Following the great success of the first volume, here's a second collection of classic British Transport Films from their golden age. It may be an obvious point, but by their very nature, transport films covered a lot of ground. From London to Scotland, from East Anglia to Wales and from the West Country to Blackpool, they now provide an invaluable record of life, customs, and of course, transport throughout the regions of Britain in the 1950s & 60s. Of immense value as social history, some are also works of art. Features West Country Journey (1953), Letter for Wales (1960), Cyclists' Special (1955), Holiday (1957), Heart is Highland (1952), Any Man's Kingdom (1956), Glasgow Belongs to Me (1966), England of Elizabeth (1957), Capital Visit (1955), Heart of England (1954), East Anglian Holiday (1954), Coasts of Clyde (1959).
Like many great English composers, Vaughan Williams was tempted into doing splendid work for the cinema by the indefatigable Muir Mathieson, who reassured RVW that the... more >
Like many great English composers, Vaughan Williams was tempted into doing splendid work for the cinema by the indefatigable Muir Mathieson, who reassured RVW that the tedious business of actually fitting the music to the frames of film would be handled by him and his associates. Scott of the Antarctic, is, of course, the best known of his glorious scores, but some of his finest work was done in the inventive, exquisite score he wrote for the documentary The England of Elizabeth in 1957. The piece has been recorded by Andre Previn, and (more recently) in a more extended form by Rumon Gamba, but the opportunities to hear the music in situ (as it were) have been rare, despite the occasional TV showing. So Volume Two of the BFI’s See Britain by Train series is to be welcomed, for yoking in (however tenuously) an excellent transfer of John Taylor's half-hour film. In this restoration, it looks glorious, with glowing, lambent colours, and crisp, well-defined mono sound that does justice to RVW’s lively trumpet fanfares. The rest of the score fares less well, but that's down to Taylor's use of the music, ruthless suppressing it by abrupt volume dips whenever Alec Clunes' pedestrian narration kicks in – but this is, of course, due to the exigencies of documentary style of the day, where music was very much a secondary adjunct. Looked at today, when Vaughan Williams’ score has become the most important aspect of this workaday film, it’s impossible not to lament the fact that the filmmakers didn’t realise that the one element of the piece that would survive -- the music -- couldn’t have been showcased with more sensitivity. Ironically, another film in the collection, the groundbreaking Holiday, also 1957 (with its panorama of British seaside days out), does just that, foregrounding Chris Barber’s lively jazz score & eschewing commentary. But, caveats aside, Vaughan Williams aficionados – with realistic expectations – need not hesitate. < less
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British Transport Films (Vol 2): See Britain by Train
