The Complete Humphrey Jennings

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MichaelB
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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#26 Post by MichaelB » Sun May 29, 2011 4:38 pm

knives wrote:That makes sense. I wonder how they'll fill up three volumes worth if they're doing fifteen+ titles in each volume assuming IMDB is anywhere close to correct though. I hope this means that there are a lot true obscurities to be found even for the Jennings faithful. One can only hope.
I suspect volumes 2 and 3 will have a fair bit less than fifteen titles apiece - the pre-1940 films are generally very short, whereas the 1940s saw the feature-length Fires Were Started, the 40-minute Diary for Timothy, the 36-minute The Silent Village and so on.

Also, there's every possibility of volume 2 including both the 80 and 63-minute cuts of what's best known as Fires Were Started (the longer, rarer cut is I Was a Fireman).
Last edited by MichaelB on Sun May 29, 2011 4:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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antnield
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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#27 Post by antnield » Sun May 29, 2011 4:44 pm

Plus if they decide to include both "Fires Were Started" and I Was a Fireman that would further bulk things out. As would the two ready-made documentaries on Jennings: Robert Vas' Heart of Britain (1970) and Kevin Macdonald's The Man Who Listened to Britain (2000). Both were roughly an hour in length and the latter appeared on MovieMail's Jennings set from a few years ago. The Vas doc was produced for the BBC's Omnibus strand, however, and we all know how difficult licensing from the BBC can be in the UK.

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knives
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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#28 Post by knives » Sun May 29, 2011 5:40 pm

I could see a whole volume being dedicated to just that, very understandable. By the way just finished the short you posted, my first Jennings, and while I assume it's not considered one of the big guns it's still interesting how he uses such an artificial looking colour process to his advantage. The music really seals the deal on making a fantasy out of this hard life. It really felt like something I couldn't fully appreciate and I spent the earliest parts of my childhood in farm country.

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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#29 Post by MichaelB » Sun May 29, 2011 5:43 pm

Out of the three YouTube titles, Spare Time is by far the most important - and the most typical.

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knives
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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#30 Post by knives » Sun May 29, 2011 5:49 pm

Is that one just an excerpt though? Your phrasing is a tad vague and I wouldn't want to watch part of a work, let alone one this important.

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Wu.Qinghua
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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#31 Post by Wu.Qinghua » Sun May 29, 2011 6:56 pm

knives wrote:Is that one just an excerpt though? Your phrasing is a tad vague and I wouldn't want to watch part of a work, let alone one this important.
That's just a short excerpt from the second part of the documentary, dealing with working-class leisure activities in the cotton industries (Manchester etc.). It's the famous (and much hated) kazoo band sequence, so I can't see no reason not to have a look at this excerpt. ... 'Spare Time' runs for about 15 minutes altogether.

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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#32 Post by MichaelB » Sat Jul 02, 2011 12:12 pm

I've just had an unexpectedly intriguing time writing the booklet note for The Farm and English Harvest.

I was asked if I could rewrite an existing piece on English Harvest so that it covered both that film and The Farm. I'd always assumed that The Farm was simply a longer cut of the film, so thought the job would take me a few minutes. But on examining both films back to back, it became clear that they're surprisingly different pieces of work, and they offer a mini-masterclass in how editing and commentary decisions can transform what is ostensibly the same raw footage.

If you initially watch both films a couple of years apart, as I did, you'd be under the impression that English Harvest was simply the second half of The Farm. But I didn't remember the commentary for English Harvest being quite so garrulous, and when I rewatched it I quickly realised that it was indeed completely different. The films were brief enough for me to be able to transcribe them in full, and while the second half of The Farm features around 700 words, English Harvest needs a mere 200 - and is rendered still more laconic by the fact that English Harvest has been extended with another couple of minutes of harvest footage.

Not surprisingly, this changes the entire tone of the film. The uncredited commentator in The Farm barely stops for a second, wallowing in flowery cliché and often toe-curlingly dreadful puns - in fact, there's been some speculation that Jennings had little involvement in this film, as it seems so alien to his usual sensibility. By contrast, English Harvest's A.G. Street (a renowned radio broadcaster on farming matters) mainly sticks to the facts, and often pauses for some considerable time, allowing Jennings's lyrical images to speak for themselves.

Incidentally, as a by-product of this, I discovered that the list I posted on the previous page was slightly inaccurate - it seems that Design for Spring is another title for Making Fashion, and they're treating The Birth of the Robot (1935) as a Jennings film, despite it technically being un film de Len Lye. But Jennings did work on it extensively, and I doubt anyone's going to complain about its inclusion.

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antnield
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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#33 Post by antnield » Thu Aug 04, 2011 6:50 am

New artwork:

Image

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ellipsis7
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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#34 Post by ellipsis7 » Sat Aug 06, 2011 4:49 am

New release date too - 19th September now!

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MichaelB
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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#35 Post by MichaelB » Mon Aug 08, 2011 6:32 am

Full specs announced:
The Complete Humphrey Jennings
Volume One: The First Days

For the first time ever, all of Humphrey Jennings’ remarkable films, including his wartime masterpieces Listen to Britain, Fires Were Started and A Diary for Timothy, will be collected together, newly remastered to High Definition, and released by the BFI across three volumes. Each volume will be released as a Dual Format Edition (containing all films on both Blu-ray and DVD), and will include essential special features, including alternative versions and collaborative works.

