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!)

Dieter Rams retrospective at the Design Museum, London

On a recent trip to London I visited the Design Museum for the first time to see the Dieter Rams retrospective 'Less and More - the Design Ethos of Dieter Rams' and it was such a visual treat - the building itself is striking, the area the museum is in is one I hadn't spent much time in before so I enjoyed the views of and from Tower Bridge, and all the designs Rams created for Braun were amazing to see. Lots of beautifully designed record players and film cameras that would not look out of date today.


I came away from the exhibition struck by the 10 elements of Dieter Rams' design philosophy:

1. Good design is innovative.
2. Good design makes a product useful.
3. Good design is aesthetic.
4. Good design makes a product understandable.
5. Good design is honest.
6. Good design is unobtrusive.
7. Good design is long-lasting.
8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
9. Good design is environmentally friendly.
10. Good design is as little design as possible.

It seems like Rams was a victim of his own philosophy as his designs have become so imitated and inspiring to others that it has become a 'style' in itself, something that seems against his philosophy as quoted on the Guardian "I believe designers should eliminate the unnecessary... That means eliminating everything that is modish because this kind of thing is only short-lived."

I just loved all the old record players and home movie cameras - they're so beautifully made and the designs seem so simple and pure, there's nothing that isn't necessary. I spent ages looking at all the record players as it is still most definitely my favourite medium for listening to music. As I write this today I am enjoying listening to 'Have one on me' the new album by Joanna Newsom which came on triple vinyl in a lovely box - so not only is it a wonderful listening experience, it's also a beautiful object to look at. I am a relatively recent convert to the ipod but I think even without the information given at the exhibition I would have figured that the designer behind a lot of Apple's designs was influenced by Rams.

'Norman' - show combining dance, performance and film returns to the MacRobert Arts Centre

I missed this show the first time it came to Stirling so I'm really looking forward to seeing it next month. On a recent trip to Stirling Council Archives (where our Norman McLaren Archive is being stored whilst the University library refurbishment continues) I was lucky to get the chance to look through his letters home from Canada to his parents in Stirling. I only got a chance to read a few but it's whetted my appetite for more. The ones I read were from 1939 and talk about the long journey on the boat from the UK to New York, and then the excitement of his first few months in New York. I'll need to go back for another look (once I get my conference paper for Los Angeles written, it could be my reward - well, in addition to a night out and some nice wine of course!). Anyhoo - to get back to the point of my blog post and off my ramblings - Norman! The whole concept of the show sounds really intriguing. The dancer/choreographer Peter Trosztmer interacts with the films of Norman McLaren on a visit to the offices of the National Film Board of Canada (where McLaren worked).




Created by Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon of lemieux.pilon 4d with Peter Trosztmer. here's some information from the lemieux.pilon 4d website about the show.

"This production bridges the gap between performance and documentary filmmaking. Peter screens interviews made with people who knew McLaren and his work; these witnesses materialize out of thin air and appear onstage to guide Peter in his exploration, sharing their knowledge and feelings about the filmmaker. A selection of about thirty works from McLaren’s corpus, some of them never released, underline the testimonies and allow Peter to communicate what he's learned, sometimes verbally, sometimes simply through the dance that links him to the films. McLaren once said that if he hadn't been a filmmaker, he would have been a choreographer; this show uses movement (of light, of images, of the body) as a way to access his creative world.

As I haven't seen the show yet here's a link to a review from Peter Dickinson's blog 'Performance, Place and Politics' from a performance of Norman in Montreal May 2009.

Below are some images of the corridor outside my office where a number of drawings, prints, photographs and paintings from the Norman McLaren Collection are on display (sorry they're pretty poor quality photos as the light isn't great, and I'm not that good a photographer!)

For information on how to book for the shows see the MacRobert Arts Centre.

Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Los Angeles

I am so excited to be going to this years SCMS conference in Los Angeles! I've never been to the conference before, never been to LA before, so there's plenty to be excited about! The conference programme and the screenings all sound really interesting - can't wait!

Me, Karl Magee (University Archivist here at Stirling university) and Christophe Dupin (Queen Mary University of London) will be presenting a panel on 'The Cinema Authorship of Lindsay Anderson'. Karl Magee will present a paper 'The Auteur in the Archive… Finding Lindsay Anderson' and Christopher Dupin will present a paper 'The Auteur vs. the Institution: The Rise and Fall of the Relationship between Lindsay Anderson and the British Film Institute'. My paper is entitled 'The trouble with The Old Crowd - examining collaboration and authorship'. I won't say much more about it now - best get on with writing my paper!

If anyone wants to read more about the conference the programme is now available

Archiving the Future - film archive symposium

Another exciting film archiving training opportunity has just been announced. 'Archiving the future - emerging practices in moving image archiving' is a two-day symposium on 27 and 28 February at York St John University (York, UK) in partnership with the Yorkshire Film Archive. I wish it had been announced sooner, or I had noticed it sooner, as I'd have loved to have gone. Maybe I missed it on the Archives - NRA list but I did receive notice about this event through the AMIA (Association of Moving Image Archivists) mailing list - a good reason for being on as many relevant mailing lists as possible so as not to miss anything! They state that "the event will inform those within the field of archiving about emerging technologies which could affect the future of their work, but also those in production roles of future practices which they may need to adopt as part of their practice." At £20 for the two days this sounds amazing, in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it's already full up but I thought I would post a notice anyway in case it is of interest to anyone.

More details can be found here