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‘Close’ Friends

Still from Close Friends

Date produced: 1965

Filmmaker(s):

Philippa Miller

Description:

'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).


45, The

Date produced: 1961

Filmmaker(s):

Margaret Conneely

Description:

"Plays out at an amateur level Jean-Luc Godard’s dictum that all a film needs for a plot is a woman and a gun. This is how Margaret Conneely says The ’45 came about: with a prop and an actor. From these elements she crafts a mischievous and entertaining film about a woman willing to employ any means to send away the man who comes looking for her husband with a gun." Chicago Film Archives


All In A Day

Date produced: 1951

Filmmaker(s):

O. L. Tapp

Description:

"All In A Day - Consistently good photography marks this humorous document of the trials and tribulations that beset a man who goes fishing despite the objections of his wife. Overruling his wife's plea that he take her to visit her mother, the man sets out on his trip early the next morning. His first disappointment comes when the pal who was to accompany him bows out. Setting out alone, trouble comes in bunches. He gets a ticket for speeding, then a flat tire, and when he arrives at the lake selected for fishing, the boat is flooded with water. After bailing it out, the man rows out on the lake, forgetting his lunch, tackle, etc., and he must return to shore - further building up his state of high dudgeon. Before night falls, he's fallen in the lake, not to mention the fact he caught nary a fish, so he returns home a sadder but wiser man. But even then, his troubles are not over. His wife, who promised he'd 'be sorry' for going on the trip, locks him out of the house. In the closing scene he finds solace in his little son, who remains his only friend. One outstanding feature of this film is the maker's ability to cut scenes as he shoots. Result is each scene dovetails snugly with the next, and this greatly simplified, we are sure, the task of editing the film." American Cinematographer, May. 1952, 211.


Amy Norman

Date produced: 1935

Filmmaker(s):

Charles Powell

Description:

"Celebrate the wedding of Amy Norman, visit Belle Vue Zoo,and meet the Powell family, with their own animals, in their garden. A view of Manchester Central Library and the Town Hall Complex precedes cricketing scenes at Bowdon, and finally, a family trip (in colour) to Nefyn in North Wales, where young and old alike enjoy the sun and sea. The Powell family lived in East Didsbury in South Manchester.Manchester Central Library was quite new when this film was shot. It was opened in 1934 by George V, and in 2014 re-opened after refurbishment for its 80th anniversary." (BFI Player)


And How!

Date produced: 1927

Filmmaker(s):

Russell T. Ervin

Description:

"This proved to be an unusual serio-comedy, telling of a restless young husband and how he was cured. It was very well acted by Alfred Fontana as the husband, Margaret Ervin as the vamp, Anne Howe, and Beatrice Traendly as the wife. The directon of Russell T. Ervin Jr. was remarkably good, revealing an unusual facility for telling a story concisely and quickly. Then too, he understood how to cover any histrionic imperfections of his cast. 'And How!' is a suprisingly neat amateur film" Photoplay, June. 1928, 66


Because I Say So

Date produced: 1964

Description:

"Because I Say So is a club production and concerns the influence a certain "Count Polo" has on women. His latest book "Woman Perfected" advises women how to be better wives. At least one woman tries his theories - and the climax of the picture proves Count Polo knows what he is talking about - or does he?" PSA Journal, Sept. 1964, 50.


Blackout on Maple Street

Date produced: 1970

Filmmaker(s):

Charles E. Phillips

Description:

"Film is about what happens when a two-minute power failure causes a blackout. Cameras caught before and after scenes in four houses, titled 'Daughter's Date,' 'The Ladder,' 'Cat and Dog,' and 'Women.' " Archives of Ontario.


Concerto

Date produced: 1953

Filmmaker(s):

Warren S. Doremus

Description:

"Concerto, by Warren Doremus, is a sensitive and touching story of young love, following a couple from the joy of their graduation and marriage to the anguish and pain of the man's recall to war service in Korea. The telling of this simple tale has been done with such warmth that the observer cannot help being caught up in the current of emotions which fill the film. The performances of Sallie Dunn and George Harrison as the young couple convey the right mood for each scene with complete sincerity and heart, while Mr. Doremus's direction is forceful and yet restrained. Accompanied by and an interpretation of the Warsaw Concerto of Richard Addinsell, Concerto, the film, may truly be styled a cine tone poem." Movie Makers, Dec. 1953, 332.


Der Brief

Date produced: 1954

Filmmaker(s):

Oscar Wurmboeck

Description:

"What happens when a modern gentleman of advancing years advertises for a mail-order bride and tries to answer the applicant of his choice? Der Brief, (The Letter), an excruciatingly funny farce by Dr. Oscar Wurmboeck, gives us one answer to this problem, as our shy but determined hero is confronted at every turn by confusion and frustration. Everything happens - the ink spills, the fountain pen leaks, the mechanical pencil won't hold leads, the wooden ones won't sharpen, and the typewriter refuses to type - to deter our man from his course. Competent camera work, incisive direction and crisp editing serve to point up the brilliant and appealing portrayal of the unfortunate lover by Rudy Rattinger, so that Der Brief builds quickly and smoothly from laughter to hysterics. Here is pure farce in the old tradition. It is nice to welcome it back to the filmic fold after too long an absence" PSA Journal, Jan. 1955, 50.


Dizzy Top, The

Date produced: 1946

Filmmaker(s):

Patricia Zimmerman

Ryne Zimmerman

Description:

"Staria Zimmerman, that charming Milwaukee minx who made her big time bow in The Boss Comes to Dinner, a 1944 Ten Best winner, has done it again in The Dizzy Top. As the impish daughter of a winsome but widowed mother, she pulls the strings in this "merryonette" show which maneuver her pretty parent into the arms of a new and handsome husband. The quite willing victim of these arch designs is, in the film, the proprietor of a swank hat shop, and it is in this bright locale that the majority of the action takes place. Patricia and Ryne Zimmerman — the producers and supporting players — have a sharp and genuine sense of farce comedy. Their lighthearted plot dances forward as gaily as the suave settings they have contrived for it. Their incidents are antic in their absurdity, their timing crisp and delicately controlled. These qualities are, to be sure, aided immeasurably by Mistress Staria, who carries off each new comic conceit with impudent but charming assurance. Mr. Zimmerman's technical execution in their latest film leaves little to be desired in competence and imagination. There is, to a heightened degree, the same warmth and brilliance in his lighting which marked The Boss. His camera viewpoints are effective and varied, cutting one into the next with precision and pace. Show pieces of cinematic imagination enrich the production, like sugar plums in a Christmas pudding. The Dizzy Top, the Zimmerman's first 16mm. effort, is a handsome step forward along their chosen course of lighthearted comedy." Movie Makers, Dec. 1946, 486.


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