"Just alright", "very boring"!!! One wonders a little at the jaded appetites of some viewer and reviewers.
Part of the problem is the way British films have tended to sell themselves - as modest "social documents" akin to home movies. And this has obscured the fact that the documentary movement in Britain launched in the twenties by John Grierson was central to the development of the European neo-realist style during the thirties and forties. Not even the most obtuse reviewer would approach the work of De Sica or Rosselini with the same disrespect (their reputation would oblige them to watch with a little more care) but the work of Jennings is just as important and just as worthy of proper attention.
While the 1936 Night Mail (Basil Wright, Harry Watt and Cavalcanti) does receive something of its due (the virtuosity of the sound can hardly be ignored) as do the experimental animations of Len Ly (at the more avant-garde end of the GPO Unit repertoire), the same respect is rarely extended to the other work of the GPO Unit (later the Crown Film Unit). Yet as a corpus of work it is absolutely outstanding.
Jennings began his work as a film-maker with Dufay Chromex making short films to advertise the heart-stoppingly beautiful Dufaycolor process and his first short film for Dufay, Farewell to Topsails, is already a fine film. After joining the GPO Unit, he took some time to find his feet with films whose intention was to some extent promotional and ditto from 1940 when the Ministry of Information takes over and the emphasis is on war propaganda. One of the limiting factors for the British documentary movement was Grierson's insistence that it should, as it were, earn its living and not flirt (à la Flaherty) with sensational drama.
This - his only full-length feature - is nothing short of a masterpiece. Th use of non-professional actors and elements of impromptu dialogue (as with De Sica's Bicycle Thieves) is significant but should (as again with De Sica) blind one to the fact that this is a very carefully composed film - the "one man went to mo" sequence is superb - beautifully filmed and expertly edited.
Most remarkable perhaps is the orchestration of dialogue. This was a particular strength of the British movement and would remain an enduring strength of British film (in the films of Ken Loach and in the scenarios for instance of Harold Pinter - arguably a more important body of work than his dramas).
British neo-realism runs parallel with the Italian variety but always remains distinct from it; it remains socially committed and does not flirt in the same way with melodrama or with flamboyant "humanism". It may be less exciting on the surface but, watched with the respect and attention they deserve, the best of these films are both important and, to my mind enthralling.
Part of the problem is the way British films have tended to sell themselves - as modest "social documents" akin to home movies. And this has obscured the fact that the documentary movement in Britain launched in the twenties by John Grierson was central to the development of the European neo-realist style during the thirties and forties. Not even the most obtuse reviewer would approach the work of De Sica or Rosselini with the same disrespect (their reputation would oblige them to watch with a little more care) but the work of Jennings is just as important and just as worthy of proper attention.
While the 1936 Night Mail (Basil Wright, Harry Watt and Cavalcanti) does receive something of its due (the virtuosity of the sound can hardly be ignored) as do the experimental animations of Len Ly (at the more avant-garde end of the GPO Unit repertoire), the same respect is rarely extended to the other work of the GPO Unit (later the Crown Film Unit). Yet as a corpus of work it is absolutely outstanding.
Jennings began his work as a film-maker with Dufay Chromex making short films to advertise the heart-stoppingly beautiful Dufaycolor process and his first short film for Dufay, Farewell to Topsails, is already a fine film. After joining the GPO Unit, he took some time to find his feet with films whose intention was to some extent promotional and ditto from 1940 when the Ministry of Information takes over and the emphasis is on war propaganda. One of the limiting factors for the British documentary movement was Grierson's insistence that it should, as it were, earn its living and not flirt (à la Flaherty) with sensational drama.
This - his only full-length feature - is nothing short of a masterpiece. Th use of non-professional actors and elements of impromptu dialogue (as with De Sica's Bicycle Thieves) is significant but should (as again with De Sica) blind one to the fact that this is a very carefully composed film - the "one man went to mo" sequence is superb - beautifully filmed and expertly edited.
Most remarkable perhaps is the orchestration of dialogue. This was a particular strength of the British movement and would remain an enduring strength of British film (in the films of Ken Loach and in the scenarios for instance of Harold Pinter - arguably a more important body of work than his dramas).
British neo-realism runs parallel with the Italian variety but always remains distinct from it; it remains socially committed and does not flirt in the same way with melodrama or with flamboyant "humanism". It may be less exciting on the surface but, watched with the respect and attention they deserve, the best of these films are both important and, to my mind enthralling.