avant-garde documentary with sound
"In 1951-52 the Cine-Club made a 10-minute educational film in French based on the high school text 'Cours primaire de francais' and this film is now widely used in Ontario Secondary Schools" The Varsity.
"Film made for screening at the annual banquet of the Toronto Movie Club held at Casa Loma." Library and Archives Canada.
"The film opens with a speeded scene of the sky brightening at sunrise at Mackerye End Farm, and two cats in the farmyard where men lead a bull into a purpose-built van which departs. The printed catalogue for the Great Hertfordshire Show is followed by a sign for the show with Spratts advertising. At Hatfield House where the show is held in the grounds, scenes show the entrance gates decorated with bunting behind a large statue, people in the rain wearing raincoats and capes and carrying umbrellas, and cars parked in the drive. Speeded film of rain clouds. The rain over, scenes of the showground, with many cars on the site, and visitors walking amongst the stands and show rings. A display of implements to pull behind a tractor to turn the soil, then the display of prize cups and shields, followed by a sign “Exhibitors are asked not to bring horses to this office”. In an area fenced as wickerwork pens, horses await the judging. More shots of rain clouds. Bulls are paraded across the increasingly muddy ground, and lined up for judging. There are close-ups of the men who brought the bull from Mackerye End Farm, and their bull “Full Cry” is awarded first prize. More shots of the clouds, and rain teeming from a roof. Shot of a board or box marked Dolphin Smith Harpenden. The crowd with their umbrellas gather for the prize-giving. In the ring during the display of horse riding and a coach, the camera concentrates on the crowd in the rain including a woman’s shoes crossing the wet ground, her raincoat hem mud-spattered. The prize winning bull is shown back at the farm being groomed." (EAFA Database)
"The first film produced by Laurie and Stuart Day in which they presented their holiday footage with a 'prologue and epilogue' and, if possible, with a theme. In this example, holiday footage taken by Laurie and Stuart Day in the Austrian Tyrol is prefaced by and concludes with scenes featuring Laurie and Stuart Day at home in Stoke on Trent in Staffordshire"(EAFA Database).
"[W]e read about the desirability of giving one’s holiday films shape. So since then all our efforts have had a prologue and epilogue, and if possible a theme […]. This was first noticeable with a film of Austria called The Countess Receives, which was the result of reading a charming romance by Cecil Roberts developed from an advertisement by an Austrian Countess offering paying guests to her castle: “Sun, wild flowers, warm bathing, and dancing in the moonlight”. As I actually saw this advertisement shortly after reading the book it naturally suggested the framework of the resultant “visit” (Day 1958).
documentario
"doc. turistico"/tourism documentary
Total Pages: 299
Amateur Cinema