Ocean Terminal

Based on Baudelaire's poem "Le Voyage", J. B. Holmes' BAFTA-nominated short subject tries to find the excitement in a staid, workaday seaport, Southampton, and succeeds.

At first it seems to be just shots of the city and port, and the people, usually sailors, walking about and taking cabs. However, the shots are taken from on high or from extreme ranges, accenting the alienness of these situations, the strangeness, and the editing has a lot of fast cuts, imposing excitement on what's going on. Later, as men and women prepare to go to sea, whether as part of the crew or simple travelers, the mood has been set by images and quotations from Baudelaire's poem. It's a terrific mood piece.