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BRITISH DOCUMENTARY
emphasis is not so much on function as culture. Consider a sequence People's War: Britain
1939-1945, London
where the two narratives collide: a long sequence of singing and self Panther, 1969, p 425.
mockery ('One men went to m o w . . . ' ) whose changes in point-of-view
put us by turns with mockers and mocked alike, is interrupted by a series Mary-Lou Jennings
of brief cuts to the skies, dark streets, a quiet river, anti-aircraft guns- (ed), Humphrey
Jennings: Film-Maker,
anonymous persons at dusk, a personified 'London' awaiting the attack. Painter, Poet,
Or consider the final three sequences: here the narrative dwells on the London, BFI, 1982, p
31.
firemen back from their work and out of uniform. Saddened by the death
28 of a comrade, 'Jacko', they drink tea and muse on the night's events.
Individual reactions are conveyed by medium and close-up shots of the
men, on the face of it not doing very much. Suddenly, one of them, very
close-up, calls 'Snap out!' and the narrative shifts. A bugle calls and a
crescendo of cuts follows: the ammunition ship they have saved; a local
from above and below on the warehouse while the fire burns around
him.
It should be said that the unofficial Fires represents mainly the
activities of working-class males. Women are consigned to official duties
which they carry out with ability, but rarely enter the unofficial narra-
tive. They are not part of the represented culture; they perform the
functions of the State. While they 'unite' the official nation from the
inside, through maps and telephone lines, the men are outside, among
When the Blitz first came to Britain its fires were fought by brigades of
regular and auxiliary firemen, each independent of the rest, though linked by
reinforcement.
(Opening titles of Fires Were Started)