Directed by Jean Vigo
L’Atalante revolves around two protagonists; Jean (Jean Daste)
and Juliet (Dita Parlo). We meet them on their wedding day.
Jean is a captain of a barge, which will be the home of the couple. They appear
happy but Juliet starts to long for the city lights. In an attempt to appease
his bride Jean takes her ashore to a dance. It is here that Juliet meets a
peddler who tells her about city life. Back at the barge Jean is retired to bed.
The peddler seeks out Juliet and persuades her to go to Paris. She
agrees. Her intention is go and come back before the L'Atalante
leaves its mooring. However, Jean sets sail believing Juliet had left him.
Juliet finds that the streets of Paris are not paved with gold, and finds
herself working as a waitress. Jean is unhappy and realises he misses
Juliet. He then goes in search of Juliet, finds her and brings her back
to the L’Atalante. On the surface this appears to be an ordinary
love story. But L’Atalante almost never got made. Why?
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Directed by Federico Veiroj
A Useful Life is a film that will appeal
to anybody who loves and cares about film. The film centres on Jorge, a middle
aged man who has devoted his life working in the Uruguayan national film archive.
The archive has seen better days and the lack of investment is
clearly visible; the constant breaking down of film equipment and the lack of
any sizeable audience is the order of the day. Jorge, as the archive’s
film programmer, technical support and PR person, confronts each issue one at a time,
keeps calm and carries on – there’s nothing as important as film. The cost of this
dedication is high; Jorge who is in his late forties lives at home and has
little social life outside the archive...
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Directed by Carol Morley
Dreams Of A Life is one of those films that is rare
in its ability to linger in your mind for a very long time after having watched
it. Why? It is a very good story that tries to put together pieces of a
puzzle in response to a disturbing incident – one that involved complete lack
of interest or even notice when thirty-eight year old Joyce Vincent died in her
bedsit above a shopping mall in North London in 2003. Joyce’s skeleton was
discovered three years later, her heating and her television were still on...
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Directed by Anthony Asquith
Underground is the second silent feature by director Anthony Asquith
(the son of H.H. Asquith the prime minister of England during the First World War).
The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Timothy Brock, performs
the world premiere of a score by Neil Brand (who wrote the score for
Hitchcock’s Blackmail). The plot of Underground focuses on an
electrician Bert and a railway porter Bill, who both fall in love with a shop
girl Nell they meet on the London Underground. Nell loses her heart to Bill, but
Bert is not the kind of man to take rejection lightly. The film culminates in a thrilling
chase down onto the tube lines and is a portrait of 1920s working-class London, with its
pubs, lodging houses and, of course, the Underground itself, all tinged with a
little magical realism and genuine romance. British silent film history is very
rarely given the credit it deserves – it does not start or end with Hitchcock’s
The Lodger. (Anyone wanting to learn more would be advised to get
hold of a copy of the BFI’s Silent Britain DVD).
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