Posted on 12/27/2009 6:46:32 PM PST by Steelfish
Classic British Cinema Has Become An Elusive Delight The England I love is in the old films of Ealing, Elstree and Shepperton - and they're becoming harder to see.
Simon Heffer 26 Dec 2009
We all have a cultural comfort zone. It is the place where we go when we need to feel entirely at one with the world and have the ultimate relaxation. For years – actually, decades – I thought that, for me, it was music. Then, not so long ago, I realised that was not the case. Most of my favourite music is loud, agitated, violent stuff – there is nothing comforting about Vaughan Williams's 6th, the last act of Götterdämmerung or Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem, for example.
And such as is not noisy is so laden with nostalgia that it evokes too much the lost-forever past, which in itself is not necessarily a comfort. I then realised what the land of lost content truly was: it is old films.
To be more specific, in my case, it is old British films. I like old American films too, but a little of them goes a long way; and old French films are even better, but they represent an exoticism that goes beyond mere comfort. However, put me in front of a television with a black-and-white British film made at any point between about 1935 and 1960, and I am in heaven.
The England I love is not the England I live in; the England I love is in old films. I am sure it was an era of bad food, lower life expectancy, the reek of tobacco and what we would now call illiberalism, but I love it. I feel instinctively at home there. I understand the tones of voice. I understand the understatement.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Oh , and The Fallen Idol .
Yes! Another Miss Read fan! I discovered her books about twelve years ago and own nearly all of them, I do wish they would release them for Kindle, that would make me run out and buy one.
Ever see “A Run For Your Money”? It’s been on my top-ten favorite film list for 35 years.
No I haven’t, but you’re the second person to bring it up to me recently. What I know about it is that Alec Guinness is in it (presumably the reason you posted to me), and that it’s about life in Wales. Given your recommendation and my affinity, I reckon I’d better get on it.
Without spoiling the plot, it’s about two Welsh brothers (coal miners) who enter a coal-quota contest and win a trip to a rugby match in London, where all the action takes place. Alec Guinness is absolutely outstanding in it. See it immediately! :)
Roger that. Will report back.
Miss Read is truly wonderful. Ido own all herbooks and a cookbook too. I reread all the series at least onceevery five years usually when life istough. Little Women served that purpose growing up.
I must say . . . you have some excellent taste in music! BTW if you get the chance check out Elliot Smith’s Waterloo Sunset . . . he does justice to the original (imho).
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Inspector Morse
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Having worked around academia and having a “tenured” relative...
I love Inspector Morse.
Especially when I realized there was someone more cynical about academia!!!
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I so associated Alec Guiness with those great comedies of the fifties...
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“The Man in The White Coat”
(at least I think that’s the title of an Alec Guiness jewel I saw
at least 15 years ago...back when cable actually broadcast something
other than the usual drivel.)
It was a funny and very intelligent about what would happen if somebody
made something wonderful...and how he’d pay for putting a lot of
people out of work at the same time.
Sort of like what would happen to the lab grunt that stumbled on
a “miracle” cure for most cancers.
Will do. We have a couple of his CD’s in the corp library. I’ll dig into it tomorrow.
thx!
The title of that movie is “The Man In The White Suit”. Agreed, it’s absolutely wonderful.
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