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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 13 September 2007

Pick of the Indies

WHEN Humphrey Jennings’s Camden Town home was marked with an English Heritage Blue Plaque last year, his legacy was discussed: and the consensus among the historians and film buffs who came to see the plaque unveiled was that Mr Jennings was a war hero, whose films went a long way to shaping public sympathy towards Britain when America was still hoping for neutrality. It was his films that helped put the seal on the lend-lease agreements – a fact not clear during his lifetime.
Jennings’s war films get an airing this week at the Southbank’s British Film Institute. He lived in Regent’s Park Terrace between the wars, worked for the Post Office’s film department and put together a series to illustrate Britain at war.
Tomorrow (Friday) Finest Hour, the story of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain, is shown. It is a masterpiece of stoicism, using plain film-making as a tool to present the horrors of a Blitz-ravaged London in simple and effective terms.
Other indie highlights this week include the start of the fourth Bulgarian Film Festival at the Bloomsbury Renoir. Running from tomorrow (Friday) until Thursday September 27, the films include Christmas Tree Upside Down, which is a well-constructed presentation of six different stories. One of the joys is the ability of director Ivan Cherkelov to showcase the country as a marvellous backdrop for the tales to unfold.
Dan Carrier

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