The stories of several individuals who consult a marriage bureau, including a peer of the realm, his butler, a lonely school teacher, a French girl on the run from a violent boyfriend, a country vicar, and a newspaper reporter, sent by his editor, to do an undercover story.
Tag: UK
‘Nancy Franklin’ was so overwhelmed by the film I Know Where I’m Going! (1945) that she traveled from New York to the Western Isles of Scotland to see the places where it was made and to find out more about the people who made it. This documentary retraces her steps on a subsequent visit.
Once Upon a Time was filmed entirely in different spaces in and around John Berger’s house in the Haute Savoie in France. It’s a moving and unusual meditation on our experience of time, as revealed through a careful selection of contrasting and thought-provoking time-centred ‘stories’, both old and new. And whether written by himself or others, all were read by John and beautifully edited, using only the filmed images of things found inside the house in books or on the walls, or outside in the surrounding countryside and nearest town.
The inhabitants of a Spanish village gather for the visit of a death defying tightrope walker. He comes with his own attractive aura of danger and drama, and the crowd are not disappointed. Animated in a sketchy style on paper, this film powerfully uses the graphic freedom of this technique to select and embellish, to swoop and wander around the village. Austere sound effects and an Albeniz guitar piece are used to heighten this charmingly modest drama in which ordinary things – a hammer driving a nail, a flock of birds wheeling in the sky – are given their due.
Tom Masterick, a dock worker, is wrongfully convicted of a murder charge. His death sentence is commuted to a long prison term. When released as an old man, he vows to find the real killer.
Fisher, a fine art dealer, goes to Prague after the death of a friend, the Baron von Utz, to see if he can obtain some of the pieces of the Baron’s priceless Meissen porcelain collection. He meets up with an old mutual friend, Orlik, who tells him about the Baron’s past, his struggle to keep his collection intact, while Fisher struggles to discover what happened to the collection.
A sweet reminiscence about a family of four children and their RAF-veteran dad, who knows the timetable of every bus in London, but realizes his large family needs a car. He buys a Peugeot station wagon – license plate GFP831E, and the family sets off for annual holidays exploring every corner of Europe – “adopting local customs but never forgetting who won the war.” The narrator is one of the children who, as he ages, sees things he missed as a lad – the car no rocket, dad no speedster. As the years wear on, and the car sits in the driveway, dad keeps it ready for the next great summer holiday.
In the fall of 1963, Louise is a 13-year-old girl who lives with her widowed mother. Before she is set to leave for boarding school, she discovers a box belonging to her late father. The box contains secret documents in additions to condoms, but Louise thinks they are balloons. She also learns her father was a member of the secret order of Freemasons. While at boarding school, Louise attempts to explain to friends what the Freemasons are. The girls form their own version of a Masonic club. Meanwhile, Louise’s mother finds the box in Louise’s room and inadvertently thinks her daughter is sexually active. Louise learns her parents’ marriage was not what she thought it was.