Humphrey Jennings (1907-1950), widely considered to be one of Britain’s greatest documentary filmmakers, is best known for films which beautifully evoke everyday heroism in times of war and peace. Combining poetic observation and humanism with a subtle yet intense national feeling that is also very personal, Jennings was a visionary and progressive patriot.

Volume One of The Complete Humphrey Jennings, The First Days, gathers together 14 short films from the period 1934-1940 and provides a fascinating insight into Jennings’ earliest days as a filmmaker, learning and developing his craft. It features the critically acclaimed Spare Time (1939), a memorable portrait of the inter-war working class made for the New York World Fair in 1939, and the rousing London Can Take It! (1940), accompanied by its alternative cut Britain Can Take It! This, the most renowned cinematic representation of the resilient heroism of ordinary Londoners during the early days of the Blitz, features iconic images of St Paul’s Cathedral, the Palace of Westminster and the royal family. There are also previously neglected works, many of which will be available for the first time since their original release.

Post Haste (1934)
Locomotives (1934)
The Story of the Wheel (1934)
Farewell Topsails (1937)
Penny Journey (1938)
Speaking from America (1938)
The Farm (1938)
Making Fashion (1938)
Spare Time (1939)
SS Ionian (1939)
The First Days (1939)
Spring Offensive (1940)
Welfare of the Workers (1940)
London Can Take It! (1940)

Special features

• Presented in High Definition and Standard Definition;
The Birth of the Robot (1936): a Len Lye film for Shell on which Jennings collaborated;
English Harvest (1939): alternative cut of The Farm;
Cargoes (1940): an alternative cut of SS Ionian;
Britain Can Take It! (1940): an alternative cut of London Can Take It!.

40-page illustrated booklet with newly commissioned essays and credits

Release date: 19 September 2011
RRP: £19.99 / cat. no. BFIB1119 / Cert E
UK / 1934-1940 / colour, and black & white / English, optional hard-of-hearing subtitles /
211 mins / original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / Disc 1: BD50 / 1080p / 24fps PCM mono 2.0 audio (48k/24-bit) / Disc 2: DVD9 / PAL / Dolby Digital mono 2.0 audio (320kbps) / region 0

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ellipsis7
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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#36 Post by ellipsis7 » Sun Sep 18, 2011 5:01 am

My copy of this despatched... Already wondering when Volume 2 will be forthcoming, with FIRES WERE STARTED etc. on BR (superb!)... Any idea yet?....

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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#37 Post by MichaelB » Sun Sep 18, 2011 6:14 am

All I can confirm at this stage is that volume 1 is well worth the wait - it's hard to imagine how these films could look much better. Especially given that the BFI had access to the best surviving materials in virtually all cases, and their in-house high-def transfers are second to none.

Don't expect everything to be pristine, of course - these are mainly pretty obscure short documentaries from the 1930s, with all that that implies in terms of preservation priorities - but the best of them really do look startlingly good.

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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#38 Post by MichaelB » Sun Sep 18, 2011 9:29 am

Blu-rayDefinition.com.

As with the similarly skimpy piece on From Turksib to Night Mail, it should be read with a pinch of salt, as the author doesn't bother to hide his fundamental lack of interest in the films or the period - in this case, there's no evidence at all that he even watched any of them from beginning to end. But it does have framegrabs, so I thought it was still worth a link.

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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#39 Post by max_cherry » Sun Sep 18, 2011 10:18 am

I'm confused. Blu-rayDefinition.com states non-availability of english subs - contrary to full specs provided above...

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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#40 Post by MichaelB » Sun Sep 18, 2011 10:33 am

HOH subtitles are definitely included on both the Blu-ray and DVD - I've just checked the discs themselves.

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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#41 Post by max_cherry » Sun Sep 18, 2011 4:46 pm

MichaelB wrote:HOH subtitles are definitely included on both the Blu-ray and DVD - I've just checked the discs themselves.
Thank you!

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ellipsis7
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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#42 Post by ellipsis7 » Mon Sep 19, 2011 11:02 am

Just dipping into this - fascinating & a predictably top notch presentation...The 5 colour films - BIRTH OF A ROBOT, FAREWELL TOPSAILS, THE FARM, ENGLISH HARVEST & MAKING FASHION - are interestingly all shot on the relatively shortlived British/French Dufaycolor process (the latter three produced by the company to showcase their film process)....

LATER ADDITION: These colour films seem to liberate Jennings. Len Lye seems to have introduced him to Dufaycolor with ROBOT , which then with the subsequent commissions for HJ gave him the imperative of visual strength alongside the simple imparting of information... So he departs models and museums, heading towards the great outdoors, developing an audiovisual language that is best expressed back in black and white....

MORE: SPARE TIME is genius, really lovely utterly authentic piece, can see where Lindsay Anderson & Free Cinema movement got their starting point...

