Requiem for a Village

Watched this film on amazon prime, you can get a BFI subscription (£4) to add bfi films to your amazon prime account, I did this so I could watch Bait. Anyway what about this film, slow ? yes but that's good, music ? wonderful, cinematography ? beautiful, script ? minimal but that's good to. Made in 1975 but it's still relevant today with our ever changing world and more and more greenbelt being swallowed up by roads and houses. Loved how it told the life of the village through the memories (good and bad) of the old gentleman. I won't spoil it but some of the scenes are a little unsettling in the context of the film. But apart from that a lovely film well worth a watch.

The Film is a pastiche of Suffolk village life in the early 70's. This is not an easy film to watch or listen to, which I hope was the point. David Gladwell's most famous films have been as editor to Lindsay Anderson on 'If ' and 'O Lucky Man'. Perhaps he should of stuck to his calling.

An odd and short although rather pleasant picture of a village as an old man who tends the graveyard as he remembers the people he has known. An idyllic picture at times, like the fields and country lane but less strange as the old friends clambering out of the graves or the pretty girl having fun with two young guys. The director, David Gladwell was better known as the editor working with Lindsay Anderson.

I have in vane been trying to getting my hands on this for years, but it does not seem to be available anywhere. I remember with exquisite clarity the two times it was shown on Swedish TV in the late seventies, I was simply stunned. Twice. The simplistic and almost naive storytelling, advancing on several planes, is as ethereal as the conclusion is obvious and prosaic. Cast mainly with amateurs, this wonderful piece of a film has no equal - but an aura of Koyaanisqatsi.

The slow and almost dull ingress as (simplisticly) described in most sites on the net is (quote) "The churchyard keeper of a village church in the county of Suffolk, England, reviews the life and lifestyle of those villages as it evolved following the widespread introduction of machinery."

In my view this is an almost chauvinistic way of describing the alienation any aging human is increasingly feeling in a world spinning out of control and changing at an unsustainable rate. True, to fully appreciate the film you'd have to be a romantic - but in the end, this is what we will all become.

The key scene (in my view) is a duality, in a flashback showing a cherished memory of the keeper, cutting back to the present to show a scene with young people which in time may be a similarly cherished memory to them. But what happens next makes clear the abyss that must be bridged to bring understanding between generations, even when they are not that different from each others.

Addition: As some of you readers have already pointed out this film is now available on DVD/Bluray from British Film Institute, I bought my copy via British Amazon. Pictures as vivid as I remember, maybe the sound felt a bit muffled.

I really wanted to enjoy this film but found it hard going. It moves very slowly and the story if there is one hardly gets going. The film is really photographic essay and on that level it works. The photograph is very delicate, with very carefully crafted scenes. The sound is a bit muffed. Sound like a layer on top of the picture. The BFI is right to back this films but I don't think it would have wide appeal. The extras that come with the main film are also hard going. I don't think many people will enjoy this film and I am unlikely to watch it again. Maybe in a cinema on a large scene it would work much better. The print stock is very grainy, and in my own view it has very little charm.