Look At Life & Pathe Pictorial

[Elizabeth87a]

Hi,



No your right it was diffilcult to keep any copies in those days. I know might brother might have

some old film ( In Cans ) I hope one day we might be able to look at them and see if anything is still useable. Thanks for your interest.



regards



Liz

[fwykes]

I was filmed in Jersey C.I. about 1963 by the Look At Life team, we were picking potatoes. I know the film was produced as when I returned to the UK as I was recognised by strangers who had seen the short at the cinema. I do have a list of most Look At Life titles, but have no idea of the dates made or the content. I would be well pleased for any info from anyone.

[theuofc]

name='catflap']Up here in Melbourne there were five newsreel theatres .....

There was a terrific movie made in the late 70s called "Newsfront" about the rivalry between Australia's two newsreel production teams. Starring Bill Hunter and Bryan Brown, with Phillip Noyce directing, it is well worth a look for those interested in the subject matter.

Much agree. Bryan Brown, pre-action movie days, was very good in Newsfront, which is available on DVD:



[ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/B000B64TZU/sr=1-1/qid=1262908406/ref=dp_image_text_0?ie=UTF8&n=283926&s=dvd&qid=126 2908406&sr=1-1]Newsfront [DVD] [1978] [US Import][/ame]



Barbara

[bluenose]

name='DAVID RAYNER']Thinking back to my years as a cinema projectionist in the 1960’s, I often think about two wonderful British short films we used to run every week, Rank’s Eastman Colour “Look at Life� and Warner-Pathe’s Technicolor “Pathe Pictorial.� They ran about nine minutes each and were gems of a kind we never see today.



Each week, a different fascinating subject, beautifully photographed; scored; narrated and edited. The reels were given a number, such as Look at Life number 163 or Pathe Pictorial number 380, which ensured they were booked only once. The reels were brand new; run only for a week and went back to the distributors after the last showing in the same pristine condition, never to be seen again…which I always thought a bit of a waste.



Look at Life was narrated by Tim Turner, but I can’t remember who narrated Pathe Pictorial. I remember a superb Look at Life called “For the Record�, which took us into the EMI recording studios in 1961 to see Helen Shapiro recording “Walkin’ Back To Happiness� and, if I remember correctly, the reel took us from recording to pressing the record to distribution to the record shops, all in nine minutes of screen time. A gem, never seen again.



Another weekly short, also only shown once per issue, was called “Mining Review�. This was in black and white for years and went into colour around 1970. I often wonder what has become of all these shorts and why no one has ever issued them on video or DVD.

Fabulous info mate.



I remember seeing the Helen Shapiro short.

Actually in London when we were killing time waiting for Ken Collyer's to open.



Very fast cut to drums from rehearse to final song....which is why I remember it. Very "french".



I don't know where you lived, but I though the "Mining Review" was only shown in areas where there was a mining community.



For instance, the town I was brung up in had 5 cinemas in the 50s.

In a big circle less than a three quarters of a mile.

Outside of the town were some secondary cinemas that showed films down the rental line ( like 3/4 months after being in the town centre). These were Mon-Wed and Thurs - Sat with a real old double bill on Sunday.



Point is, these satelite cinemas didn't show Mining Review either - except one. The Grand. And that was bang centre of the post war estates filled with miners, mainly Durham and Scot.



None of the town centre cinemas ever showed Mining Review - and it's only in retrospect that we ever worked out why we were swizzled out of it.

[darrenburnfan]

The cinema industry was very, very different in those days. Here in Stoke-on-Trent, as well as then being the centre of the pottery industry, it was also a mining area with many pits that are all gone now. Consequently, Mining Review was shown every month in cinemas across the area, from the city centre cinemas such as the Gaumont and Odeon, to the ABC and Essoldo circuits, to all the suburban cinemas such as the Alhambra; Broadway and Plaza. Since those days, the pottery industry has been severely cut back on; the pits are no more and from something like thirty-five cinemas across the area in the 1950's, there are now only three. Two multiplexes and the Film Theatre attached to the Staffordshire University.

[Philip G W]

Hi Richard,
The Junior Musician's Look At Life film can be found on the DVD Look At Life: Volume 2: Military .( Drummers of the Queen)
I remember it well!
Philip Henderson