ChristineCB

Why do I get the feeling that so many of the films of the '30s and '40s are more attractive to me than films made during these last 20 or so years?

Is the percentage-of-good-films the same - but today's massive numbers of bad films seem overwhelming?

And frankly, out of this year's thousand filmes, if there's 900 bad films, who wants to watch all the rest to pull out those 100 good ones?

Wouldn't about 100 or 200 consecutive bad ones put ANYONE off?

Whereas in the '30s and '40s, we had maybe 100 or 200 films? Maybe 300? And if the Bell Curve was achieved, we might only see five or six bad ones before we found a good one.

Has anyone ever gone thru several Years Lists Of Released Films and discovered their own My Favorite Year in cinema? I should try that sometime...

penfold

May I add this as a recommendation too... Amazon.co.uk: The Unknown 1930s: Alternative History of the British Cinema, 1929-39 (Cinema & Society): Books: Jeffrey Richards though you may be able to shop around...

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

penfold

There are a few really strange thing about His Lordship; one, how good it is; two, the closing shot is of a Park Ranger impaling an 8x10 of the departing actress character with his leaf-spear; symbolism straight out of Peeping Tom ; and three; AFAIK no evidence has been found of the film ever having been screened at a cinema in the thirties...

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

penfold

Cheers Terry, but you might be less impressed if you see it. The charity used their VHS to put it up on their site....enjoy !!?? The Ex-Service Fellowship Centres

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Steve Crook

Don't be misled by the ones that survive. They knew how to make bad films back in the "Good old days" as well

I don't know about a favourite year, but my favourite cinematic decades would be the 40s or 50s. Mainly the 1940s

Steve

Fellwanderer

Unfortunately, it seems to be a whole new art for now! I blame it on the ease of cgi

Take out what will always come first for me and I wouldn't disagree with that assessment.

All the best
FELL

A signature is no substitute for a life

ChristineCB

The "survivors" are likely, of course, to have been popular at the time, and we all know "popularity" and "good" aren't always kindred spirits. But films that achieve a popularity beyond Year 1 or Decade 1 have something going for them.

And I find a film or two almost every month that I'd never heard of which renews my faith in hidden gems - these missing presumed lost pieces can turn up some wonderful things. Or maybe not.

The topic of the Quota Quickies made me wonder how these early years of film-making could achieve such a higher degree of 'better to me' films than these far more mature years in film history. Is it just due to numbers? It could be. Maybe we don't have an higher percentage of good or bad films - I don't really know if mashing a second finger removes pain from the first - I tend to believe one bad thing is bad enough! And when I've seen consecutive bad (or worse, boring) films, my initiative to see whatever next film arrives is eroded, while even car-washing can rekindle a joy - especially if I've got the hose and Mr. Smartypants is too far from the bucket to retaliate.

orpheum

What should be remembered about Quota Quickies is that because the Government felt that the idea behind the 1927 act was being misused they brought in a financial,or as they believed a qualatitive test,by brining in double and triple quota films in the 1938 Act.So the more that you spent on a film the more it would count for Quota.So if you went to the top valuse one film when exhibited in the cinema would count for 3 films.This is the reason that MGM set up in Boreham Wood in 1938 to make British films eg A Yank At Oxford.Of course the ironic thing is that before this could have some effect the War broke out.As a result of the requisitioning of studios the number of films made in the early part of the war fell dramatically thus bringing to a temporary end the heyday of the quota quickies.However the point i am trying to make is that because of the attitude of the BFI many extant films of the 30s may as well be lost.The last truly representative overview of British Films in the 1930s was a season at the NFT back in 1964.There are so many fine and entertaing films of this era.TV has no obligation to show them but the BFI should.Maybe they should be obliged to show quota quickies!By the way i have all of the books referred to and they are very engrossing.

howard 65

W£hat

howard 65

What a quota for quota quickies!

It's ironic that the British did this in the thirties and yet we, with all our multi channels, can't do something similar.

It's a brilliant book, by the way.

Don't hold your breath waiting for the B F I doing anything, if the story about them and Warners' thirties British films is to be believed and I do, as It originated from one of my gurus WILLIAM K EVERSON.

orpheum

i had the great fortune to attend one of Eversons talks at the NFT.He was a mine of information and his passing was a sad loss.I remember hearing the story about the Teddington films from an authoritative soursce.I am not sure if it was him.However if it is true then it is a permanent stain on the reputation of the BFI.By the way i bet no quota quickies are shown in the Mediateque.They seem much too interested in the trendy 70s and 80s.

penfold

That old chestnut goes back many decades...holding that against the current BFI is a bit like holding the current German government to blame for the Holocaust - it might make you feel better but you're blaming the wrong people. The Bfi have been actively trying to rectify the situation for at least 20 years to my knowledge. No-one tends to repeat the story of the Eastman House auxiliary storage depot - a disused open-air swimming pool, filled with reels and then buried under earth for forty years or so.

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

penfold

Not yet, but I bet they will, it's still building its repertoire.....at the moment the Mediatheque has a huge amount of those trendy decades the 1900's and 1940's, and that groovy frreak Edward Elgar.

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

penfold

Bill Everson I didn't have the privilege of meeting....but his books I have. A truly great and involving writer; only Kevin Brownlow works at that same level of accuracy and readability. Not to say I always agree with his opinions...

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Mediatheque

Hmmmm, I'm not quite sure where Orpheum gets his facts. Yes, we have rather a lot of titles from the 1970s due to our terribly trendy Play for Today retrospective. However, earlier decades are really rather better represented.

I hope that he will enjoy our on-going retrospective of the fashionable British silent feature film that launches in August and the collection of almost 200 non-fiction films shot in India prior to 1947, also launching in August.

If Orpheum is looking for quote quickies, I hope he will enjoy Strip! Strip! Hooray!!! (1932), launched a month ago in the Mediatheque.