'Silent film shot by Miss Philippa Miller recording scenes of people and activities around the 1930s-style bay-fronted terraced houses and gardens in a small residential close at different seasons of the year. Miss Miller lived in Norwich so the film has provisionally been linked to Norwich, but identification of the location would be welcome. The film captures the relaxed and friendly relationship between the women, men and children filmed and Miss Miller behind the camera. From the film stock marks it appears that the film was shot between 1965 and 1967.
All but two of the scenes are filmed outdoors. Indoors we see four women sitting together looking at two boxed costume dolls and stroking a black poodle, and a brief scene of an elderly lady. The exterior scenes were filmed during winter, spring and summer and capture people's activities and domestic chores around their homes and gardens, their comings and goings, and various pet dogs. Scenes include: women clearing a path through snow; a row of ten sparrows on a ledge above a snowy roof; a man washing a car with cloth and bucket of water as laundry billows on a washing line; a woman dressed to go out in hat and coat carrying bags; children playing with a dog, a football, a toy pram and a toy tractor; a bride in white outfit with bouquet standing with a man, perhaps her father, and a woman chauffeur in peaked cap helping people into a car as they leave for a wedding; crocuses; another man washing a car; a boy on a tricycle; a knife grinder at work, operating his machine by treadle within a handcart with large wheels; a man mowing the lawn a man painting the front gate of a spring garden; a young man and woman; a man up a ladder cleaning windows; women with two children in matching coats; a house under construction with the timber frame of the upper storey and roof open; a woman hanging out sheets on a washing line; a woman shaded beneath a floral parasol standing in front of flowering rose bushes; a woman setting off on a bicycle; a woman holding a baby; children sitting on a lawn and playing with modelling clay; a young man; a woman at a window; a chaffinch; rose bushes; another lady dressed in hat and coat with bag going out; a woman playing ball with the black poodle; a man using an axe to chop at the roots in a hole around a tree stump' (EAFA).
Visual poem, synchronized to the Arabesques of Claude Debussy, that reflects on the home as a space of cinematic creativity for the amateur. It is the only film from the period directly credited to a female amateur filmmaker.
After celebrating his fourth wedding anniversary, a man becomes obsessed with building a homemade weapon of mass destruction. The man's efforts reach a breakthrough after the couple celebrates their fifth anniversary.
"A silent documentary that follows a group from Central Cinematographers as they view, discuss and shoot films. The process of filmmking becomes transparent as the actors are seen alongside the equipment that lights and films them as well as the large number of people that are needed to prepare for a scene." Chicago Film Archives
"An experimental film about a boy owning a bicycle and learning the proper safety rules on the road." Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
"A humorous film about group exercises and volleyball at the Turnverein gymnasium, Portland, Oregon. Produced by "Miller Picture Corruption Ink" under the auspices of the Amateur Cinema League, probably as a Christmas present for Miller's friends. Appearing: Members of the Portland Turnverein." Oregon Historical Society.
A woman grows frustrated with her husband's commitment to his various hobbies, which seem to take precedence over their marriage.
"Il film è un documentario di propaganda e vuole sopratutto essere un invito verso l’aeromodellismo. Il modello volante è oggi progettato su basi scientifiche e costruito con criteri tecnici in perfetta analogia col velivolo moderno. Il film s’inizia con una rapida rassegna dei più rudimentali velivoli coniati dalla fantasia del bambino, dall’aeroplano di carta all’aquilone, sino al giocattolo. Qui s’inizia la sequenza della scuola degli aeromodellisti e la costruzione completa di un modello a struttura reticolare con motore a fili elastici. Sul campo di volo il modello riceve il battesimo dell’aria col suo primo volo, mentre, a contrasto con le rabbiose evoluzioni dei modelli a motore, i modelli veleggiatori lanciati con cavo volteggiano leggeri e sicuri. La più alta perfezione costruttiva e la maggior finezza aerodinamica caratterizzano i grandi modelli di alianti per lancio dal pendio, che sono argomento della terza parte del film. Spontaneo è il passaggio ideale e logico dai modelli alianti al volo veleggiato, palestra di addestramento dei giovani per i futuri ardimenti dei cacciatori e bombardieri dell’aria."
"The film is a propaganda documentary and above all wants to be an invitation to model aircraft hobbyism. The model airplane is today designed on a scientific basis and built with technical criteria in perfect analogy with the modern aircraft. The film begins with a quick review of the most rudimentary aircraft coined by the child's imagination, from the paper plane to the kite, to the toy. Here begins the sequence of the model aircraft school and the complete construction of a reticular structure model with an elastic line motor. On the airfield, the model receives the baptism of the air with its first flight, while, in contrast to the furious evolutions of the motorized models, the sailplane models launched with cable fly light and safe. The highest constructive perfection and the greatest aerodynamic finesse make the large models of gliders, which are the subject of the third part of the film, suitable for launch from the slope. Spontaneous is the ideal and logical transition from glider models to soaring flight, a training ground for young people for the future feats of hunters and air bombers."—LITTORIALI DEL CINEMA ANNO XVIII program
"...che illustra il procedimento della costruzione in laboratorio dei modelli volanti, ponendo a raffronto il breve volo dei piccoli modelli con quello delle moderne pesanti macchine aeree"—I Littoriali del cinema: Un’altra interessante serie di documentari, La Stampa, September 3, 1939
"...which illustrates the process of laboratory construction of flying models, comparing the short flight of small models with that of modern heavy aerial machines."
"Of Kings And Queens: This Kodachrome entry endeavors to explain the game of chess to a little girl watching it being played by her father and a friend. Moving in close to the chess board, the camera shows in detail the various chess men and their relation to the game, as an off-stage voice explains this relationship to the girl. C. Richmond Lawrence employed his Bolex H-16 camera with great skill in photographing this film, and the narration on the sound track is of high calibre." American Cinematographer, May. 1951, 192.
"One must enjoy a great deal of fun in building and flying the midget airplanes. Not the rubber-band motors, but the real one-cylinder petrol engine with radio control. We witness the construction and flying of the miniature craft" PSA Journal, Nov. 1960, 42.
Total Pages: 2
Amateur Cinema