My Father and Me

My Father And Me

This was a very pedestrian documentary examining a few rather mundane themes, these were:-

A regret of not asking every question to his father before he died. Hardly revelatory!

A fixation with class distinctions from someone that has led a most privileged and exceptionally decadent life.

A romantic approach to the absurd notion of a socialist utopia.

A constant derision of planned and meticulous craftsmanship of staged photos to the unremarkable work of this documentary maker.

A revisionist approach to history, things were what they were for a reason.

A failure to grasp that the working class as a definition is practically meaningless today, falling below less than 10% of the population, when everybody today is a gradation of middle class.

A misunderstanding of intellectualism, to think or learn in isolation is meaningless, thinking is as thinking does!

Overall there was such a total lack of insight and skated on the surface of meaning, it dragged and was tedious 4 outta 10 from me.

In 'My Father and Me', Nick Broomfield has made a surprisingly warm and touching film, part autobiogrpahy, part family memoir, and part pure tribute to his dad Maurice, an outstanding (but for much of his life, essentially uncelebrated) photographer of industrial propaganda. Maurice, it seems, lived a full life, aided by two outstanding choice in marriage; not a perfect father, but not a bad one either. What comes across in this film is the portait of a man whose life was both more interesting than average, but extraordinary mostly in small ways; the story of a decidedly uncommon family, who nonetheless lived at the same sort of scale as most of the rest of us. Nick's ego, sometimes too obviously apparent in his films, is here replaced by a natural humilty and respect. This might not be his most attention-grabbing work, but it's one of his best.

I was fortunate to see the debut of this film at the NY Film Festival. Nick Broomfield is at the top of his field of fellow documentarians. Beautifully photographed, this film shows the very successful career of Nick's father, Maurice Broomfield, as an industrial photographer in Great Britain. The sometime strained relationship between a prominent father and a son who is finding his own way in life. Poignant, emotional and passionate film that is magnificent in imagery. A must see film.