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!)
