Monday 1 March 2010

British Film Institute release 'The Pleasure Garden'

Another gem has just been released from the BFI Archive. 'The Pleasure Garden', made in 1953 by the American poet James Broughton (1913 - 1999) is a lovely, surreal and poetic film set in the Crystal Palace Terraces in South London. The film won the Prix de Fantasie Poetique at Cannes in 1954.

Front cover of photograph album LA/6/2/1/5
© Lindsay Anderson Collection, University of Stirling Archives


The film opens with people living an idyllic carefree life in the park, which abruptly comes to an end with the arrival of Col. Pall K Gargoyle (John le Mesurier) who is determined to stop all the fun and freedom by erecting notices banning everything and arresting people he doesn't approve of. Then along comes their saviour, Mrs Albion (a wonderful Hettie Jacques) who waves her magic scarf to liberate everyone and open them up to their emotions, thereby returning the park to it's idyllic, happy state. Lindsay Anderson's had a small role in this film (described on IMDb as'Toff in top hat'), acting alongside Jill Bennett, and he is also credited as the 'production manager' for the film. Unfortunately as Anderson didn't keep copies of his letters until he employed a secretary in the 1970s we don't have correspondence about 'The Pleasure Garden', however I know there is some in the Collection of James Broughton's Papers at Kent State University Special Collections and Archives.


Page from photograph album LA/6/2/1/5
© Lindsay Anderson Collection, University of Stirling Archives



Page from photograph album LA/6/2/1/5
© Lindsay Anderson Collection, University of Stirling Archives

James Broughton and Lindsay Anderson were friends and we have a lot of correspondence between them in the archive. Cataloguing the correspondence of so many other people (all the letters to Anderson) has led me to take quite instant likes or dislikes to people and cataloguing the letters from James Broughton I just instantly found him interesting, funny and a warm person - it made me want to find out more about him. Being surrounded by such a wealth of research materials in the Archive, and in the library in general, meant I could do this. I've been enjoying reading 'A Long Undressing: Collected Poems 1949 - 1969' which is part of the Anderson Archive. I particularly liked the last section of poems 'All About It' which start with a quote 'Into every life a little Zen must fall' (attributed to - Old saying). 'Song of Song' included here is the final poem in the book.

Song of Song © James Broughton


On a final note - when I was doing some google searching on James Broughton I came across a short film he made of one of the poems from the 'All About It' section I mention above. Called 'This Is it' (1971) the film of the poem of the same name is a touching short film following a young boy following a red balloon while the words of the poem are read (does anyone know who the woman reading the poem is?). You can see the film on the Art Forum website where they also had this short review by Robert Greenspun from the New York Times: "James Broughton's creation myth, This Is It, places a two-year-old Adam and a bright apple-red balloon in a backyard garden of Eden, and works a small miracle of the ordinary. And since that miracle is what his film is about, he achieves a kind of casual perfection in matching means and ends."

This was supposed to be just a quick post about the DVD release of 'The Pleasure Garden' but it's ended up a bit of an ode to James Broughton! That's the way it goes with Archives though - they lead you off in unexpected directions. I love that I'm learning new things every day - though I imagine that can be said of any job - it just depends how you look at it!

I'd just like to say thanks to Frank's and his blog for alerting me to the DVD release of 'The Pleasure Garden' and 'The Exiles' (more of 'The Exiles' in a later post!)

6 comments:

  1. How does one view this film, Kathryn? I'd love to see it, but if it's only on Region 2, I'm kind of out of luck.

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  2. I'm afraid it's only on Region 2. I had a quick look online and it doesn't seem like the Washington University Film and Media Archive have a copy. I know that Kent State University (which holds James Broughton's papers) transferred his films to the Anthology Film Archives in New York so it might be worth contacting them to see if they know of any other Stateside archives that have a viewing copy available.

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  3. Thanks for bringing this great film to my attention, Kathryn! I've always been fascinated by the Crystal Palace; only had the chance to visit the site once. I think the film may also be included as part of a 3-DVD set issued in 2006: "The Films of James Broughton." Available at a few libraries and for purchase on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Films-James-Broughton-Jean-Anderson/dp/B000HEWEOE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1267891992&sr=1-1

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  4. Thank you! That answers Kevin's query of how to get hold of a copy in the US. I had a quick look and it's available from $27 and if you can buy it then it means there might be a library out there with a copy.

    I had never heard about the Crystal Palace before. I go down to London quite a lot so I'll need to make a visit one of these days.

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  5. Hi Kathryn, If you come to London, you must come to Crystal Palace! Not only the site of The Pleasure Garden, but also, among many other scenes, the 'blown the doors off' scene from the original Italian Job and a young Dirk Bogarde taking a boat trip with his children around dinosaur island in Jack Clayton's Our Mother's House.

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  6. Thanks Jonathan, it sounds like a good thing to do on a summer's day so I'll make sure I get along to Crystal Palace over the summer this year.

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