Shooting the Past

Shooting the Past is a fine piece of work. It entertains, it makes you think, it deals with issues and you end up discussing it and thinking about it at length afterwards.

The scenario is somewhat far-fetched - it is inconceivable that most of the staff at the archive would be unaware of the plans to chuck them out of a listed building - the place would have been swarming with bureaucrats for months before the bulldozers arrived, if indeed anything that requires bulldozers would have been permitted. Further, it also seems inconceivable that a man with a passion for his new business school and with mission-critical deadlines would visit the place for the first time without having verified that the archivists were moving out.

But we forgive Poliakoff his fanciful scenario because it sets up a terrific and taught drama.

Lindsay Duncan is simply superb, as is Timothy Spall as the "borderline autistic, photo-savant" Oswald.

Some of the cinematography (if you call it that in made for TV films) is superb - in particular the long shots of Liam Cunningham walking through the archive and the film shots of still photos.

This is fine stuff and highly recommended.

Splendid movie with great acting by everyone. But particularly of interest and delight for anyone who enjoys life without computers, old houses, archives, photography and loves truthfulness. I'll never forget the archive in the basement of the house. Because of the movie, I found the Mary Evans Picture Library in London.

Seeing this movie, my first Poliakoff, led me to all his other gems. I don't know why he is not more famous. And he sure has a gift for choosing the best actor talents.

This movie should be part of your movie library! And while you are buying, get "Perfect Strangers" too.

This movie crept up on me. Timothy Spall is simply riveting and slowly charms you into his viewpoint. He seems at first to be a shabby cynic, but as time goes on you see that he is also a nerdy genius. Though slow at first, it is an example of very good story-telling and ends up making you feel very good about mankind and really aware of how diverse are the circumstances of life and the souls who step up to the challenges they present. The title has two meanings in that we are dealing with photos collected and arranged in categories that only Spall's character can really navigate expertly. Also, we find, in following his character (Oswald Bates) through the archive -- intent on following a thread -- that we are traveling in a viscous medium and find ourselves shooting the rapids of accumulating facts, inferences and dates.

Poliakoff's greatest achievement (so far) works perfectly as a thought-provoking and intensely satisfying meditation on the price of progress. The hard-headed, unscrupulous world of big-business is set in stark contrast to the quintessentially English, eccentric and old-fashioned central characters battling against the odds to preserve the collection. With sublime casting, atmospheric use of lighting and a haunting, beautiful soundtrack the production values are magnificent. However, the real stars of the show are the photos from the collection itself - used to relay fascinating, quirky and heart-rending stories from history that would have otherwise been forgotten. The way these stories unfurl are spell-bindingly atmospheric and paced to perfection.

I am not a film buff, nor artistic to any degree, and I like action adventures just as much as the next brainless idiot. But this film is so generally superb that it even enticed me to make comment on this database. I am old, and British, and therefore have an affinity with the surroundings and the characters portrayed, as over my lifetime I have met similar similar doing all sorts of differing jobs. The type of eccentric played by Timothy Spall (superbly, but then we British would not have expected anything less of him) occurs more often than one would think. The diffident librarian captured perfectly by Billy Holiday. The Lady boss whom over time has lost nearly all of her self-consciousness at being put in charge of people whom display more knowledge and intelligence than she first gave them credit for, was played by Lindsay Duncan and was Brilliant. The unfortunate tycoon who found himself as the unwilling villain of the piece, is most sensitively played by Liam Cunninham. All the supporting cast played their characters extremely well. I recognised even the junior tea lady from the stance I remember from the past. There is just no criticism I can make of this production the direction , photography, music all blends into a seamless story of the fairly recent past.

I am not given to undue praise, but this film you may show to any member of family without offence. Although the Americans get slightly cast as villains, I can assure them all that Big business in Britain could equally be so cast, but would unlikely to have come out so well thought of.

Get this film and loose yourself in 2/3 hours of unadulterated thought provoking entertainment