Then SS IONIAN, so subtle, superb, trade traversing across the globe, forebodings of war with display of naval presence maybe stretched in its wide embrace, even an inkling of ideas of eclipse of empire...

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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#43 Post by MichaelB » Tue Sep 20, 2011 4:53 pm

ellipsis7 wrote:Just dipping into this - fascinating & a predictably top notch presentation...The 5 colour films - BIRTH OF A ROBOT, FAREWELL TOPSAILS, THE FARM, ENGLISH HARVEST & MAKING FASHION - are interestingly all shot on the relatively shortlived British/French Dufaycolor process (the latter three produced by the company to showcase their film process)....
The latter four, actually - The Farm and English Harvest are separate edits of the same footage.

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ellipsis7
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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#44 Post by ellipsis7 » Tue Sep 20, 2011 5:03 pm

MichaelB wrote:
ellipsis7 wrote:Just dipping into this - fascinating & a predictably top notch presentation...The 5 colour films - BIRTH OF A ROBOT, FAREWELL TOPSAILS, THE FARM, ENGLISH HARVEST & MAKING FASHION - are interestingly all shot on the relatively shortlived British/French Dufaycolor process (the latter three produced by the company to showcase their film process)....
The latter four, actually - The Farm and English Harvest are separate edits of the same footage.
Yes, Idid realise that... ENGLISH HARVEST is a more lyrical reedit of THE FARM... Slightly strange fine strobing interference on THE FARM, but totally allowable considering the various sources....

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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#45 Post by MichaelB » Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:43 pm

Oxford Times (scroll down to the middle).

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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#46 Post by MichaelB » Fri Sep 23, 2011 10:42 am

The Herald:
If there was ever any doubt who was on the right side in the Second World War you could tell by going to the movies. In Germany Leni Riefenstahl was making Ayran superhero movies, full of perfect bodies, Nazi symbolism and not one ounce of humanity. In Britain, in the film First Days, Humphrey Jennings filmed nurses still in their uniform and middle-aged overweight women filling sandbags, children, cats and dogs being evacuated from London and old men digging in their allotments.

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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#47 Post by MichaelB » Sat Sep 24, 2011 1:31 pm

Illuminations:
There was a time when it was hard to see the films of Humphrey Jennings. As recently as the early 1980s you pretty much had to wait for one to pop up in a Channel 4 showcase of wartime documentaries programmed by the late Leslie Halliwell on weekday afternoons. Then the work of the man who Lindsay Anderson famously called 'the only real poet that British cinema has produced' gradually started to appear on VHS compilations. More recently, Jennings' documentaries have been keystones to the invaluable BFI DVD collections of British factual films. And now, launched this week, we have the first part of the BFI's dual format The Complete Humphrey Jennings. Here, finally, is the right and proper edition of his work - and one that deserves a similar respect to that which we accord to poets who compose with words.

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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#48 Post by MichaelB » Sun Oct 02, 2011 12:41 pm

DVD Outsider - comfortably the longest and most comprehensive review to date. Especially when you get to the bottom of a lengthy page one and realise that there's another one still to come.

Given the amount of work that's clearly gone into this, it seems churlish to quibble (and I might be wrong about this myself), but this observation:
Unfortunately on a few of the films this detail appears to have been brought out though digital enhancement, something far more visible in the Dufaycolor films than their monochrome cousins, where the process is rarely visible or has not been used at all. The worst offenders are Making Fashion and the aforementioned The Farm, where the film grain has been transformed into visible patterning that you'd even see clearly on the screen grabs, had they not been considerably reduced from the original size.
...seems to be referring to an unavoidable by-product of the nature of the Dufaycolor process rather than any form of digital enhancement on the BFI's part. If I read this Wikipedia definition correctly:
The film base was dyed blue, printed with a mosaic using a resistive greasy ink and bleached. The resulting spaces were then dyed green. The process was repeated at an angle, the new spaces being bleached and dyed red, forming a mosaic of color filters consisting of a mesh of red, green and blue lines, at approximately one million color elements per square inch, known as a reseau. When exposed to light through the reseau, the film's emulsion was exposed to a single color of light. Thus the emulsion behind each color element recorded the tones for each primary color.
...there's every likelihood that the "visible patterning" is a result of this meshing process.

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ellipsis7
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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#49 Post by ellipsis7 » Sun Oct 02, 2011 4:37 pm

Slightly strange fine strobing interference on THE FARM, but totally allowable considering the various sources....
Yes, I had referred to this above... Was wondering if the Dufaycolor process put some sort of grid or fine net filter across pic to produce effect... MichaelB's quoted description of said procedure makes sense too. The interference looks like improperly shielded RF strobing, another signal trying to impose it on the first, as we all used to encounter on TV in remoter areas...

However for me, I am confident and satisfied BFI are presenting best available source material, so bring on next volume forthwith!...

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John Edmond
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Re: Complete Humphrey Jennings

#50 Post by John Edmond » Sun Oct 02, 2011 7:30 pm

Yes, you could see a strange diagonal cross-hatch in the grain structure, but that seemed more a result of the quality of the BFI's transfer and not a flaw.

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