Film, Media and Music
The GPO Film Unit was not immune from the deteriorating international situation and its impact upon the British public. Following the Munich Agreement in September 1938 the potential value of film was acknowledged, and the GPO Film Unit became effectively the government’s ‘official’ film production facility. At the start of hostilities its control would be transferred to the new Ministry of Information (MoI). Until then it still produced public relations films for its original sponsor, but these increasingly showed a nation preparing for war. However, by the summer of 1939, the films began to reflect the government’s policies and requirements – in particular advising the public what to do in the event of the widely anticipated mass air attacks, probably exacerbated by the use of gas. When war was eventually declared in September 1939 the static Western Front of the Phoney War left film production in limbo. Despite the endeavours of Kenneth Clark, who was in charge of the Ministry’s Films Division, many of the films produced in the early months of the war lacked critical and commercial success. The latter had become influential as the ministry’s films were now part of the daily programme in commercial cinemas. Such was the criticism mounted at the film unit, which included an excoriating report on its dire administrative and financial affairs, that its closure was actually mooted. In one sense it was saved by the rapid worsening of the military situation in the spring of 1940 as the government quickly realized that it needed a production facility to provide the information which the public were now demanding.
One of the impacts of the Boer War was the slow realization that film could be used in support of the war effort. Initially the limitations of contemporary technology both in production and exhibition terms meant that the films were usually small-scale and designed for local audiences. However, the generally positive audience reaction meant that, by the beginning of the First World War, the British government had realized that the concentration of the public as cinema audiences provided opportunities for both publicity and raising revenue. Early propaganda films such as Britain Prepared (1915) were over-long and tedious. It was not until apparently more authentic productions, such as Battle of the Somme (1916), with realistic combat footage that the audience became more engaged. Alongside such major productions the government realized that very short information films ‘tagged’ onto the end of a film show could be valuable in presenting a simple message in a visual manner. These early PIFs addressed various morale, economic and social issues.
With ‘El comienzo del fin’, Bartolomé’s auteurist ‘signature’ remains perfectly legible across both film and television media. The chapter argues that the aesthetic attention to documentary, humour and music in the television episode makes it typical of the director’s work. ‘El comienzo del fin’ thus denounces Francoism and claims feminism, the twin creative commitments of Bartolomé’s career, while also adopting a relatively accessible format, deploying documentary techniques and employing humour, the three formal traits of her signature. Accessibility for audiences is ensured partly by interweaving historical events with a selection of seventeen previously broadcast events in the lives of the Alcántara family. Second, Bartolomé’s belief in documentary, to which she brings her own feminist ‘street’ aesthetic of combining interviews with well-known interlocutors and interviews with anonymous members of the public on the street, is fundamental. Third, Bartolomé’s trademark humour, which we have seen throughout this book, is also evident in her ability to select archive footage and pinpoint the amusing phrase or sequence in longer recordings, and in her ability to make mischievous meaning from choices in mise en scène, camera work, editing and extra-diegetic music.
Eulogy delivered at James Baldwin’s funeral. Published in The New York Times, December 20, 1987, Sunday, Late City Final Edition Section 7; Page 29, Column 2; Book Review Desk.
Fusing a distinctive feminist aesthetic with a startling vision of twentieth-century Spain, the work of Cecilia Bartolomé casts a new light on the histories of both Spanish national film and transnational women’s cinema. This book, the first in English on the director and only the second in any language, analyses her shorts, medium- and feature-length films, television work, as well as unfilmed scripts, in order that she may take her place among other key auteurs of Spanish and feminist cinema. It explores Bartolomé’s sustained ideological commitment to defending feminism and opposing Francoism, as well as her dynamic aesthetic invention, especially in the areas of music and comedy, including the esperpento. However, while an auteurist framework allows for an analysis of the aesthetics and vision of her filmed work, the nature of Bartolomé’s career subjects it to severe strain. The Cinema of Cecilia Bartolomé adopts, then, a mindful auteurist approach. Readers will find in these pages close readings of commercially released films, but also sustained analysis of the director’s Film School pieces as finished work, rather than merely developmental. The book also innovatively includes creative exploration of her unfilmed scripts, where we only have the word, and must imagine the image and sound. The nature of Bartolomé’s career forces us critically to adapt, to fill gaps, to read between the lines and to imagine: it aims to show that such a critical approach is thereby stronger for the adaptation. The book also includes a new interview with the director as an appendix.
Volume 10’s From the Field section consists of provocations and talking points from roundtable discussions on the Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley film I Heard It Through the Grapevine (1982) hosted by James Baldwin Review at three different conferences—the Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference in Denver in 2023; the Modern Language Association’s 2024 conference in Philadelphia; and the American Literature Association’s 2024 conference in Chicago. These roundtables provided stimulating public conversation, bringing together scholars to provide new takes on this extraordinary but little-known film. The panelists—Simon Abramowitsch (Chabot College), Douglas Field (University of Manchester), Monika Gehlawat (University of Southern Mississippi), Melanie Hill (Rutgers University), Josslyn J. Luckett (NYU), D. Quentin Miller (Suffolk University), Jared O’Connor (University of Illinois at Chicago), Hayley O’Malley (Rice University), Robert Reid-Pharr (NYU), Karen Thorsen (independent filmmaker), Kenneth Stuckey (Bentley University)—have each agreed to share here their opening remarks from these conferences in hopes of furthering discussion on this vital film.