“Rush hour at Waterloo Station is condensed into three minutes in this breakneck short from Nick Nicholls, one of many British Transport Films he directed. Using time lapse photography, he captures the frenetic swarm of the [...]]]>

“Rush hour at Waterloo Station is condensed into three minutes in this breakneck short from Nick Nicholls, one of many British Transport Films he directed. Using time lapse photography, he captures the frenetic swarm of the morning rush – although there are now considerably more shops at Waterloo, the commotion of commuters is clearly nothing new.”

- BFI Films
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Thanks to George Coney.

“Somewhere between public information film and sensationalised documentary, Arnold Louis Miller’s 1964 film London in the Raw not inadvertently captures the contradiction between the reserved nature of the English people and their conflicted attitudes towards the [...]]]>

“Somewhere between public information film and sensationalised documentary, Arnold Louis Miller’s 1964 film London in the Raw not inadvertently captures the contradiction between the reserved nature of the English people and their conflicted attitudes towards the growing permissive society that was changing rapidly in the post-war years. It’s also an opportunity to legitimately show naked women on the screen”
- The Digital Fix

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Thank you to Simon Parr

From the BFI: “Don’t come looking here for an insider’s portrait of Hinduism; the religion on offer is like something out of the adventures of Indiana Jones, performed in the style of “The King and I”. Nevertheless, [...]]]>

From the BFI:

“Don’t come looking here for an insider’s portrait of Hinduism; the religion on offer is like something out of the adventures of Indiana Jones, performed in the style of “The King and I”. Nevertheless, this film offers a rare glimpse of religious ritual and architecture in India in the late 1930s.

The temples in question include those at Mysore, Varanasi and Belur and we also get to see a dancer performing Shiva’s “Dance of Destruction”. The film ends rather oddly with a moonlight trip to the Taj Mahal, the filmmaker appearing to forget that it was built by a Muslim emperor. But despite its limitations in objectivity and logic, Jack Cardiff’s Technicolor cinematography lifts the film to a rather higher plane”
- Robin Baker

This brief film is a series of highlights from the 1903 film of “Alice in Wonderland”. The film was made only 37 years after the publication of Lewis Carroll’s book, and only eight years after the [...]]]>

This brief film is a series of highlights from the 1903 film of “Alice in Wonderland”. The film was made only 37 years after the publication of Lewis Carroll’s book, and only eight years after the advent of film itself. It has been restored by the BFI.

Eight of the 12 original minutes of the film still exist, and have now been restored by the BFI. From the BFI:

“With a running time of just 12 minutes (8 of which survive), ‘Alice in Wonderland’ was the longest film produced in England at that time. Film archivists have been able to restore the film’s original colours for the first time in over 100 years.”

The film music is “Jill in the Box”, composed and performed by Wendy Hiscocks. For more information and to see the full eight minute film, visit the BFI’s site.

Thank you to Carol Devine.

This film – Colour on the Thames – documents the river Thames from before Richmond to the estuary, in colour, in 1935. Colour on the Thames was filmed in the Gasparcolor system, and has a [...]]]>

This film – Colour on the Thames – documents the river Thames from before Richmond to the estuary, in colour, in 1935. Colour on the Thames was filmed in the Gasparcolor system, and has a charming orchestral sountrack. The film is taken from the collections of the BFI.