera etc. Here, the illusion works.

Michael Polley

However, the recreation of those defining moments, like when Harry tells Sarah that he is in fact, her father, just seemed false. We cannot recreate our instinctive reactions to these moments and I would much rather have looked into the eyes of Sarah or Harry retelling the story. The same is so for when Sarah tells this information to her father, Michael, I would much rather have witnessed his own raw emotions in telling the story, than seeing it falsely replicated. I wanted to see what it meant to him to see the daughter he'd raised, become the daughter of another man.

Despite this, the behind the scenes shots and recreated reels of the past were attractive in style, filmed in 16mm film and upholding the quirky, showbiz edge that seemed to so deeply define their mother. I was just not completely sure about the use of them all within the same documentary.

Sarah Polley & biological father Harry

It is hard to condemn the film completely, although we aren't quite sure whose documentary this is, whose story it's telling, it does hold some quality. It holds some messages that we can relate to. For example, when Michael tells Sarah that it does not matter if she is not biologically his, he still loves her. It remind us all that family is not necessarily the ones that share our DNA, it's not that simple. There is more to family than blood.

Sarah Polley - writer/director

We watch a family held together by the memory of their mother and the stories that they tell about are the things that keep her memory alive - that at least comes through in the documentary. Director Sarah Polley encourages a candid response from her contributors but in this almost disengages them from the raw emotion of each revelation. I felt a little let-down that I did not get to witness these revelations first hand and instead watched a reconstruction of that scene, albeit filmed attractively. I wanted to see them being cheated, being loved, feeling loss and only once was I given this opportunity. It's all very well putting on a brave face, stiff upper lip and all that, but it did not make for a particularly compelling story.

Overall, I suppose I like the way the film made me think and I suppose, I respect its ambition in defying genre as a documentary. It may not have been the beautiful story I envisaged but it tried and succeeded in many other areas. The soundtrack was well-chosen and story an engaging one at times. It is just a shame that most of my concentration went on working out who was who and why no-one seemed to care that at least three men had slept with our leading lady at the same time. I'm aware that my opinion is a rare one and many behold Stories We Tell as a masterpiece of its time. I'd like to say I too found a profound message about family within the film, I just happen to disagree.

Faces - Professional Viking

Today I went to the Tall Ship Parade of Sail in Greenwich where over 50 tall ships sailed along the Thames. It was a majestic farewell as the ships floated away into the shadows of the O2 Arena and face the expanse of sea ahead.

I also took a stroll around the festival grounds at the Maritime Museum and came across this man. He was sat making rope, outside a tent, eating nothing but bread and sporting a genuine beast of a beard. Thinking this was cool I took it upon myself to ask about his day job. His brief answer was - 'I'm a professional viking' - which I think is the best job title EVER. Today he took a day off from being a viking and instead took a trip back to show us the trades of our past.

He then went on to tell me how awesome his job really is, as him and his chums got to spend a solitary night at Lindisfarne monastery watching the stars, listening to the sound of the seals singing and the waves lapping at the island's edge. What a perfect image and the perfect way to make the office sound less appealing!

Look out for him at historical themed events near you - particularly viking events - he's a professional.