The C.O.I. Collection

Discuss releases by the BFI and the films on them.

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antnield
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#26 Post by antnield » Fri Mar 12, 2010 8:06 pm

DVD Times on Police and Thieves.

bamwc2
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#27 Post by bamwc2 » Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:23 am

I just finished watching volume two and was again blown away by another outstanding compilation from the BFI. Over the last few year I don't think that there's been a single dud in the bunch. I'll submit a full write up on it tomorrow.

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MichaelB
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#28 Post by MichaelB » Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:05 am

antnield wrote:DVD Times on Police and Thieves.
Fabulous review, Anthony - I know a lot of people who'll be very grateful for that!

And you're right to join up all the dots: as I said earlier in this thread, all these packages are part of a very very conscious attempt to redefine the currently badly under-explored history of the post-1945 British documentary.

In fact, to reflect the relative lack of critical attention compared with that given to 1930s and 40s documentaries, at the same time that these releases and the forthcoming postwar sequel to Land of Promise were being prepared, the BFI commissioned a full-scale book on the subject (to which I'm contributing a chapter on Anthony Simmons, who made a number of interesting documentaries before the better-known likes of Four in the Morning, The Optimists of Nine Elms and Black Joy). All being well, this should be out before the end of the year.

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MichaelB
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#29 Post by MichaelB » Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:21 am

The Financial Times on Design For Today - with a terrific description of the opening film, the hilarious Designing Women, co-scripted by and co-starring the inimitable Joyce Grenfell.

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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#30 Post by bamwc2 » Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:07 pm

My promised thoughts on the set.

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MichaelB
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#31 Post by MichaelB » Fri Mar 19, 2010 2:39 am

With regard to your last comment about eagerly awaiting "a possible volume 3", I'm delighted to confirm that volumes 3 and 4 are now in active development - and they probably won't be the last ones either unless the first COI releases do unexpectedly badly.

bamwc2
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#32 Post by bamwc2 » Fri Mar 19, 2010 5:07 pm

MichaelB wrote:With regard to your last comment about eagerly awaiting "a possible volume 3", I'm delighted to confirm that volumes 3 and 4 are now in active development - and they probably won't be the last ones either unless the first COI releases do unexpectedly badly.
I had confirmation of 3 in a recent email, but number 4 is a complete surprise! As soon as you can, please do let us know the themes for the releases.

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antnield
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#33 Post by antnield » Tue Apr 06, 2010 7:43 am

The Digital Fix (née DVD Times) on Volume Two.

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MichaelB
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#34 Post by MichaelB » Tue Apr 06, 2010 7:49 am

bamwc2 wrote:I had confirmation of 3 in a recent email, but number 4 is a complete surprise! As soon as you can, please do let us know the themes for the releases.
Volume 3 concerns the armed forces (mostly recruitment films, but also a few oddities like documentaries on military bands and the Suez affair), while volume 4 will be devoted to the ever-popular COI theme of warning the public about ever-present dangers lurking round every corner. This will intersperse much-loved and much-anthologised public information fillers (it's a pretty safe bet that many of the titles in this Screenonline feature will be included) with longer, less well-known titles such as the notorious farm safety film Apaches (1977).

I interviewed the BFI's in-house COI expert Tony Dykes about his plans here.

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Duncan Hopper
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#35 Post by Duncan Hopper » Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:18 am

Thanks for the update Michael. Volume 1 was great, I can't wait for volume 4, even if I've got most of them on the Charley Says DVD, I'm sure the BFI disc will be a considerable upgrade, plus the addition of Apaches will make it a must buy.

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MichaelB
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#36 Post by MichaelB » Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:22 am

They'll certainly be better transfers - unless it proves absolutely impossible to source original film elements (for instance, Joyce Grenfell's Designing Women on volume 2, which was sadly a case of either a less than wonderful analogue SD transfer or nothing at all, and it was much too delicious to leave out), they'll be brand new HD transfers to the best possible current standards.

The BFI is also digitising the COI catalogue for posterity and easier access, so they're not just being done with the DVDs in mind.

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colinr0380
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#37 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:21 am

MichaelB wrote:with longer, less well-known titles such as the notorious farm safety film Apaches (1977).
Great news - that's the harrowing ten little Indians-styled one with a group of boisterous children having various horrendous accidents involving drinking poision and getting trapped under lethal pieces of farm machinery isn't it? It's like a rural pre-teen version of the Final Destination films, with a strange mounting sense of casual acceptance/ennui displayed by the dwindling group of survivors to the inevitable, regular as clockwork, deaths.

I guess there has to be at least one film in the collection involving children playing on railway lines with terrible consequences, and the notorious film about a kid going in to an electricity substation to retrieve a frisbee and ending up getting fried in front of his pushy girlfriend. It seemed like that film in particular was regularly screened during my childhood!

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RossyG
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#38 Post by RossyG » Thu Apr 08, 2010 8:13 am

Apaches! Brilliant.

I've just finished the first two wonderful COI sets and can't wait for this.

I hope they include Building Sites Bite from the same era as Apaches. It's also a 28 minute bloodbath for kiddiwinks, where the luckless Nigel Rhodes from TV's The Tomorrow People is variously buried alive, electrocuted, drowned and crushed by both a lorry and a wall.

From the NFA catalogue:
This film tells the story of Ronald, an intelligent boy who wants to become an architect or surveyor. His cousins Paul and Jane cannot believe that Ronald has any awareness of building sites. In Paul's imagination, he and his sister set Ronald in a number of typical sites, to see if he can survive the hazards that kill and maim many children each year. Ronald eventually learns the hard way that he did not know as much about building sites as he thought.

