Received this dvd for christmas, it was filmed in 1943 and is the story of the crew of a Heavy Unit of the Auxiliary Fire Service in winter 1940/spring 1941 on a single raid. It starts with the Fordson 7v 'heavy unit' (fire engine to most people) coming out of repair and being delivered to the station, then a new recruit joining the station, clearly somewhere in the east London Docklands, meeting the rest of the crew, being shown the station's 'patch' then awaiting the night's activities. As the bombs start to fall, the crew are called out to a fire on the docks, dangerously close to factories full of ammunition, and also to a ship being loaded with weapons and ammunition. The film itself was directed by Humphrey Jennings and is highly praised for its propoganda value and filming techniques - the cast aren't actors as such (although a look on IMDB shows that some did have acting careers), but are all serving Firemen in what was then the National Fire Service, formed from the AFS and the 'regular' Fire Brigades in 1941. It's extremely authentic - using original equipment as naturally it was all in service, and having a 'real life set' using bombed out buildings for the filmwork. A very atmospheric film that I highly reccomend. There's another film, from what I know the only other dealing with the Fire Service in WW2, called 'When The Bells Go Down' featuring Tommy Trinder, James Mason and other actors - released around the same time, and seemingly more popular, which has just been released on it's own on dvd which i've just bought and look forward to comparing
Received this dvd for christmas, it was filmed in 1943 and is the story of the crew of a Heavy Unit of the Auxiliary Fire Service in winter 1940/spring 1941 on a single raid. It starts with the Fordson 7v 'heavy unit' (fire engine to most people) coming out of repair and being delivered to the station, then a new recruit joining the station, clearly somewhere in the east London Docklands, meeting the rest of the crew, being shown the station's 'patch' then awaiting the night's activities. As the bombs start to fall, the crew are called out to a fire on the docks, dangerously close to factories full of ammunition, and also to a ship being loaded with weapons and ammunition. The film itself was directed by Humphrey Jennings and is highly praised for its propoganda value and filming techniques - the cast aren't actors as such (although a look on IMDB shows that some did have acting careers), but are all serving Firemen in what was then the National Fire Service, formed from the AFS and the 'regular' Fire Brigades in 1941. It's extremely authentic - using original equipment as naturally it was all in service, and having a 'real life set' using bombed out buildings for the filmwork. A very atmospheric film that I highly reccomend. There's another film, from what I know the only other dealing with the Fire Service in WW2, called 'When The Bells Go Down' featuring Tommy Trinder, James Mason and other actors - released around the same time, and seemingly more popular, which has just been released on it's own on dvd which i've just bought and look forward to comparing Ground Rob. The police call it their 'patch'. Firemen (I was at A24 Soho), call it their 'ground'. B)
Re. "Fires Were Started", I found this online easily throu. google, not sure if it's still in copy-write thou? whilst looking for other works by "Humphrey Jennings" and noticed that it was listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BFI_Top_100_British_films At number 89, as one of the BFI's Top 100 British Films. (Above #92 - "In Which we serve", #96 - "The Wicker Man", #99 - "Carry on up the Khyber" , and #100 - "The Killing Fields"). Humphrey Jennings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Jennings In 1954 described by film critic and director Lindsay Anderson as: "the only real poet that British cinema has yet produced" and says "Humphrey Jennings' reputation always remained very high among film makers, but had faded among others." One of his other works "Spare Time" was commemorated here - "These Royal Mail stamps were affixed to specially designed envelopes and postmarked on the first day that the stamps were issued." http://www.bfdc.co.uk/2014/great_british_films/night_mail.html
I could watch those black and white shots of clouds, trees, rooftops and bombers all day: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27uot8_1942-humphrey-jennings-listen-to-britain_shortfilms http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27e0sw_1943-the-silent-village_shortfilms http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27v5n4_1943-humphrey-jennings-fires-were-started-part-1_shortfilms http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27v5wg_1943-humphrey-jennings-fires-were-started-part-2_shortfilms
Re. Humphrey Jennings: BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives, Tim Smit on Humphrey Jennings, Film Maker "Tim Smit has admired Humphrey Jennings since seeing Danny Boyle’s Olympics Opening Ceremony in 2012. Jennings was a film maker, artist, and co-founder of the Mass Observation Movement. Many of the scenes in that memorable Olympic ceremony were inspired by his work. His films about ordinary British life during the Second World War are a poetic testament to the people of the British Isles, Tim Smit wants to know why Jennings isn’t better known? Smit is founder of the Eden Project. He’s joined in studio by curator Ros Cranston from the British Film Institute, with contributions from Jennings' biographer Kevin Jackson Clips from Listen To Britain 1941 © Crown and London Can Take It 1940 GPO courtesy of the BFI National Archive. The films are free to view on the BFI website Free The presenter is Matthew Parris. Producer: Maggie Ayre"
