Britania de película

Jon Spira has, undoubtedly, made one of the best historic accounts of; modern British filmmaking and the British film industry. One could argue that the selection of covered films is biased, but that is way within the directors prerogative - it is NOT titled; "A Complete Account of British Film..." and the choice is, in itself, interesting.

Reel Britannia is, almost, exactly what it says on the box - and the ingredients are pretty tasty. In all likelihood, however knowledgeable you are, there will be morsels of new trivia to pick up along the way - and ample occasions to brush up on old knowledge.

For once the recommendation is pretty clear: If you have a passion for film in general and British film in particular - this is the definitive "must see". (If you have neither chances are you will hit "stop" before the end of the first episode).

Nick Helm's, excellent, dry humorous narration steers Reel Britannia into a natural flow and lifts it from; highly informative to highly enjoyable.

I short; Reel Britannia is a long awaited box of cinematic treats.

A solid trawl through British films of the 60's/70's/80's and 90's even managing to highlight some films I had never heard of.

My biggest gripe with this documentary are the absolutely awful graphics used WAY too often, to illustrate different people like directors, producers etc.

Apart from not looking much like the person they are supposed to be, they are on screen for way too long while the narration continues.

Was this maybe to cut on copyright costs so they didn't use actual photos ? I can't think of any possible other reason unless the artist was a relative of Jon Spira.

They really do detract from what is otherwise a pretty well put togther doco, although if I heard them mention "Thatcher's Britain" once I heard it a thousand times. We get it - you didn't like her !

Writer/director Jon Spira and narrator Nick Helm dish up a rather shoddy mix of clips from mostly cheap British flicks, covering the last 60 odd years of humour (well, some) and kitchen sink over- indulgence - done apparently to convince us the British film industry was on top of its gain. If anything, perhaps the opposite was taking place. The British film industry often tended to waste more opportunities than it wants to admit. Due to the limited years being highlighted (and the obvious subjects being selected) almost nowhere to be seen are the truly great British filmmakers, the likes of David Lean, Carol Reed, Michael Powel, etc, who led British screen to greatness.

During the years covered, within the British commercial realm, it seems that mostly only handfuls of filmmakers who had some American experiences lifted the industry above its tawdry limitations. Testament to this might be David Putnam (Chariots Of Fire, etc) who did not embrace the low-grade 'Carry On/Confessions' or violent working-class pop product but wanted to lift British fare out of this cheap quagmire, towards uplifting or serious topics. Another would be Richard Attenborough who made sure he had enough serious finance to produce a world class product. While some good drama and clever social-comment humour came through this era, here, there's too much attention paid to the cheap 'Confessions' or the sensationalistic gender-bending fodder.

Those that choose to sit through all episodes will get the gist that the compilers are chiefly interested in the product they grew up with. A Product that was self-indulgently preoccupied with shock value (be that sexual immorality or gratuitous brutality) as long as it involved out-shocking the repulsive shocks that went before it. These are the years that have led to the present preoccupation with 'cancelling' the past in preference for only the now - leaving themselves with little understanding of what went before, and having little or no understanding of how we got to this stage.

So for loads of short, sensationalistic clips of ultra-repetitive gratuitous sex and violence, this is a limited 'history' of British cinema - generally aimed at navel-gazing baby boomers and millennia (that likely now make up the bulk of staff at the B. F. I.)