The Complete Humphrey Jennings

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MichaelB
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Re: The Complete Humphrey Jennings

#101 Post by MichaelB » Fri May 03, 2013 12:12 pm

Sadly, Timothy (the baby in the picture) died a few years ago, otherwise I'm sure he'd have been asked to contribute.

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RossyG
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Re: The Complete Humphrey Jennings

#102 Post by RossyG » Fri May 03, 2013 1:42 pm

ellipsis7 wrote:Image
Ya can't give a baby booze!!!

Opdef
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Re: The Complete Humphrey Jennings

#103 Post by Opdef » Sat May 04, 2013 12:12 pm

MichaelB wrote:Sadly, Timothy (the baby in the picture) died a few years ago, otherwise I'm sure he'd have been asked to contribute.
Sad to hear, I only hope excessive alcohol played no part in his death.

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antnield
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Re: The Complete Humphrey Jennings

#104 Post by antnield » Wed May 08, 2013 6:46 am

From the Amazon product description...
Volume three includes the following films:

The Eighty Days (1944)
A Diary for Timothy (1945)
A Defeated People (1946)
The Cumberland Story (1947)
The Dim Little Island (1949)
Family Portrait (1950)

Special features

V.1 (1944): a shorter cut of The Eighty Days, made for overseas distribution
The Good Life (1951): Jennings final film

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MichaelB
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Re: The Complete Humphrey Jennings

#105 Post by MichaelB » Wed May 08, 2013 11:24 am

I'm assuming that that Amazon listing is incomplete, because two Jennings-directed titles are missing: The True Story of Lili Marlene (1944) and Myra Hess (1945). Since they come next to each other in sequence, maybe they got cut out by mistake?

(UPDATE: The disc's producer has confirmed that both these titles are included - and quite rightly!)

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antnield
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Re: The Complete Humphrey Jennings

#106 Post by antnield » Wed May 08, 2013 2:18 pm

Amazon have amended to include those two. They've also changed the description of The Good Life to "the film Jennings was working on at his death".

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MichaelB
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Re: The Complete Humphrey Jennings

#107 Post by MichaelB » Fri Jun 07, 2013 12:12 pm

Full specs announced:
The Complete Humphrey Jennings
Volume Three: A Diary for Timothy

Widely celebrated as one of Britain’s greatest filmmakers, Humphrey Jennings is a true poet of the cinema, and his work was the inspiration for Danny Boyle’s 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. Released on 15 July 2013, this is the third and final volume of Dual Format Edition (DVD and Blu-ray) releases that bring together his entire directorial output. It includes the films he made between 1944 and 1951, and charts his transition from wartime to peacetime filmmaking.

Featuring A Diary for Timothy, Jennings’ much-loved collaboration with E M Forster, The Dim Little Island, a muted but affecting celebration of Britishness, and Family Portrait, the esoteric Festival of Britain film, this essential collection confirms Jennings as a master of the cinematic art.

Films
The True Story of Lili Marlene (1944)
The Eighty Days (1944)
Myra Hess (1945)
A Diary for Timothy (1945)
A Defeated People (1946)
The Cumberland Story (1947)
The Dim Little Island (1949)
Family Portrait (1950)

Special Features
• Presented in High Definition and Standard Definition;
V.1. (1944): alternative cut of The Eighty Days;
• The Good Life (Graham Wallace, 1951): the film Jennings was working on at his death;
• Illustrated booklet with film notes, credits and biographies by John Wyver, Patrick Russell, Kevin Jackson, Scott Anthony and others.

Product Details
RRP: £19.99 / cat. no. BFIB1121 / Cert E
UK / 1944-1951 / black & white and colour / English language with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / 218 minutes / Original aspect ratio 1.33:1
Disc 1: BD50 / 1080p / 24fps / PCM mono 2.0 audio (48k/24-bit)
Disc 2: DVD9 / Dolby Digital mono 2.0 audio (320kbps)
The BFI has published a clip from Family Portrait here.

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antnield
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Re: The Complete Humphrey Jennings

#108 Post by antnield » Tue Jul 16, 2013 11:16 am


JGA
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Re: The Complete Humphrey Jennings

#109 Post by JGA » Sat Jul 27, 2013 6:39 am

Does the BFI intend to release any further documentaries by Paul Rotha (1907-84) other than those included in Land of Promise and its GPO Film Unit DVDs? Among other films, it would be nice to see restored versions of Contact (1933) and World of Plenty (1943). The same would apply to Edgar Anstey's Enough to Eat (1936)

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MichaelB
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Re: The Complete Humphrey Jennings

#110 Post by MichaelB » Sat Jul 27, 2013 9:20 am

Contact was originally going to be an extra on the Turksib release - I'm not aware of any rights or materials problems (I know they have a Digibeta master at least). But I'm not aware of any future documentary plans - they've got their hands a bit full right now with this glut of Gothic/supernatural releases over the next few months.

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HinkyDinkyTruesmith
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Re: The Complete Humphrey Jennings

#111 Post by HinkyDinkyTruesmith » Thu Apr 30, 2020 1:28 am

Can anyone remark on the quality of Keith Beattie's book on Humphrey Jennings, or the Humphrey Jennings Film Reader? I just got into him, and am sort of crazed for any good books/supplements/anything on him.

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MichaelB
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Re: The Complete Humphrey Jennings

#112 Post by MichaelB » Thu Apr 30, 2020 8:20 am

Kevin Jackson's biography is excellent, if you can track down a copy - for some reason it never made it to a paperback edition.

I also very strongly recommend Dai Vaughan's Portrait of an Invisible Man, a biography of Jennings' regular editor Stewart McAllister, whose input into Listen to Britain was so enormous that he's credited as co-director despite not shooting a frame of footage himself.

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