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RossyG
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#39 Post by RossyG » Thu Apr 08, 2010 9:53 am

Shown By Request: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/film ... ge_sbr.htm

This is a fascinating film from 1947 by the COI about how their films were distributed. Well worth watching.

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antnield
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#40 Post by antnield » Thu May 06, 2010 9:51 am

Latest BFI press release confirms COI Volume 3, entitled 'They Stand Ready', to be released on 19th July.

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MichaelB
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#41 Post by MichaelB » Thu May 06, 2010 9:57 am

Yup - I'm just finishing my contribution to the booklet.

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MichaelB
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#42 Post by MichaelB » Sat May 22, 2010 11:34 am

Cathode Ray Tube and Illuminations (John Wyver) on Design for Today - comfortably the most extensive and knowledgeable reviews I've found to date.

Part two of Wyver's review is here.

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ellipsis7
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#43 Post by ellipsis7 » Sat May 22, 2010 12:30 pm

COI Design for Today a fascinating collection, really enjoying it...

The MOI & COI minidramas, on this release, Land of Promise, and Joys of Sex Education etc., tackling domestic dilemmas, social and health issues, are in many ways the precursors of the British television soap opera... Perhaps it is not coincidental that Sidney Bernstein, film advisor to the Ministry of Information during WWII, founded Granada TV in 1955, which in 1960 launched Coronation Street Britain's oldest and longest running television drama serial...

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MichaelB
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#44 Post by MichaelB » Thu May 27, 2010 9:01 am

Play.com has volume 3 (They Stand Ready) up for pre-order - and includes a glimpse of the cover art.

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MichaelB
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#45 Post by MichaelB » Wed Jun 09, 2010 8:22 am

Full specs announced for volume 3:
The COI Collection – Films from Britain
Volume Three: They Stand Ready


Following films on crime and policing, fashion, design and architecture, the third release in the BFI’s DVD series of historical films made by the Central Office of Information takes a look at Britain’s Armed Forces.

To help paint a positive picture of life in the Services, the COI produced morale-boosting documentaries, propaganda items and numerous recruitment films aimed at men and women, which placed emphasis on escaping the hum-drum of daily life. Join the Services, they say, and a world of opportunity awaits you!

Viewed today, many of these films offer a fascinating snapshot of mid to late twentieth century Britain; some reinforce decades of prevailing social mores and others reflect changing social attitudes. All show skilful and imaginative filmmaking and are both informative and wonderfully entertaining.

Among the highlights of the 23 films spanning 1946-1985 included in this 2-disc set are: Victory Parade (1946) in which troops from all over the British Empire arrive in London to celebrate victory over the Nazis; They Stand Ready (1955), a look at the vital role of National Service; Suez in Perspective (1957), where the Suez Crisis is given a positive spin; Routine Adventure (1965), about the RAF’s role in Aden; When You Wake Up (1974), a recruitment film for schoolgirls which attempts to lure then into the Women’s Royal Army Corps (WRAC), typing skills an advantage; HMS Sheffield (1975) and Tornado (1985), big boys’ toys on the high seas and in the skies.

Special features

* Egypt Today: The Anglo-French Aggression Against Egypt (1956), a very different story is told in this Egyptian response to British Suez propaganda
* Illustrated booklet with comprehensive contextualising film notes and essays

Release date: 19 July 2010
RRP: £19.99 / cat. no. BFIVD882 / E
UK / 1946 - 1985 / b&w, and colour / English, optional hard-of-hearing subtitles /
264 mins / DVD-9 x 2 / original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / Dolby Digital mono audio (320 kbps)
And here's a complete list of titles:
Disc One
Victory Parade (1946)
Men of the World (1950)
Eagles of the Fleet (1950)
Out of the Groove (1950)
They Stand Ready (1955)
Suez in Perspective (1957)
Musicians in the Making (1958)
Military Policeman (1961)
Ten Foot Tall (1964)
Winged Horizons (1965)
Egypt Today: Anglo-French Aggression Against Egypt (1956)

Disc Two
Voyage North (1965)
Routine Adventure (1965)
Army Summer of 1968 (1968)
Exercise Enterprise (1968)
Best of Both Worlds (1971)
Community Relations Officer (1974)
When You Wake Up (1974)
Ark Royal (c.1970)
HMS Sheffield (1975)
Tornado Trailer (1985)
Royal Navy Amazon (c.1980)
Tornado (1985)

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antnield
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#46 Post by antnield » Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:27 pm

The Digital Fix (née DVD Times) on They Stand Ready.

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MichaelB
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#47 Post by MichaelB » Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:38 pm

Beaver on They Stand Ready.

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RossyG
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#48 Post by RossyG » Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:02 am

This really is a fabulous set. The films are superbly transferred - a couple of the colour ones are just stunning - and each one is a wonderful bit of social history. Fabulous accompanying booklet, too.

Highly recommended!

Can you settle a bet, though, Michael? Is that Richard O'Sullivan narrating When You Wake Up? (I reckon it is).

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antnield
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#49 Post by antnield » Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:14 am

It is indeed O'Sullivan - he's credited in the booklet, and his entry on the BFI's SIFT database confirms it's the same Richard O'Sullivan of Man About the House/Robin's Nest fame.

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RossyG
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Re: The C.O.I. Collection

#50 Post by RossyG » Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:37 am

D'oh! Silly me! I read the When You Wake Up article (and as a Who fanboy squeed at the Sarah Jane comment) but never thought of checking the credits section of the booklet.

](*,)

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